This author turns Nantucket’s juiciest gossip into bestsellers

Nantucket, Mass., is a small island. And best-selling author Elin Hilderbrand makes it feel even smaller. The 25-year Nantucket resident combs the tony town’s beaches, bars, restaurants — and even Facebook groups — for fodder that can be novelized in her bestselling beach reads (21 and counting). “The specifics in the book, they come from...