You don’t have to have visited Nantucket to be a fan of Elin Hilderbrand. Readers who eagerly await her annual summer novels, set on the idyllic island off the Massachusetts coast, may have never disembarked from the Hy-Line Ferry onto the town’s quaint, unspoiled streets. They may have yet to visit the beautiful beaches of Wauwinet or Surfside, or the picture-perfect village of Siasconset, which any self-respecting local or frequent vacationer knows as “Sconset.”

But diving into Ms. Hilderbrand’s newest book each summer, her fans feel at home. The author, who will discuss her latest release at 7 p.m. Thursday evening, November 13, at Princeton Public Library, has made the island where she has lived for the past two decades a comfortable, familiar place to come back to — even if only through her pages. “A lot of Americans have an idea in their heads about how summertime is supposed to be,” she said during a telephone interview this past Monday. “And people are very attached to those rituals. Living is generally easier, and people romanticize those times. My novels capitalize on that.”

Ms. Hilderbrand’s newest book, Winter Street, takes readers in a new direction. Instead of summer, it is set during the Christmas holidays. This is a different side of life on Nantucket, where the population shrinks dramatically during the winter months and locals like Ms. Hilderbrand and her family have the beaches, wildlife, streets, shops and restaurants — those that stay open — to themselves. “It used to be I really loved winter here more than I do now,” the author said. “It’s quiet, great for getting stuff done. I used to write at a friend’s house, but now I go to St. John for six weeks because my kids are older. But it’s a time of year on Nantucket that I wanted to write about.”

Winter Street revolves around the various dramas of a close-knit family who run a failing inn on the island. Part of the appeal of Ms. Hilderbrand’s novels is that characters who might appear to have it all experience the frustrations, losses, and relationship problems with which most people can identify. While some of the author’s stories include locals with limited resources, many focus on people who have plenty of money. The wealth of Nantucket, especially in summer, has not escaped Ms. Hildebrand’s notice.

“There’s a glamorous aspect to Nantucket that wasn’t so much the case when I first came here,” the author said. “There is lots of money, culture, restaurants, amazingly good food, wine, parties — a lot of really awesome things going on. But it has its down side. I’m working on a novel now, called The Rumor, where the characters are drowning financially. I really wanted, in this one, to talk about what happens here if you don’t have any money.”

As its title suggests, The Rumor is “about small town gossip,” she said. “I like to alternate between year-round-people books and summer-people-books.”

Starting with The Beach Club in 2000, Ms. Hilderbrand has come out with a summer release almost every year. It is a formula she hit on unexpectedly after spending her first summer on the island. “I started writing about Nantucket because I was so homesick for it,” she said. “And it sort of took off from there.”

A native of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Ms. Hilderbrand knew in second grade that she would be a writer. “My teacher gave all of us awards at the end of the year, and I got ‘top author.’ That was it. I knew I would be an author. I have never wanted to be anything else.”

She majored in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, taught English in New York City and enrolled in workshops at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y. She applied and was accepted to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, from which she earned a master’s degree. It was around that time that she sublet her New York apartment and spent a fateful summer on Nantucket. “Once I got there, I decided I never wanted to leave,” she said. “I came home to teach, but in the spring of 1994 moved there for good, not counting graduate school.”

Followers of Ms. Hilderbrand on social media know she has battled breast cancer in recent months, enduring a double mastectomy and an infection during the reconstruction process that requires another six-month reconstruction. But her prognosis is good and she seems upbeat, if inconvenienced, by the situation. Her appearance in Princeton is part of an 11-event tour that was only slightly modified following her medical problems.

The fact that the annual release of her books has become a tradition to readers all over the country thrills Ms. Hilderbrand. “It has become a ritual for people, which is so great for me and I love it,” she said. “You can be anywhere and you get this novel and that will be part of your summer. And reading of a certain kind is part of summer vacation. I want to provide good summertime escape, with characters you’re going to care about.”