Something about the pacing with this storytelling didn’t do it for me. I was so excited to read it because I’ve been a fan of Emily Giffin for years but I was a little disappointed by this one :/ I think, perhaps because the POV bounced between three people, I never felt like I got to know enough about each of them. I didn’t really feel like our main characters were interesting enough, or developed enough.

Always great summer reads, great way to pull up into some family drama or friend drama that isn't going to bleed from the page

I appreciate random house publishing and netgalley for this arc

I think I enjoyed how the story started building the characters and their relationships. But overall I don’t feel like we got the character development we needed. The ending seemed rushed. And it was way too political for me.

I think it just wasn’t quite my taste but overall a nice book

The Summer Pact by Emily Giffin was one I was highly looking forward to reading and recommending.
As much as I wanted this one to be amazing, Instead I found quite a bit of the book to feel clichéd and overly dramatic. Maybe the word I'd use to sum it up would be forced. Bummer for me that it did't work.

Big hug to Random House Publishing and Netgalley for an Advanced Reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I wanted to love it so much. The premise was so promising with themes of love, grief friendship and set against a backdrop of travel? Perfect. However, ] I think the pacing damaged my ability to accept some of the choices/motives of characters and I struggled to find things believable. I did love the multiple POVs but even so, in an effort to be a "light" "quick" read: it was way too quick and far too rushed. 2.5 stars

This is a wonderful read about friendship. This is a really good read about lasting friendships of four people forged in college. Each personality is so different from the other but they found a way to come together for lasting friendships. This book has it all. Heartbreak, heartwarming, romance, trials, wrongs righted, allegiances, triumph. Highly recommend. I was given an advanced reader copy of this book by NetGalley and I am freely sharing my review.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Tyson, Lainey, Hannah and Summer become best friends in college. When Summer dies by suicide at the end of their senior year the remaining three develop a pact to be there for each other at their lowest points. Fast forward a few years and Hannah’s world comes crashing down when she finds her fiancé cheating on her. She reaches out to Lainey and Tyson, each struggling with their own concerns, and soon the three are reunited and decide to travel with each selecting a location to visit. Throughout their travels they confront and explore family drama, careers, addictions, love and sexuality.

Thank you Net Galley and Random House Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review. I have really enjoyed Giffin’s past books but The Summer Pact was not for me. It tells the story of a group of friends (Hannah, Tyson, Lainey) that make a pact after suffering a horrible tragedy — they will always be there for one another when needed. Fast forward to some years later when Hannah suffers a life-changing heartbreak. The group of friends decide to do some world traveling to help her heal and attempt to find themselves in the process.

I couldn’t connect with the characters in this book nor did I really understand the friendships. The tragedy happened very early in the book and I think it would have served Giffin well to focus more on the friendship and character development pre-tragedy. The romances toward the end of the book seemed forced and out of left-field.

The positives were the setting in Capri—Giffin’s description made me want to hop on a plane to visit. Also, the writing flowed pretty smoothly.

"I thought this was really well written and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. I think it will find readers at our library, so we will definitely be purchasing for the collection.

An engaging story of four very different people who meet in the first crazy days of their freshman year of college and immediately form a bond. When a tragic incident at the end of their college years causes heartbreak and upheaval, they vow to never let their bond dissolve. Now, years later, they are set to meet up again. But people change and grow. Will this group of steadfast friends still be able to help one another in their times of need? A great contemporary story of friendship and the changing nature of relationships.

There was a lot to like about this book. Emily Giffin has such an engaging writing style; it's rather straightforward but completely pulls you in to the narrative and lives of the characters. I enjoyed the premise of this book and since I love to travel, loved reading about the different places that our 3 main characters went. I'm not sure there needed to be 3 perspectives, however - they weren't really differentiated from each other well and none of the characters had a unique voice. Because of this, I had to keep checking the chapter title to see who was narrating, which was a bit annoying.

I was on track to give this book 4 or even 5 stars because I was enjoying it so much until the last 20% or so. I thought Lainey and Tyson hooking up or trying to get together gave a weird vibe. It came seemingly out of no where and I really didn't understand it or feel like they connected romantically. Additionally, Lainey was honestly such a shitty person that it was hard to find her redeemable in the end. She was continuously making bad choices and being mean to people and it just brought the enjoyable vibe of the book down. I also thought the scene(s) with her in the hospital was a little ridiculous. I didn't think it was far-fetched for that to happen, but it was resolved FAR too quickly for it to have any effect on the book/characters.

I also thought the epilogue was a little cheesy. It felt like the LGBTQ+ storyline was just thrown in there willy-nilly without intention which was awkward. I would have loved to see that developed more. The ending in Paris with surprises and engagements just didn't fit the narrative, especially after the most recent thing we'd seen was Lainey in the hospital almost dead from alcohol poisoning? The end was just not cohesive.

After absolutely loving MEANT TO BE (it's one of my favorite romances), I was really disappointed in how THE SUMMER PACT ended. I'm still glad I read it, but I am still thinking about how disappointed I am in it days after finishing. Thank you for the ARC and the opportunity to provide my honest throughts.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC of The Summer Pact. I am a longtime fan of Emily Giffin and was so excited to read her latest book. On the positive side, this book drew me in immediately with the characters, Hannah from Atlanta, Summer from Chicago, Lainey from San Diego and Tyson the only male from DC. These four people meet in college and become friends. This book follows them after college through the twists, turns and disappointments of life. "Adulting" is hard and life is often messy but your true friends will see you through. The only thing I did not like about the book was the vacation they take when life brings some difficulties and disappointments. Perhaps showing my age, I found myself identifying with the parents in the book rather than the main characters. Despite all of these difficulties and disappointments in life, we have to keep going. Most people are not able to opt out for a three-week vacation to exotic locations.

However, I still enjoyed the characters and the story was engaging. This is the perfect book to put in your beach bag.

Hannah, Lainey, Tyson, and Summer met during their first year at UVA and navigated four years of college together. Then just before graduation, the group loses Summer, so the remaining three make a pact to be there for each other no matter what in the future. Fast forward 10 years and something prompts our group to drop everything for one of their own and go on a trip together.

<i>The Summer Pact</i> starts by going into how the friendships we forge in adolescence and young adulthood, particularly during college, are so impactful. And as someone whose closest friends are all from college, I felt a connection to what the narrative was saying. And then it's revealed that the main characters met and became friends at UVA and I went to UVA so it felt like this book was meant for me!

Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn't live up to my hopes. Mostly due to the characters. Hannah, Lainey, and Tyson were deeply unrelatable to me, and I really did not like Lainey. Each character oversteps by miles in each other's personal lives and seem to operate under the impression that their actions don't have consequences outside of their immediate bubble. They pushed each other in all the wrong ways.

Then there's the idea that in order to support your friends through crisis, you should abandon your own life - like quit your job to go visit your friend without any notice. These characters are a year older than me and while my friends and I would move heaven and earth to support each other, we also understand that we're all adults with lives and responsibilities. Hannah, Lainey, and Tyson have this toxic, co-dependent nature that was really off-putting for me.

While I love the idea of a group of friends traveling together to find themselves, I don't think this particular group of friends should even be friends.

four best friends are going through college when tragedy strikes among one of them. they make a pact to always be there for each other and drop everything if any of them hit rock bottom. the pact was named in honor of their late friend, summer. we then see the three remaining friends tyson, lainey, and hannah go on an adventure and discover themselves.

i enjoyed this book and gave it a solid three stars. some of the perspectives kept changing in the middle of a chapter, but i’ll leave that to it being an uncorrected copy.

i did take issue with the author’s portrayal of tyson, a black man. it took me out of the book several times because i found it to be incongruent with other characterizations and realities of black men. i understand that black men are not a monolith - but i found that some of tyson’s actions were strange. for example, he mentions the word “miscegenation” in speaking about interracial dating with his father. i understand the character is college educated and a lawyer, but it didn’t feel like that would be a word that he typically used. i also did not enjoy his comments about what it means to be a black man in america, knowing that this is coming from a white woman author.

apart from my annoyances about tyson, i thought it was a cute and quick read. it did feel slightly rushed at the end after the climax, though. this could be a nice beach read if the premise entices you enough.

i received an advanced readers copy of this novel, courtesy of netgalley and random house publishing group. all opinions expressed are my own.

I'm such a fan of Giffin's work and enjoyed this one! While it was less of a romance and more of a story about found friendship, I still found myself curious about the storyline. Not my favorite of hers but still recommend!

I have enjoyed many of Giffin’s books, but this one just didn’t work for me. I don’t think this is her strongest work. The premise sounds interesting and I love found family dynamics. The themes of grief, friendship, relationships, and love are prevalent, but not explored deeply enough to have a profound impact on me.

The pacing was quite slow. Many times I wondered where this book was going and it was a struggle to get through. I also had quite a hard time identifying the characters’ voices—they all seemed the same to me. I could tell that Giffin was trying to make everyone have a personality and feel like a layered character, but they all fell flat. Hannah’s arc was the most interesting, but her story got overshadowed, so it lost a lot of steam.

The writing felt like I was reading Giffin’s social commentary. Many of her points are important and I agree with them, but this read like it was her own voice, not the three characters in the story. The writing felt stiff, forced, and inorganic. I keep coming back to how all of the characters read the same to the point to where I couldn’t remember whose chapter I was on. Hannah, Lainey, and Tyson all shared one personality that is basically just that of the author.

Overall, it’s a 2.5/5 (rounded to 3) for me. I didn’t enjoy this story, even though the framework for a really moving tale was there. Too much detail on the locations and food that the characters experienced, character voices are defined enough and felt flat, and just overall not a compelling plot. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This felt like a very quintessentially Emily Giffin book. Definitely pay attention to the warnings at the start, it has heavy parts but delves beautifully into relationships and the impact of loss during formative years. I loved how friendship was a recurring theme and really was the glue that held the story and the character’s lives together. It had some funny moments and many many relatable ones! I loved the Italian portion of the book - transported me back! Any book set in Italy is a win for me! Now I need to get to Capri. Def recommend this book if you’re looking for something more profound than a surface-level rom com. But still summery vibes.

Wow! What an amazing story of friends, family and heartbreak. Heather, Lainey, Summer and Tyson are best friends from college. Their lives implode when Summer takes her life. Secrets they kept and feelings they hid. This is an amazing story that I would highly recommend. Tears, cheers for the group. I received an advanced reader copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion. Don't wait to read this touching story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Griffin, and Random House Publishing for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows a group of college friends (Tyson, Hannah, and Lainey) that are navigating a shared trauma over the course of a decade.

It’s marked as general adult fiction but in my opinion, reads more/is written more like YA. It’s told from the vantage point of each MC and feels like there is a lot of jumping around happening. There are a lot of pop culture references but it often feels like they’re being thrown in just to be thrown in (I’m not sure Noah Kahan would ever “set the mood” for me). It made the book feel very two-dimensional at times.

That being said, there were parts of the book that I enjoyed. The pact this group of friends make to always be there for one another (albeit a bit unrealistic as a working adult) does make me very nostalgic for my friend group from when I was a teenager. The banter between MCs, at times, really shows how close the characters were/are and it does add a layer of depth I think this book would otherwise be missing.

I think if you like books with found family, you’ll probably really enjoy this one.

There was something about this book that just hit my soul and I devoured it in one sitting. The writing was so easy to follow, the heavier themes were talked about so well, and it just felt like I was really able to connect with these characters. We get three POVs and I think that was the perfect way to tell this story. We are able to learn about everyone's story and it helps to connect with all of them. I loved the traveling in this story, the found family, and the sad story that kept them all connected.

This book releases on July 9th and I think this is a perfect summer story to add to your TBR. Please keep in mind that there is a trigger warning for suicide.

I do think that as much as I adored this story there were some parts of the story that were longer than necessary which made future storylines feel rushed. We didn't get to develop a lot of the romance that was later brought in and I would've loved to get more from that plotline.