3.5 stars, rounded down

Annette Feldman has the bright idea to celebrate her 70th birthday on a 4 day Caribbean cruise surrounded by her family. This is not one of those close knit, lovey dovey families. No, her two children seem to resent each other and neither is particularly close to their parents. They have trouble spending a few hours together let alone days in each other’s company. Add in a few secrets, such as a shopping addiction and a very young girlfriend, and as the book blurb says, you’ve got the perfect storm.

The question, dear reader, is what you are expecting from this book. If you’re in the market for a family drama with glimpses of humor, read on. If you are expecting humor, along the lines of Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You, look elsewhere.

The book switches from one POV to another, giving us insights that the rest of the family don’t have. Friedland nails the sibling rivalries and the parental anguish. I found myself feeling sorry for the characters yet unable to relate to them. Elise, in particular, just seemed pathetic and whiny. I would have jumped ship if I was stuck dealing with her. And Julian, the cruise director, seemed entirely unnecessary as a character.

Large portions of the book struck me as dry. Friedland’s humor shines through best when describing the cruise itself. The cruise seemed like one of the circles of hell and reminded me why you’ll never catch me on one.

When things finally reach a crisis, I finally felt a connection with the characters. As Elise says, “I feel like I speak family as a second language.”

My thanks to netgalley and Berkley for an advance copy of this book.

This was an interesting read about three generations of Feldmans on a cruise for grandma's 70th birthday. Every family member is harboring a secret, and being together on a ship at sea brings everything to a head. I liked the differing points of view as each chapter hosted a different family member from which to view events. Another positive was that each family member had his or her own unique voice. All of the cruise ship activities and puns and overabundance of food were amusing and true to form. Part of the time I wanted to be on the cruise and the rest of the time I was glad I wasn't. I haven't read anything else by Elyssa Friedland, but now I will.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Three generations of the Feldmans reluctantly agree to take a week long cruise in the Caribbean where it soon becomes clear they all have a secret to reveal. Of course, over the top situations occur. This was a ton of fun to read and I'll definitely watch out for this author in the future.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Annette devises a plan to reunite her family by planning a family vacation. While her adult children are hesitant, they agree, and drama ensues.

I love the ending.

This book was fabulous and I read it in three days. It's a great mixture of humour and serious issues, all brought brilliantly together in a great read. I couldn't put it down. I loved the way that all the characters were hiding so many secrets, and the way they were revealed was great. The ending was also brilliant as all the ends were tied neatly up, without it seeming too rushed. Brilliant.

I hate misleading descriptions. I have no idea how this book could be called humorous. I am loathe to not complete books I’ve started even when they’re bad but this book is one of the few that I DNF. I made it about a quarter of the way and have to give up on it. The first quarter of the book is how the various characters take the news that the family matriarch wants to pay for her children and grandchildren to take a cruise together. Thus far each chapter is alternating through characters, although more time has been spent on the grown daughter Elise, and each character is pretty insufferable aside from Grandma. The grown siblings are not over childhood issues and slights and the grandchildren are dealing with the same issues of one child being the star and the favorite. Elise is having a hard time facing an empty nest and turned in an overspending shopaholic but her husband has no idea. Her brother is 50 but still a stoner, although perhaps a successful one, that no one respects and his chapter was painful to get through. The novel opens with a flash forward of an altercation on the cruise that was not funny so I don’t think I’m missing anything by giving up. This novel was not the funny story I was expecting and in fact it’s quite morose. The children are not there for their parents in either generation and it just seems sad.

I think it was Memorial Day weekend which beckoned me to read this book and I was not disappointed! Great read and I hope more buzz about this book this summer. The characters are humorous and real! And no offense to the cruise industry but it captures why I avoid them. Also bravo to Friedland for having settings such as Sacramento and Costco! I tire of story after story set in Manhattan. Elyssa will remain a loyal reader to you for all future novels as well! Congratulations on bringing such a satisfying and fun read to summer which weaves depth and humor to family foibles.

This is my first book of Friedland's. This is a story of an extended family that sailed the high seas in celebration of the matriarch's 70th birthday. This is a fun yet poignant story of the intricate and sometimes messy workings of an extended family. I found this story to be an interesting look at the different relationships and idiocies each.

Yes, this is a lighter read but the layers to the relationships did add some meat to the story.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

You really will want to meet the Floating Feldmans. Let’s start with David & Annette, the matriarch and patriarch. The Feldman family is not exactly a close family unit, which weighs heavily on Annette. So, for her 70th birthday, she decides it would be nice to take their family on a Caribbean cruise. Their daughter, Elise, packs up her husband, Mitch, and their two teenagers, Rachel and Darius. Their son, Freddy, brings along his much younger girlfriend. As you begin reading, you really don’t like any of these characters. Perhaps with the exception of Mitch, who is a good-natured guy, no one seems to like themselves, much less each other. But anchors aweigh, and the Feldmans are forced to spend time with each other. The story unfolds from everyone’s point of view, so we see both sides of the storylines:

Parent and child relationships: Annette desperately wants her family closer. To give her credit, what mother hasn’t made mistakes? And all she has ever wanted for her children is the best. Meanwhile, Elise is dealing with the loss of being everyone’s caretaker as her last child leaves the nest. Freddy has always been a bit of a drifter, so how does he explain how he is now a mega-successful businessman, albeit in a legitimate business but one his family might not approve.
Sibling rivalries: Elise & Freddy and Rachel & Darius each come to terms with their jealousies of each other.
Aging: David & Annette have always had a great marriage, but serious illness means a power shift. Rachel & Darius also are coming of age, and the transition to adulthood isn’t always smooth.
Secrets: Everyone has a secret, and they soon learn sometimes it’s easier to tell the truth.

The book is a great mix of humor, insight, wisdom and confidence that though things may never be perfect, they can be better. Thoroughly enjoyed it and I highly recommend it.

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The Feldmans reminded me of that saying, families are like fudge mostly sweet with a few nuts! Keeping up with the Feldmans is a wild ride, so much dysfunction, secrets, laughs and love as this family embarks on a family cruise. One that I might say I would of loved to be on! As always it reminds you that no matter what family comes first!

I received an advanced copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

This was harder to read than I expected. The tension between what the reader knows and what the characters know was intense. I felt relieved when all the secrets were revealed and then I was able to relax and enjoy the story. It's the mark of a good writer when the drama is so high that the novel is almost painful to read, but I had a hard time getting excited to go back to reading it.

This is a wonderful women’s fiction novel. Often funny, other times poignant, the book is told from multiple points of view. So, we see the grandmother, Annette, dealing with her grown children that she feels distant from. She remembers all she did for them when they were children up through college. The son, Freddy, remembers how he was never good enough compared to his perfect sister. The daughter, Elise, remembers how her mother endlessly gives her beauty tips that make her feel belittled. Then there is Elise’s husband and two children.

All of them have their own secrets, which we, the readers, quickly become privy to, but because the family won’t tell each other what’s actually going on in their lives, we can just wait for this combustible situation to explode when they all meet aboard a cruise to celebrate Annette’s 70th birthday.

I chuckled. I teared up. I identified with the challenges of being in a family and not always saying what’s on our minds, including apologizing and thanking one another. Recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkely for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES JULY 23, 2019.

trying to live up to family expectations can be exhausting. And when the Feldmans are trapped on a cruise ship long buried secrets are exposed and the family dynamic is changed forever. A story of family, misunderstandings, and trying to live up to expectations.

Sometimes things hit a little too close to home, but often that's just the first strike. The next blow is the sink or swim factor that can make or break an experience. First impact: I liked the description of the book, it seemed like something a shiksa could appreciate, especially when you're the daughter in law of a Jewish doctor from Great Neck whose wife managed his office. Which is pretty much David and Annette, the parents at the head of this dysfunctional brood. I liked the story's narration from each character's omniscient perspective, but I don't think the narration was balanced because the second impact of this book is that characters are stereotypes. Their development is one deus ex machina, thus it makes it almost pointless to read the story. So, I'm going to talk about the book because, yes, this is a pretty typical lifestyle described in the exposition, but come round to the conclusion and there isn't the kind of growth or character development to warrant the, "OMG, you've gotta read this" factor.

I loved every single thing about this book about a dysfunctional family spending a week on a cruise together. Told from each character’s perspective in alternating chapters this book made me laugh a lot and it also made me tear up. I came to appreciate all of the Feldmans and was rooting each one on.
I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

As somebody who enjoys a messy family story, this worked pretty well for me. The drama and tension is all based on the secrets each member of the Feldman family is keeping from everybody else. When they all end up on a cruise for the matriarch's 70th birthday, the lies and evasions start unraveling and secrets tumble out in a mess. I found myself completely frustrated by each member of the family while also rooting for them to do better. I couldn't help but compare the book to The Nest (Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney) and The Vacationers (Emma Straub), and unfortunately, The Floating Feldmans doesn't quite stack up to either of those for me. I was a bit disappointed that everything tied up a bit too neatly and easily in the end. Still, it's pretty enjoyable and was perfect plane reading for me.

I was drawn to The Floating Feldmans by the description on NetGalley, but the writing didn't live up to my expectations. I found some of the plot points and characters to be formulaic and contrived and the description of the cruise experiences to be completely clicheed. It's too bad that an editor didn't send the manuscript back to the author for edits with the goal of stepping away from the easy jokes and to allow greater character development for the storylines.... always important, and not insignificant in the framework of a humorous book. The potential was not realized for this reader. I don't post negative reviews on GoodReads, so there will not be a post/link for this feedback.

So. Much. Fun! The matriarch of the Feldman family organizes a cruise for her 70th birthday and invites the whole dysfunctional family. While trapped together on an ocean cruise, they are forced to deal with their secrets and problems. Eventually, everything comes out in the open. There are many messes that need fixing, which makes this an engaging read. All the generations are represented, which adds to the appeal. A great book to take on vacation.

Annette Feldman, matriarch of the Feldman family, invites her family for an unprecedented celebration of her 70th birthday on a “really-they-cannot-refuse” cruise. Each member of the Feldman family harbors a secret that spans from a crippling shopping addiction, a terminal disease, dating a married man, to an empire built from the legalization of marijuana in Colorado. As the family finds that the cruise is not as luxurious as the promotional materials state, they are also unable to escape each or guard their secrets.

The humorous look at the narcissistic and egocentric cruise passengers set on having the time of their lives softens the look at the break down of family dynamics when communication breaks down, secrets are kept, and hurt feelings from past are not properly addressed. This is the story of the Feldmans who experienced a shipwreck of relationships, but floated back together when each needed a life preserver the most.