Favorite Quotes:

It would have been better if that silence between them was thick and heavy with sadness or regret, but it had become light and comfortable now. Hazel and her mother were now connected by only the loosest stitch.

And from that moment on, every subsequent message that Hazel received from Eve was a supernova. Each text blew everything that once was, wide-open. Started life anew. Illuminated every fiber of her being. And it was all happening in Hazel’s own personal universe.

She felt that there was something deep within her that was better than her life allowed for.

Looking down at you, I felt as if I had gone out and bought something too precious and too expensive. It was as if I had walked around a shop I knew I shouldn’t have been in and walked out with something I couldn’t afford.

My Review:

This book was a pleasant surprise and I was rather besotted and bewitched by the outstanding writing quality, which frequently leaped out at me in the most unexpected places. However, the insightfulness and depth of the characters as well as the unexpected corners and nuances of the storylines often left me delightfully stunned and needing to reread passages more than once. This talented wordsmith obviously has a keen memory and profound understanding of the chaotic, confusing, conflicting, calamitous, and crushingly catastrophic emotions and thoughts of a teen as she developed the multi-faceted character of Hazel with devastating clarity. Did I have enough /c/ words there?

Each character was cleverly textured, multi-layered, captivatingly complicated, and endlessly intriguing, even when they greatly annoyed or frustrated me. Ms. Wolfson’s writing was thoughtfully emotive and cleverly observant with deftly penned and well-crafted prose that was often so elegant it snagged my breath. She is definitely going on my list of Ones to Watch. Fangirl down.

This was a very unusual story and that I couldn’t really relate to any of what any of the characters had been through… Which was fine. Opened me up to seeing peoples stories in a different way. I skimmed over much of the middle section telling the stories of the two mothers. For me, I was much more interested in the teenage daughters stories. There was a little too much preachiness at the end when the author was wrapping up the story… I didn’t need to be told several times what the novel had been all about.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

That Summer in Maine is a story that alternates between past and present. There are three narrators, Susie, Jane, and Hazel. In the past, two women, Susie and Jane, meet a man named Silas during a trip to Maine. Susie and Jane have two different relationships with Silas. Jane gets caught up in a whirlwind romance until she finds out that Silas slept with another woman. Susie was happy in her marriage, but she ended up sleeping with Silas as a one-night stand. Both of these resulted in unexpected pregnancies.

Sixteen years later, Jane's daughter, Hazel is contacted online by another sixteen year old, Eve, saying that they are sisters. Of course, to anyone, this would come as a shock, but especially to a sixteen year-old girl. Eve had already met Silas and spent the summer with him the previous year. Eve invites Hazel and with Hazel's current predicament with her mother having twins and no time for her, she accepts.

This book was a very beautiful telling about something that truly can happen within a family. Hazel feels like she's being replaced because her mother got married and had twin boys. She is unable to feel heard with her mother and doesn't feel as though she's a part of that family. She feels like she's an outsider. With the age gap between her and the twin boys, she finds it hard to fit in with her mother's "new family". I think people with siblings that have an age gap definitely could find this book relatable.

There was a lot about this book that I wanted to love. I had a hard time finding any development within the characters except for Hazel. Eve and Hazel are both supposed to be sixteen and I found myself thinking that their ages were not even close to the same. Hazel portrayed herself as a child almost. Eve seemed like a mean girl, but not like "high-school" mean. I found her seeming older than sixteen while I was reading it. It was hard to relate because they didn't seem the same age. I really didn't like the characters either. I did towards the end when I saw why they acted the way that they did. However, it was a little hard reading this not liking the characters until the end.

I did like that this was a story between mothers and daughters. It was almost like it was two stories in one book. I learned about the mother's stories and what happened and what they would do or wouldn't do differently. I got to see the outcomes from sixteen years of secrets. That alone was pretty interesting as a premise of the story.

Overall, I think more people should give this book a chance. The characters aren't that likable until the end, but once you see the background development, you'll like the ending and how everything plays out. I definitely would read Brianna Wolfson again as this was my first novel by her. If you are looking for a quick, feel-good family story, definitely pick this one up!

For most of her life it’s been just sixteen year old Hazel and her mother, Jane. Then, Cam came into Jane’s life. They married and had twin boys. Hazel no longer felt like part of the family. She felt like an outsider in her own home.

Through social media she found out she had a biological sister. They make plans to go to Maine and meet their biological father. Hazel is thrilled. She’s sure this will be her new family. Jane is terrified of losing her daughter to a man who has been absent from her daughter’s life for sixteen years.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but I will say this is a different take on mother/daughter relationships. The characters are well-written and realistic. My heart went out to Hazel and her mother the most. Their situation is sad. My heart breaks for a teenager to feel so isolated.

It’s an emotional story that touches your heart. The first half mainly deals with the two mothers and how they became involved with the girls’ biological father. I thought the story really took off when we got to Maine and saw how the girls and their father got along. It’s a bumpy road to say the least.

This is a heartwarming story dealing with family, mother/daughter relationships and love. I never read this author before, but I was impressed and will be keeping an eye open for more of her work.

This was great. One man, two women, two children. After finding out they are half siblings Hazel and Eve go to visit their father. From there these families must acknowledge past hurts and m9ve forward. I loved reading about the dynamics and how family adapts and grows and how we each have our own place within it that is ever changing.

This was my first experience reading Brianna Wolfson's writing and I enjoyed her style overall. It was descriptive and flowed well, while also being filled with heart. I found myself feeling for many of the characters and their individual situations, even if they weren't something I could identify with myself, it was written that well.

I felt this was really a story about families and all the different relationships and roles that different members play and how those roles can change with life events, time and changes to the family. I really enjoyed the look at how family dynamics can shift and the different emotions that can happen with those shifts. I didn't necessarily like all of the characters, but each of their specific situations were well examined and explained.

So, I'm a little conflicted about That Summer in Maine. The storyline is really good and I like the characters for the most part. What I don't really like is that the way the book is written it almost seems like the two main sisters have sexual feelings with each other with how they spoke to each other. There are also written letters from the mothers to the daughters that I find a bit strange. The letters are mostly for the mother's and not the daughter's but it's hard for me to imagine them ever letting them read the letters. That's mostly because the letters are so formal and impersonal. Despite some of the weird things about the story that I personally feel could've been done better I still ended up really enjoying the story.

Sixteen years ago, two young women met Silas, a handsome young man at a craft fair, and had affairs with him. For Jane, it was a summer-long affair to help her cope with the recent deaths of her parents. For Sue, it was to relieve some stress over the fertility struggles she and her husband were having.

Both women became mothers and wives, and then one day, Jane's daughter Hazel is contacted by Eve, Sue's daughter informing her that they are sisters. Both want to spend the summer in Maine with their father, Silas. This rocks both Mother’s worlds.

I was a HUGE fan of the Author's book Rosie Colored Glasses. It was 5 tear-jerking stars for me. So, I went into this book with very high hopes. Which I realize is not entirely fair to the author or the new book. As with Rosie Colored Glasses this book deals with Motherhood, single motherhood, the mother-daughter relationship. It also deals with marriage, relationships, secrets, learning what makes a family, loneliness, the search for the truth, and belonging.

I found this to be an enjoyable book that handled all the situations with ease. Two women having an affair with a man and having daughters the same age can make for a messy and complicated situation. The characters were likable although some of them - Eve ticked me off with her fits of anger and deliberately saying things to hurt others. I enjoyed how the story was told especially and particularly appreciated the letters which written but not sent. I found this to be a clever and moving way in which Wolfson told both Sue and Jane’s stories and the decisions they made.

An enjoyable and quick read from a talented writer. I look forward to more books by Wolfson. She is a talented author who shows all her character's inner thoughts and feelings. We also learn about Silas and what his life was like before he met both Jane and Sue making him also an interesting character.

This might not have lived up to my high expectations, but it was still well written, full of heart, and showcased family dynamics.

Thank you to Harlequin - Mira and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

A new author for me and the description was intriguing. Two women from different circumstances became pregnant, about the same time by the same man. Flash forward to 16 years later and the two girls that resulted from these pregnancies meet on social media. They hatch a plan to spend the summer with their birth father in Maine.

It's an interesting concept and this coming of age story has some enlightening moments for each girl. They came for different reasons, but through shared experiences come to the realization that the family they had wasn't as bad as they imagined.

I received a free ARC eBook from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinions.

3.5 stars

Hazel Box and her single mother, Jane, had a close and loving relationship throughout her childhood and into her teen years. Then Cass came into her mother’s life. While Cass provided love and stability that Jane never knew with Hazel’s father, the new family dynamic has Hazel feeling like an outsider. When the twin boys are born, Hazel feels more than ever that she doesn’t belong. When Hazel is contacted online by a girl claiming to be her half-sister, Hazel jumps at the chance for a genuine connection.

Eve has been harboring anger ever since she learned that her father was not her biological parent. Her internet searches have let her find her birth father, as well as discovering a half-sister her own age. She spent some time last year with Silas, her birth father, and she intends to do so again this year, only this time, with Hazel along.

THAT SUMMER IN MAINE explores the varied and complicated relationships between the newly discovered sisters, former lovers, and blended families. When I selected this book to read, I assumed that the focus was going to be on the mothers of the girls and their former lover, but I was mistaken. While everyone’s story is touched on to some degree, Hazel is the hub, with her feelings of alienation and separation, and her search for belonging. I’m truly not a fan of teenage / young adult books, as my preference is to read about people who have had a chance to mature some, find out who they are, and then see the choices they make. Having said that, I did enjoy seeing the self revelations that Hazel’s mother discovered when her daughter was away from home, and how she allowed her new found happiness to truly take away from the relationship she had with Hazel. While I felt a tad sorry for Silas, the girls’ father, who was portrayed as a somewhat tragic figure, I also couldn’t help but shake my head at his carelessness and wonder if there were a dozen more unknown half-sisters lurking about. I appreciate that Hazel did somewhat find some peace, and a better sense of herself. THAT SUMMER IN MAINE is the type of read which will appeal to readers who really like to delve into complicated relationships, and those who enjoy exploring the emotions and lives of girls on the verge of becoming women in this crazy world.

Title: That Summer in Maine
Author: Brianna Wolfson
Genre: YA
Rating: 3 out of 5

Years ago, during a certain summer in Maine, two young women, unaware of each other, met a charismatic man at a craft fair and each had a brief affair with him. For Jane it was a chance to bury her recent pain in raw passion and redirect her life. For Susie it was a fling that gave her troubled marriage a way forward.

Now, sixteen years later, the family lives these women have made are suddenly upended when their teenage girls meet as strangers on social media. They concoct a plan to spend the summer in Maine with the man who is their biological father. Their determination puts them on a collision course with their mothers, who must finally meet and acknowledge their shared past and join forces as they risk losing their only daughters to a man they barely know.

This novel is a case of me just not liking the characters. Any of the characters. Well, Hazel was alright. I can’t imagine how she feels, struggling to find her place with her mom, stepdad, and new brothers and feeling adrift and ignored—and then she gets a message out of the blue she has a sister. And Eve, well, I definitely didn’t like her in the slightest. Lying, manipulative, selfish, superficial…Just no.

Frankly, both the girls’ mothers were annoying as well. And I have a bit of trouble believing they’d let their daughters go off to spend time in Maine with a father who never even acknowledged their existence…and who they don’t really know. To a place with no cell phone service. Really? How likely is that? Between that and the unlikable characters, well, I would have been better off passing on this one, despite the enjoyable writing style.

Brianna Wolfson lives in San Francisco. That Summer in Maine is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/MIRA in exchange for an honest review.)

Wow. Just...wow. A roller coaster of emotions. Strong tale with enough wit and humor to keep it from being depressing.
An excellent read.

I just could not get into this book. I read half of it and that was enough. The writing seemed a bit rough. Hopefully with time the author's writing will be smoother. As I read I found that I just was not interested in what seemed to be two spoiled teenage girls.

When I requested this ARC from Netgalley and Harlequin, I was intrigued by the family dynamics and how they would play out. And in the end, the one thing I really enjoyed was the realization that family isn't always biological, it can be found or built from scratch. With that being said, there was a lot that I didn't care for, or I just never connected with the characters. The one thing I will talk about here is there are two plots or chunks, but they aren't woven together well. I think this could have benefitted from being written in a more integrated way or as separate plots altogether.

*Not included on Goodreads*
I really struggled to get through this book and ended up skimming large sections. Like I mentioned about the way it was written with the chunk of letters in the center was really offputting and really threw me off the story. Within that, and this may just be me, the way the letters were written in felt like Jane competing with the other mother. Like oh well you are telling this part of your story, well here is mine. It left a sour taste in my mouth. I felt like this could have been handled better or presented better with more humility.

I really wanted to enjoy this book because it sounding intriguing, but I mostly just struggled through it, taking weeks to read it.

This was such a beautifully written contemporary novel about family, the need to know where you come from, and the irreplaceable bond of mother and daughter. I think we all enjoy a good story of lost love, at least I know I do, but this added a whole new perspective to it for me. I’ve never read anything quite like it, and that is part of what makes it so special. You get to follow four women on two journeys. Jane and Susie, on their journey of dealing with the past and how their daughters were conceived and what that means for their lives and relationships now. Then the journey of Hazel and Eve, dealing with getting to know their biological father and deciding what that means for their lives moving forward, but also adjusting to the fact that they are sisters.

I immediately fell in love with Hazel and Jane, and the relationship they had before Jane found Cam and their family grew. Brianna’s way of writing make the character’s feelings so realistic that you can almost feel them right alongside them. I found it harder to relate to Susie and Eve, but that was purely for the fact that their affluent background isn’t something I relate to. It was entirely appropriate and crucial to the story, and I enjoyed their part in it. I actually found it quite easy to like all of the characters, feel pity for them, empathy and joy. This is truly a beautiful story, and one that will swallow you up heart and soul

A well written book that explores family dynamics. I enjoyed the author's writing style and the thought provoking prose about wanting (and needing) to fit into your own family.

Thank you to NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had mixed feelings about this book. This is a story about families, feeling a sense of belonging and the bond between mothers and daughters. I enjoyed the plot and beautiful setting of this story. I also appreciated the multiple points of view from both of the mothers and one of the daughters. However, I did not feel like I really connected with the characters. I did feel connected to the content and message of the story, though.

Everyone loves a nostalgic story set in summer. I adore the cover of this book.
When two young women who don't know each other at all, meet Silas Box at a craft fair in Maine, they are each drawn to him.

Jane Box is on a quest to bury recent pain. Married to Cam and the mother of baby boys, she also has a daughter. Hazel is 16 and feels pushed out. She and her mum are everything to each other but not to the extent they once were since the revent additions to the family.

Hazel is helpful and respectful but also just wants to be a teenager. She dreams of doing her own thimg. Of one day moving away.

When Hazel and Eve meet on social media, they plan to meet in Maine to spend time with their biological father, Silas Box. Hazel feels detatched from her life with her mum, Cam and the babies although she loves her mum and baby brothers. She needs out.

I was drawn to the complexity of the synopsis and was rooting for Hazel. Jane does some soul searching of her own bout her place in Hazel's Cam's and her baby boys' lives. Silas makes Jane uneasy but she also had a history with him (and Hazel). How does she cope with everything?

Susie, Eve's mum, also met, and fell in love with Silas. How will it go when the two mothers meet?

That Summer in Maine had me feeling anxious one minute, sad or happy the next. I felt frustration at Cam and Silas, and also saw Jane's point of view as Hazel's mum: wanting to protect her, but also needing to let go and allow her to forge her own path.

Susie and Eve had similar issues but I felt that Jane and Hazel had a slightly stronger mother-daughter bond than they did.

Maine is a state that I have visited and the title image and cover elicited those memories.

This novel has it all: heartbreak, suspense surprising reveals twists and turns. There are pkenty of tender moments and Brianna Wolfson has a talent for combining all this that made me devour the book. I smiled, and even was close to tears in some parts.

That Summer in Maine is about mothers- daughter relationships, lost and found relationships small-town life taking chances exploding secrets and testing family boundaries. Above all, it is the kind of gritty emotionally powerful novel that made me question every character and madr me think "who can you really trust?"

It is very tender though too.

I was rooting for morhers and daughters, loved Hazel and Eve. And the baby boys were cute. A winning, realistic cast of characters.

Thanks to Brianna Wolfson and MIRA Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 sparkling stars. A completely engrossing novel.

Brianna's debut is on my TBR list.

3.5 stars

One of the things I remember most about Brianna Wolfson’s debut novel Rosie-Colored Glasses, which I had read back in 2018, was how emotionally resonant the book was for me. At the time, it was one of my favorite reads of the year (one that I rated 5 stars of course) and, more significantly, it was one of the few books that actually brought tears to my eyes as I was reading. There were so many things I loved about that book – the story, the characters, and most memorable for me, the lyrical writing that made the story flow so beautifully.

Given that experience, it should come as no surprise that when I heard Wolfson would have a new book out this summer, aptly titled That Summer in Maine, I was ecstatic and knew right away that I had to get my hands on a copy as soon as possible. Of course, this also meant that I went into this book with very high expectations, to the point that I automatically assumed that I would love this one as much as I did her debut. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and in the end, it fell quite a bit short of expectations for me. While Wolfson’s second book was written in mostly the same lyrical style that had captivated me in her debut – plus it covered the same theme of flawed families as well as the bond between mothers and daughters -- everything else felt so different this time around. Not only did I find it difficult to get into the story this time (it took me until close to the halfway mark before I felt pulled in), I also didn’t feel anything for the characters, which really surprised me. I had loved the characters in Rosie-Colored Glasses so much that, when I had gotten to the end of that story, I didn’t feel ready to let them go yet. With That Summer in Maine, I actually felt annoyed with the characters for majority of the story. Perhaps it was the inconsistency in the way the characters were portrayed -- Hazel and Eve were supposed to be 16-year-old teenagers, yet throughout most of the first half of the story, Hazel’s actions and behavior made her come across like a much younger child, while the descriptions of Eve in the second half made it seem like she could pass for someone much older, perhaps a young adult even. The unevenness of the characters’ portrayals from one section to another was a bit jarring, which definitely affected the flow of the story for me. Also, using the format of writing letters to recount Jane’s and Susie’s experiences with Silas during that fateful summer, while it made sense based on their story taking place in the past, the writing style felt a bit out of place with the rest of the narrative, almost like I was reading two different books. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but Wolfson has a unique writing style that was one of the key aspects of why I adored her debut novel as much as I did, so the contrast in style with those segments was particularly felt.

While the story and characters didn’t really appeal to me this time around, one of the things I appreciated was the depth with which Wolfson depicted the characters’ struggles in dealing with the complex family dynamics at the center of this particular story. The idea of two families from completely different walks of life, previously unknown to each other, discovering the truth of their connection via two daughters born from two different affairs with the same man – it’s a pretty complicated premise that Wolfson handled well in the overall scheme of things.

Though this one didn’t quite live up to my expectations, especially compared to this author’s debut novel, it was still a good read overall – basically, this was a book that I liked well enough, but didn’t love. With that said, I still look forward to reading Wolfson’s next work, though I probably should be more cautious about not going in with high expectations next time.

Received ARC from MIRA / Harlequin via NetGalley.

Overall I enjoyed this book and I feel as though it explains an clear message about the importance of the mother- daughter relationship and not letting it slip you by. The story focuses mostly on one mother daughter relationship as their relationship starts to sip away unnoticed to the mother as she remarries and has other children. As the daughter meets her biological father and new sister her mother, Jane experiences the first time away from her daughter and what she has been missing out on since remarrying.

Both the mother and daughter's personalities and thoughts are relatable to the situations they go through. I also love that the author chose to reveal more behind the story by comparing the mother, Jane's, whom shared a similar experience. At times I felt like there was something missing and I would have liked to see more background information, Towards the end I felt like the book sped through certain parts that could have been expanded on more. I still enjoyed the book throughout through and would recommend it to anyone looking for a book about mothers and daughters, the conflicts they may go through and the moments that connect them.