Jennifer Weiner is one of my all time favorite writers- her characters are relatable and the plots feel like you are talking to your best-friend. This book diverges from her norm in the type of book- more mystery less family tome- yet it was still as enjoyable to read as her earlier books like In Her Shoes. Honestly, you can NOT go wrong with ANY Jennifer Weiner book!

Only have time for one book this summer, and can't decide between a beachy-read, mystery, or romance? Big Summer is the book for you as it has it all. Fans of Jennifer Weiner's previous books will not be disappointed as all of the hallmarks we've grown to love in her stories are here- body positivity, female friendships, family dynamics, a little sexy time, and some social commentary (this one about social media). But, Weiner throws in a murder mystery into the mix! She strikes a good balance between dealing with three main topics: the murder, a budding romance, and the meaning of friends. No topic is dealt with very deeply, keeping this novel entertaining. Recommended for readers who are looking for a intriguing novel for mental vacation from the real world.

The descriptions of food, clothing, NYC, and Cape Cod transported me from my porch to being on summer vacation. A really enjoyable read with likeable characters. I was rooting for Daphne the whole way. My only complaint? I didn't love the mystery element. I think that there was enough of a story with Daphne and Drue to carry the book. It's a small complaint though.

So, here is the thing I was pretty absorbed in this book until about the 50% mark when the it became a murder/mystery. I didn't see that coming, but yeah okay let's try it. The 3 amigos including the newly found lover decide they'll go ahead and solve this murder because they can't trust the police to their job. Super sleuths to the rescue! Any how, it just wasn't a sell for me. The twists were so out there, I do enjoy Jennifer Weiner books and there were some good issues that could use more exploring here. I wish it just would've continued in that route.

The latest from Jennifer Weiner, Big Summer , was not what I expected – which was a light, easy beach read. There were some aspects that fit that bill such as a big, extravagant, celebrity wedding on Cape Cod and a look into the life of social media influencers revolving around fashion, beauty, style etc. The story is told by plus-sized influencer, Daphne Berg, and centers around her friendship with the mean girl/bff from her teen years - the beautiful and rich Drue Cavanaugh. Just as the two are reconnecting after years of estrangement, the plot gets flipped on it’s head into a murder mystery as Daphne ends up finding both love and a dead body on the same night.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but think it will primarily appeal to contemporaries of the main characters. Despite a bit of uneven pacing, there were several twists that were both surprising and took the story in a whole different direction. Weiner addresses a number of issues – some more successfully than others – but overall put together an engaging summer read.



FYI - I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love when a book takes a completely different direction than you expected after reading the summary! That's exactly what happened with this one -- the summary only gives you a SMALL GLIMPSE of all that happens in this read! I read and loved Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner last summer, so I went into this one thinking it would be similar. This book is very different (not in a bad way), but I don't think the two can or should be compared.

I don't want to give too much away because it's so much better to go into this book not knowing everything. I appreciated how this book touches on tough subjects like body-shaming, revenge, bullying, and jealousy while including the overall themes of friendship, self-acceptance, contentment, and family.

The story is told from the perspective of Daphne Berg, and she is so easy to relate to and genuinely like as a person. The details and writing style made it feel like you were right there experiencing it all with the characters. There were some "dramatic / cheesy" moments at the end, but honestly didn't take away from the fact that I started and finished this book in less than 24 hours because I had to know what happened in the end.

I was really looking forward to this summer's Jennifer Weiner offering. "Mrs. Everything" was a huge and brilliant undertaking, but "Big Summer" is the kind of tasty summer treat we all need right now. I liked the characters, and the mystery aspect of it reminded me of early Susan Isaacs. I would have liked it to be about another 50 pages, though. The pat, wrapped up nicely ending did seem a little fast and contrived, but this was a great book to sink into my recliner and inhale on a Sunday afternoon.

Not at all what I expected from a Jennifer Weiner book. I was unable to finish because it just did not hold my interest. I tried several times.

I wasn't impressed by this one. For a body-positive blogger, Daphne sure does like to fat shame herself.

Daphne reconnects with frenemy Dru just as she scores a huge influencer fashion deal, and happily agrees to be a bridesmaid in Dru's fancy society wedding to show off all her new clothes.

The story takes a sharp turn when there's a murder before the wedding, and the ending wasn't all that satisfying and seemed forced.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the eARC I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.

First, let me just say there were things I loved about this book. As is often a thing in Weiner’s books, I loved the realistic portrayal of a plus size body with the character of Daphne. I also just generally think Weiner’s characters feel very realistic and are enjoyable to read.

But for me, that was about it. The beginning of the book was so slow to start and I hated the time leap and leap to another character. It didn’t feel clear why or how time has leapt and it felt disjointed to me at first.

I guess to me, this is a beach read. Beach reads are supposed to be fun right off the bat and while it did eventually get better, the reality is if I had bought this book rather than received an eARC, I wouldn’t have kept going.

I have loved books by Jennifer Weiner in the past, but unfortunately this is not on my favorites list. I found it unrealistic and I couldn’t really connect to the characters. I was optimistic after the first few chapters, but the plot took a really strange turn and I couldn’t wait to finish it.

This was a book that I was expecting to be a fun chick lit beach read, but it was that and a mystery too which was a great surprise. Daphne, a woman who was fat shamed while she was in college, has become a social media influencer for plus sized women. She is also a nanny. She has wonderful, supportive parents and shares an apartment with her best friend. This story combines family, female friendships, romance, and mystery in a wonderful package. It does go from the present to school flashbacks as Daphne tries to work through the mystery, but it adds to the background and helps the reader to understand the characters better. I did not expect the mystery or where things went from there, but it was a happy surprise. A great beach read!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am a huge fan of Jennifer Weiner, so when I saw that she had a new book coming out, I jumped at the opportunity to review it. The book starts out similarly to her other books I've read, but it takes a sharp turn that I wasn't expecting! It was a great kind of unexpected and I absolutely loved this story. Though the twist is a bit darker than Jennifer's usual stories, this was still such a fun summer read and I highly recommend adding it to your TBR.

Daphne Berg seems to be getting the world and her place in it figured out. She is a plus-size Instagram influencer who has a supportive family and roommate, a job that feels rewarding, a sweet dog named Bingo, and a past that she'd like to keep in the past.
When Daphne's former best friend Drue Cavanaugh asks Daphne to be her maid of honor at her wedding on Cape Cod, Daphne agrees despite the fact that the two of them haven't spoken for years. However, this glamorous wedding on Cape Cod could be a boost for Daphne and get her more followers, and social media is Daphne's job after all.
The twist in the middle of this story was completely unexpected, turning this beach read into a thriller mystery of sorts.
I can totally see this being made into a movie!

Last year I read and reviewed Jennifer Weiner’s Mrs. Everything, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I was very excited when I was invited to read and review her 2020 release. Based on the cover and summary I was expecting a feel good summer tale of a friendship reunited however that is not quite what happened.

I thought the book was off to a great start with the prologue… a flashback to the 90s to a mother and her young son starting new on Cape Cod when everyone in her life had written her off. There was even an ode to Blueberries For Sal which was one of my absolute favorite children’s books growing up. When the first chapter jumped to 2018 I assumed it would still have some connection to the prologue but that connection wasn’t made until the book was more than halfway over. After being introduced to the main character, Daphne, I could easily empathize with her and felt myself connecting with many of the things that she felt before she had embraced her size. I was horrified at what her so-called friend, Drue, did to her that caused her to get to that point. A few years later when Drue tries to get Daphne to agree to be in her wedding I was floored by her audacity to even ask such a thing. Drue is the perfect definition of a mean girl. Even before the big even that pushed Daphne over the edge, it was easy to see that Drue was a horrible person to her when they were in school… wanting to hang out with her one day, ignoring her the next. As I was reading there I was silently pleading with Daphne to turn her down and not give in. Drue apologized to her and claimed that she was a changed person. Daphne accepted her request to be in the wedding. I thought at that point that we would see the two of them become friends again and that, hopefully, Drue had changed. It seemed like that was a real possibility and then WHAM… plot twist! I did not see that coming AT ALL! Based on the summary, I did not think this was going to become a murder mystery. I don’t want to say much more than that because I don’t want to spoil it.

At the beginning of the review I mentioned that the characters in the prologue weren’t actually relevant to the story until over halfway through the book. When it was revealed what the connection was, it felt kind of predictable. The ending was a little blah. When it is revealed who did it and why they did it, I had to roll my eyes a little bit.

Overall, I liked this book but didn’t quite love it. It was well written and the plot twist was well executed but I felt like there were some things that were unnecessary and made the story more dramatic than it needed to be.

This book was such a fun summer read! I went into this one blind, just knowing that it was getting great buzz. SPOILERS If you are planning to do the same: but I did not realize that this was going to be a story about solving a murder. I love that Daphne was able to navigate friendship, see the true value of family, and have a couple fun little romps in all of this. I also love that Drue saught out someone like Daphne's father - and that she did genuinely seem to be changing for the better at the end of it all. The perfect book for summer. I just need a floppy hat and a beach chair.

Wow. I feel like this novel was two in one. We start in the prologue that left me confused the moment we meet Daphne and we learn a lot about her struggles, body image, self love and everything that brings. Then the main twist, boom! Changed the whole story to a mystery and at the end I’m not sure which part made me rate the novel. My only struggle was the feeling of having read two different novels in one to put it that way. I would have love to see a smoother connection rather than the actual ending.

{Thank you so much to Atria Books and Netgalley for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review}

I wanted to love this book so much! There were so many things about the book that I enjoyed, but I really struggled with the unpredictable flashbacks and timeline. I loved Daphne’s character, especially the focus on her plus-size curves and body image. There was a huge plot twist about 50% of the way through and after that I could not put the book down. The first half of the book was good, but it felt so different from the second half. As many of you know, I love a good romance and I did feel like the romance left something to be desired. I would have loved to have seen more development there.

Overall, I liked the book and found it to be enjoyable, but it just didn’t blow me away like I was expecting. If this book has been on your radar, I would definitely recommend you give it a read because so many of my trusted book buddies have loved it!

3/5 stars!

This book does the amazing work of talking about how harmful it can be as a society to focus on being thin. Diet culture, Weight Watchers and the shame that is passed to young children. It had a little bit of everything - murder & mystery (but not in a scary way), the prevalence of social media. Social media is a large part of this story and I haven’t really seen that in other novels. Jennifer Weiner wrote another hit, a very timely and relevant story about an average sized woman finding her way. I could not put it down and missed a lot of the foreshadowing, lots of surprises, twists and turns I did not see coming. I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley, thank you to them. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a story of the times....social media, influencers, instagram & the like.

I enjoyed the story, it was an easy read & a who done it.

I especially liked Daphne, an insecure young woman who finally had had enough & decides to be herself & make the best of it all- loved that & then there's Drue, who hasn't know a Drue or been on the receiving end of a Drue.

Did not figure out the "one who did it" until I read it in the final pages!!

It truly was a light summer read, nothing overly deep, even with some serious issues, but still decent.