Wow that was a family mess! I was just waiting for each chapter to reveal how everyone was connected and where we would end up. Loved the sentience of the house and the ending (which I won’t reveal). Not my usual style of book but I’m glad I gave it a try.

Jennifer always writes page turners and this was a cute summer read. I went in blindly and admit I selected the book for the cute cover. It was a great summer read. Quick , bingeworthy book, perfect addition to your beach bag .

This is my second book by Jennifer Weiner and I did enjoy That Summer even though the reviews were mixed.

This novel showcases a cast of 11 characters as they prepare for a Cape Cod wedding. I must say I was never confused between the characters. The author took close to 70% of the book setting the stage for the action and then, it unravels for the last 30%. I can understand how some readers could give up but I was always entertained.

I love that her stories are part beach read but also integrate heavier subjects that make you reflect.

I now consider Jennifer Weiner one of my go-to authors.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me a complimentary e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

An interesting family drama. It took me a while to get into because there were lots of characters and through audio it was complicated to tell who was who and keep the story lines straight. I also felt like Weiner tried to cram as many unique relationships/varieties of sexuality into one book as she could, and it didn't feel genuine- it felt forced.

The story of an upper middle classs family stuck together during COVID. A wedding is in the works but somethings need to be resolved first. Romance, family drama make for an enjoyable beach read.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ruby had been living with her parents during the pandemic and has recently moved out with her boyfriend Gabe.  She comes home on Shabbat Dinner to let her family know that she and Gabe have decided to get married and that's she's spoken to her Grandmother (Safta) who has agreed to host the wedding at the family home in Cape Cod.
The book is written from multiple points of view and covers off the life stories of different family members in Ruby's family.  We learn about Ruby's father Eli, Sarah (her step-mom), Ronnie (her grandmother), Annette (birth mother), Gabe (her Fiance) and Sam (Sarah's brother) who adores her.  We learn about Ruby's mother who felt overwhelmed and left Ruby in the care of her father.  

Eli's past feels like it's coming back to haunt him, and he's very anxious about the wedding and having everything unfold and explode at the wedding.  I have never been a huge fan of Jennifer Weiner but I have been enjoying her books more and more last year's release That Summer and The Summer Place I really enjoyed.
The Summer Plan kept me reading and curious as I wanted to learn the backstory of everyone coming to the wedding and understand what was happening in this family's life.  There were so many subplots to this story.  It was well written and I felt I was able to follow all the different stories and didn't get confused as I was reading even though there are so many different voices in this book.

 If you are a fan of Jennifer Weiner, pick this up.  If you've been on the fence in the past I would encourage you to give this book a try. Once I started reading this book and was about 10% through it I had a hard time putting this down and was curious to see the story pull together.  I would rate this book 8.5/10.

It almost has too much going on in it. Each character has so much story and so much conflict with something or someone else that it got to be a bit much. I know the author was going to real, but it didn’t play that way for me.

The story lines were overall good Ana he writing style was lovely, so it’s middle of the road for me overall.

The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner was not your typical light summer beach read, as I expected solely based on the title and cover art. This story was a great family drama with a lot of interwoven characters whose stories eventually all come together. At the beginning I found myself a little confused about who was who, but as I read on I came to be invested in everyone's storylines.
I enjoyed the intergenerational story telling that allowed us insight into why certain characters behaved the way they did and I also really was invested in the coming out story of Sam and his discovery of himself. I liked the quirkiness of how he first discovers that he might be interested in men through the reading of HP fan fiction.
One character that drove me nuts was Eli, how could he have suspected what he did and not say anything!!!? He also just was not a very likeable character because well...cheater.
Overall what I liked best about the book were the strong characters and well-developed stories. I will definitely recommend this read and cannot wait for Jennifer's next book!

Read if you like: Weiner's other summer-themed books.
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In this book, we have a collection of characters who are hiding something from their family. The hope is to get through the big wedding that is planned before revealing these secrets. One thing Weiner does well is create a lot of dramatic plot points and characters to keep a story going. I definitely wanted to keep reading to see when the secrets would be revealed and how the characters would react.
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The personification of the summer house was cool but I expected it to play a larger role in the plot of the story.
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CW: sexual content, infidelity, death of a parent/spouse, car accident, abandonment, terminal illness, cancer, pregnancy.

Synopsis: When her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter announces her engagement to her pandemic boyfriend, Sarah Danhauser is shocked. But the wheels are in motion. Headstrong Ruby has already set a date (just three months away!) and spoken to her beloved safta, Sarah’s mother Veronica, about having the wedding at the family’s beach house in Cape Cod.

A story all about a dysfunctional family full of drama, secrets, betrayal and everything else you’d find on a episode of Jerry Springer. I’ve always enjoyed Wiener’s books and was happy to receive a digital ARC from @netgalley . I found this to be quick and easy and the story told from a variety of characters didn’t bug me as much as they usually do.

The Summer Place follows a family, Ruby, a young woman who is about to marry her boyfriend, Sarah, her step-mother who has been questioning her life's decisions, Eli, her father, who is harbouring a deep secret, Sam, her Uncle, who is discovering a new part of his life, and Ronnie, her Grandmother, who is also keeping a secret or two.

I did not enjoy this, in fact, at one point, I put it down and said out loud, "I hate this book". This was around 80% in, if you've read it, you know what I'm referring to. It took me almost a month to get through it.There is nothing to enjoy about this story because it is all negative. I also found it very overwritten, the author blabbers on and on about opinions and things that aren't relevant to the story constantly. Also, I don't want COVID in my stories, especially when it's glossed over and not mentioned as something the characters have to deal with in present time. This book is a collection of POVs from these people in the family, also throwing in new random POVs of other side characters up to 75% in (really?), and all of these people are crappy. No other way to put it, they lie, they're selfish, most of their problems can be fixed by having a conversation and being honest. Half of these characters make deeply horrible decisions and have no regrets, in fact, they defend their decisions by making claims that, "they're a different person while it's happening", and "I deserve it", like what? These characters are so unlikeable and the entire family is dysfunctional. I also hated the ending because not everything that needed to be revealed was, so you know that where everything stands isn't how it should be. This is just a sad book about sad people. Big Summer was one of my favourite reads the year it came out, That Summer was a let down and after this, I've given up on the author, I believe Big Summer was a one off. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an absolute pleasure to read. Anything by Jennifer Weiner is actually. I highly recommend this book.

I've been a fan of Jennifer Weiner's work for 20 years now, ever since I got my hands on Good in Bed. (am I ever aging myself lol) Over the years she's become one of my favorite authors. Occasionally I'll try to delay my reading pleasure and save her books either for a trip or to get me out of a reading slump. Am I ever glad I did not do that with The Summer Place! I devoured this book. It had everything I've grown to love about Jennifer's work - characters whose story you easily become invested in, mystery, drama and lots of emotions. I might have shed a few tears (on public transit no less) towards the end.

The Summer Place revolves around 3 generations of a family with deep ties to a beach house on Cape Cod. Sarah's 22 year old stepdaughter Ruby announces she'll be getting married at the beach house that belongs to Sarah's mom Veronica. Sarah has reservations about this decision but she is too preoccupied trying to figure out what is going on with her husband Eli, who's been detached and not his usual self for a while now. Meanwhile Sarah's twin brother is trying to navigate his way through a big emotional loss, being a single parent and what might be missing from his life. All Veronica wants is to have her entire family together at the beach house one last time before she sells it. As the wedding approaches, past, present and the future of each of the family members may collide in unexpected ways.

Yes, this is the perfect beach/vacation read! That comes as no surprise as Jennifer Weiner is a master of creating page-turners her readers can easily lose themselves in. But this is also a beautifully written family drama that will make you feel all the feels and remind you how life is sometimes simultaneously very complex and very simple. The Summer Place also felt more personal than Jennifer's previous work and when I read the Afterword it made complete sense as to why. If you enjoy contemporary fiction that revolves around multiple perfectly imperfect characters or you simply want a guaranteed great beach read - this is your book!

A big thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Canada & and the author for gifting me an ARC of this beautiful book in exchange for an honest review!

This is a wild three generational family drama story. There are a lot of characters and a lot of dysfunction in this family. Be prepared for some infidelity if that is something you don’t like in your reading! All the characters had such different personalities and that definitely made it more interesting. This one had me quickly turning the pages to see how everything was going to turn out. A perfect summer book with the Cape Cod setting. Overall I really enjoyed this one!

Jennifer Weiner sure knows character development! A book heavy in characters is usually hard to read, but each character is given so much depth and care that you can’t help but want to know more about their lives even after the final page. I loved this book. A definite beach read that o would recommend to all.

Thank you @netgalley @jenniferweinerwrites @simonandschuster and @atriabooks for the advanced copy for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

This book had a little bit of a Liane Moriarty feel to it. There were several characters, sometimes seemingly disconnected from each other and we slowly learn bit about their present and past lives the all culminate in a wedding weekend at Cape Cod. This is a story about families, decisions and their consequences, secrets and regrets. It's also about learning about who you are in the moment and coming to terms with that person.

I thought this book did a good job of telling enough about each character to make them appealing and interesting. By the time the weekend rolls around, the reader knows enough about everyone to know that the weekend is not likely going to be without its rollercoaster moments.

The thing that I thought was not needed was a brief interlude where the house itself had a voice. That was odd and it detracted from the story, in my opinion.

This one had potential at the beginning: it was intriguing and promising, but the author use the same formula for every chapter, and it got too repetitive and the payoff didn't seem worth it. I will say, Sam was the one character I really liked.

The Summer Place is a beach read that will have you yearning to summer in Cape Cod.. The story takes you through a multitude of people’s actions, reactions and regrets but leaves you on a positive note.
Thank You to Simon & Schuster Canada, NetGalley, and Jennifer Weiner for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I’ve been a fan of Jennifer Weiner’s books for over 10 years and The Summer Place is no exception to my enthusiasm about her writings! I started this ARC digital copy of The Summer Place and really enjoyed it. I’ll wait until publication day to buy a paper copy of it and savor this new publication from one of my favourite author.

I guess you have to be a far-left virtue signaller to like this book?

Honestly, I would prefer to forget the last two years ever happened, not to read a book about how hard it was for a privileged family with a massive house to have to work from home together for a year. That added with countless mentions of "doing the right thing" (masking, social distancing, lockdowns, vaccines, vaccine passports, contributions to BLM, the "Buy Nothing" movement") made this just feel like one big propaganda handbook. I couldn't stand how all of these things were normalized.

With respect to the story itself, too many characters who don't have any actual problems whine and complain about lack of privacy and the sound of flip flops on a hardwood floor. A selfish bunch of characters who manufactured their own issues. A family of serial cheaters and secret keepers, who’s secrets in some cases weren’t even real. For me, there were absolutely no redeeming qualities in this story, and I can’t believe I struggled through this to the bitter end.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.