(ARC from NetGalley) I think this is the grown up version of ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’. We start off on the night of Callie’s wedding— she’s sitting in a bathtub, binge eating in her wedding gown. The story rotates timelines from the past year, 9 years ago (college) and now. It’s definitely a character driven story, not much happens but you get a glimpse at Callie’s internal monologue and watch her make these awful decisions. She’s one of those unlikeable female characters you can’t help but kind of root for. The ending threw me off, there was no resolution.
CW: active eating disorder, very descriptive

This was a did not finish for me. I made it about a quarter of the way through and it couldn’t keep my interest. I also couldn’t tell you a thing about it.

I couldn't get into this one. I tried audio, I tried physical book, I tried the kindle. It just wasn't happening. This one was hyped up, but it just wasn't computing in my brain as a great read. DNFed at 20%.

I was so looking forward to reading this one. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. The audio was done very nicely, but the story itself just didn't keep me interested.

*Thank you @harperaudio for the audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review. Review not posted to Amazon/Goodreads because less than 4 stars or DNF.*

I love a good NYC based book and this book is one of my recent favorites. It has friendship, family, marriage, good times, and bad times…all my favorite things.

Social Engagement was such a thought provoking story, and I had no idea what was in store for me before reading.

*many thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the gifted copy for review

I really enjoyed this darkly funny critique on the modern industrial wedding complex, millenial culture and the pressure to present/achieve the 'perfect' life. This debut starts with a wedding gone wrong and then flashes back a year to let us see just how things all turned to sh*t!

Both a coming of age story, a celebration of female friendship and an exploration of second chances as Callie spends the year planning her swanky summer wedding on her beloved childhood vacation spot of Watch Hill, Rhode Island.

It's so easy to get wrapped up in planning the 'best' wedding and Callie easily finds herself getting lost in the process as things spiral out of control. When her best friend's cousin (and her secret ex) shows up, she really begins to question what it is she wants and what will make her happy and maybe it's not her fiancé after all.

Good on audio and recommended for fans of Celia Laskey's So happy for you or Forever hold your peace by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

As a social media user, this book took a very clever look at social media and the persona presented vs. the actual persona of the poster. How we all put forth a curated look at our life and not always reality. There was sharp wit and humor as the protagonist navigated a year of millennial wedding culture. It was a fun ride. I did the audio and wished that I did the physical to see the posts that start each chapter.

I had to DNF this audio which isn't something to common for me. It might've been the wrong timing currently but something about the book wasn't sitting right with me and I found it hard to keep my attention.

The story starts with a bang as a woman is eating pizza in her wedding dress…in a tub. It then looks back to how she got to that point.

This story was definitely intriguing. When FMC, Callie, looks back at the past year to see where it all goes wrong, we find her harboring a long-time affinity to her friend’s cousin (and Callie’s secret ex). Callie has been enmeshed with the wealthy family of her best friend since childhood.

Between secrets, lies, and a lost manuscript, new mysteries pop up and her story begins to unfold. Unlikeable characters and explosive secrets make for a compelling tale! The narrator did a great job; however, sometimes it was difficult to grasp what time/year it was at points in the book.

Special thanks to the NetGalley and Harper Audio for this ARC. All thoughts in this review are honest and my own.

I struggled with this one initially. The first half was a pretentious and boring. A privileged girl who doesn't realize how privileged she is because she's surrounded by people who are more privileged than she is. Obsessed with social media, and has slightly deranged thoughts.

But I continued on and found myself invested. In the end, I felt like this book spoke on how we give pieces of ourself away to others, whether they deserve those pieces or not. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. On top of that, I liked that there was a small plot twist that was slightly surprising.

I would recommend this book, but only to those who are okay with having to push through the beginning of the book, and some annoying character traits.

I only had the audiobook to listen to and I really enjoyed the author's writing style. The narrator did an excellent job, but I felt like the story jumped around a bit too much and I was constantly going back to listen to the previous part to see what I missed. The characters are not particularly likeable and I didn't feel a connection so it was a little hard to stick with. The writing itself is a joy to listen to and maybe having a physical copy to read along with would've helped?

My first impression of this book was that I wasn’t going to like it. A few chapters in and I still wasn’t quite sure. The writing is clever, the references relevant, but I couldn’t tell what to think of the characters. Was it a brilliant satire on middle class affluence? Or was it unbearably pretentious? Was the heroine aware of her own entitlement, or not? Even after finishing I’m a little worried I’ll never decide. This book truly skirted a line for me personally, between being ultra-relatable and outlandish. Maybe that was the point? Either way. The writing was beautiful and the concept thought provoking. While the jury’s still out on my enjoyment of the book, I do have to say it was highly intelligent and an overwhelming well constructed book.

Audio 3/5 - To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with the performance of this audiobook. However, given the story’s heavy reliance on social media clips and messages to create a non-linear narrative, I feel like reading a paper book would have helped me enjoy this more.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the ARC. I flew through the book, it was an easy read. And I loved the author's writing, I will def read another book by her in the future. But I couldn't stand the main character and didn't feel like I was rooting for her. And I felt like it just abruptly ended.

This book felt like I was at brunch with the cast of Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City. The author does a great job of balancing heavy moments with comedic relief. Touching on thoughts that are too intimate to bring up to any other living person but also completely relatable, this book struck a chord with me in a way I wasn’t expecting. I thought they did a great job of making the weird intimate habits we have feel normal.

I only have two critiques — Narration could use some work, as pronunciation changed throughout the book which can take you out of the moment. I thought the ending felt a bit rushed and I craved more redemption from the main character.

A novel with engaging social commentary that would be good for book clubs. The narrator is a good fit for the story.

Love the premise of this book; wedding culture and social media and the title is so fitting. However, it fell a little flat because you wind up just wanting to shake the protagonist, Callie Holt and scream, "REALLY?!?
6-7 hours into being married, and Callie is spending her wedding night in the bathtub, eating an extra-large pizza and scrolling though the last year of her life trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Was it when she lost her father to cancer? Or moved in with her ultra-privileged bestie, Virginia Murphy, while Virginia's parents foot the bill for the fancy NY pied-a-terre? Or accepting a proposal from her bro-type boyfriend that she's only been dating for 7 months? Or the fact that she's still in love with her (secret) ex, Virginia's cousin, Ollie? Who, incidentally, is the absolute WORST and God only knows why Callie even likes him, let alone loves him. Or could it be the fact that her deceased father was probably having an affair with Virginia's mother? Look, obviously, Callie has a lot going on, but there was no real resolution here. The ending just concluded. I suppose like all millennials, the author got too caught up in the social media drama of her own story.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper Audio for this audio e-arc.*

I loved that the ending proved Virginia and Callie's friendship was real after a year of intensifying doubts about the nature of her relationship with various members of the Murphy family. Throughout the book, I was reminded of Three Women - deferring by default to boys/men/money/status - and the Kate Baer poem “There Are Days.” I am pretty disturbed by and sad about how much my younger self would relate to Callie. Being on the inside but distinctly knowing you’re on the outside/seemingly being part of a family/group that isn’t your own but knowing you really aren’t, thinking you have to change for people to accept you, having an emotionally absent mother, obsessing over your body, obsessing over your social media presence, obsessing over everything, wanting infinite do-overs, questioning if/why anyone would love you, people with more resources taking credit for your work. Social Engagement is a fun and *whitty_* novel packed with serious questions the protagonist must face as she reckons with adulthood.

I wanted to like it I really did, and I thought I would based solely on the writing style, it's literary nature. But I always have trouble when I can't grasp any likeability in the main character, in any of the characters really. I will say though that the audiobook narration made for easy listening and I appreciated the listen very much

We meet Callie on the night of her wedding, her new husband asleep except she tells us her marriage is already over. She whips out her phone to scroll thru pictures of the past year, to think about where it all went wrong. The author chooses to hand us the pieces of the story in fragmented intervals, interrupting Callie's narration of the past (meeting her hubby and onward) to remind you of where she is in her present (which I found superfluous, I think it would've been more effective to start and end the book with her wedding, leave the meat to be read uninterrupted)- and then also cutting into the past to bring you back to a further past (her childhood, her dad, college years, her history with Ollie, etc. ).

We learn about Callie's best friendship with Virginia Murphy, practically born at the hip, their parents friends as well. When Callie's dad passes she becomes estranged from her own mom and essentially becomes a surrogate daughter melting into the Murphy clan, benefiting from scraps of their affluence thrown her way like a dog under a dining table, essentially shaping the trajectory of her life. We learn of her clandestine affair with Virginia's cousin Ollie, of her struggle with bulimia. This in particular was unnerving having been approached by the writer in such a flippant haphazard way. Oh and in between all this we get to read people's comments on the social media photos she's looking through that signify the moments she's telling us about. A cool idea in theory, here it just felt like it broke the fluidity of the read with no real purpose.

As a reader you are unwittingly choosing to be lead down the path of a story and I kept waiting for the purpose of this path. Waiting for some redemption anywhere, everywhere. It's okay when a story is a blip in time of a person's life, very effective even when done right, but still the reader is trusting to be made whole at the end, to understand the full circle or lack there of, to witness some kind of self actualization or complete destruction. I don't know where this one falls, neither? Both? I would've liked for some of the secondary characters, if not all of them, to be fully fleshed out as well but beggers can't be choosers :(

When I read fiction like this, I like ruminating about the strings of thoughts, the commentary the author makes within the story. I kept seeing potential for that, and I even found it once or twice in quotes such as "sometimes the world gives you a loophole to live out a secret in plain sight." Unfortunately overall I can't say that I got much out of it. I can't understand even a little bit what I was meant to gain from this read in it's entirety and I'm quite disappointed as the writing itself had given me high hopes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the audio ARC! I was looking forward to this novel based on the description: a woman examines what went wrong in her six hour marriage by going through her social media and camera roll. Flashbacks and us piecing together the story along with the main character? Sign me up!

However, this description- while it captures the framing for the story, is more so the main character coming to terms with herself, her insecurities and all of the relationships in her life. I enjoyed some of the references, but an abundance of so many pop culture and real world references came off just as pretentious and frustrating as the family friends of the main character. The main character, Callie, was hard to root for in regards to her relationship with her husband, because it was obvious she never loved him and shouldn’t have married him in the first place. I will say that the writing itself was good, even if I didn’t find the characters appealing. Commentary on millennial culture, particularly as related to weddings and marriage intrigued me, but this wasn’t what I expected and the novel didn’t resonate with me.
2.5 stars ⭐️