Looking at the cover of The Summer Pact, you expect a light and fluffy rom-com beach read, but it isn’t even close. This book covers many meaningful topics: love, grief, regret, joy, self-discovery, self-acceptance, and more. It is a loaded book, but it doesn’t read heavily.

I also have to say that I love how she wrote the chapters! She did it to ensure everyone’s perspective and thoughts were shared with the reader.

The Summer Pact by Emily Giffin is a delightful and heartwarming read that perfectly captures the essence of friendship, love, and second chances. Giffin’s characters are relatable and well-developed, making it easy to get invested in their journeys. The book’s summer setting adds a light and refreshing atmosphere, while the emotional depth keeps readers hooked from start to finish. It’s a perfect blend of romance and personal growth, making it a great choice for a feel-good, page-turning experience. Fans of Giffin’s previous work will not be disappointed!

This may have been one of my least faves of Emily's. But let's start with the positives (the important stuff!): her writing, is, as always impeccable. Descriptions, characters, depth of emotion - she nailed it. The story itself was good in theory. But the issues that got me were the pacing and the characters that seemed to do things out of their realm/personality that didn't feel right or in line with their development. It was jarring at times. Additionally, on an admittedly weird note, knowing eg isn't a fan of Meghan Markle and had a weird English guy named Archie in it was strange.

I'll pick up anything Emily writes, still, but this was probably my least favorite work.

Well this starts off with a bang but doesn’t really go anywhere. The characters move on with their lives and the story picks up at a point where the remaining characters gather to support each other at a later date, only to find that most of them seem to be at a standstill with their own lives. Not necessarily unhappy, but unfulfilled. For such a tragic beginning it doesn’t feel like there’s much emotional depth to the book, and nothing to really “hook” the reader. The character voices all sound similar and the story is forgettable.

I received an advance review copy for free from the publisher via Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

While I don't read them as often, I do truly enjoy books that focus on friendships, especially those that continue through adulthood.

In college, Tyson, Lainey, Hannah and Summer became quick friends. Summer was their nucleus, their brightest star. There was something about her they couldn't define. She was the strongest and best of them. When she commits suicide, everyone is shocked, rattled. Out of anyone, for Summer to have done something like that...

The friends make a pact then, that if there's a point in their lives when they're at rock bottom, they'll be there for each other. When Hannah finds her fiancé cheating, Lainey decides that qualifies. Lainey and Tyson drop everything to rush to Hannah's side, and they decide to take the trip they had planned after college with Summer, and never went through with.

Their first stop is Texas, to meet Lainey's half sisters. That doesn't go as planned. In fact, its a disaster. They agree to go to their next stop, though Hannah does reach out and talk to Lainey's other sister, who seems like a really great person. Even though Lainey is determined she wants nothing to do with her extended family, Hannah finds someone she can talk to about her cheating fiancé and canceled wedding, someone who isn't as close to her and provides some appreciated perspective.

When they go to Italy, dynamics change between the friends. They reflect on the time they had with Summer and how she changed them.

A beautiful book, with lovely friendships.

I initially had a difficult time connecting with The Summer Pact and actually put it aside for a bit. I did go back to it later and am so happy I did because I ended up really loving it.

The story follows four college friends during the formative years of their friendship in college and in the wake of a tragedy that forever changes them. Through it all, they promise to always show up for each other, and a decade later, they are called to do exactly that. This reunion forces them to explore who they really are and what they truly want.

As usual, Emily Giffin wrote highly relatable and in depth characters. I enjoyed the multiple points of view from which the story is told.
This story does include difficult topics, including alcohol abuse, mental health, and suicide, but it is ultimately the story of friendship and hope through life’s most formative and challenging times. This fall, THE SUMMER PACT is well worth a read.

3.5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Whenever I pick up one of her books I know I better be prepared to clear the calendar because I have a difficult time putting them down. She's a gifted storyteller. The Summer Pact was not my favorite by Giffin. It just didn't live up to some of her other books that I was unable to put down.

Overall, this book was an honest and moving look at the complexities of friendships as we grow older, especially friendships impacted by tragedy. I generally loved the characters and the way Giffin dealt with each of their individual struggles. The intricacies of their friendships, both as a group and their individual relationships with one another were well developed early in the novel, though that development did fall off a bit towards the end (hence the 4 out of 5 stars). A strong effort from Giffin and will keep me coming back for more!

Tyson, Summer, Lainey, and Hannah were about as different as could be when they met in college, but soon formed an unbreakable bond. But when promising athlete Summer tragically dies just before graduation, the remaining three make a pact to be there for one another any time and anywhere the other two ask. And when Hannah catches her fiancé cheating on her, she activates that pact, leading her, Tyson, and Lainey on a literal trip of self-discovery.

This was a quick read, I'll give it that. Otherwise, the book was pretty blah, as it was difficult telling which of the three main characters was narrating at any given point (should've been easy, given their differences) and nothing really dipped below surface level. There are better books out there.

I looked forward to reading this one from Emily Giffin, but unfortunately it wasn't a win for me.

I liked that this story centered around friendship and the uniqueness of the college bond. I think that there is something really special about that specific type of friendship and it was fun to see what that looked like 10 years later for this group. I also liked the exploration into how each character carried grief differently.

I did have a few problems with this book though. First, I couldn't always distinguish which point of view I was reading. The characters were so vastly different but this did not translate into having different voices. It also felt repetitive during certain transitions which would happen in the middle of a scene and we'd repeat part of it from another POV. Second, I found it an interesting choice that a white female author wrote from the perspective of a black man as one of the main characters. While I think this representation is important, I don't know if Giffin was the right author to provide it. It gave me pause and I wondered if she was accurately capturing his experience at times.

Overall this one came in as a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️.

I fun read with some depth - reminded me of the show A million little things. Mostly about friendship with a little romance sprinkled in. This wasn’t my favorite of hers, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to read it!

My thoughts may be all over the place with this book. Emily sort of strayed from her typical writing. This had a lot going on, from a suicide, to looking for half siblings.. Would I say it was an awful book? No not at all. I enjoyed the friendship theme in there. Was it my favorite book by her, not by a long shot.

Something felt flat in this story. One of the things I love most about her books, is how I connected to the characters I always felt. Here I didn't feel any connection there. I feel like Summer's story wasn't clearly wrapped up and some of the other story lines seemed to left wing.

Out of all of Emily's books, this was my least favorite.

But she's still one of my favorite authors and always will be!

It was a nice easy going book about friendship. I liked and cared about the characters but I thought the relationships were a little rushed at the end. The writing was fine but there was nothing outstanding about it. It's good to have a rest book every once in a while though.

I was really drawn to this book because of the author. In practice though I struggled to connect with the plot and ended up not finishing it. Thank you for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Sigh. It's getting to the point where I can pretty much plot out the entire story after reading just the first couple of chapters from this author's books. They're too predictable, too PC. I think I used to like her books. Either she's gotten lazy, or I've outgrown her. This is probably my bb last one of her books.
Thanks to #netgalley and #ballantinebooks for this #arc of #thesummerpact in exchange for an honest review.

What was your last summer read? I finished up The Summer Pact earlier this month for my last summer book read of the year.

The Summer Pact is about four individuals that meet at college and form a lifelong friendship. One when tragically dies, the others promise to always get together to help each other if any of the three of them are in a time of need. When Hannah finds her fiancé in bed with another woman, she finds herself in crisis. When the friends gather together to help out Hannah, will they all make changes to their own lives and move forward?

My thoughts on this novel:
• I have enjoyed Emily Giffin’s books in the past and especially enjoyed Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof. This one was not as good as her other novels.

• The story was slow in the middle, and it took me a long time to finish it.

• This novel is a look at friendship and the lengths we will go to for our friends. It also delves into grief and how everyone deals with it differently and how friends can help.

• The story is told through the three point of views of the three friends. I didn’t feel like I liked or connected with the characters.

• The romance came very late in the novel and then it seemed to be immediately tied up in the epilogue. I did not feel the romantic connection between the love interests.

• I really didn’t like the character Lainey. She was an actress that acted very immature for a thirty something. She needed more of a growth story to me. I also didn’t like how she very obviously was an alcoholic, but her friends did not help her with this problem at all.

• I thought we would get more of Summer’s story and her untimely death and there would be a bit of a mystery. It just remained a sad unexplained traumatic death from their college days.

Overall, I was disappointed by The Summer Pact, but I will definitely try another Emily Giffin book.

Book Source: Review copy from NetGalley. Thank-you! Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

2.75/5 stars for me.

This was eh. It didn't hit the mark for me. It was my first Emily Giffin book, and it may be my last? We will see. It start off a bit strong, with some heavy topics and had me going until about 1/4-1/2 of the way in, it kind of lost me. I struggled to keep wanting to read this. It was very hard to keep the 3 differen't Povs distinct. I often would forget who was talking in each chapter. After the tragedy that they experience, there wasn't really anything else it had going. The romance towards the end felt rushed and very "oh I guess this works" vibes. I wasn't really relating with any of the characters nor did any of them really stand out to me. Like I said, this was eh, okay.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

The Summer Pact by Emily Griffin was a heartbreaking and beautiful novel of grief, friendship and love. The novel starts out with the tragic death of a core member of a group of 4. Instead of letting this tear them apart, they cling to each other for support. This was my first Emily Griffin novel and I thought the delicate topics were dealt with well. I didn't love the romance at the end, but I enjoyed the novel overall.

This is the first Emily Giffin book I’ve read and didn’t love. I felt like some of the dialogue didn’t feel real? I constantly questioned who talks like this??? In actual real life??? The main character felt juvenile and too immature. I wanted to love this one but it was a miss. 2⭐️

I was highly anticipating this book, but it fell short. It is an ok summer read but was hard to distinguish between the characters. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a opportunity to read.
2.75