thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

this was a really lovely book - i am such a sucker for family reunion stories and this delivered. the twists were admittedly not super twisty and the ending left me sad, but i cared so much about the siblings and their own journeys on top of them figuring out their relationship as a group. each of the siblings was very endearing and i was so invested in what happened to then. teared up multiple times tbh. a great read!

"Can you meet me in North Dakota this weekend?" All three Endicott siblings receive this cryptic text message from the fourth sibling Jude, after not seeing each other for 3 years. If you had told them when they were younger that that they would go years without seeing each other none of them would have believed it, and yet here they are. The siblings were very close growing up, navigating a mother who deserted them, but somehow still showing up every summer to take them on a road trip. Attempting to visit all 50 states the family would mark the states they visited on a map. Until an event on their last road trip caused all future trips to come to a grinding halt.

The siblings still remained close and grew to all be successful in their own way. Jude is an Oscar nominated actress, Connor an award winning author, Roddy a professional soccer star, and Gemma a marketing manager. As adults they are estranged, after a big blowup while getting together for their father's funeral. Now that Jude has summoned them to North Dakota the other siblings are wondering if this might be her last state to see and why, after 3 years, does she all of a sudden seem to eager for them to reunite.

I loved this book! It wasn't a super quick read, but it slowly developed and really took its time getting to introduce the characters fully. I loved every single person in the book and their backstory. I laughed, I cried, and I loved reading about the Amazing Endicotts.

Heartfelt, deep, poignant.....this was all the feels, great character development, true emotions and very deep. The way siblings are effected by their mother and their different perspectives. This was so well written and the emotions feel so real. Must read for anyone who appreciates family drama.

A very family forward novel with heart. There are four siblings each in different stages of life and all the problems and challenges that they are dealing with. Great novel.

I really loved this one. It was incredibly well written and well thought out. I love books about siblings because I can relate! It was interesting to try to figure out what each sibling had gone through together and separately. This book was also very sad and I would look up trigger warnings. I feel like the cover does not really convey the emotional journey you will be going on. But overall quite fantastic.

There’s no such thing as fun for the whole family. —Jerry Seinfeld

The Seinfeld quote and title is absolutely fitting for this family saga about four siblings who have become estranged over the last few years. It is not clear exactly what has caused this estrangement but as the story unfolds the reader learns more about each sibling. The Endicott siblings are all exceptional, talented, and successful in adult life. Jude, the Oscar nominated sister, brings them all together in Colorado ending up snowed in at a cabin.

I love a family drama, especially like this when told from each perspective. The Endicott's each remember the past differently, experiencing the same summer road trips with their mother in entirely different ways. As it turns out, life wasn't always "fun for the whole family".

The writing is heartwarming and engaging. I did not want this to end while still looking forward to the story unfolding. Highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t loved a literary family this much since the Foxmans in Jonathan Tropper’s “This is Where I Leave You”. Fun For the Whole Family wasn’t exactly what I expected, but honestly, it brought so much more. Funny at times, heartbreaking at others, and lovably dysfunctional throughout, Fun For the Whole Family reminds you of the cost of things left unsaid and the importance of making the most of your time with the ones you love. This was a 5 star read for me. I laughed some, cried a lot, and called my family as soon as I finished.

Fun for the Whole Family is the story of the four Extraordinary Endicott over the span of their lives. A multi POV novel that spans decade and all 50 states, it follows Gemma, Connor, Roddy, Jude and their often absent and eccentric mother, Frankie, throughout a series of summer road trips and family gatherings. Following their father’s death, the previously inseparable Endicotts have not spoken in almost 4 years until the youngest daughter, Jude, sends out a cryptic request to meet in North Dakota. What follows is a heartwarming journey back to each other and a reminder that time is too valuable to waste, you can’t outrun the past, and you can always go home again.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Shockingly, this was my first boon by Jennifer Smith. I do own many of her books because they’ve always intrigued me, but this one is the first one I’ve picked up and read!

Oh man, this made me feel so many feels. It also felt like a gut punch at times because I feel like I keep seeing this one particular theme in each book I’m reading, and it’s starting to feel like a bad omen.

All of that aside, I really enjoyed this one. I really loved these characters, and I really enjoyed getting to known each and every one.

I sometimes get nervous with multiple POVs because I worry I’ll mix them up, but I felt like I know all of these characters forward and backward.

I feel like in books like this it’s either character driven or plot driven, and this was a rare treat with the BEST of both worlds.

I WISH I had read more of her books sooner, but I really look forward to going into her backlist.

These deeply flawed and wounded characters, shaped by a tumultuous childhood marked by abandonment, are outwardly successful. I love how the story explores the human experience within families, highlighting dysfunction like the parentification of children, abandonment wounds, and the raw emotions that accompany such experiences.

The humor woven into the dialogue adds a unique touch, and I truly enjoyed the setting. I couldn’t put this book down from start to finish.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I loved this story! The author really got all the dynamics and nuances of sibling relationships. It’s about siblings growing up, growing apart and trying to reconnect. It was emotional and so relatable. Highly recommend!!

4 stars

This is another solid effort from Jennifer E. Smith.

I really enjoyed _The Unsinkable Greta James_ and had high expectations for similarly strong character development and meaningful plotlines. That all comes through here.

The four Endicott siblings survived the traumatic and odd departure of their mother in their youth and the fairly recent death of their father all to find themselves drifting from each other as adults. When the novel begins, they haven't spoken in any meaningful ways (or at all, in some cases) for years, and they've now been summoned to a dubious retreat by one of the sisters, Jude. No one can make sense of why they've been brought together, but readers learn along with the siblings that a number of secrets will be told, reveals will be experienced, and further changes to their relationships are on the way.

For me, this was incredibly readable and engaging. The characters are well drawn but not so nuanced that they slow the quick pacing. Then that ending. I'll stay spoiler free on that front, but I'll share that it did hit me hard.

This author will continue to be one whose works I'm excited to read and recommend.

This is a story of siblings, and the lives that they lived during their younger years, as well as when they grew to be adults, and how their lives were shaped, somewhat, by their mother. Once upon a time, they were very close, but as their lives diverged over the years, they haven’t spent much time together. And so, eventually, they gather together for a weekend where secrets are revealed, some wisdom found, and their bond a bit stronger.

A lovely story of the bonds of family


Pub Date: 08 Apr 2025

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Ballantine Books

4.5 stars.

✨This was such a heartwarming character-driven family drama with authentic characters who are flawed but lovable. It’s packed full of emotion and humor. I laughed, and I cried.

✨At its heart, this book is a love story for anyone who loves – whether it be your family, your pets, your partners, your passions or your pursuits.

✨I loved it and highly recommend.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Character-driven novels
✨Dual timelines
✨Multiple points of view
✨Family drama
✨Sibling narratives
✨Tear-jerkers

My thanks to @randomhouse and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

Don't let the title and cute, colorful cover of this one mislead you. Was this story fun? No not at all. But it was still wonderful and very much worth the read. In this book we follow four estranged siblings as they reunite several years after the death of their father. The story is told through alternating perspectives and as the book continues you see that we are traveling with the siblings and their mother as they try to visit all 50 states.

While the perspective and timeline shift throughout the book, it's still relatively easy to follow as we begin to learn more about how the close the siblings once were, what happened to them that drove them apart, and how they are going to reconcile on their weekend together in the present. I was expecting a lighthearted family story, but this heart-wrenching book was so much more than that and left me weepy in the hair salon as I finished the story. I would highly recommend!

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Fun for the Whole Family tore me up, even though I suspected it was coming. I was sad to say goodbye to these 4 siblings, their journeys through time and the states, their families, and their life failures and successes. I feel like one of the sibling’s books, which he describes as “personal, but not true”, is exactly how this story feels while reading it. The characters feel so personal, even if they aren’t true.
This character driven novel was beautifully written and I enjoyed every minute of it. Bittersweet to the end, speaking my book love language.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️My review: Each of the four Endicott siblings has a story, some baggage, and maybe some secrets. I was immediately drawn in with the multiple timelines. The books skips between the siblings present day reunion trip, and past years. Slowly, slowly things start to fall into place so the reader can see what happened in the past and from varying points of view. Jude definitely seems the most mysterious, a real example of how those who “have it all”, don’t really. Connor seemed the most lonely and I hoped for him to make more connections: with his siblings, his kids, a random Uber driver.
Everyone has secrets. And in allowing them to spill out one can only hope for the best, some understanding,
and some grace. The siblings let things grow and closed off from one another. The book and its different timelines carried so many feelings of sadness and regret and I was eager to see how and when things would come back together.

A lot of family trauma and trigger warnings for parental abandonment, illness, and fertility issues. But a great in-depth look at a family. And yes, I cried at the end. I have not done that in a while.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advance digital copy in exchange for my review.

This book about family dynamics, relationships, past histories, and following your dreams. Wonderfully written with rich characters - highly recommend this book!

Fun for the Whole Family is Jennifer E. Smith’s latest book and once again she tackles difficult family relationships. Don’t let the title or cover fool you into thinking this is going to be humorous. This time, the story involves four adult siblings, still trying to make sense of their unpredictable mother, who left them to find herself and would return once a year to take them on a road trip. The siblings have gone on to lead lives that seem remarkable on the surface. But they have also fallen out when one writes a novel based on their childhood. Three years later, the youngest forces a meet up to get things resolved.
Smith has crafted four well developed main characters and I was invested in each one’s life. It worked well to have the chapters keep alternating between the four. The book managed to keep my attention and there wasn’t any drag or downtime. Keep some tissues handy for the end but there are also plenty of moments that brought a smile to my face.
This was a difficult book for me to read. The mother was strangely reminiscent of my husband’s first wife, who also left her four daughters when they were young. I’ve seen first hand the emotional scars from their mother walking out and ours were lucky to have a father invested in them. The book has a lot to say about family, secrets, forgiveness and working together.
My thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this book.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this book.The sister plans a trip for them all to get together since they haven’t seen each other in three years. The place is a cabin in North Dakota and they get snowed in with no power. They all think they will hate it but much is revealed in their time together. It’s a sweet story that could be a Hallmark movie. I would highly recommend.

Jennifer E. Smith is one of my must-read authors and she NEVER disappoints. Fun for the Whole Family is a unique, original story that had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next, until the very end. Such a relatable story about family dynamics and where you fit in. Highly recommend to readers of adult realistic fiction.