THE GRIFFIN SISTERS' GREATEST HITS by Jennifer Weiner
★★★★☆ | "Fame might make you sisters, but forgiveness makes you family."
This book transported me to the early 2000s pop scene. Cassie and Zoe's sisterhood struck such a chord with me—one a reluctant prodigy hiding in shadows, the other craving the spotlight like oxygen. Twenty years after their mysterious breakup, Zoe's daughter Cherry starts digging for answers, and the quiet revelations hit close to home.
🎤 Fame-is-actually-complicated
💔 Sisters-who-need-healing
🔎 Generational-mystery-unraveling
🌊 Perfect-beach-read-with-depth
What lingered was how truthful the sister dynamics felt—that push-pull of loving someone while also holding complicated feelings. Weiner captures the expectations placed on women in entertainment with an honesty that resonated deeply.
The ending left me reflective but hopeful, like a conversation with an old friend you've missed for years. A worthy addition to your summer reading stack.

This was a hard book for me to rate, while I enjoyed the story overall there were some problematic and repetitive body shaming incidents that just really turned me off this book. This book follows two timelines the past is in the early 2000 at the peak of pop princess and boy bands ( this made me feel old) we follow the Griffin sisters as the form their career and their downfall. In the current timeframe we follow the sisters 20 some years after the fall of the band. Zoe the one sisters daughter decides she wants to sing we follow her as she meets her estranged aunt and competes in a singing competition. In this book I much preferred the early 2000 storyline but quickly got tired of hearing out fat and ugly Cass was. The modern timeline never quite caught my attention and made the book seem a bit overlong. While I enjoyed parts of this there were other parts that about had me DNFing. Even though this wasn’t my favorite I did enjoy the authors writing overall and would read more from them in the future. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

Jennifer Weiner is a hit-or-miss author for me. Unfortunately, this was a miss. I think it tried a bit too hard to be like Daisy Jones and the Six, but I didn't feel connected to the characters.

Women’s fiction is not my go to but I enjoy Jennifer’s writing and I really wanted to read this book.

This is a story of two sisters who’ve had an interesting relationship their entire lives. It’s an emotional read..you might get angry at these characters…especially Zoe. Cassie has a good heart and does her best to help her sisters dreams come true…but with a cost.

There is a lot of family drama, competition between the sisters and a very complex relationship.

A great read.

Music in a book is hard to do right and everything will inevitably get compared to Daisy Jones. However this really had a voice of its own. Lots of family drama, which I love. It was such a compelling story and I cared a lot about this cast, especially said sisters. I also loved that there was an actual song released with the book. It made things very immersive.

I didn't love this unfortunately. This was the first book I read by Jennifer Weiner and I was pretty excited because I see her name everywhere and have for years! People really seem to love her books so I was excited and ready to jump in, but maybe all the hype gave me unrealistic expectations. The story was not great, and very repetitive. I got soooooo tired of hearing how fat and ugly and unwanted Cassie was, and how amazingly hot and desirable Zoe was. I don't know what the point of any of this was. Are we only treating fat people like humans if they have a super amazing talent? I can kind of understand the setting of the book was early 2000s and that's what was happening those days, but I feel like a lot of the people reading this book probably don't even remember the early 2000s to know that was the thing? I'm old enough to remember but I'm also living in 2025 where people are proud of their bodies, even if they are so large and fat and ugly, so it was hard to me to be like oh, yeah, maybe that's what she would have been dealing with then. Or even making it seem so insane that Russell would like Cassie, or that he HAD to have been a big fat loser when he was younger to even realize Cassie existed.

Also as someone who was born and raised in the NJ/Philadelphia area, I was really excited to see the references but then it got so out of control. Like again, we get it, you're in Philly. You don't have to make a generalization out of everything, or FORCE a reference just to reenforce the location. When I first started the book I almost wanted to reach out the author to make that little fun connection but then by the end of the story I was kind of cringing.

I absolutely loved The Griffin Sister's Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner. The story was moving, fun and nostalgic. A great escape read when you need to be transported to a different world.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book got off to a slow start, but I ended up really enjoying it!

In the aughts, sisters Cassie and Zoe were everywhere with their music. Cassie was the plump musical genius whose singing voice and prodigious musical talent made her stand out despite wanting nothing to do with being in the limelight. Zoe was the pretty, outgoing one who wanted to be the center of attention for everyone, including the handsome guitarist who seemed interested in Cassie. How could anyone would look at Cassie when she was in the same room? Tragedy ended the band and sent Cassie into hiding in Alaska and Zoe back to her parents to raise a daughter. The daughter is now 18 and dreams of a musical career. She has talent and looks, but zero support from her mother leads her to runaway on a collision course with the aunt she didn't even know she had.

The story jumps impressively seamlessly between the past and the present. There is never any confusion about who's speaking and what time is being explored. All three leads have very defined voices and viewpoints that drive their own story while building a cohesive plot. I greatly enjoyed the little hints Weiner drops about what's to come without messing up the big reveals. It feels like building a house of cards that fascinates even after it collapses, if that makes sense. Even after all the big reveals had happened, there was character growth left to explore.

Overall, a very satisfying read with characters that pull you in and make you care about their story. It suffered a bit with me because there was so much hype that I guess I was expecting something extraordinary, which it doesn't quite reach, but it does make for a very good read.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the fascinating read!

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits is the story of Cassie and Zoe Grossman. Cassie has extraordinary musical talent. Zoe has the drive to be famous but is no where near as talented as Cassie. The sisters are at the top of the music scene in the early 2000’s but circumstances tear them apart. Zoe settles down to married life. Cassie disappears. Zoe’s daughter, Cherry, longs to follow in her aunt’s footsteps. In order to do that, Cherry must find Cassie and reunite the Griffin Sisters. The story is told from different viewpoints and in different periods of time. It is easy to follow and fun to read. Especially if you were into pop music in the early 2000’s. This is a great book.

The Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits
3.5/5 🌟

I really enjoy this author and she always has a way to drawing me in. This was a fun time stamp for music in the early 2000s and today. She does a great job of pulling in real references along side her faux sister duo group to make them feel impactful.

Zoe and Cassie are sisters who form a band mostly off Zoe’s charm and Cassie piano and signing talent. They are young but passionate and have fast success. Cassie is larger and less confident but finds she can easy open up and write with their bandmate Russell. Zoe ends up pursing him not knowing the connection he shares with Cassie and the love triangle ends in tragedy also ending their band.

Now today Zoe’s daughter Cherry is on a missing to win a signing contest and meet her aunt she’s never known. There is a full circle moment I just wish there was more of drama than a boy as the band and sister break up.

I loved this book so much. It brought back the good & bad of the 00’s. Usually I would hate the plus size character who only focuses on her weight, but with the time period this is set it makes sense.

There were a few plot holes that I wish were closed or at least brought up again, but it didn’t affect my score.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

I really enjoyed THE GRIFFIN STISTERS' GREATEST HITS by Jennifer Weiner, probably my favorite Jennifer Weiner book to date. Cassie is a character I will not soon forget, she was not your typical heroine. Dual time lines do not always work but they worked in this book and I enjoyed each time line equally. I was totally invested in the characters, I enjoyed spending time with them; Cherry was the only one I didn't really connect with, perhaps because her character was written well and I am an older reader. A true story of family, messy and dramatic but loving under all the chaos.
One of my best reads of the year; highly recommend.

I have long been a Jennifer Weiner fan, and I am happy to say that Weiner just keeps getting better. The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits was such a delightful story about sisters and the cost of fame. I loved hearing the various perspectives of the sisters and Zoe's daughter Cherry as well. I also thought the multimedia connection with creating a song for the book was such a fun way to promote the book.

This is definitely a great summer read for lovers of family dramas and music.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

This is the story of the Grossberg sisters who became the Griffin Sisters, a successful musical group in the early 2000s who had a tragic breakup. Zoe was the slightly older, outgoing, conventionally beautiful sister who lacked real talent, but was determined to be a star no matter what it took. Cassie was the slightly younger sister who despite being a musical prodigy lived in her sister's shadow because she was introverted, overweight and socially awkward. The story is told in flashbacks and in the present time from the perspectives of Zoe, Cassie and Zoe's daughter Cherry who has all of her mother's ambition and some of her aunt's talent. Cherry is determined to find her aunt so that she can help her win a musical competition similar to American Idol and also to find out what exactly happened that broke up the band and cause her aunt to become estranged from the family and go into hiding.

It's usually hard for me to favorably rate a book where I find the characters unlikeable. The Grifin Sister's Greatest Hits is an exception to this rule. I found both Zoe and Cherry extremely selfish and although I was rooting for Cassie all the way through, her chapters were the hardest to read because of her awkwardness and her pain. I'll admit that I did a deep dive into a 1999 interview with Carnie WIlson on the Howard Stern' show where he brutally fat shamed her that was mentioned in the book. to help me better understand Cassie's fears. Despite my difficulties with the characters, I found myself engrossed in this book and really wanting a happy ending at least for Cassie.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Cassie and Zoe couldn’t be more different, but Zoe’s ambition and Cassie’s talent took them to the top of the music world…until it all came crashing down around them. Almost 20 years later, Zoe’s daughter Cherry is looking to make her own big break in the music world, despite her mother’s warnings. But as more is learned about why the Griffin Sisters broke up, and why Cassie disappeared all those years ago, there are even more challenges facing her.

I loved this story. As someone who’s always been a music fan, and loves books like Daisy Jones and the Six, the topic and culture drew me in right away. Unfortunately, I also deeply related to Cassie’s insecurities, and feeling like she didn’t fit in. As a larger girl for most of my life, I really felt her struggles, and it was a bit painful to hear those voices. But I was really pleased with how it all came together as more of the story unfolded.

The jumping around of time periods was hard to follow in the beginning. The focus of weight while I understood what the author was trying to convey it just was too much. The ending was pretty predictable.

Beautiful story about two sisters - Zoey who is popular, pretty and not very talented and Cassie who is an introvert, overweight, and a child prodigy who can sing, compose beautiful music, and is trained as a classical pianist. Zoey and Cassie are “discovered” and form a band, which breaks up under terrible and life changing circumstances that lead Zoey to go home, get married and live an ordinary life in the suburbs and Cassie to disappear into the wilds of Alaska. Almost 20 years later, Zoey’s 18 year old daughter Cherry runs away to LA to audition for a show to showcase her musical talents and to find her aunt Cassie whom she has only recently has learned about. Only time will tell whether the Griffin sisters will ever be able to mend the bridge that tore them apart.

Ok this book was incredible and so well developed. I absolutely love how it was broken down into "parts" instead of chapters and within those parts we had various POVs as well as timelines and destinations. Something I though was written perfectly was the emotion of jealousy. Cassie and Zoe were clearly jealous of each other for different reasons, but I also felt that Cherry carried a lot of jealousy and envy as well because her mom essentially lived the life she wanted and "threw it away to be a housewife." This story was layered and dimentional and extremely thought provoking. I found this story to have the perfect balance of being character and plot driven. There was a story within the Griffin Sisters (before & after as well as Cherry's journey to stardom and fame) but the characters emotions, relationships, triumphs, and decisions (both good and bad) were what kept me reading. I will definitely be picking up Jennifer Weiner books in the future.

I do love Jennifer Weiner's books, although at times this one did not keep my attention as I did not find the characters sympathetic. I did not have anyone to root for until later in the book (Cherry). It was entertaining and I did appreciate the way that the author navigated between timelines, navigating the ins and outs of the music industry. I saw growth in the characters and the romance was not over the top or sappy, it felt real. The physical copy of the book is gorgeous and I would buy it just for that, and the story did draw me in at times, but I was able to put it down for spans of time, I think mainly because I was not attached to the characters. That is probably a “me” thing as I need to care about the main characters to really want to spend time with them. Overall though, it is well written, with realistic flawed characters.