I'll be honest, the cover really is what drew me to this book in the first place. It is just so so beautiful. I really liked this story! I liked getting to know Vivian and Lucy via their respective POVs and I was really fascinated by the deeply complicated relationships they both had with their father. I will say the middle third of this book felt like we were going around in circles for a little bit. I started to grow tired and ALMOST dnf-ed but decided to power through. I loved getting to see Vivian and Lucy grow into themselves and grow closer with each other. I am such a sucker for sweet, healthy relationships between siblings in books and these two captured my heart. Lucy was certainly a stand out to me. Vivian was and remained pretty unlikable for about 80% of this book, but she eventually softened and grew on me. This book deals with grief and deeply complicated relationships both platonic and romantic and it does so beautifully. Other than the middle third dragging on, I felt like there were some subplots that felt incomplete and half-baked. I know this is marketed as Fiction rather than Romance, but I would've loved a little bit more closure on that front. This book is perfect for fans of Carley Fortune who also happen to have a deep connection to New England (i.e. Me). Overall, a solid read. 4 stars.

Rating: 5 ⭐️
Pub Date: May 13, 2025

Synopsis
Every summer, Vivian Levy and Lucy Webster spend a month with their father at his lake house, but not together because Vivian technically doesn’t know about Lucy. Vivian, a sommelier, was raised in New York City with her parents while Lucy, an English teacher, grew up in small town Maine.
 
When Vivian’s father dies and she arrives at the lake to spread his ashes and sell his cabin, she's shocked to find Lucy at the cabin. Lucy has no idea her father died. They find themselves forced to spend the summer together, trying to piece together their father’s past, but they don’t get along and Lucy doesn’t want Vivian to sell the house.

My Thoughts
This is a book I desperately needed in my life. If there was a book I would buy for its cover alone, it would be this one! But wow, this book was perfection in every way possible. I’m probably a little biased because my family too has a camp in Maine (Mainers call cabins “camps”), so when I saw this book and read the synopsis, I had to read it! The first few pages hooked me immediately. I loved everything about this book, the setting, the characters (well some of them at least), and the heartwarming story. There’s a lot of complicated family issues and secrets going on in the book and you will watch the characters grow as the past comes to light. This book was written so well, especially with the topic at hand. You could feel the emotions on both sides of the family, although I was rooting for Vivian to come around because the thought of her selling the house was making me cringe! You just don’t get rid of a piece of paradise so easily. Lucy annoyed me a little at first, but she grew on me. In the end, you have to wonder if there’s going to be forgiveness and closure, and I think the end will leave you with a smile.

Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for the perfect summer read, you need to grab this one. It gives off the parent trap vibes in a beautiful setting.

Ratings
Characters: 5⭐️
Pace: 5 ⭐️
Enjoyability: 5 ⭐️

Thank you PENGUIN GROUP Dutton | Dutton and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

ARC REVIEW

Maine Characters
By Hannah Orenstein

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 (4 out of 5)

Publishing date: 5/13/2025

Goodreads blurb because I wa struggling to eloquently explain the plot :

Every summer, Vivian Levy and Lucy Webster spend a month with their father at his lake house — separately. Raised in New York City, Vivian is an ambitious sommelier with a secret that could derail her future. Lucy grew up in a tiny Maine town, where she now teaches high school English while watching her marriage unravel. They’ve never met. While Lucy envied her half-sister from afar, their father kept Vivian in the dark.

When Vivian arrives at the lake to spread his ashes and sell his cabin, she's shocked to find Lucy there, awaiting his return. In an ideal world, they’d help each other through their grief. Instead, forced to spend the summer together, they fight through a storm of suspicion and hostility to untangle the messy truth about their parents’ pasts. While Lucy is desperate to hold onto the house, Vivian is scrambling after a betrayal. After thirty years apart, is it too late for them to be a family?

For fans of Carley Fortune and Elin Hilderbrand, this sister story set on a lush lake brims with the undeniable heart, depth, charm, and humor that have endeared Hannah Orenstein to legions of readers

REVIEW:
I REALLY really really liked this! Which shocked me since I wasn't invested in the beginning. It's not that the beginning of the book was confusing, but making sure I fully understood both sisters and their dynamics, who knew what, who knew about who, I wanted to make sure I was following correctly.

As the story progressed I loved it more and more. I think it had great character development and I really liked watching Lucy and Vivian relationship progress. I loved the summer time, lake setting! It made me crave sunshine 🌞

I don't want to spoil the story but the ending sealed the deal for me. The sisters involved their moms and I think it was so beautiful! It was perfection!

A big thanks to @netgalley and @duttonbooks for the early read opportunity!!

Book Review: Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Maine Characters is a heartfelt and bittersweet story that explores love, loss, and self-discovery. One of the standout aspects of this novel is Hannah Orenstein’s raw and unpolished depiction of grief. She doesn’t sugarcoat it, which makes the emotions feel all the more real and important. I truly appreciated how authentic and genuine that felt.

The ending was another highlight for me—it wasn’t tied up in a neat, predictable bow, which made it feel more reflective of real life. However, I did find myself wondering about a few characters who seemed to disappear without closure, which was a bit disappointing.

Overall, Maine Characters is a cute and engaging read with emotional depth. While some loose ends left me wanting more, the book was cute!

This story was a perfect example of it is never too late to start over. I was hooked on this story from the first page and quickly fell in love with both sisters. I found their relationship to be tough love but doing the best they could. I was so happy with the ending and how all stories tied up so nicely. I love the scenic lake background to the story and could picture myself at the lake house. This book is a perfect summer read!

This book will pull you in from the cover alone, but woof once you start you’re going to feel all the feelings! This one was emotional, delving into tough family dynamics, family drama and complex family systems coming together. Lucy & Vivian share a dad but have spent their lives separated, until their father passes away and they come together at his cabin. These two experience a lot of secrets revealed, long standing impacts on their futures and emotional processing that takes you through the ringer- but what a beautiful end to make it worthwhile!

Once I started this book it was hard to put down because the storyline was captivating. From the beginning you can tell that the sisters are very different from each other. Vivian seems to be hateful and reading her storyline was refreshing because of her growth but it sure does take a while for her to stop being mean. You really feel for Lucy because it seems like she can’t catch a break. Its like they take one step forward to only take two steps backward. Also you see how both of there lives differ from the lies their dad told them. It was definitely an emotional read.
Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for provided me an advance copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

3.5 ⭐️

This one started off a little hard to get into. I didn’t connect with Lucy or Vivian. Both at times annoyed me. But, as I got deeper into their story, their grief and the history of relationships they both had with their now dead father it became more clear why they were the way they were. I think because I have my own history of an absent father, I understood and related to Lucy more.

This story follows the grief two sisters of suddenly losing their father, but not finding out about each other until one shows up at their dad’s lake house to sell it and finds the other there. The shock and hurt of finding out a huge secret and now trying to reconcile that with the lies of the father they lost. As they talk and work their way through the loss they find that maybe out of this mess their dad left behind, that something good can come out of it.

Triggered warnings:
- death of parent (off page)
- infidelity
- divorce

Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Group Dutton and Hannah Orenstein for allowing me to read an advanced complimentary copy of the book. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have been wanting a trip to maine for WEEKS before finishing this book. And now i cant for a summer trip with my girls full of support and love and care. this book has everything heart needed in this dreary march!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me a free advanced copy of this book for my honest opinion.

This cover is absolutely gorgeous!!!! It was the first thing that drew me to this book.

To be completely honest, I did not enjoy this book. I had to buckle down and make myself read it… it was a very hard read for me. I couldn't stand either sister at the beginning - Lucy complained too much and thought she was owed the house just because she was there every July & Vivian gave spoiled brat energy.
I think I would have liked this book a lot more if we got some of the resolution/sister bonding happening earlier. Also, was kind of confused about the romances in this - unsure how they fit with the plot.
I was tempted to mark this one as "DNF," but trucked through since it was so nicely provided for free through NetGalley.

I will leave you with this though, I did enjoy the last 100 pages of the book as the sisters finally started to bond and we saw conflicts resolving - chapters were closing and rapport was building.

The characters had depth (even though they annoyed me) and the setting seemed to be an absolute dream. In the end, it just wasn't the right book for me but definitely could be someone’s vibe 1000%!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this ARC! The cover drew me in and the story of sisters kept me reading. Vivian and Lucy are half sisters who spend time at their family’s lake house every summer. The only detail is they each go with their father alone. After a lifetime apart, they run into each other at the cabin after their father’s death and finally face years of secrets. The family drama kept me interested until the last page and I’m excited to read other books by Hannah Orenstein.

This is the story of Vivian and Lucy, half sisters and what happens when their father passes away. The women had vastly different experiences and relationships with their father. Once their father dies, Vivian heads tohis vacation house in Maine to prepare to sell it. When she arrives, she meets Lucy, whom she has never met. Infact, she did not even know that Lucy existed. Lucy was at the cabin for her month with her father. .Although Vivian is determined to sell, Lucy convinces her to wait. As the days and weeks pass, the two learn about each other and wonder if they can have a relationship.

I spent so many family vacations at my uncle's lake house in Maine and I was super excited for this one. I loved the setting and descriptions of their house and the lake. I really did enjoy the book, but it wasn't a novel that I was yearning to sit down and read every day. It dragged a bit for me in certain spots and was pretty predictable and the back and forth got old after awhile. I wanted to love the characters more, I think my favorite was Caleb- would have enjoyed knowing more about it.

All in all, a quick beach read.

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This one started off rough for me. Neither of the main characters were likable. Vivian is a massive hypocrite and Lucy is very immature for her big age. It did start to grow on me as the story progressed and I liked how it ended.

I truly do love a Maine book & the coastal cabin setting of this one was no different! It was so vivid in my mind and I wished I could’ve teleported myself there 😌

I loved that this book didn’t focus on romance (ofc it was sprinkled throughout) but it truly is more of a women’s fiction/contemporary fiction! This is a veryyyy character driven read and unfortunately I don’t become super attached to either of the sisters, Vivian and Lucy.

Still such a strong book and I will forever be a fan of Hannah Orenstein 🫶🏼

& we can’t forget about the cover - IT IS STUNNING 😍

rating: 3.5 ⭐️

*thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

This was a beautiful story about sisterhood and the complexities of life. This story covers the hardships between parent/child, siblings, and even romantic relationships.

I absolutely loved the setting of this story. A house on the lake with a small town feel was so comforting in a way. The writing made me want to visit Maine!

Even though the characters are flawed, you can see that their mistakes are not malicious. They demonstrate what it is to be human and the things we do to feel loved. There are family secrets that come to light throughout the story which represent how complicated family dynamics can be. I love how the characters handled the hardships and showed growth throughout the book.

The pacing was a bit slow for me. It wasn't until later in the book when I became more invested in the characters. By the end, this story had me in tears!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC of this book.

*Maine Characters* by Hannah Orenstein is a contemporary novel that explores themes of love, self-discovery, and personal growth.
Set in a small fictional Maine coastal town, the story follows a group of characters navigating relationships, family expectations, and their own ambitions—while coming to terms with the fact that a father may have not been everything he seemed. While the book offers an engaging setting and some relatable moments, the plot can feel SUPER predictable at times, and the characters’ developments aren't always as deep or compelling as one might hope. The two main female characters follow EXACTLY the same arc, which really was a let down in the final act.
While an enjoyable VERY New England-summer atmospheric read, it doesn't quite move past the almost saccharine, Hallmark/Lifetime movie genre. 3 stars.

This is a gorgeous cover and it makes people think this is going to be a lovely story or a romantic novel. This is a story about two sisters who never get the chance to know each other because of secrets and lies. Their father is the source of this pain. There was a lot of time spent on the poor decisions of these characters. The last quarter of the book gives the characters chances to redeem themselves but there was some little too late moments that make this book a bit sad.
The writing is strong but this wasn’t a feel good story for me.

2 sisters, Vivian and Lucy, who find each other for the first time after their dad dies. 2 sisters who were kept from each other for their entire life because their dad did not have the courage to tell the truth. 2 sisters who find sisterhood on sunset boat trips, popcorn and movies, and the eventual shared love of the lake house their dad left to only one of them.

This book took me almost 2 months to read. I think the first 6 chapters were a bit hard to get through. The length of the chapters were a bit daunting. Vivian and Lucy were not characters I felt much attachment to. But as the story went on and I learned more about them and they began having more of a relationship, I started to enjoy it more. Although the premise of this book is not something a ton of people deal with, I think that the problems both Lucy and Vivian were dealing with are very normal. I don’t think I really liked how it felt like the entire first half we were exploring the relationships of Vivian and Lucy, but after they leave Oscar and Patrick, we just make right with Caleb and Harrison and then they kind of disappear. I know this book is not about romance, so it is not that big of a deal, but felt weird to me.

I really liked the story itself, but did not love the characters as much. I really thought Vivian was wrote well. We watched her grow and gain some substance, but Lucy felt flat.

My favorite scene in the entire book was when the 4 of them were on the boat at sunset scattering Hank’s ashes. I enjoyed that each woman was able to share what Hank meant to them when he was alive, but all of them gained some closure as they dumped his ashes. They all got to move on in some way.

I enjoyed that this book focused on the female experience and was about 2 sisters finding each other. There are a lot of people who need this type of book

The cover absolutely draws you in!

I loved the setting of picturesque Maine and the laid back vacation this book made me start planning. I was sold by the promise of being “parent trap for adults” and was surprised by the emotional impact of this story.

I overall enjoyed it but Lucy’s character was a bit of a struggle to read. I found she was less forgiving than she was trying to be portrayed and she wasn’t open (which is maybe why she was with Patrick for so long). The end did start to drag a little but I do think this book has some good shining moments and is a good lake read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.