'Maine Characters' by Hannah Orenstein is the story of 2 sisters, raised separately, who find each other after their father passes away. Each is left to wrestle with who they thought their father was while being provided with new, often conflicting, views from their respective sisters. I loved the Maine Cabin setting (as a Minnesota Cabin girl myself) and thought the complexities of the relationships were handled well. Both characters grapple with not only how to process this new version of their father, but also with their own relationships with their mothers and partners.

Thank you to Hannah Orenstien and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review of 'Maine Characters.'

Vivian arrives at her father's lake house to spread his ashes and prepare the house to sell. She is shocked when she arrives to find the house occupied...by the half sister she didn't know about, Lucy. Lucy knew Vivian existed, but never expected her to show up during what was supposed to be her month at the lake with her dad. The sisters are both grieving in their own way for a dad that treated them both very differently. They will need to find common ground to get through this unexpected change in summer plans.

I love the way this book shows so many sides of grief for Lucy, Vivian, and their moms. Their battle to keep or sell the lake house struck a very nostalgic part of my heart. I have lived through that and the emotions are so high when they are tied to people you love. The complex relationships and their evolution was my favorite part. This book is heavier than I anticipated, but there are still some great lighthearted moments throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC of Maine Characters.

I was excited to receive this as an ARC! With my best friend being from Maine, I knew I had to read this. Her hometown even got a shoutout, Kennebunkport!

This is a good book. I want to start out with that. That being said, it was difficult for me to reconcile my own personal feelings about cheating. Our story centers around a man who lies to all the women in his life. He has a second secret daughter who he hides from his wife and first daughter. We see lots of heart wrenching moments.

This review will be posted on my booksta, toomanyfivestarreads.

Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein is a warm, emotionally charged summer family drama set on the idyllic shores of fictional Fox Hill Lake in Maine (of course). After the unexpected death of their father, two half-sisters who’ve never met are suddenly thrust into each other’s lives at his beloved lake house. As tensions simmer and old wounds resurface, they must navigate grief, hidden truths, and the complexities of family to find common ground. With vivid summer atmosphere and heartfelt storytelling, Orenstein delivers a moving, character-driven novel perfect for fans of Carley Fortune and Elin Hilderbrand.

I picked up Maine Characters after seeing it compared to Disney’s The Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan—one of my all-time favorite movies. While the premise is different (they’re sisters, not twins, and only meet after their father’s death), it carries a similar emotional pull. The story is messier in a way that feels more adult—realistic, layered, and emotionally rich. It explores themes like second chances, complicated family dynamics, and self-discovery with tenderness and depth.

Final Verdict: A heartfelt, relationship-driven summer tale that beautifully blends family secrets, grief, and gradual reconciliation—best enjoyed with a cool drink and the feel of a lake breeze.

I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars. While it’s primarily contemporary adult fiction, I spotted it shelved in the romance section at a local indie bookstore. Personally, I wanted just a bit more closure from one particular romantic arc—but overall, this was a lovely and satisfying summer read.

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

A story of grief, messy family relationships and forgiveness. Not your typical easy summer read, but I throughly liked the unique plot and enjoyed getting to know the characters. The dual POV kept things interesting as Lucy and Vivian had much different takes on the situation they were in.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

This was described as an adult Parent Trap and that was spot on. It was heartwarming and a story about love, family, and friendship.

I really tried to engage with the story because I love Maine and was excited to read about two sisters coming together at a lakeside but I had to give up 30% into it. Unlikeable characters that I found frustrating had me putting this one aside.

Thank you netgalley for the eARC of this book! This was my second book by Hannah Orenstein, and I really enjoyed it! Both Lucy and Vivian felt realistic to me, and i was able to relate to each of them in various ways. I enjoyed their growing relationship and love that they had a happy ending together and alone. I would definitely recommend this book to my family & friends and I look forward to reading more by the author.

I have enjoyed other books by this author because of her interesting and fun characters. This book, however, did not have a single likeable character and didn’t hold my interest. I couldn’t connect to any of them and ultimately, I gave up after about 50%.

We all get caught in those moments where we are faced with unanticipated challenges. The two women at the center of this book grow emotionally and establish new relationships when they acknowledge their shared origins.

I wanted to love this one. The premise caught my attention right away, and Orenstein's writing flowed so well that I turned pages without even thinking about it. She knows how to keep you reading.
But here's the thing - I couldn't get behind these characters, especially the sisters. They drove me crazy. One of them was so cruel that I found myself getting annoyed while reading. It's hard to enjoy a story when you're secretly hoping the main characters don't get their happy endings, you know?
Still, I'm glad I stuck with it to the end. Even though this particular book didn't appeal to me, I can tell the author has talent. Her writing style is solid and I hope her next book might be more my speed.

I decided not to publish this online as I do not want to distract other readers from checking this one out.

Vivian heads to her dad’s lake house after he passes to get everything in order to sell. She is greeted by her half sister (who she’d never met) and things get off to a rocky start. Lucy finds out her dad is gone and will do anything to make sure Vivian doesn’t sell the house.

This would be a great summer read. The setting was beautiful and both sisters had moments of growth — struggling with their relationships, coming to terms with their dad’s affair, catching up on decades of not knowing one another.

• parent trap vibes (with a reference to the movie)
• small town
• family secrets
• affairs

Thanks penguin group Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC!

Maine Characters dives deep into the emotional chaos of two verrrryyyyy complicated women, Vivian and Lucy, and their even more tangled pasts and futures. From the very beginning, I felt torn between empathizing with them and wanting to shake some sense into them. Their flaws are fully exposed, and that raw honesty is what makes the story resonate. Grief, jealousy, bitterness... and yes, plenty of infidelity.

We’re thrown straight into the drama in chapter one as the two women meet and begin unraveling the secrets tied to their shared father.

I didn’t particularly love one sister over the other, and honestly, I’m not sure the author intended us to. These are not easy-to-love characters, but I appreciated how their personal growth was written.

At no point did I consider DNFing. I’ve seen mixed reviews, and they’re not wrong—this isn’t a light, fun beach read. It’s messy. It leans hard into infidelity. That topic doesn’t bother me much in fiction (very little does), but if that’s a dealbreaker for you, just know it’s very present.

While I didn’t feel a deep personal connection to the story, I stayed invested. The writing is solid, the pacing steady, and the character arcs felt authentic—even when the characters themselves drove me a little nuts.

I listened to the audiobook, and it was... fine! Nothing standout, though I do wish it had been written in first person with two narrators to distinguish the sisters more clearly. But that’s a small thing.

I hesitate to call this a swing and a miss, but that's really what this for me. In theory I should love the idea of these two sisters coming together, but for the life of me I just couldn't bring myself to sympathize with Lucy. It might not be kind to call her whiny when her father died and she didn't get to have the level of closure that Vivian received, but in almost every way I found that Vivian just had the worse half. Not that either sister really got a good deal, but she was the one most in the dark abot everything and had really no support system in place as her whole life was shaken up.

Over the course of the story each sister also get a romance arc, that paired with what they were going through as sisters and the way time didn't seem to matter was just a recipe for me not caring. It really boils down to me not thinking that we really got to spend a lot of time with things. For fifty percent it felt like we were setting up the premise only for the last half of the book to move at super-speed to get through the summer and have our leads reach a conclusion that never fully felt earned.

While Orenstein is a decent writer, I didn't find that the narrative really sunk into any of the themes or ideas presented in a way that made feel as a reader satisfied that the book had really managed to do even half of what it could have under ideal conditions. This could probably be ripe for adapting into a miniseries that could be compelling, and maybe in a different medium I could connect, but as written I don't see myself championing this story the way I expected to going in.

This book was so hard to read after losing a father this year who also had a complicated past. I too often wonder if I have a Lucy out there somewhere I don't know about 😆 needless to say this book was perfectly written and made me feel all the feels. I loved the relationships that blossomed from this complicated man's lies and life.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC (out now!). I really enjoyed this story about sisters Vivian and Lucy. They learn about one another but also themselves. While I love a dual POV, this one left me wanting more. I never got the impression that I really got to know either character; it was all a little too surface-level for my liking.

I don't know that I love the comp to The Parent Trap. Sure, it's about two sisters but they did sort of know about each other and weren't trying to reunite their parents. From the sisters learning to like each other angle, I do get it though.

The description of the scenery also left me wanting more. I could picture them on the lake but I never really could picture the town the house was in. All in all, I had a great time reading this, great summer/beach read!

Maine Characters is a poignant story of the family you have and the family you learn you have. Lucy Webster looks forward to the month of July every summer because that's when she gets to visit the lake house and her Dad. She doesn't get to see her Dad much other than that month of July. She loves the lake house in Maine with nature all around her, fishing, boat rides, swimming, and slower days. When Lucy gets to the house this year, she enters an empty house. She knows where her Dad keeps the spare key and lets herself in. She figures her Dad got held up and will arrive soon. She gets busy unloading her car and some groceries she brought. She really needs this time away as her teaching year is over and so is her marriage.

When Lucy hears a car coming up the driveway, she runs out expecting to see her father. A young woman around Lucy's age gets out of the car. Vivian is a sommelier who works at a large restaurant in New York City. She has come to her Dad's lake house to spread his ashes. Vivian is confused as to who this woman is in her Dad's house. When Lucy tells Vivian she's waiting on her Dad to arrive, she's confused. Lucy tells Vivian she spends every July at the lake house with her Dad since she was young. Vivian tells Lucy that she spends every August at the lake house with her Dad. The girls quickly realize they have the same Dad, but neither wants to accept that as the truth. Vivian than has to break the terrible news to Lucy that their father passed away suddenly from a heart attack 2 weeks ago. They've already had the funeral and she had no idea about Lucy. Vivian's mom is a famous romance author who is well known. She's grown up with every luxury you can imagine. Lucy's mom owns a pancake restaurant in town, not far from the lake house. She grew up with a lot of love, but had to work hard for everything she wanted.

Vivian wants to sell the cabin, take the money for herself, and open her own restaurant in New York with her boyfriend. Lucy is devastated by the news of her father and just needs to grieve at the lake house. She tries to convince Vivian not to sell the house. There are secrets being kept and feelings hurt by both women. When their mothers get involved it gets even more complicated. Will Vivian and Lucy be able to come together as sisters or will they go their separate ways? Why would their father have kept this secret? Why wouldn't he have wanted the girls to meet? Will Vivian decide to sell the house after she gets to know Lucy? Is Lucy's marriage really over? They agree to stay for the month and get to know one another. Will Vivian's boyfriend understand her being away for a month? Maine Characters will have you dreaming of lake houses and wanting to visit Maine.
I enjoyed the book and rate Maine Characters 4 stars. The book is available now. I'd like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Books Dutton for an advanced copy of Maine Characters in exchange for a fair review. #MaineCharacters

Thank you to Penguin Group and to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review. After enjoying Head Over Heels by Orenstein, I was excited to get a copy of Maine Characters and I was not at all disappointed. This book was great. A take on Freaky Friday where two half sisters in their 30s meet after the death of their father leaves them in a tough situation.


I thought this book was so lovely and touching. Both main characters exhibit so much growth throughout the book. The writing is so well done and the story felt fresh and unique. It lost half a star for me for a “twist”
In the last couple of pages that was a little too convenient but otherwise it’s great. I’d really recommend for anyone with a complicated family relationship.

Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein is more literary fiction than romance—despite how it’s marketed.

The story centers on two estranged sisters brought together by their father’s death. What follows is emotional family drama, betrayal, and a whole lot of unresolved trauma. There’s very little romance (and what exists involves cheating 😒), so it unfortunately did not meet my expectations.

✨ Dual POV, coastal setting, heavy themes
💔 Unlikable characters, no spice, lots of baggage
🎧 Audiobook narrated very well by Mara Wilson

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 2.5 Stars (rounded up because I did enjoy Hannah's writing style)

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you Hannah Orenstein, Penguin Group Dutton Publishing, and Netgally for this ARC. I will be giving my honest review.
This is the first book I've read by Hannah Orenstein, and I enjoyed it. The story follows two half sisters that grow a connection following their father's death. This book mainly focuses on the dynamic between these two sisters, but I enjoyed how the author showed other dynamics too. We learn about the sisters' love lives, their careers, and relationships with their mothers and dad. It was interesting to see the differences between the two including, how they were raised, their views on their childhood, and their relationship with their father. The author held my attention throughout. I was invested in all the drama while also being comforted by the summer vibes. This book really gave the feeling of being on a lake during the peak of summer. I would recommend this book if you're looking for a summer read!