Review will be posted week of 5/8/17

Marin Bishop appears to have it all. She's got a great job at one of the best Manhattan law firms, she has a wealthy fiancee, she's got two parents who support her wholeheartedly, and she is planning her upcoming wedding. But Marin throws it all away to have an affair with one of her coworkers, Julian. At first it seems to be fleeting, but then she starts to develop serious feelings for him. Marin hastily calls of her wedding and breaks up with her fiancee. This only complicates matters. Her mom is devastated for Marin, because she wanted Marin to finally settle down. One thing leads to another and someone at the firm finds out, which leads to the firing of both Marin and Julian. Now Marin has lost everything until she receives a strange email from a woman named Rachel who is claiming to be her sister. Marin, along with others at her work, were working on a case involving Genie, a company that deals with your DNA, so they decided to get try it out. How could Marin be related to this girl Rachel? What secrets are her parents hiding? Rachel has come to New York to meet Marin and is trying to convince her to come to Provincetown to meet their biological grandmother who owns an inn there. Since Marin's world is turned upside down, she decides to take a chance and go. Blythe, Marin's Philadelphia society mother tags along, with the hopes of fully explaining the truth to Marin at some point, but this definitely makes for an awkward time. With such a blended family under one roof and many secrets still hidden, summer at Provincetown is gearing up to be pretty dramatic. Jamie Brenner's The Forever Summer is beach reading at its best.

While Marin annoyed me at times with some of her comments and the rash decisions she made, I still cared about her journey in The Forever Summer. She did receive a lot of life-altering news at once and she had a lot to process. Where better to do that than at the beach? Once she is visiting her grandmother at Provincetown, she starts to unwind a bit and I enjoyed her more. Marin feels a special connection to Kelly, her grandmother's partner, and Kelly starts to teach her about mosaics as she is an accomplished artist. This mellows Marin out and slowly she starts to find out the truth regarding her parents while also trying to figure out what to do next in life.

Rachel is younger than Marin and hasn't had a reliable parent figure in her life in The Forever Summer. She was raised by her single mother in California and her mother is often gone for long periods of time, so this is the polar opposite of Marin's childhood. Living with all of these family members is is a whole new experience for Rachel and she is dying to get to know her grandmother and her half sister. It's obvious Rachel just wants to belong.

Blythe tags along in The Forever Summer, because she is holding onto some secrets regarding Marin's biological father. Plus, she has just found out her husband is having an affair. She is trying to regroup in Provincetown, while also helping her daughter cope with all of this upsetting news. Blythe has to decide how to tell her daughter the truth about her biological father and things are going to become pretty complicated.

The gorgeous setting of Provincetown is absolutely perfect for The Forever Summer. I loved the Beach Rose Inn and Amelia, Marin and Rachel's grandmother. The descriptions of the inn, the town, and its people were very well done. It made me want to visit Cape Cod immediately.

The Forever Summer is about each character coming to grips with many truths while all living under one roof together. Essentially, they must face the music and dance. Things definitely get messy for a few of the characters, but there's no where better to process all of life's changes than at the beach.

If you are looking for summer reading that is interesting, dramatic, filled with family secrets, and a gorgeous coastal setting, give Jamie Brenner's The Forever Summer a try. It is definitely one of my favorite beach reads of the year.

I really liked this one - I read it in one sitting because it was immediately engaging. You don't quite understand how all of these families are going to come together but then secrets are revealed and it just makes sense. The setting was awesome, of course, but it also felt unique in that it was not just a typical beach town. I loved that the Portuguese culture was a big part of the book. In the book, there's also a focus on mosaics and I loved the descriptions of these being created with found objects on the beach. I felt like I was right there. I honestly loved all of the characters in this book, too - I was pulling for them and I related to each and every one of the, which is rare to read.

The Forever Summer comes out next week on April 25, 2017 and you can purchase HERE. I definitely recommend adding this one to your beach bag this summer, especially if you love Elin Hilderbrand or Emily Griffin!

Marin wanted him--instantly. She'd never felt such pure physical attraction in her life. She walked around the office charged up, adrenalized, all of her senses heightened. She felt like one big raw nerve. When we spoke to her, it took all of her effort to absorb what he said and not just stare at his lips. Over the conference table, she found herself leaning too close. She could barely sleep at night, she was so eager to get back into the office.

Beach read alert! "The Forever Summer" has all of the qualities I require for addition to my "beach reads" list ~ a group of women, family, a beach, an old beach house, a charming beach community, some sort of romance, some sort of drama, and a little sadness to cut the sugar factor. This is the time of year I look forward to all winter long - the release of the next installments from my favorite "beachy" authors ~ Elin Hilderbrand, Jane Green, Mary Alice Munroe, Jill Mansell, and many more. Jamie Brenner has officially been added to this list! This book brings some added complexity that make "The Forever Summer" much more than fluff, and the grief storyline (not spoiling it!) will definitely tug at your heart and make you wipe away tears. Sure, there are a few "really?" parts, but I'm the queen of suspending disbelief and rolling with a storyline, so I was able to shrug those off and enjoy the intent of the author. Highly enjoyed this book, and look forward to many more books from Jamie Brenner! And I will also be going back and reading "The Wedding Sisters" because somehow in the rush of 2016, I completely missed it. Go ahead and order this one and stick it right into your beach bag for the summer.

I was immediately drawn into this book and couldn't put it down. Such a great cast of characters that were very likable and very real, each had their own story to tell, and the setting in Provincetown, MA had me yearning to be right there in that beach town running a bed and breakfast like the Beach Rose Inn. This book had a lot of heart, some surprises that I didn't see coming, but most of all I think it showed the importance of family, honesty and trust. This is definitely a great read and I highly recommend it!

I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

How would you feel if you discovered you had family members that you never expected?

Spending a few weeks together in Provincetown, this is the story of mothers and daughters. Kept secrets and family history is brought to the surface.

I really loved this book. I loved the setting in Provincetown, and I enjoyed all the characters. It was so real and heartfelt. I enjoyed getting to know the characters. I found myself pulling for all them. Strong females!

For me, THE FOREVER SUMMER by Jamie Brenner is a love story but not the romanticized kind. It's about the messy side of love. It's about making decisions and living with them. It's about the sacrifices one has to make when they listen to their heart. It's about family, coming together, and letting go. I loved the colorful cast of characters in this book and I loved how the loved each other. The plot carries itself along well and there are a few truly tender moments between very well developed characters. I really enjoyed this one. 4.5 stars.

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

I want to thank Jamie Brenner, Little Brown and Netgalley for giving me this book for my honest review.
Review by Stepanie
4.5 Stars
Marin had it all engaged to a handsome man, job at a top Manhattan law office and most important the approval by her stone sharp father. She has it all because she always plays by the rules. But in a matters of seconds her whole life comes crashing down. The one time she doesn’t play by the rules and has a forbidden rendezvous with partner at her firm. This starts the downfall….the affair is exposed and all in one day she loses it all. Unemployed and alone Marin fears telling her parents seem to have the perfect marriage………but is perfect always perfect?
This book was so good. I loved the coastal New England setting. Jamie Brenner did an amazing job going into detail that one I felt like I was there and two it left me wanting to go there this summer! The storyline of this book was so emotional and it makes you think about the power of love, lies and family.

This was one of those great feel good stories about family. Of course, it's not all feel good. What family is? There are secrets, break ups, anger, jealousy, death, and backstabbing.

When a new company comes out that proposes a new way to test DNA that can be done at home, Rachel decides to find out who her true father is. Little does she know that she will find a half sister and a grandmother. A grandmother who owns a B&B on a small island that has been in the family for multiple generations. She also has a half sister who believes that her divorcing parents are her birth parents. These tests lead change the lives of both girls over the course of one summer.

The book is a great story. The characters are very well developed and I loved both the story and the characters. In fact, I really did not want to leave them when the book was finished. I had become attached and felt a part of them. I had went through so much with them. The issues were life changing for these girls and I was with them holding their hands.

An entertaining, enjoyable and heartfelt read that I did not want to put down or leave.

Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Fans of women's fiction will probably love THE FOREVER SUMMER. The characters of Marin, Blythe, and Rachel are all likable and sympathetic -- and varied so that they are easy to keep straight. I was immediately drawn into their lives and pulling for them to work things out. I related to Marin quite a bit, probably b/c I'm a similar age, but felt that her story was perhaps the most predictable. Even so, the author successfully kept the plot from veering into cliche territory. The characters at the inn are equally charming and the way Brenner resolves the various story lines is heartfelt and well-done. This is not serious literary fiction, but if you want a fun, light-hearted read about likable characters, then this is a great choice!

Take the idea of doing a genetic search of your family and build a novel around it. This gets you <B>The Forever Summer</B> by Jamie Brenner. It begins with Marin Bishop in a New York law firm. Marin is on the ladder to success so you know something bad is going to happen. The story then fans out to L.A. where a young Rachel wonders about her lineage and starts to explore it. This is the base from which we have a host of women in various stages of their lives, happy and unhappy. Some have plenty to live on and some are scraping by. Jamie Brenner nails the well heeled set who would summer on the Cape and develops characters quite realistically. I cared about what happened to all the women, even a couple of the men.

A lesson played out is that life is always a mystery, giving us just a glimpse every now and then until the full on catastrophe presents itself. That catastrophe can serve to bring people together or drive them even further apart. Brenner held up a mirror to our souls and it was enjoyable to live vicariously in the image.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company (April 25th 2017).

I loved this book! The characters were the best and the story was such fun to read. I truly found myself caught up in this book from start to finish.

The title and cover of this book led me to believe that this would be an uplifting and joyous book to read in the depths of winter.....however what I found was a long tale of cliches that wearied me by the end of it. It was as if the author had decided not to offend one single member of the reading audience by making sure that they were represented in some way. Consequently we had tattoos, drugs, unplanned pregnancy, same-sex relationships, DNA testing and genetic unravelling. The whole story was so very unlikely.
However I soldiered on, but did not particularly enjoy what became rather silly at the end.

Loved this book. takes you through almost every emotion and it is a fun quick read. Will be great for the beach.

There is no denying that this book is a pitch perfect beach read, especially considering it's set during a summer on a beach. The theme isn't hard to digest, the writing is zippy with lots of twists and turns, and the characters are fun and fully formed. There is a lot of fairytaleness to the story, but that isn't always the worst thing. The author provides a great escape, which is what one wants out of a quick read on a beach.

The story focuses on women brought together at a beach house, learning for the first first time that they are family and dealing with all the confusion and drama you can imagine that brings. It's a bit far-fetched, but does make for a great plot. This also allows for easy page-turning, the thing I want most in beach read. I also like doing that it is very modern, and the characters feel realistic.

Probably not going to be a literary favorite of 2017, but perfect for the summer months.

This book really makes you appreciate what you have.
Rachel and Marin never meet both adults moving along in life when they find out they may be half sisters. With Marin's Mom in tow they take a trip to Cape Cod.

Finding out you are not who you are and trying to rediscover yourself is what this book is about. The story really pulls you in with its ingenious plot and the many people you will meet. There are many challenges for these girls and they will have to join together to get through them.

** I received a copy from NetGalley for an honest review**