I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

I wanted to love this book so much, but it just missed the mark for me. I'm not sure if it was too long or I wasn't too invested in the characters. The concept of a family full of secrets trapped on a cruise ship sounds perfect, but it wasn't for me.

This was super cute and cunny with a lot of life lessons thrown in along the way. The beginning of this book grabbed me right away and had me thinking," This sounds like my own family!" This is the first book I've read by Elyssa Friedland and it won't be the last! She knows how to capture the family dynamic, but makes it amusing and truthful at the same time. I really enjoyed this book!

Such a fun read. It really kept you laughing and shaking your head at what came next! I will recommend this to a young mom book club!

A fun and funny read! The Feldmans are every family trapped on a boat together - there will be fights, there will be laughs, there will be a scene where everyone's secrets are revealed.

Cruising with The Floating Feldmans: Author Interview and Book Giveaway
moretimetotravel.com/the-floating-feldmans-review

Irene S. Levine
October 18, 2019

E-readers and smartphones have made the dilemma of whether or not to bring a book (or several of them) on a cruise a no-brainer. We can now bring books on our travels without adding much heft to our carryons or suitcases. But choosing the right book for the trip, whether fiction or nonfiction, can add another rich layer of pleasure to any voyage.

On cruise ships, they offer the opportunity to find a quiet time and space (perhaps, on a deck or in a cabin) to read and relax as ocean waves lap against the hull.

A perfect ‘cruise read’
The Floating Feldmans (Berkley, July 2019), a new novel by Elyssa Friedman, is the perfect ‘cruise read.’ Set on a mega-cruise ship, the fictitious Ocean Queen, the novel captures many of the recognizable elements of mass-market cruising with humor and whimsy.

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It weaves a tale of a dysfunctional multigenerational family, the Feldmans, who gather together from both coasts to embark on a Caribbean cruise celebrating the matriarch’s 70th birthday. In doing so, it vividly portrays (and accentuates) some of the foibles common to many families who find themselves awkwardly thrown together on vacations, family reunions or other celebratory occasions. You may even recognize some of the characters’ quirky personality traits in your own relationships.

Like the best of “beach reads,” this ‘cruise read’ is fun and engaging. It’s eminently readable with digestible chapters that are easy to pick up where you left off—so you don’t miss out on any of the fun of cruising, on the ship or ashore.

Talking with Elyssa Friedman, author of The Floating Feldmans
We asked the author some questions about her own travel experiences and how they helped lay the foundation for her book:

Why did you use a cruise ship as the setting to explore family dynamics?

I knew I wanted to observe a family traveling together because I love the idea of forced fun and quality time. More often than not, when that’s the stated goal, it ends up being much more of a trip than a vacation.

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The cruise ship was the perfect setting because it trapped the Feldman family. No matter what fights broke out, they were stuck. Many people feel trapped by their families in the metaphorical sense. In The Floating Feldmans, I was making it literal.

A cruise was also a tempting setting because these ships offer so much over the top entertainment and food, making excellent fodder for vivid descriptions.

How did that choice enable the humor sprinkled throughout?

There is definitely something naturally funny about thousands of people lining up at a buffet, pushing past each other to get to the smoked salmon and bacon. Or at least I think so! I think the excess of cruising is comical. Until I’d been on a cruise, I’d never seen people get quite so worked up over cash Bingo and so passionately invested in a karaoke competition. Cruises are also divisive – you love ’em or hate ’em, and the lively debate was fun to tackle.

What types of personal cruising experiences did you draw upon?

To do research for the book, I went on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Bermuda with my husband and three small children. I was super excited to drop the kids in camp together, only to discover that they weren’t allowed into the same camp because of their ages. That was the end of that and the five of us were together for the trip all day and night.

We did have a blast, rock climbing, using the iFly simulator, dancing, going to shows and driving the bumper cars. But for two days there was such a severe storm that most of the activities on board were canceled. That really tested our ability to exist together in close quarters. I’m proud to say we survived!

What are some of the upsides/downsides of multigenerational family travel on a cruise ship and/or in general)?

I think the obvious downside of multigenerational travel is that the generations move at different paces and have different interests. But that’s why a cruise is perfect because there is literally something for everyone. Mealtimes are the perfect place to reconnect and swap stories after everyone has gone off to do their own thing.

What advice might you offer to someone planning a family reunion? Is there any way to avoid the landmines?

My best advice is to be relaxed about what everyone is doing. People have different ways of enjoying vacations. Some like to wake early and do a ton of activities, others are happy to laze the day away. Forcing everyone to adjust to the way you like to travel is a recipe for disaster.

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What are some of your favorite destinations/travel experiences?

The best trip I’ve ever taken was my honeymoon to South Africa. We spent a few days in Capetown, which is just gorgeous, and then a night in wine country, and then ended with the best crescendo of all – a safari! I loved every second of that trip.

Our family really enjoyed Mayakoba in Mexico. I also took my kids to Paris and London when they were very little and it was amazing to experience these awesome cities through their eyes.

About the author
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Elyssa Friedland attended Yale University, where she served as managing editor of the Yale Daily News. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School and subsequently worked as an associate at a major firm. Prior to law school, Elyssa wrote for several publications, including Modern Bride, New York magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, CBS MarketWatch.com, Yale Alumni Magazine, and Your Prom.

She grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in New York City with her husband and three young children. She is also the author of The Intermission and Love and Miss Communication.

The Floating Feldmans GIveaway
The publisher has graciously agreed to give one randomly selected reader a copy of The Floating Feldmans, either electronic or hard copy.
To enter, simply leave a brief comment below on or before midnight, December 1, 2019, telling why you would like to read this book.
One winner will be chosen and announced here shortly thereafter.

Disclosure: We received a complimentary copy of The Floating Feldmans for review and make a small commission on any Amazon links in this post.

A cruise with your entire extended family.... what could go wrong, right? Elyssa Friedland’s humorous take on a family vacation gone very wrong was so very fun to read!

The Feldman Family cruise, to celebrate matriarch Annette’s big birthday is filled with revealing secret after secret - held by almost every family member... and laugh out loud scenes revealing them all.

I would suggest this to all my friends who not only loved Elyssa’s debut, but who enjoy novels filled with family dynamics.

I struggled with the number of characters in this story trying to keep them all straight. I did like the premise of having them on a cruise while each dealt with their life issues.

Imagine taking a cruise with your extended family. Your significant other, your children, your parents, siblings, their significant others... all together on a ship. For some people, this sounds like an amazing time. Others might cringe at the very thought. This family falls more in the cringing category. They're not what you would call close, and each one is hiding secrets ranging from the type of thing that's only a big deal to a teenager to the life altering.

After some initial confusion over the large cast of characters, I settled in nicely for an enjoyable read. The characters are realistically flawed and nuanced. I expected a little more humor, but there were some funny moments mixed in with the drama. The author nails the small miscommunications that can define relationships.

I loved the cruise ship setting and how it forced everyone to confront themselves and each other. That being said, probably won't be taking a cruise anytime soon.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Berkley Publishing Group, thank you. This in no way affects my opinion.

*Huge thanks to PRHInternational and BerkleyPub for my free copy. This did not affect my overall opinion of the book.

This book was surprisingly entertaining and heartwarming at the same time.

Annette Feldman has decided to celebrate her 70th birthday on a cruise ship together with her husband, children, and grandkids. It definitely sounds like a great and an exciting plan except the Feldmans haven't been together for over a decade and it seems like they want to keep it that way.

"Our family member are the stars we can call on to shine when we need a little light. And they have no choice but to turn on, even if they are far away, even if they would rather be doing other things."

This book is written in multiple perspectives and I really enjoyed reading each and every one of them. I didn't like all of the characters but I thought they're all quirky and distinct. The addition of the cruise director's perspective was also interesting and I wished there was more from him. Aside from the resentment they've been keeping for years, they're also hiding some deep secrets from one another. As a reader, we already know their secrets but it was still intriguing to see how everything unfold. I really liked the dysfunctional family dynamics in this book. It's a bit melodramatic but in a good way. The author explores the struggles as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each members of the family. They're mostly relatable and realistic. This was a very quick and insightful read.

Annette Feldman doesn't get to see her family very often. Her daughter, Elise, lives on the other side of the country with her husband and two kids. Her son, Freddy, lives in Colorado doing God-knows-what. She decides that for her seventieth birthday, she wants them all to be together. She decides to take the family on a cruise. The family who hasn't spent more than twenty-four hours together in a very long time. What Annette doesn't realize is that both of her children are keeping secrets from her, secrets that don't fit her perception of the children she raised. Elise has a shopping addiction and Freddy is a marijuana tycoon. Getting this family on the open seas for a full week may be Annette's dream-come-true, but for the Feldman siblings, it is their worst nightmare. Will they make it through the week unscathed? Or will this trip be the thing that fractures the Feldman family forever?

I was eager to see how the Feldman family would fare on the open seas. We just took our kids on a cruise last month, thankfully we are not the Feldman family and our kids are 19 and 21. For many reasons, our family came through much better than the Feldmans. None of the Feldmans really elicited that "warm and fuzzy" feeling from me. Annette was an overbearing mother who didn't really have a good relationship with anybody but her husband. Elise and her husband seemed like a nice couple, but their lack of communication drove me nuts. I felt bad for Freddy because his entire family had this image of him as a screw-up. Somebody living hand-to-mouth and didn't have a dime to his name. He ended up proving them all wrong quite the satisfying fashion, but it still annoyed me. I loved seeing all of the jokes and references to cruise ship life. Like the endless food, the swimming pools, and casinos. More than once I found myself laughing out loud and the observations and scenarios. They hit the nail on the head! As funny and entertaining as I found The Floating Feldmans, at the heart of the book, is a mother who just wants to connect with her family. And eventually, Annette gets what she so desperately wants.

Bottom Line - The Floating Feldmans was a fun and amusing book about a dysfunctional family on a cruise ship. Even if you have never been on a cruise ship, I assure you that you will find this book highly entertaining.

Details:
The Floating Feldmans by Elyssa Friedland
On Instagram
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 7/23/19
Publisher: Penguin Publishing
Buy it Here!
Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for a review.

When I read the synopsis I thought I would be reading a book which would be like Dil Dhakne Do (Bollywood-Ness never leaves me). But I soon realized that wasn’t the case.
This story follows a family on a cruise trip and we get to read it from all perspectives.
This story shows you how we as humans struggle with emotional baggage at each stage of life. Life doesn’t get easier just complicated. But staying in touch with family and talking about the problems we are facing is better than bottling everything inside you until it either destroys you or your relationships forever.

I enjoyed this book that combined two of my favorite things, family and cruising. Annette wants her whole family together for her 70th birthday, and being on a cruise ship would force them to be together. Elise and Mitch, with their children Rachel and Darius, as well as Elise’s brother Freddy and his girlfriend Natasha, all have secrets they are keeping from each other. On the ship, there is much to laugh at, although many stereotypes about cruises are a bit exaggerated. Told with humor and much love, I recommend this book.

A charming contemporary family drama featuring a highly dysfunctional family with some endearingly quirky characters. Secrets, old rivalries, and resentment abound, bringing in drama caused by holding on to those secrets. I have to admit that if I were in this family, I’d probably keep secrets as well because ono-cohesive family unit is an understatement when describing this family!

The Feldmans are a dysfunctional family, as most evidenced by the fact that they have chosen to put as much physical distance between themselves to avoid spending more time to together than necessary. But when the matriarch of the family Annette is on the cusp of her 70th birthday, she asks the family to go on a 4-day cruise together to celebrate.

As Annette and her husband David, their daughter Elise and her husband, Elise’s two kids, Annette’s son Freddy, and Freddy’s (young) girlfriend board the ship, they have no idea the type of pressure cooker that their family has entered, and more than one secret will be outed aboard that ship!

Elise is hiding a huge secret from not only her parents, but her husband Mitch and her children. But she isn’t the only one! Mitch has something he is keeping from Elise as well. David hides a secret from Annette. And the biggest secret of all might be held by Freddy, whom everyone assumes is a burnout but is actually running a successful business.

On this crowded cruise ship with terrible food and not enough space for all of the Feldman’s and their baggage, secrets come to be revealed and the family realizes that perhaps they aren’t so different from one another after all.

This family is SO messed up, but surprisingly endearing! Elyssa Feldman’s characters are vivid and well-developed, creating a novel that feels somewhat like watching a play unfold. The interactions among the family members are among the most memorable scenes, and felt realistic. There was a nice sprinkling of humor to keep a smile on my face while I was reading.

I’ve never been on a cruise before because there was always something that would make me feel a bit trapped on a cruise ship. That claustrophobic feeling that I fear is rampant in this book. It isn’t the most favorable view of a cruise ship vacation, that is for certain! That said, the cover and marketing for this book are absolutely amazing. The nautical colors, the drawing, the port windows all really drew me to the book in an inexplicable way!

Can you imagine a family as dysfunctional as this all being trapped on a cruise ship together? It is a nightmare! They all of major secrets they are keeping from one another, and I found that this environment was the perfect setting for them to be forced to confront the truths that they’ve been hiding. This book highlights the notion that sometimes we struggle to be honest with those we should be the closest with.

The ending for me was sweet and came together well. I really enjoyed this book and I can imagine it would be a great vacation read. Perhaps a family vacation since there is no way your family is quite as dysfunctional as the Feldmans!

Thank you to Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.

It took me a while to get into this one but once my attention was hooked, I had a hard time putting it down. I enjoyed the different chapters from the viewpoints of the various characters, although I didn't like reading from Elise's point of view since I strongly disliked her. I enjoyed the book as a whole.

This was a fun vacation read. I wasn't sure what to expect after Elyssa Friedland's first novel, but I think this one has much more in-depth characterization and a more interesting premise. I enjoyed spending time with all of the family members as the perspective shifted, and I could believe all of the conflict between them. The family felt very real in that way where small things irritate characters so much because of years of shared history.

A really enjoyable and entertaining Story about family relations , adventures and lives .
The characters were amazing , Loved most of them .
The writing style was really good as well .

If I wasn’t already against going on a cruise, this book would do it for me! It’s one of those books that has laugh out loud funny moments but only because they’re happening to someone else and not you. I didn’t find any of the characters very likeable but I think that was the point. It was very well written and I really didn’t want it to end.


I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Annette is turning 70, and even though she never talks about her age, she’s decided that this year she wants her whole family to celebrate this milestone with her. She books an all-expense-paid cruise for her adult son and daughter and their families. On board is:

Annette—wearing just the right shade of lipstick. Always.
David—Annette’s retired physician husband
Elise—Annette and David’s uptight homemaker daughter
Mitch—Elise’s easy-going husband
Rachel—their college-age, good-girl daughter
Darius—their ever clueless and lazy son
Freddy—Annette and David’s problem child
Natasha—Freddy’s hot, young girlfriend

Each person has his or her own secrets that they’re trying to hide: job transitions, shopping addictions, arrests, crushes, health issues, and the list goes on. The families are trapped on a boat for less than a week, but it only takes a couple of days for them to start turning on each other. Unfortunately, Annette’s wish for family bonding will take more effort to achieve than she originally anticipated…

* * * * *

This book didn’t completely knock my socks off, but I still kind of loved the Feldmans! They were each so uniquely themselves, and I appreciated their detailed backstories. Elise’s shopping addiction, in particular, was so interesting to me. You don’t see a lot of characters struggling with that issue, and I was intrigued by her journey. The strained family dynamics were relatable, and even if they were predictable at times, too, I still was happy to follow along as their blunders unfolded.

The only thing I disliked about The Floating Feldmans was the pace. Some parts of the book were definitely stronger than others, almost like really good vignettes surrounded by weaker filler material. I think the book needed to be just a little bit tighter, quicker—and maybe no protracted epilogue either—and it would have read more enjoyably.

But still, this was a fun read. The description of cruise life was horrifying and wonderfully entertaining. I’ve never been on a cruise, but, wow, do the people really storm the all-you-can-eat buffets like that?! Eek, no thanks. I originally gave this book 3.5 stars but, ultimately, decided to round up to 4. It’s worth checking out.

This was a great read - a dysfuctional family sets forth on the high seas to celebrate the matriach's 70th birthday. What could go wrong except everything! A poignant look at what happens when a family decides to vacation together for more than one day. This is just a plain old fun read - highly recommend for a good summer read!