⭐️Book Review ⭐️
The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
4/5 Stars

Don’t judge a book by its cover. I’ll admit- I am the first one guilty of this. This cover, however, only briefly matches the contents. I think this dysfunctional family only stepped foot on a beach once...

Let me regress. Dysfunctional family? Oh yes. Not a one of them doesn’t have a screw loose for one reason or another. So why don’t we throw them all on a 10 day Mediterranean cruise together? What could go wrong?

We all have that one family member that is the baby of the family. Or maybe it’s the outrageous ‘look at me’ drama queen. What about the gay/lesbian sibling that we aren’t telling mom yet? And mom who wants to pretend everything is perfect...just perfect.

This is funny at times and heartwarming at others but a bit over the top in between. Glad I read it because lord knows it’s always nice to read a dysfunctional family isn’t alone!

Thank you to @netgalley and @ballatinebooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub Date: Feb 4, 2020

The premise of The Jetsetters was so interesting - books about dysfunctional families can be hit or miss and I'd say this one landed right in between. I didn't love it, wasn't attached to the characters, but enjoyed it enough to finish.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review. I've read this author before, The Same Sky one of my favorite books of hers because of the topic. I enjoyed The Jetsetters more than the author's last book. Having just returned from a cruise myself, I was eager to re-immerse myself into a cruise.

Charlotte Perkins is my mom's age, she's a widow who has just lost a close friend. Her oldest daughter Lee comes to see her, escaping Los Angeles. Lee has her own problems as do her other children Cord and her daughter Regan. It wasn't so much the secrets that come out on vacation but a family healing themselves from trauma with a Mediterranean cruise. I'm glad they were able to do so even though it was a little less dramatic than I thought it would be.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my Kindle ARC of The Jetsetters, by Amanda Eyre Ward. I've read all of Ms. Ward's books, and The Jetsetters was the one I enjoyed the most. It follows the dysfunctional Perkins family on the cruise of a lifetime through the Mediterranean. Charlotte Perkins, the matriarch, enters an essay contest to win the cruise and "wins." Her adult children, Lee, Cord and Regan, are all at different places in their lives and relationships (or lack thereof). Charlotte invites her children on the cruise and that is when the fun and trouble begin. Ms. Ward creates realistic family scenarios, warts and all. The Jetsetters is a quick read but one that I couldn't put down. The story flows at an even pace and the reader just must find out what happens in the end.

I enjoyed this book, but I didn't LOVE it. I thought it was going to be a bit more fun than it was. I love dysfunctional family stories and a dysfunctional family story that takes place on a cruise ship? Sign me up! The problem is, I just recently read Floating with the Feldman's, which has basically the same exact premise. I actually feel a bit bad for the author since she was clearly writing this book before FWTF came out and must have been super disappointed to see a very similar book out before hers.

Obviously the books have differences, but like FWTF, The Jetsetters is about a family cruising together, while keeping lots of secrets from each other. I enjoyed the fact that Charlotte, the matriarch of the family, is so gung-ho to go on this vacation that she enters an essay contest sharing the racy story of her first love. We meet Charlotte's three kids Lee, Cord, and Regan (actually, we meet them in the first chapter as children. This is kind of weird, but it also makes sense that we get a bit of their history so we can understand them as adults). None of them have particularly great relationships with each other or with their mother and all have secrets they're harboring, some bigger than others.

Based on the cover and title, I thought this would be a super lighthearted book, but it ended up being pretty heavy in some places. Some of the family dysfunction is pretty serious, including issues with suicide and alcoholism. This isn't necessarily a bad thing and I think Ward does a good job of balancing lighthearted storylines with heavier ones, but it was just unexpected. I also found some of the "day trips" the family went on while in Europe a little boring and not totally fitting with the rest of the story.

Overall, I'm glad I read The Jetsetters even though it wasn't exactly what I thought it wold be. And I'd definitely read more from Amanda Eyre Ward.

Very interesting , and complex characters. The evolution of the relationships kept you turning the pages. I will definitely recommend !

I flew through this book! I was initially hesitant because I felt like the "family cruise" idea had been done before, but this one captivated me from the very first page. Immensely readable with well-developed characters who were flawed yet relatable, I would definitely recommend this book . My only quibble was with the ending/epilogue- I personally would have liked more information about how each of the characters ended up!

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was intrigued by the description of the book, but after a few chapters I almost stopped reading as I didn't like any of the characters. It was an easy read so I pushed though my initial annoyance but it didn't get any better.

Ward’s The Jetsetters is a book about family and relationships. When matriarch Charlotte Perkins wins a free cruise around the Mediterranean, she brings along her family. What happens when they are all stuck on the boat together is that secrets come to light. This book has some dark humor, but it isn’t particularly uplifting. It reminds me a bit of The Floating Feldmans.

3.5 STARS, so I'm rounding up. This was a quick read and I thoroughly enjoyed the the shortness of each chapter as it was told from a different family members perspective, filling in both past and current details of their lives. The ending wasn't completely satisfying, as it lacked tying up a few general loose ends, in my opinion. Overall I enjoyed it.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced read!

This book follows the Perkins family and their mediterranean cruise the family won. The book is written from multiple family perspectives, each with their own secrets. I liked following the adult siblings secrets, and how they all want to protect their widowed mother.

70 something year old, widowed Charlotte is mourning the loss of her best friend friend and wishing she wasn’t an empty nester - so she applies fora contest to bring her and her three nearly estranged kids on a Mediterranean cruise: Lee, the oldest who was destined for fame but has been a totally flop; Cord, recently engaged to his fiancé in NY but still living as a closeted gay man to his family; and Regan, mom of two whos lost her luster and whose husband is most definitely having an affair. Charlotte, meanwhile, has her heads in the clouds and refuses to acknowledge any imperfection in life. They’re a weird bunch.
The book itself was very readable, and I breezed through it in two days! I liked how the chapters rotated between characters, to get a taste of the different perspectives. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel particularly connected to any of the characters. And I thought it was weird that, given this is a book built around family, there were no details about Charlotte between when her kids moved away and now. She doesn’t seem very maternal... it felt like there was some weird sequential pieces missing to the puzzle. overall felt like the characters were a bit two dimensional and the book itself was a bit too long — could have left out a whole stop or two in the middle.
Lastly, the title made it seem like this was a book about a rich family! Calling the book “jetsetters” when it’s about a cruise is just silly, and once I understood was named after the contest, I still wasn’t the biggest fan. But it was definitely a quick, light read!

Charlotte wins a cruise and brings her (very) dysfunctional family along. Naturally, secrets are eventually revealed. No one was likable and it was hard to care enough. It was also difficult to understand why Charlotte won the contest <spoiler>and then it's revealed later that she actually didn't. So how did she get the cruise? I'm still confused.</spoiler>.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.

At the "tender" age of 70, Charlotte Perkins enters a contest called "Become a Jetsetter" and actually wins. Bringing her three adult children along with her, they fly first class to Athens and then sets sail for 10 glorious days to Barcelona. To say that this is story about a dysfunctional family would definitely be an understatement. Not that "normal" in this day and age is just a word, since who really knows what normal is (perhaps a therapist, but then again, I'm not sure of that either). Each one of her children has a secret, each is hiding something. We have a son who is gay, but can't tell his mother. A daughter who is hiding the fact that she is less than successful in pursuing an acting career. Last, but not least, a daughter who is in an unhappy marriage.

In the book's synopsis we are told "it is a delicious and intelligent novel about the courage it takes to reveal our true selves, the pleasures and perils of family, and how we navigate the seas of adulthood." For me this novel with its dysfunctional family was not one that I enjoyed Actually I found it to be rather sad and while there were several enjoyable parts, In its entirety I found the novel less than pleasing and not entertaining.

My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t get into the story.. I was expecting something different.

This book was amazing from beginning to end. All of the characters were developed well and I enjoyed their complicated relationships with each other.

As an avid traveler who has recently booked my own European cruise, I was very excited to read this book. Unfortunately, there wasn’t as much focus on the destinations in this book, which is fine, as the focus of the story was set around the dysfunctional family featured in the story. How her, I felt like the chapters where way too short and choppy. The narrative bounced around so much I felt unstable as I was reading then book. And the end had just a huge dramatic ending that felt so rushed. It was not expected and I don’t feel that it was flushed out well.

This was an interesting women's fiction read. I found it the characters to be believable and ones that most women can somehow relate with. There were humorous accepts of the novel as well as serious moments. I enjoyed learning the twist at the end of the book, which really did take me by surprise.

I love Ward’s writing style, but this book fell flat to me. The characters didn’t seem to have many redeeming qualities, and for someone who showed almost no human emotion, the mother seemed oddly sex-obsessed. Not my personal cup of tea, but I can see others enjoying the story.

I don’t like it but I didn’t hate it, too. I’m Switzerland right now. It’s okay read but not the marvelous book I’ve dreamed of so it means three let’s have a vacation with one of the dysfunctional families stars.

Smooth, soft, mediocre, entertaining, beach-side reading for me (even though Halloween, I still enjoy feeling the sea breeze on my face) but it’s not a book I compassionately flip the pages and so intrigued to learn more facts about the characters. I think the progression of the story-telling and presences of unlikable characters didn’t work with me. I found it a little light for my expectations and twisted genre taste.

Charlotte, widow, 70, great prize winner of Mediterranean Cruise, is gathering her family members to join her for the vacation. Eldest daughter Lee has problems to find a proper acting job. When her carrier floats away, she needs to face the secret she kept about their late father.

Middle sibling, Cord, keeping his sexuality as secret and youngest child, Regan, is my most dislikeable character has a problematic marriage. Her husband confesses once upon a time he fell in love with her sister, Lee.

There are too many dramas, arguments, emotional breakdowns… bla… bla… bla… Final the family members facing their secrets and resentments and we got our unexpected but quiet enjoyable ending. (Actually ending was the best part of the book.)

I didn’t like those family members and I didn’t stand their dramas and their over exaggerated problems. I didn’t find the story as a sincere, poignant, emotional family drama but also I didn’t find this as a chic-lit kind of entertaining, smart reading. But at least I didn’t get bored and the idea of Mediterranean Cruise travels around the marvelous cities of the world is a refreshing plot. (Like last remains of sunshine at the dark and rainy day)

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group to share this ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.