I had high expectations for this one going in. I love a good “family drama” with multiple POV’s. I think what brought this down for me was the character Charlotte. I feel the author wanted the reader to feel sympathy for her but I just couldn’t. She annoyed me and seemed to be stuck in a make believe world that this painter loved her and that her children didn’t love her. And her constantly talking about sex was just eye rolling. Perhaps I’m dwelling too much on that and should move forward. I liked the other characters but wish the backstories were delved into a bit more for the children. Anyway, 3 star read for me, thank you for the opportunity to review!

This one was an entertaining read, that dives into a dysfunctional family's adventure abroad, delivering each member's story in an engaging way. Whilst ensuring the thread of the storyline is intertwined, but easily followed.
This one would be perfect to read on a deckchair by the pool, or whilst sunning yourself on the beach, without the need to draw yourself a family tree or focus too much, definitely an easy read.

I received an ARC after this book had already been published so it slipped to the bottom of my "to read" list. After finally getting around to it, I enjoyed the HHI and Savannah references as my parents live there. The European cruise with a dysfunctional family felt a bit over done - nothing unique in the story. It was fine, but I expected more considering the hype this book had gotten!

The Jetsetters was perfect for summertime reading. After way too much family time while everyone is stuck at home, it was nice to escape into another family's drama. Travel might be off the table for the moment, but reading about it is never off the table!

Ballantine Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Jetsetters. I voluntarily chose to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

As she gets on in years, all that Charlotte Perkins dreams of is reuniting her estranged children. Entering a contest to become a jetsetter, the grand prize being a trip to international ports of call, Charlotte hopes to win and bring Lee, Cord, and Regan on a trip of a lifetime. Will exotic locations help the dysfunctional bunch or break them further apart?

The Jetsetters is a quick read, but is so completely unbelievable that it is almost laughable. The idea of winning an all expense paid trip for four by mail, without any media blitz in this day and age, is totally unrealistic. I never quite got the feeling for the setting, not on the ship or on land. At the end of the day, the book was just about a family that does not know how to talk to each other. There is nothing special about this idea, nor did I feel any connection with the characters. For these reasons, I would not recommend The Jetsetters to other readers.

Charlotte is a 71 year old widow who's lonely and decides to enter a contest for an all expenses paid european cruise and wins. She talks her grown children into going with her and what follows is some occasional laughs, some fun european travel destinations and a whole lot of family drama as all of the family seem to have secrets. While the author managed to tackle serious subjects like alcoholism and suicide, I found that there really weren't any characters I was emotionally invested in. The setting was great but the pace felt off at times. I think I was expecting more of a humorous family drama at sea but all in all it was a decent summer read

I had high hopes for The Jetsetters, as a Reese Witherspoon book club pick - she's never steered me wrong and has opened my eyes to new authors and new stories I never would have selected otherwise. However, I really had a difficult time relating to any of the main characters, which made it difficult to form a connection with them. A surprise revelation mid-book about a loved one’s death and an unexpected reveal at the end of the cruise did keep me interested in this book enough to finish it. Thanks to #Netgalley for granting my wish to read #TheJetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward.

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to read/review this book due to other commitments. I will certainly update this review if/when I have the chance to read the book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

This book was a Reese Witherspoon collection. It is about a dysfunctional family "forced" to unite together for 10 days on a cruise. It was a good read. I highly recommend this book if you liked "The Nest" or other books about adult families and the secrets and issues that caused friction between family members.

This was not for me. It's a very easy book to read and I like multi-pov books, but I didn't care about any of these people. It was a bit of trial for me to want to read this book. It reminded me of The Nest which I didn't like, so unfortunately this was not the book for me.

Such a great book! I enjoyed the characters and the storyline. It kept me entertained from start to finish!

Well written, trendy book. I enjoyed it more than I thought i would. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

Another Reese Witherspoon pick that I have thought was only ok. I was super excited to read this book. It seemed to have everything I like. There is a ton of family drama packed into just over 300 pages. Lots of heavy stuff. And to me, it was just too heavy. I had zero interest in any of the 4 main characters. There was no mystery. There was no heartfelt ending. I think I enjoyed the character of Minnie the best and she died in the first couple of pages. The overall message of forgiveness spoke to me, it just couldn't solve the other problems that I had with this work.

Renowned for her ability to weave dark secrets into literary fiction that is as enjoyable as it is thought-provoking, Amanda Eyre Ward returns with THE JETSETTERS. Perfect for readers of THE VACATIONERS, her latest novel is both a riveting romp through the Mediterranean and the heart-rending story of one dysfunctional family’s journey to peace and acceptance.

Our protagonist, Charlotte Perkins, is a 71-year-old widow with a fondness for bold colors, printed dresses, Barefoot wine and her three adult children: Lee, Cord and Regan. When we meet Charlotte, she is reeling from the loss of her best friend, Minnie, who has just died of a heart attack. Charlotte and Minnie ruled the streets of Savannah, Georgia, dashing from one activity to the next, cackling in the back rows of their church, and downing enough wine to admit their deepest secrets and fantasies to one another. But without Minnie, Charlotte must ask herself, “What now?”

The answer comes to her one night when she sees a commercial encouraging viewers to apply to become a “Jetsetter,” a person who will win an all-expenses-paid first-class flight to Greece followed by a cruise up the Mediterranean all the way to Barcelona. Her head filled with notions of forced closeness with her not-quite-estranged but certainly distant adult children, Charlotte pens a winning essay about her very first romantic romp. Inspired by her beloved romance novels and galvanized by her own loneliness and desperation for intimacy, she writes with a fever she’s never felt before...and she wins.

Charlotte’s children, though raised very closely by their mother, have all journeyed to different corners of the world, chasing different highs. Eldest daughter Lee is an “actress” of the “corpse #2” variety who is watching her dreams collapse. Where she had once celebrated even the booking of a Tampax commercial, she has now been left by her boyfriend, Jason, and is beginning to accept the end of her acting career and drug- and yoga-fueled life in Los Angeles. Cord, the middle child, is a semi-successful venture capitalist who is hiding a big secret from his family: his fiancé, Giovanni. Struggling through sobriety, Cord is desperate to unite “Holiday Cord” --- straight, just picky --- with the Cord who is ready to commit to a man he loves, despite his worries over his own abilities to stay sober and support his family. And finally we have sweet, baby-faced Regan, the only one of Charlotte’s children who seems to be doing well: she is married to good, stable Matt and has two beautiful daughters. But Regan, too, is hiding something: her marriage is crumbling...and she is not sure she cares.

Beyond their myriad secrets, the Perkins family is also plagued by memories of their husband/father, Winston, an abusive drunk whose mood dominated every moment of their lives. He died suddenly of a heart attack when the children were tweens, but his dark moods, dependence on alcohol and unnecessary meanness left both a lasting rift and a dangerous codependency between the children and their mother. Charlotte, raised by wealthy and elegant but cold parents, was always too eager to “look at the bright side” when her children were young --- often at the risk of ignoring the severity of the situation. As much as Lee, Cord and Regan love their mother, they feel abandoned by her in many ways and share the sense that they are often the ones parenting her. Spending time with her in her 70s only exacerbates this tension, revealing old childhood aches in the sun-drenched islands of Greece.

The Perkins family is full of unlikable characters. Charlotte’s wayward children have certainly made questionable, even downright unforgivable decisions, and yet their capacities for redemption are so fully realized that readers will find themselves rooting for them at every turn. Even Charlotte, who initially seems like a forgotten, sympathetic mother, comes to reveal a few flaws of her own, giving readers a “can’t look away” feeling of suspense. These family members have all wronged one another in some way, but through Ward’s careful storytelling, we are given all sides of every story and are able to relate with every character at once, an ambitious yet totally accomplished feat. Even more, she immerses us in the family’s idiosyncrasies so effortlessly that you will feel almost like an extended cousin wondering where your invite to Greece has been (I’m waiting!).

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the gorgeous settings. In addition to the glittering, absurd cruise ship with its disco lights and hilarious entertainment scenes, we are invited to taste homemade Greek honey, bask in the beaches of Malta, drink wine in Sicily, and so much more. But beyond providing travel porn, these alluring settings push the Perkinses into even more uncomfortable scenarios, showing the fullness of their personalities and interests. These scenes serve as an interesting foil for the more emotionally driven ones on the ship and create an exciting pace that will keep you turning pages long past your next sunscreen application.

Written in chapters broken up by each lavish Mediterranean destination, and interspersed with sections from the points of view of Charlotte, Lee, Cord and Regan, THE JETSETTERS is an all-encompassing portrait of a family torn apart by old and new hurts alike. The Perkinses have been through the ringer --- both as a family and individually --- and becoming jetsetters offers them the chance to come clean, to reconcile their pasts with their presents, and to reunite as a loving, happy family. With all of these characters trapped on a cruise ship together, Ward gives herself plenty of room to force conversations, revelations and painful admissions. The ship setting, which might seem like an overused trope in a thriller, becomes a literary playground here, one where Ward can push her characters to their absolute limits --- and boy does she ever. Impressively, the ship never feels claustrophobic; she is like a set designer who knows and uses every corner of her stage, never once pushing past the point of believability, while still managing to shock her readers and upend their expectations on nearly every page.

Longtime fans of the author will note that the plotline seems to be a bit of a departure from her previous novels, such as CLOSE YOUR EYES and THE SAME SKY. Even if the premise sounds unusual, and the characters unlikable, I highly recommend you give this one a try. Although there are certainly more laughs and irony here, Ward brings to THE JETSETTERS her same deft hand and talent for braiding secrets with acceptance and pain with redemption.

Thank you to Ballantine Books/Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
I was looking forward to a fun, beach read but I didn't love this one. The cover was what originally pulled me in but it was a little dry and lackluster for me. There were some lighthearted moments but it was a little more dramatic than what I was expecting. My constructive feedback would've been to have more association between the storyline and the cover - I think it would've put my mind in a different headspace prior to reading.

In The Jetsetters Charlotte Perkins, a 72-year old Savannah widow, enters a contest to win a Mediterranean cruise. She does win and convinces her three adult children, Lee, Cord, and Reagan to join her.

They care for each other but the Perkins family has difficulty openly communicating and all board the cruise carrying their own secret. The story follows the 4 family members as they attempt to put on fronts while navigating various European destinations.

I felt Charlotte was portrayed a bit dramatically as a fragile elder woman — She did, after all, initiate the travel opportunity. I liked Lee and Cord most, though no characters were without flaws. I would have liked the characters more if they had done more instead of primarily thinking about what they wanted to change in their lives.

The Jetsetters isn’t a new premise, but one that I’m often drawn to: family drama. While this was a decent story, I didn’t love it. I liked Amanda Eyre Ward’s The Same Sky more than this.

Charlotte Perkins submitted a very personal essay to the "Become a Jetsetter" contest with the hopes of reuniting her children on a luxurious cruise. She was shocked when she won but excited to have her three children with her, again. Her son, Cord, is a venture capitalist in New York City. A recovering alcoholic, Cord loves his mother but is afraid to tell her that he is gay. Regan is the married daughter, the daughter who gave Charlotte grandchildren. Her marriage is falling apart and she is looking for ways to end it all. Lee is the one who left her mother and Savannah behind for Hollywood. But the years in Hollywood have not been kind and Lee's career never really took off. She is now at a crossroads with her career and her life. Will this cruise be the thing that brings this family back together and on the right course?

The Jetsetters was a fun and delightful novel. Charlotte Perkins is a handful for her children, she absolutely cracked me up with her southern belle schtick. At times, I felt bad for her children. She seemed to have a high set of standards for her children, that seemed to cause the rifts that exist today. I loved the setting of the cruise ship, it made me long for such a vacation. The author did an amazing job with depicting life on a cruise ship that I could practically taste the cocktails. The one thing that I did not find to be accurate was their excessive use of cell phones on the ship. Not only do they call each other from their cell phones on the ship, but Cord calls Gio back home. Not really likely unless the ship is at the port and even then, sketchy. Despite that, I really enjoyed The Jetsetters and the few surprises along the way. -CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS.

Bottom Line - The Jetsetters has fun characters, beautiful locations, and some family drama that make for the perfect book to get you excited for the upcoming vacation season.

Details:

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
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Pages: 352
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: 3/3/2020
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Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good family drama. This book was full of it. I loved how it was mixed with the travel. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending, but I couldn’t put it down.

I love stories of dysfunctional families. They make my problems not seem so bad. Anyway this was an interesting plot to me. Each character had their own baggage and story. Will any issues be resolved on this trip?
Many thanks to Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A quick read with great setting and an interesting family dynamic. The characters, however, were not particularly likeable which is why I only gave it 3 stars.