Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC copy of The Jetsetters in return for an honest review.

This was an easy/fast ready. While it was enjoyable it felt as though Amanda Eyre Ward was a bit all over the board deciding what type of story she wanted to tell. The book appears to be marketed as a light-hearted story about a dysfunctional family finally coming together on vacation, but the author takes in many directions and not in a very fluid way.

Ward introduces us to a family of very flawed characters giving a bit of back story on each as well as their current life situations but then does not fully pull all the stories together to have a resolution to the story. The author also really took liberties in jumping all over the place with the tone of the book---one minute it is jokey and lighthearted and the next moment some really horrible past events come forward ( no spoilers!) Her attempt to mix both of these topics simply does not work well.

While there were a few unexpected twists to the story, in the end, the author completely lost me in the weird out of the blue short chapter with two of the book characters having a super weird cheesy romantic book novel like connection. It was this chapter that instantly made me feel as though the book took a "jumped the shark" direction since it was so ridiculous! The dialogue and silly visual of this chapter completely lost me I could not take the rest of the book seriously.

The story ultimately felt very rushed in the end--as though the author was uncertain how to close out the story. If there had been a better wrap up to the characters that as a reader we spent the whole book learning about-- I feel that the book would have been a much better read. This being said I did enjoy the author'''''s easy writing style enough to search out her other novels.

Anyone with siblings will understand the feelings the characters in this book felt. To be loved by your family for who you are is very important to all the members of the Perkins family. Long buried secrets and emotions are uncovered as they embark on a cruise with their elderly mother. Every one of them has a secret that they'd love to share but are afraid to. They discover that their lives as children were perhaps the happiest time in their lives. I chose to read this book as a Reese's book club selection and really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone that loves a good family drama.

A lonely elderly woman recalls her early love and wins a cruise for her and her dysfunctional family. A washed up actress, an overweight middle daughter with a philandering husband, and a gay son who hasn't come out to his family. The sibling love/hate relationship is well captured. Will they connect as adults? The cruise is a perfect setting for this family reunification as each membercultivates their own vacation experience. The cheesy/glamour of cruises is well crafted. A memorable cast of characters in relatable situations.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

The Jetsetters features a dysfunctional family that comes back together on a family vacation. The characters have flaws and are trying to find happiness. I find myself cheering for them to unite as a family. This is my first book to read by Amanda Eyre Ward. I will definitely be reading anything she writes.

Charlotte an older Savannah resident is fresh from the funeral of her best friend and confidant finds herself adrift and alone. Charlotte reflects on her three grown children and how she hopes a contest she won will help them heal. A son grappling with his sexuality, one daughter a somewhat failed actress, and her youngest trapped in a marriage she is willling to go to great lengths to end. Add the confines of a cruise ship and forced excursions and you have the elements bound to boil over and they do in grand fashion.

I expected The Jetsetters to be more lighthearted and fun. The story is told in sections, starting with prepping for the trip and then at each port along the cruise, and chapters focus on one character at a time. I enjoyed the storytelling style, getting to see inside Charlotte and her three children's viewpoints. All of them are troubled and unhappy with their lives in different ways, and they have a lot of deep emotional issues/trauma dating back to their childhoods and Charlotte's husband/the children's father. While I felt like the book ended with the family members relating to each other better, I don't know that they as individuals were truly better off. I didn't understand the epilogue.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A dysfunctional family story - not necessarily a drama - more of a fun book about sad people. Charlotte is in her 70s and in the need of some excitement. Her best friend has recently died and she's stuck in Savannah, driving her gold cart from church to her apartment for her nightly dinner of cheese and crackers. Lee, her oldest daughter, is a struggling actress. Cord, the middle child, is engaged, to a man - unbeknownst to his entire family. Regan, married to Matt - Lee's former boyfriend, is unhappy as a mom and wants something more for herself.

On a trip of a lifetime, the Perkins family sails across Europe - on a cruise ship full of temptations, humor and adventure. There's room for each person to grow and learn, and ultimately, to come back to the family they once were.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for review.

Charlotte, a widow and mom of three adult children, decides to enter an essay contest hoping to win the grand prize of a Mediterranean cruise. She would take her children and hopes to get back to the days of when they needed her as she is not feeling very needed any more.

The cruise brings out the best and worst of all of them. Not a bad story and not a great one. I still had unanswered questions at the end.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in e,change for an honest review.

This book had really good parts and okay parts. I was mostly engaged throughout. I have read other books by this author and loved them.

This book while different than my family, reminded me so much of them. The main thing I got from this book was that family is crazy, they may not always be there for you when you want them. But they will be there when you need them. And boy does my family drive me INSANE sometimes but it doesn't change how much I love them.

Like with this book, at some point you all form your own lives and it is impossible to be there all the time. It's impossible to please everyone in your family all the time. But we don't have to and once we realize that the better off we are!

I probably would have given this book 5 stars if it were not so abrupt in some parts and especially the ending. I like full closure. But this was still a very enjoyable book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

When 70 year old Charlotte Perkins wins a European cruise in an essay contest, she asks her estranged kids to join her in hopes of reuniting the whole family. Lee is a struggling actress who is still sing, Cord is a venture capitalist in New York who can't find the courage to come out to his family, and Regan is a mother of two with marriage problems. Can this ten day cruise reunite this family struggling to overcome the ghosts of the past?

Based on the synopsis, I was expecting a hilarious dysfunctional family book. Nope, wrong. There are a lot of serious topics presented here and while I'm not making light of them, I found the book just okay. Didn't love it but also didn't hate it. It was just too slow paced for me. Also, I have a hard time getting into a book if I'm not a fan of any of the characters. If you like The Nest and The Most Fun We Ever Had, check this one out!

TW - suicide, miscarriage, alcoholism

The Perkins are one dysfunctional family- two sisters who haven’t spoken in a decade, thanks to one marrying the other’s high school sweetheart. A widowed mother who just wants everything to be perfect and loves her children, even if she knows very little about the current affairs of their lives. And a son who has been living in the closet for most of his life, fearing rejection from his family once they know the truth about who he loves. All the family drama converges when the matriarch wins a European cruise and the family reunites for the first time in years.

I felt like there was a lot of potential in this book, and it was always sitting just on the edge of being really good, but never quite getting there. I appreciated that the author did tackle some tougher subjects, including suicide and alcoholism. It added a bit more substance to the book, but ultimately this one fell a little flat for me. It’s an easy summer read, but nothing groundbreaking.

This novel is about a very dysfunctional family - lonely widow Charlotte and her three adult children - Lee, an unhappy failed actress; Cord, an unhappy gay man who hasn't told his family; and Regan, an unhappily married mom, and each of whom have their own secrets in addition to their problems. None of them are particularly close to each other, but they come together to go on a cruise together when their mom wins a contest. So, despite what the cover may suggest, this is not a light, fun, beachy read. It is I suppose a little lighter than Amanda Eyre Ward's other books, which tend to be on the more serious and emotional side of contemporary women's fiction. Here, she takes a slightly lighter tone, but with characters so depressed and unhappy that it is not entirely successful in my opinion.

hank you to Netgalley & Random House for my copy of Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward, in return, for an honest review. Dysfunctional would be the best way to describe this loving family who cares deeply and hurts badly. Charlotte Perkins enters a Jetsetters contest, in which she is to write an essay for a chance to win a fabulous cruise. Looking for a change of her own and hoping to reconnect with her children, she submits an essay. When she wins, the family, begrudgingly cruises off to fix their own broken lives, fix their relationships and fight off some demons. This story really tells the story of a broken family in a beautiful, funny and realistic way. We get to see each family member find their way and we see that some things that are broken can be fixed.. This was a four star read for me and I would recommend it, to others.

I definitely have mixed feelings about this book. The characters are sort of stereotypical, the writing is a bit disjointed and choppy, and the plot somewhat expected. One thing that bothered me from the beginning was the idea of Charlotte winning that prize. Do people really win those kind of prizes? I'm sure they do, but it just seemed too unlikely. My misgivings were addressed by the end of the book and for me, that totally redeemed the book somehow. I didn't identify with any of the characters and yet I found myself enjoying the book for a light read. It will probably be a popular book on the beach this summer.

I had received this book as a wish. Thank you. It was a good book, about a family and their struggles in life and how they each chose to deal with them in different ways. You could see how the children in the book had learned how to handle things the same way their parents did. The book is an easy read, and by that I mean it had kept my interest to want to continue and not put it down. The book showed how families may not always be close, but when needed they are always there for you. The story was also relatable to events and lifestyles that can happen to anyone in today’s world. Thanks again.

I read this in a single day! I loved the switching between the different family members. We got the chance to piece together the real story from all of the fragments and lies in the family history. I wasn’t surprised by much but Regan’s plan with her husband was a bit of a surprise. It was an bit of a downer in parts like all of her books so if you are looking for light book about a family vacation this isn’t it but it is very good!

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward is the new book pick for Reese Witherspoon’s book club! This story centers around Charlotte whose husband is long passed away, her best friend just died and her adult children aren’t very close to her and have problems of their own.

When Charlotte wins a cruise to Greece, she decides to take her family. Why not? She wants to throw caution to the wind and do something different. The chapters alternate between Charlotte and her older daughter Lee, younger daughter Regan and son Cord. Each of them is struggling with something, secrets or things from the past which they cannot let go of. Though they are on this luxury cruise, their problems and issues are right there with them.

Here’s the official synopsis”

When seventy-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the “Become a Jetsetter” contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist who can’t seem to find a bride; and Regan, a harried mother who took it all wrong when Charlotte bought her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday.

Charlotte yearns for the years when her children were young and she was a single mother who meant everything to them. When she wins the cruise, the family packs all their baggage—literal and figurative—and spends ten days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship, the Splendido Marveloso. As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the Perkins family is forced to confront the defining choices in their lives. Can four lost adults find the peace they’ve been seeking by reconciling their childhood aches and coming back to each other?

Amanda’s writing is fantastic, I really enjoyed reading her descriptions. When the book starts, I almost felt a physical ache for Charlotte as she loses her very best friend and the person who brought her fun and joy. You can see how the parent of grown children would become lonely and long for something different in their life.

Each character brings their own emotions and issues, which are easy to sympathize with. This novel is insightful and humorous, yet serious and made me think and feel a variety of emotions. I loved it.

Three adult children going on a cruise with their Mom. One daughter brings her husband (not willingly). Everyone involved has secrets and think this just may be the trip where it all finally comes out. One can only imagine the level of craziness.

I must admit this hooked me from the very beginning. I had to find out if everyone would have the nerve to show their true selves. And who doesn't like a good story about a dysfunctional family? I have yet to meet an adult who doesn't have some level of messy family dynamics. As all of the Perkins reflect back on their relationships as young kids, they also have to come to terms with who they are as adults and if they even still like each other. Very interesting.

My thanks to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for this ARC.

What could possibly go wrong on a family cruise? Anything and everything. At times funny and a little heart wrenching it's a solidly told story with characters that will be hard to forget. Happy reading!

Charlotte Perkins is 71, and her best friend has just died. Long single, she longs to be touched and loved again, so she writes an essay (a rather racy one at that) to the "Become a Jetsetter" contest to win a trip for her entire family (and to perhaps meet someone). Charlotte is shocked and elated when she actually wins, earning the the chance to take her three children to Athens, Greece and on a nine-day cruise to Barcelona, Spain. Lee, a struggling actress who has just returned home on a "break" from acting (and from her famous ex-boyfriend) figures she has nothing better to do. Cord, her son, a wealthy New Yorker, isn't thrilled about being trapped on a ship while he struggles with his sobriety. And Regan, an exhausted mother of two daughters, can't believe it when her irritating husband Matt joins the group. This will be a particularly fun trip since Lee and Regan haven't spoken in ten years. Trapped on this adventure together, secrets come out and the Perkins family suddenly learns more than they ever wanted to know about each one another.

It took me a while to process this one. I really enjoy Amanda Eyre Ward's writing, and I have such a soft spot for her book, The Same Sky, which is one of my absolute favorite novels. This book is very different from that one, and it took me some time to warm to the pacing and the characters. Charlotte turned me off in the beginning, and I was just slow to get into the book. We learn that the Perkins kids had a rough childhood, but one that also bonded them together. Yet when the book opens, none of them are particularly close to each other--or their mother.

"This day, and the two more excruciating days that followed--days of sand and beer-scented misery--would be the last time Lee went on vacation with her mother and siblings. Until thirty-two years later, when they became jetsetters."

The book presents the story from not only Charlotte's point of view, but that of each of her wayward children. None of the kids are easy to like at first, but Ward's prose makes them come to life before our eyes. They are fallible, for sure, and it's hard not to feel a bit sorry for everyone. I for one am not sure I could handle being trapped on a cruise ship with a group of unhappy family members.

"Oh. Charlotte's children. To her great sadness and bewilderment, Charlotte's three adult children were lost to her, and perhaps to themselves."

The novel does an excellent job at portraying all the difficult relationships in the book, giving us an in-depth portrait of a complicated family. While the story is told solely over the span of their trip, we learn all about Charlotte's life--much of it hidden away from her children--and the lives of her three kids, even bits and pieces of their childhood and backstories. No one has had an easy go of it, for sure. How much do parents, and their actions, affect their kids, the book asks. How do families in general influence the people we become. They have so much power: both to help and to hurt.

It's funny, this wasn't always a story I enjoyed, even though there are humorous and touching moments, but I recognized its powerful parts too. Overall, I would rate this at 3.75 stars, rounded up to 4 stars here. It's worth a read.