I was able to read this book thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley. I am a huge Jennifer Weiner fan and this book was one of my favorites. I loved the mystery element as well as the women’s literature vibe I know and love well.
Daphne is a plus sized social media influenced who had a toxic friend named Drue when she was in high school. Suddenly Drue is back in her life and asking her to be a bridesmaid in her “wedding of the century” to a reality star. Cue a handsome stranger and a dead body and the story develops from there. This book was well written, extremely fast paced and highly entertaining. I will absolutely be recommending it to my book clubs and online groups as well as my family friends. Thanks once again to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley!

Daphne Berg had always been chubby. By the time she was able to get into the prestigious Lathrop School, she was a fat 6th grader. Her dad taught there and her parents were able to get her in as a scholarship student. You can imagine her surprise when rich, beautiful, popular Dru Cavanaugh befriended her. Soon the girls were best friends but Dru was often using Daphne to do her dirty work, like breaking up with one of Dru’s boyfriends or writing Dru’s term paper.

Then there was a disastrous blow up in high school when Dru had posted an ugly video of Daphne online. The two girls friendship ended at that point.

So imagine Daphne’s shock when Dru contacted Daphne years later and asked her to be a bridesmaid at Dru’s upcoming society wedding. Daphne was unwilling at first but then Dru apologizes for all the mean things she had done to her former friend. Dru also explained that she had very few girlfriends and needed 6 bridesmaids to match her fiancé’s 6 groomsmen.

I received this ARC from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Daphne finally consented and went up to Cape Cod that weekend d in June. What happened there would change her life forever.

This story started out like a classic chick lit book about an overweight girl struggling with losing weight and finding social acceptance. Lots of details about slights and embarrassment and finding fashionable clothes. About halfway through the book, it got interesting. Like many women, I would love to lose at least 10 pounds. However I have never been obese and could not relate to many of the problems that Daphne had.

Great book! I can totally relate to Daphne, as I am a big girl, who is working on accepting myself just the way I am. I'm sure we all have been in a situation similar to one that Daphne and Drue experienced as far as friendships are concerned and can relate.

I’ve read every book Jennifer Weiner has read and some I’ve absolutely loved and read several times over, some I trudged through never to be read again. This one kind of falls in the middle. What started out as a story of an overweight twenty-something trying to make her way in the world and find love turns into a whodunnit mystery. I enjoyed the book, but I definitely feel like Ms Weiner has really tuned into the “woke culture” and throws a lot of her liberal leanings into her work lately. The first half started strong, but the second half seemed to be thrown together without a lot of thought. Some parts definitely felt unrealistic and poorly thought out. All in all, it was a decent read.

Big Summer - Jennifer Weiner

Throughout this book there are larger socio-cultural issues addressed that should not be easily dismissed. Weiner addresses “fat-shaming” and its impact on our society. From the comment made to the protagonist “that she is surprisingly fast” to the arrangement of a date that she should feel grateful for the author takes on the often superficial nature of American culture. Set against the backdrop of social-media, influencers, along with power and money this is an interesting reflection on who we have become and the damage that the on-line world can foster. At its heart it is a romance and although this was a quick read, it should not be dismissed. I did think the ending should have been re-worked a bit to provide a greater sense of closure but it was satisfying nonetheless.

Ever since I picked up my first Jennifer Weiner book I knew that it was an author that I would want to follow. I loved how her books have grown with the times and Big Summer is a proof of that.

I started reading this book thinking it was going to be a nice, breezy read, and it was so much more! Love the plot twists and even though I am not an Influencer like Daphne, I could relate to her so much.

Highly recommend this book!

Thank you to Atria Books, Netgalley and the author for providing a free copy of this book.

Even though I greatly enjoyed Big Summer buy Jennifer Weiner, I must say that the opening chapter (or was it a prologue) did not work for me. It sets a significantly different tone (narration aside), to the point where I thought I was reading a modern version of The Scarlett Letter. A few pages later, I'm immersed in Mean Girls and stay there for the remainder of the book. For many readers: New England, unwed mother scorn, a child whose name begins with an "A." and the mother's description of him as "pearl," is a heavy indicator of where the story is going, and yet it was not.
That aside, I enjoyed the book a great deal. There was a tenderness to the exploration of female friendship that might have been absent from other chicklit/meangirl stories. That tenderness and introspection really added substance.
I've read about 5 JW books and I'm wondering if she is experimenting with genre as the previous book (Mrs. Everything) was more literary fiction; however I didn't really enjoy Mrs. Everything. I think Big Summer is a much more successful endeavor and of more value to me as a reader.

I have mixed feelings about this one. At one point, it was a page turner, and then towards the end it just started to drag on. The plot is all over the place and parts of it made me go "Oh come on, yeah right!". It was an easy read, and I enjoyed it. It was not what I expected.

You're going to want this in your beach bag this summer!

The first half of the book is what I would call a typical Jennifer Weiner book...in the very best way. I slipped into her story as gently and easily as I had her first, Good in Bed. I loved that familiar feeling and was excited to be back in her world.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*




Then... Wham! ...the book went from her normal tale of troubled relationships into a murder mystery! Toxic friendships, hot love scenes, AND a mystery? This is right in my thriller wheelhouse. I had been enjoying the story from the get-go, but now I couldn't put it down. (Is it okay to say that I was a *little* happy that my youngest was sick and just wanted to snuggle on the couch all day, letting me fly through the book?)

I am always quick to recommend a Jennifer Weiner book, but this one will be forcefully pushed into people's hands.

A HUGE Thank You to NetGalley and Atria Books for giving me this digital copy to review.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for inviting me to read this book in exchange for a review.
It has been a while since I read a book by Jennifer Weiner and I still remember her books being emotionally charged.
This book had me thinking about various things such as females cliques, friendships, elite NYC families, Cape Cod, social media, influencers, dark secrets, families.
I absolutely loved reading this book.

Friendships, are they mean to last forever? Daphne Berg a plus-sized girl with a lack of self-esteem comes from a middle-class family. Her BFF Drue Cavanaugh, stylish, slim, rich, spoiled, lots of fun to be with. The two girls meet in sixth grade and form an instant friendship. Daphne is taken with her immediately, surprised that someone looking like Drue (petite, slim, stylish) everything Daphne wishes she could be, could look like would want to be her friend. Over time their relationship, however, has its ups and downs, times when Drue would ignore Daphne, even be cruel, and leave Daphne whenever it suited her...until it came to the point that they hadn't spoken for several years.
As they leave their teen years behind, Daphne is growing a career as a plus-size Instagram influencer.while Drue works in her family business. With Drue's lavish wedding coming up in Cape Cod, she finds she needs bridesmaids, and begs Daphne to forgive her for her past actions. Is Daphne able to ignore her past friend's begging, even though she is prone to idolizing her? Is she strong enough to ignore her and walk away? What follows is a disastrous situation, and like an onion that is peeled, underneath the layers havoc plays out and secrets are revealed.

This book about family, female friendships, love and self-esteem is not a quick read, not at all. Once you open this book, each page calls out to you to hurry to the next. The author deftly never lets the reader know just how big a girl Daphne is. She leaves that up to your imagination, but think big, we're not talking a mere 10-15 lbs. We are taken into a world of social media, mean girls vulnerability and fat-shaming. How brave to take on that particular subject, as civility is not common today. You will be moved, you will be impacted with this witty and outstanding novel.

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

This book was hard to put down! Daphne was so relatable. There were times when it was hard to read because it hit so close to home.
It had a HUGE twist that I was not expecting! It had my mouth on the ground. I'm not going to post spoilers. But OMG totally blindsided.
It deals with social media and how everything isn't as it seems. That even people who seem to have perfect lives have problems we can't see.
I love that it pointed out that all anyone really wants and needs in life is for someone to love them. And to love them the way they are, flaws and all.
This book is out May 19th 2020.. Y'all need to go ahead and pre-order it because you already know it is going to be one of the hot summer reads, and rightly so!
My only problem with it was that the protagonist is an influencer for woman who are overweight, which is great; however, several times she describes people as not attractive. Talking about what makes them ugly and not right for someone (because they aren't as pretty). It kind of fixes itself in the end. But I feel like any kind of bullying, whether about people being overweight or "ugly" is a bad thing. While I loved that the protagonist was an overweight woman who wasn't trying to be skinny, I just wished that it didn't shame others.

An exciting, engaging story of friendship ups and downs as well as the struggle we all have that's called life.

Believe it or not, this is my first Jennifer Weiner book! I was sucked in IMMEDIATELY. She clearly knows how to create some compelling characters and a plot that flies along!

This book started out reminding me of Kristan Higgins's Good Luck with That-- in that we have a heroine who is not the standard size 2 beauty. She is a real size woman navigating her life in NYC and trying to be a positive role model for her online following. As she is figuring out how to be both real and positive as an influencer, her old frenemy comes charging back into her life. Drue is everything Daphne isn't-- rich, stunningly beautiful, and of course, thin. She begs Daphne to forgive her for their falling out years before and be in her glamorous celebrity wedding on Cape Cod.

What follows is a romance, female friendship story, and a murder mystery all rolled into a summer beach read. I absolutely adored and devoured it.

Jennifer Weiner's latest read Big Summer once again challenges the boundaries of what readers may come to expect from a "beach read" with this intriguing tale of friendship and the bounds of forgiveness.

High school friends Daphne and Drue always had an unequal power dynamic with Drue seemingly having it all while Daphne was left in the role of sidekick. As adults, Daphne is a badass influencer who no longer orbits in Drue's self-obsessed universe. When Drue finds herself in need of bridesmaids to stand up for her at her lavish Cape Cod wedding, she comes calling.

What's Daphne to do? Can she forgive Drue for humiliating her? Should she use Drue's wedding as a way to advance her own career? What if Drue has really changed? These questions and more deserve answers, and we all know that there's always drama at a wedding.

Many thanks to Atria Books, Jennifer Weiner, and NetGalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I’ll state my bias to start I have loved every single thing Jennifer Weiner has written and would probably read a soup can if she had written the copy for it. All that said this may have been one of her best with twists and turns when you least expect. This book was graciously provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the book that finally made me realize there is a generational divide I cannot span in literature. It is simply not my cup of tea. Putting aside the difference in writing style from that which I prefer, for me it showcases the fatuous side of our society a bit too much. However, I'm certain it has an audience.

Oh, female friendships can be so complicated! Weiner shows us just how complicated in BIG SUMMER. Her protagonist, Daphne, has built a fine life for herself as a trending influencer when she hears from her old high school frenemy, Drue Cavanaugh. Drue is everything Daphne is not - thin, rich and a real bitch. But she uses guilt and pity to talk Daphne into being her bridesmaid at her upcoming wedding - where things get really out of hand! No spoilers here - all I can say is that you will want to keep reading ... Just another great one by Jennifer Weiner.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced read in exchange for this review.

Daphne is a plus sized influencer who had a falling out with her rich best friend 6 years ago.  Suddenly, Drue is back in her life.  

I have mixed feelings about this one. I do like Weiner's writing (Loved Who Do You Love?).  However, there was so much fat girl shaming in this that it made me uncomfortable. I get that's part of Daphne's storyline.  I did love Daphne and thought she was a great lead.  However, the plot is all over the place and parts of it made me go "Oh come on, yeah right!".  It was an easy read, and I enjoyed it. It was not what I expected, mostly in a good way.

I devoured this book. Weiner is in top form creating realistic and very relatable characters. Especially Daphne. Her thoughts on social media and "influencers" are nuanced and spot-on. And never alienating or judgmental. This will be a perfect beach read.