The plotline for this book is really interesting. The stepdaughter of one of the main characters is getting married to her pandemic boyfriend in Cape Cod which somehow becomes the catalyst for multiple family secrets to come towards the surface. Everyone seems to have something to hide (some good, some bad, some sad) and I couldn't wait to see how it would all unfold.

Jennifer Weiner has done it again — written an engaging family drama with complex characters and a relevant storyline that will keep you hooked.

A portion of the book takes place during the COVID pandemic during lockdown and Weiner gets the family lockdown feeling on the page. Sarah Danhauser, her husband Eli, her two young sons and her stepdaughter Ruby (plus Ruby’s boyfriend Gabe) are all riding the pandemic out in a Brooklyn brownstone. I had to laugh at how Sarah feels suffocated by being around her family 24/7 — I get it! She loves her family, but hearing her husband pace around in his loud flip-flops as he takes work calls…..relatable!

The story begins with Sarah being shocked by Ruby, 22, announcing that she is going to marry her boyfriend Gabe. The family has doubts, but they keep them quiet. The wedding will be in Cape Cod at the home of Veronica, Ruby’s step-grandmother. There is a lot of family drama between the announcement and the clan’s arrival in Cape Cod.
I did not enjoy Big Summer, but after reading The Summer House, I’m going to go back and read last year’s That Summer.

I will say that there is an abundance of cheating in this book (not a spoiler) and a lot of coincidences, which might turn off some readers.

Thank you @atriabooks and @netgalley for an advanced e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

This will be in a lot of beach bags this summer. It is a soapy family drama - well written - with lots of characters set mostly on the Outer Cape. I liked it, but I think there were several secrets that were kept an excruciatingly long time without good reason. The story dragged along for me and there were too many coincidences and a too neatly tied up ending. I think it is interesting how authors are choosing to write about time during the pandemic.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This book will be on shelves May 10, 2022. Jennifer Weiner remains one of my favorite authors.

I was overjoyed to be approved for a Weiner book, having tried many times before, but had been unsuccessful. I had much anticipation as I savored this new read. The novel begins very slow. For most of the book, I feel as though none of the characters are happy in life. The chapters switch narratives often. I did like all the intricate plot twists. I have to give the author credit for making my jaw drop a few times with how the plot progressed. The ending was the best part. I did infer the author’s mother inspired one of the main characters, which was confirmed in her afterward.
I do love the setting and the best character was the house.

Review 4.5 stars
On my goodness, The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner was so good! Full of twists and turns, it’s a page turner that you won’t be able to put down. It’s difficult to give a short synopsis because it has a lot of characters and each character has their own storyline. However, the details and back stories are so well developed, it’s easy to keep up with everyone. I loved how it showed this family going through and coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the struggles it caused. Weiner included many issues families struggle with such as infidelity, trust, sexuality, and grief. This is definitely a good book to add to you summer TBR!

Ruby is marrying her boyfriend from Covid lockdown, even though it's a newer relationship and she's young and unsure. Her dad and stepmom have their own problems, as does her extended family. Her step-grandmother is there to be the family constant with her beach house in Truro, but she also has her secrets.
This is a family drama in the vein of Elin Hildebrand. The problem is that I wanted a family comedy in the vein of Jennifer Weiner! I could have used some lightness and fun and Weiner's witty and thoughtful writing here. It was still okay, but not up to the high standards that I'm used to with Weiner's books. It is worth a read, but I wanted something different and more.
Maybe now that she's done her loosely connected three beach books, she'll reinvent her writing yet again. I'm here for it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the advance copy for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for gifting me with an ARC of The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

Jennifer Weiner, the Queen of Summer Sizzle is back with another messy family drama. And boy, is this one packed with secrets!! Fans will delight in her newest story loaded with shenanigans, this time set in the summer of 2022, when the world is starting to emerge from a two year pandemic haze of quarantines & family isolation. Plenty of fun and lightheartedness can be found in these pages, but you really need to suspend dubious amounts of belief for any of the stories to actually be believable. Perfect for the pool or beach when you want to escape with a book.

Love the cover design.

This book has too many characters with too many long summaries of their lives. The plot lines are ludicrous and far fetched. The characters are not likable and deserve their ridiculous lives.

Jennifer Weiner does it again with a multi-generational family saga filled with characters so complex and richly drawn that I came away feeling as if I knew each of them personally. The book is written around an upcoming wedding to be held at the family's Cape Cod beach house. The entire family will be there together, some for the first time since Covid began, and some for much longer than that.

All families are messy, and each member has pressures, struggles, secrets, flaws, and regrets. One of the things that I love about this book is that there is no main character; each is given their chance to shine; even the house itself is a character, which I enjoyed. I also love how well the author portrays that no matter how often or much we may screw up, in the long run, family is there for you.

There is much fodder for discussion to be found within these pages making it a perfect friend or book-club read. A very enjoyable read all the way around!

My thanks to Atria books for allowing me access to an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

I love Jennifer Weiner for good escapist reading but this book was a bit too much for me. There were too many characters and too many situations that stretched credulity. But if you want a long, beach read this summer and can be somewhat forgiving, this overall was fun.

The Summer Place was not your traditional book with a central main character, instead, it focused on more of an ensemble cast, the Levy-Weinberg family. All of the family members play an important role in the plot of the story, a story filled with twists and shocking moments.

The focal point of the story is when one of the family members, Ruby is set to get married. While going through the chapters you are learning about each family member and all this development will come to fruition at the wedding. Everything we have learned is laid out and exposed in the lead-up to the wedding making for a lot of surprising reveals and drama. As the reveals and twists were coming I could not put the book down. This was a great read!
A huge thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I made it to just after 50% an realized I couldn't go on with this book. There is so much drama, which is fine, but I find myself aggravated at the characters. I also spend a lot of time skimming the details because there is so much that doesn't move the story along. Also - so many different POVs and flashbacks made it hard to keep the story straight. I love Jennifer Weiner and will continue to read her books, but this one is a miss for me.

Another great book from Jennifer Weiner.

Ruby is set to marry her pandemic college boyfriend at her (step) grandmother's Cape Cod house. However, this wasn't just Ruby's story. Jennifer Weiner weaves a web that encompasses not only Ruby, but her stepmother, father, grandmother, and uncles. It works well, and keeps the story interesting and moving.

Really enjoyed this one, and I think all Jennifer Weiner fans will as well.

One of the things I liked most about The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner, was the way she took us back to some of the more frustrating and inconvenient elements of the pandemic quarantine, and layered it with humor and endearment. It’s a talent I’ve found signature to Weiner and her books throughout the years. Family drama, and strong female characters are front and center in The Summer Place. The actual plot, the wedding of a young couple who met right before quarantine, takes a bit of a back seat to the complicated and relatable storylines. Each character experiences love, loss, heartache and redemption in ways that felt very to real to the reader. Lastly, another favorite element are the reflections of Weiner’s own life peppered throughout the book adding intrigue and richness to the story.

The Summer Place will make a wonderful beach read for anyone who values love and family, and who also appreciates a flare for the dramatic side of life.

Another summer means another great read from Ms. Weiner! This seems to have become an annual event and I only wish I took an annual vacation where I could lay ocean/lake/pool side to read while consuming a pretty adult beverage! I will admit that this one starts slow and at one point I feared I would get disinterested and annoyed with it, but as though reading my mind, things started getting interesting. Really interesting! I love that relatable family drama is spiced up a bit in these books. I always feel like they speak to my sarcastic nature. Once again, the book is a great balance between what the reader expects (summer fluff) and some more serious social commentary. Though, this one did lean more towards the fluff perhaps in response to the more serious years we have just come out of? Whatever the reason, I'll take it!

The Summer Place weaves a family web like no other! When Sarah's step-daughter Ruby announces her engagement to her pandemic boyfriend, a series of events are set in motion. Suddenly Sarah's husband, Ruby's father, is acting distant and out of sorts. Sarah's twin brother Sam is struggling with personal loss and discovering who he is. Ruby wrestles with her emotional scars from her mother having walked out when she was a baby. And Sarah herself finds she's embarking on an emotional journey of weighing what could have been and what it.

The whole family heads to their mom's house (Sarah and Sam's), where Veronica waits to spend some much overdue time with her family, and has some secrets of her own to reveal.

The whole time I was reading, I couldn't help but think how so much pain could have been avoided if they had all communicated with one another. I liked the way The Summer Place was told from rotating perspectives. I enjoy this style of writing so much because you get a deeper look into how each of the characters is seeing and experiencing things.

This is a book about family, regret, time lost, love, and finding yourself.

The story of the Weinberg Danhauser family is narrated by the family's beach house in Cape Cod. The home is owned by Grandma Ronnie aka Safta aka Veronica Weinberg, and as the story opens she and both her grown twins Sam and Sarah are all approaching turmoil.

This little chick-lit beach read has a lot going on in it, a few different mysteries within a romance rife with plot twists and self-discovery. Sarah's husband Eli grew up always being the good son, compared to his ne'er-do-well brother Ari; then he became the good parent compared to his first wife Annette who made good on her promise to leave if they ever got pregnant. I like how both Sarah and her brother Sam enjoy loving, healthy relationships with their corresponding stepchildren.

There were a couple improbabilities that stuck out to me, like parents of the bride picking out wedding decor, wedding menu, and wedding cake with their daughter rather than her doing all that with her soon to be husband. Also Sam's evil bedridden father-in-law having a tanned neck. But Jennifer Weiner is one of my favorite writers and I flew through this read with a smile on my face!

This is a hard book to summarize. There were a lot of characters. There isn’t a lot happening while at the same time a lot happens. I guess you could say it centers on Sarah and Eli. They are married with two sons and Eli has a daughter, Ruby, from a previous marriage. The book centers on Ruby’s upcoming marriage to Gabe. There are multiple POVs as we learn about each character and how they might be connected.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I actually really liked reading about all the different characters and their backstories. It is a LOT to keep straight though so it was nice I could read it in two days, otherwise I prob would have struggled to remember who was who. This book also took place after COVID started and I thought it was handled well. I also highly recommend reading the acknowledgments at the end. It connected to the story and brought a tear to my eye. Jennifer Weiner is really good at tackling more serious subjects and I think she did it again with this book.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

So much family drama! I normally love this author but this one just didn't work for me. I've loved her books in the past and this will not stop me from reading her books in the future. DNF at 25%.

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book as much as others from this author. It could be just me, but there are so many characters with multiple storylines all crammed into a long (400+) pages.

I found the characters to be either shallow, self-absorbed or just plain annoying. For example, family dinner, daughter announces her engagement and her father can’t be bothered to look up from his stuffing, and the only one bothered is his wife? The book is also heavily referenced with the pandemic and I think it could have played a smaller part, as the book ages the theme will be less relevant.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.