I rounded up - this book just dragged on for me. Lots of repetition and back and forth storylines. I almost feel like there was a list of topics the author wanted to mention to stay current and she kept a running list as she wrote. I usually like Jennifer’s stories but this one just didn’t do it for me.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

I enjoyed this book but I felt that there was too much going on. All of the characters were given a chapter or more from their perspective and that made it overwhelming at times. Though, I understand why this was done because each character interprets things differently. I found the pace of the story quite slow at the beginning but picked up towards the end. I have read another book by this author and similarly, the ending has a surprise that wasn't expected. Also, I still feel like it's too soon to have "covid" storylines but that's just my personal opinion.

I really liked this novel by Jennifer Weiner! It has a very substantial cast of characters (the house is even a character in this one!) but it can get a little confusing with all the points of view. Everyone seems to have their say, and while you get everyone's perspective, it can get a little confusing. Weiner hits on so many different issues in this story but keeps her characters very relatable and certainly keeps the story flowing. I had a very hard time putting it down! Past mistakes and secrets coming to light, misunderstandings, latent sexuality, complex relationships, questionable parentage - this book has a little bit of everything!

3.5 stars
I usually love Jennifer Wiener’s books but this one definitely wasn’t my favorite. While I did enjoy the book, it was just too long. Too many characters…. Lots of them making bad choices & there was just *too much drama* Almost as if the author was trying to stuff as many characters as possible into the story & then connect them in far-fetched ways. And I know it was written during Covid quarantine but I didn’t need to read so much about it.

I think three stars is being generous.
I already don’t begin a Jennifer Weiner book with terribly high expectations; I’ve read enough to know what to expect. That being said, this one barely lived up to expectations.
This one started okay - a young woman announces her plans to marry her pandemic boyfriend, causing ripples in the family. As it continues, more family members are introduced: her stepmother, her dad, her uncle, her grandmother, her future mother-in-law, along with all of their sordid stories. As it turns out, everybody has a huge bombshell they’re sitting on.
By the end, it went pretty over the top. I mean, what are the chances that everyone has some possible life-altering secret all at the same time? And of course, happily ever afters all around.
Thanks to #netgalley and #atriabooks for this #arc of #thesummerplace in exchange for an honest review.

I have read every book Jennifer Weiner has every written, and besides In her Shoes, this in my favorite. I love multi generational family stories. I love complicated characters. I love how this weaved in “the summer” trilogy so nicely. This was an excellent book.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this incredible arc!!!

I really loved this read! Speaking on a large family during the pandemic and after which was so relatable. I think everyone can remember this beginning time. Quickly, the reader learns of Eli's daughter Ruby's engagement. However things are not quite so cut and dry. Eli has a big secret that could ruin everything and it's intense and entertaining to see how this plays out.

This story is character driven and it's within these characters that the true beauty of this author's storytelling lies. So unique and vivacious, I felt like I intimately knew some of these people by the end.

I highly recommend this! Out May 10th!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this advance copy. I have loved this author’s previous books, but this one just wasn’t for me. I think the pandemic heavy start to the book set a bad tone for me personally. I just wasn’t ready to revisit that time quite yet, and I think if I picked this book up again in another year or two, I might feel differently about it. I liked the different POV chapters (although if the chapters were shorter, it might have helped the pacing a bit). I think this was just a case of bad timing for me, and I will still be excited to pick up whatever Weiner writes next.

The SUMMER PLACE is a classic Jennifer Weiner beach read, but with a shifted perspective, a depth I think that not all of her beach themed novels have held. A direct result, I feel, of the pandemic and how it has changed all of us, even the characters within the story. It’s an escapist story with deep layers. I felt it had a bit of a slow start, but once it hit its stride as the family all came together on the Cape, I really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the book for the most part, I liked the characters, and they were well written, there is just a lot going on all at one time and with quite a few characters it was a little hard for me to concentrate and keep up. I think if you don't overthink the book then this is a good beach read.

Jennifer Weiner always writes highly anticipated summer reads, but this one seemed more similar to Mrs. Everything, an older book outside of her "summer set." I enjoyed it, but would have loved more time in the summer beach setting (this really is not a beach book, regardless of the cover!). The pacing in general felt a little off--the wedding really didn't come into play until the less 10%, and there was about 100 pages too much build up before hand. Overall, a solid family drama, but truly not the beachy, wedding read it was marketed as.

This is a completely crazy family drama story, which requires a lot of background info in the beginning, but all necessary to connect the dots. I thought my family was effed up, but this family is worse and it is SO entertaining! An almost-perfect summer read! My only criticism is that the ending felt repetitive.

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

The Summer Place is definitely a beach read -- it's a light, quick read with twists, turns, and secrets (lots of them). When Ruby Danhauser announces her engagement, we're introduced to all of Ruby's family (both blood and step) as well as those individuals tied to the family through various situations.

And pretty much everyone has a secret (some new and some decades old), but like most beach reads, you know that eventually all secrets will be revealed or at least the situations will be resolved. I'd have to say that many of the characters weren't the most likeable and relationships definitely got complicated -- with a fair amount of sex thrown in -- but with each chapter devoted to a particular character, it was easy to keep everyone straight.

While not the most satisfying read, it was fun, nonetheless. I'd like to thank #NetGalley and the publisher for providing an electronic ARC for my review.

This one was just a no for me. There were way too many characters to keep up with. Each chapter, a new character was introduced. And if they already appeared in a previous chapter, I had forgotten about them. I didn’t like the writing style, it felt like nothing really happened for most of the book. Thank you Netgalley, unfortunately I would not recommend this one.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Another winner by the author. I really enjoy Ms. Weiner's novel's and this one did not disappoint.

The story follows a blended family and their issues that they have endured over the years. There were a couple of aha/twists during the story so it really kept things interesting.

Would recommend to anyone who has enjoyed this author's books in the past and a good story about family.

Like many readers, I am a diehard fan of Jennifer Weiner’s. I have read all of her other books and this one did not disappoint. There are many twists and turns and a boatload of secrets. The perfect beach read! I love Cape Cod and this brought it a bit closer since I live thousands of miles away on the west coast. Any of Weiner’s readers will welcome this next installment of the Cape books. They are fun, a little sad and hugely entertaining. Two thumbs up from me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read the ARC. A very enjoyable read!

This might be my favorite Jennifer Weiner book.

The Summer Place takes place at the end of the first covid year, when life started to find a "normal" again, and for this family, that "normal" was going to start with Ruby, the daughter in the family, getting married.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints: Sarah, Ruby's stepmom, who is trying to figure out her marriage to Eli, who is too distracted to notice his marriage is falling apart; Ruby, who thinks her fiance is good enough; Sam, Sarah's twin brother who was recently widowed and is rediscovering himself; Ronnie, Sarah & Sam's mom, who lives on Cape Cod, and is looking forward to hosting the wedding before she sells her house; as well as a few others. The author does an exceptional job developing the characters in this book in a way that even when you disagree with them, you can't help but love them. The Summer Place shows us that every perfect person in every perfect family isn't as wonderful as they seem, and we all have something that we aren't sharing. Some of those "somethings" are bigger than others.

This was the perfect summer read, family drama, and it has plenty of steamy scenes. I read most of the book in one day because once I got started, I couldn't put it down!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Summer Place was about a family preparing for their daughter’s wedding. Each of the characters harbored a deep secret. At times, the way the characters lives intertwined was so outlandish it was almost comical or zany, but yet the issues they were grappling with were very deep. This read very much like a modern retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In the acknowledgements section at the end of the book, Jennifer Weiner revealed that this book was in fact inspired by Shakespeare in part. She also mentioned that she wrote this book in late 2020-early 2021, and that sadly, in spring 2021 her mother passed away. This all gave me a lot of context as to what she was going through while writing this book, and explained why it read differently than her other books. I am a Jennifer Weiner stan, and I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

the crux of this novel is no one is truly who you think they are — everyone contains multitudes — and everyone carries secrets. Jennifer Weiner who is my neighbor here in Philadelphia writes these compulsively readable novels about people’s lives. I wouldn’t say she writes about the minutiae (which I find most interesting); she excels at describing the choices people make when faced with something deeply alarming or life-changing.

The Summer Place is great because every character is facing a big change, of their own design or one that comes up and bites them. The use of various perspectives gives texture to the story about several generations and branches of a family as they prepare to converge for a wedding on Cape Cod. I won’t say much about the issues they’re facing, but they run the gamut from compelling to unbelievable (and I mean unbelievable: there are two coincidences to top all coincidences that I struggled to get on board with).

Overall this was a great summer read, lots to chew on, and Jennifer very accurately captures some of the pandemic times stressors. Not everyone can go out and rent a studio apartment to get some “me time” so some of these details aren’t relatable to most.

On a persona level I appreciated all the Cape Cod details because my family spent summers there while I was growing up. We weren’t richies or Pond People. #truroforever I’m glad the author didn’t mention Jams, my family hates that place.

The Summer Place followed a multi-generational family who had spent various summers at their house on the coast. Like the rest of us, this very relatable family has struggle through the last couple of years of the pandemic, but are looking forward to getting together to celebrate a wedding. The author does a great job developing the characters into relatable and flawed humans, as well as weaving together their dramas. I really enjoyed the occasional pages told from the houses point of view and wish we could have heard more from her perspective.