I really have no idea how to review this book. It was like something i have never read before. The storyline and characters were indeed unique. The stories were so crazy you really had no idea what was coming next, and would never expect it. It was so bizarre I had to finish it. I still dont know what to think of it.

This is a Family Drama/Women's Fiction. I was really excited about this book, but it really let me down. I just could not get into this book. There were way to many characters with way to much going on. I think that if this book focuses on one or two characters than a boat load I would have enjoyed it. The storyline/plot felt too jumpy because there was way too much going on. I received an ARC of this book. This review is my own honest opinion about the book like all my reviews are.

The Summer Place
By Jennifer Weiner

An Engaging And Messy Family Drama

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
Veronica Levy Bought a summer home on Cape Cod Bay forty years ago with the hope of large family gatherings for many years to come. But with her son, Sam, now in California and her daughter Sarah rarely spending any time at the cape, she decided to sell the old place. But the house has some thought about that idea. After all, the house knows things good and bad about this family over the years, and she is not quite ready for them to let her go.

When Veronica’s granddaughter Ruby announces her engagement Veronica agrees to host the wedding at the beach house. She feels the wedding celebration would be the perfect endpoint before putting the house on the market to sell.

When the wedding day arrives, secrets come to life, new relationships are formed, misunderstandings abound, and revelations that will touch every family member are discovered.


REVIEW
THE SUMMER PLACE is an engaging but messy family drama of love, sacrifice, and forgiveness. It’s a story of children and parents and husbands and wives. The story introduces a diverse array of colorful characters and issues. From child abandonment and sexuality to infidelity and illness; all bases are covered in this expansive novel.

Author Jennifer Weiner juggles multiple plot threads in this skillfully written but complicated read told from seven different perspectives. This is no light beach read; it’s full of substance and suspense.

Weiner is an American writer, television producer, and journalist. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and her most recent novels include Big Summer (2020) and That Summer (2021). Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


Publisher Atria Book
Published May 10, 2022
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

"You think you know someone"

I love Jennifer Weiner. Mrs. Everyhing is one of my favorite books. So I was ecstatic when I was approved for this advance copy.

It was what I anticipated to read but also not at the same time if that even makes sense. The cover, I think, is misleading, This is not a lighthearted, fluffy beach read as the cover suggests. It is a messy, family drama. I loved getting to know all the members of this dysfunctional family and the supporting characters- Ronnie, Sarah, Eli, Ruby, Gabe, Sam, Rosa and Annette- through impeccably developed backstories and feel like I truly know these people.

I loved how messy and tangled the relationships got. I was initially bothered by all the infidelity but I am not the morality police here. These characters are imperfect humans and everyone has secrets, everyone makes mistakes, Most of the issues between the couples, mainly Sarah and Eli's issues could have been solved if they communicated better. But I got why Eli's secret was too big to share with his wife. And, although, it took some self-reflection, I was able to see Sarah's side of things. Being stuck at home with a partner during the pandemic was a trying experience for most of us and some marriages weren't left unscathed.

Ronnie and Sarah's conversation on the Cape house "the marriages can survive a lot of things" talk, the "it was not even about the other man, it was about how he made me feel" talk ,even brief, was the highlight of the book for me.

I wanted to see more of the Cape Cod setting because Cape is one of my favorite places. The "pond people" sections reminded me a lot of Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace.

I enjoyed the part 3 the most because the catalyst of this story was the wedding of Ruby and Gabe and everything came full circle and all the detailed backstories and personal perspectives paid off. In the end, I think The Summer Place was a juicy family drama that most could enjoy. I have to say though it could have been a tad shorter :)

This is the first book I’ve read by Jennifer Weiner and I have to say this was an inciting read.

First and foremost there are A LOT of characters in this book. This is the story of a large blended, Jewish family and Jennifer manages to make them each whole enough to be memorable and have individual personalities.

The central plot revolves around Ruby and her upcoming wedding to Gabe and the family coming together at her wealthy grandmothers lavish summer home in Cape Cod for the wedding. This is all taking place about a year after the Covid-19 lockdown and there are many references to this throughout the novel.

The chapters cycle through focusing on different family members, while slowly unraveling their tightly woven spider-web of secrets.

There was one secret that by the time it was revealed the THIRD person was hiding this same thing, I was rather annoyed.

Eli’s secret and lack of transparency particularly bothered me as it had the potential to effect other people negatively and the longer it went without being communicated the more it bothered me, as it was entirely selfish without thinking of how this would psychologically impact any other parties involved.

These characters are entirely believable, complex human beings full of real emotion including both hope and sorrow. The summertime beach-side setting and captivating readability make this an excellent choice for the book you pull out while laying ocean adjacent and soaking up the sun. I will definitely check out more books from Jennifer Weiner in the future.

Thank You NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m so conflicted on this review. On one hand I think it would be great for zoning out while sitting on the beach. On the other hand I didn’t find it super engaging .

When Ruby gets engaged, three generations of family secrets are forced to come to the surface. All of the secrets are so outlandish and the pure amount of coincidences that would need to happen to make these come true is ridiculous. I’d be more inclined to believe the coincidences if this was taking place in a small town but instead it takes place in NYC. While I believe we live ‘in a small world’, I just couldn’t get on board with the main ‘coincidence’ in the story.

We have quite a few characters in this story and each has major secrets they’re hiding that quickly come to a head when Ruby and Gabe get engaged. On Ruby’s side we have her father Eli, who is quickly folding in on himself. This in turn causes Ruby’s step-mother, Sarah, to begin doubting her relationship with Eli. The lack of communication between the two is mind blowing, and the decisions Sarah specifically makes based on her anger is hard to digest. Then we have Sarah’s brother, Ari and her mother Veronica, who are both harboring massive secrets as well.

In addition we have Gabe’s mother who hasn’t lived in NYC since Gabe was born, but has a secret that ties her to Ruby’s family.

Phew, building that though train without spoilers was a struggle. While these are the primary characters, there are half a dozen additional secondary characters as well. Weiner has structured the story so that each chapter centers on a different character. I usually don’t mind a big cast of characters especially when we get everyone’s POV, but there were just too many to keep track of here and there were multiple chapters I felt added little to the story line. The shear redundancy of events in each character’s chapters was a bit tiresome. Ultimately, I ended up not being able to connect with the characters much, which detracted from the story for me.

Realistically I felt there were too many storylines taking place. While not my favorite Jenifer Weiner book, it’s still entertaining enough to read.


The Summer Place comes out May 10, 2022! Huge thank you to Atria for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof_books.

A special thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner

I first start by saying I am a big fan Jennifer Weiner's and have read many of her books, so of course I screeched with joy when I was approved to read her newest book.

I will say though, I was worried about it being another book that is Pandemic drama (I've read quite a few already). However, if you are a JW fan you will enjoy The Summer Place. The complexity of families is at the heart of all of it across the generations. My only issue was the amount of infidelity - so be sure you know the trigger warnings. Overall another solid read by Jennifer Weiner

The Summer Place is a character driven pandemic drama that fans of Jennifer Weiner will enjoy. The complexity of families is at the heart of all of it across the generations. All the infidelity was hard for me to get passed because so much of it hit home.

I don't know why Jennifer Weiner is always marketed as a summer read. This book, while it has Summer in the title, is not a quick fluffy summer read.

This is a study in character development and it is flawless from that aspect. The plot gets a bit muddied about half way through, but overall this is an excellent read.

Sarah Danhauser is the anchor character of this novel, with everyone else's issues stirring like a cyclone around her.

Jennifer Weiner never disappoints. The perfect poolside/beachside/vacation read with classic chick lit vibes.

I have enjoyed many books by Jennifer Weiner in the past, but this one is an exception. Massive dense paragraphs stuffed with information is more tell than show and not my personal cup of tea. Conversation is so scant that it seems like you are constantly searching for what the reply followed. It can be back a way. The characters failed to engage me positively. The stories revolve around two families bound together by secrets. A cheating husband with multiple marriages in his history is the father of a young woman planning to wed the son of a woman who deceived him into providing money for an abortion for a pregnancy conceived before the deceit. She remembers him because he gave her a business card; he remembers sex with her so fondly he recreates it with his current wife who, unknowing believes he’s simply keeping up marital intimacy. The groom to be is the unaborted child that the father of the girl believes to be his son. The action takes place during Covid quarantining so everyone responds not only to their unbelievable dilemma but also to the tension from being in forced proximity. A complex story which may appeal to some.

Thoroughly enjoyable summer read about a family that gathers for a wedding. It seems as though everyone has a secret of some sort and when they come out, everyone is changed for ever. There is a cameo by one of the characters in Jennifer Weiner's last book. Fans of her work will love it.

Jennifer Weiner is consistently one of my favorite authors, since all the way back in her "Good in Bed" days. I think I have read every book she has ever written.

"The Summer Place" didn't really grab me though. I found some threads of it interesting but by and large I just didn't feel invested in the story or characters like I usually do.

I give this book a 3.5 but being that it is a Jennifer Weiner, I round it up to four. :)

This book surprised me in the best way! I loved The Summer Place. Stories about family, love, loss, and relationships. Set in the days/weeks/months when we thought we were beginning a 'return to normal' after pandemic lock downs The Summer Place was relatable on so many levels. As a stepmom, as someone who struggled with relationships during the lock down and post pandemic to the way we wished life would have been and trying to find peace with what is. This book was surprising, with the stories grasping my attention and leaving me unsure of what path each character would take, but sensing somehow it would work itself out. Highly recommend this new novel by Jennifer Weiner!

This was my first Jennifer Weiner book and it was good! I really enjoyed the ride she took her readers on. Her writing is really well done and descriptive. I felt like I was in the house on the Cape even though I’ve never been there.
The story was entertaining and definitely kept your interest but I didn’t really like any of the characters. I understand that they were all deeply flawed people like we all are but man did they all have to make the same mistake? I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give the story away.
This is a really good beach read about a family that has many secrets, that loves each other deeply but they have some seriously communication and honestly issues.

Love the book! Thanks for the invitation to read it. Great character development! I loved that I didn’t have a hard time keeping characters straight. That often happens to me when I read a book with such a large cast of characters, but the author did a wonderful job here.

I was really excited when I saw Jennifer Weiner was coming out with another book as I thoroughly enjoyed Big Summer. I was hoping The Summer Place would be a sequel to it or something similar, so I was a little thrown off when it wasn't. That is my fault, as I didn't read the synopsis before I started.

However even with that being said, I thought that this book was not Weiner's best work. I thought that the story was trying to stay relevant with COVID, but the references and the "ugh, life" of it was just a little over the top. I appreciated that it wasn't a cookie-cutter "we fell in love and got married!" kind of story, and it ended up being more about a young woman figuring out who she is.

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

THE SUMMER PLACE - So many bad choices, so many lies, so much cheating… makes for one BIGGGG family drama story, and I’m just not sure this one was for me. I felt it was just full of bad people, and I LOVE Jennifer Weiner, so that really pains me to write 😭

The drama was just too much and far too many coincidences and told from SO many different point of views, I struggled and found some parts repetitive 🤷🏻‍♀️

To be blunt this book was simply not a good fit for me.🤦🏻‍♀️

Ruby is about to marry her quarantine boyfriend. Thrown together through the Covid outbreak they came out the other side wanting a life together. But they’re quite young (early 20’s.) Are they really ready for this next stage in life?

Are their families happy for them? Well? On the surface…perhaps. But deep down each family member is dreading the day for their own reasons.

This family gave new meaning to the word dysfunctional!

All the characters were unlikable, shallow and selfish...except for the children. The adults (and I use that term loosely) all needed to take a step back and think of someone other than themselves.

This was my first book by this author, and likely my last. I can see we just weren’t meant to be.🤷🏻‍♀️
Other readers really enjoyed this book so please take a look at all the positive reviews before making a decision. I am very much alone on my outlier-island (once again!) Lol!😎🏝️

A buddy read with Susanne.

Thank you to Atria books via Netgalley and Goodreads Giveaway for a physical copy

Jennifer Weiner is an auto-read author for me and the only author who could get me to read about Covid while we are still in it. Like her other books, The Summer Place is the perfect book to escape with when you are dreaming of summer or to pack in your beach bag.

I was worried with a lot of characters in this book, it would interfere with the flow of the story, but it didn’t. I really liked getting the perspective of each character in their own chapter and the jumping back and forth through timelines.

All of the characters are hiding secrets from each other and as a content warning, there is a lot of infidelity in this book. Some of it comes to light and I feel like there needed to be a more consequences for those characters once it was brought to light.

Despite the infidelity, I liked how despite their flaws, this was a family that was there for each other, regardless of what was happening in their own life. I loved the bond between Sarah and her stepdaughter Ruby. I truly loved the epilogue and was sad to say goodbye to this family when the book was over.