I enjoyed this book, but wow there was a lot going on! While it was a fun read, there was a lot to keep track of and much of it was just not very believable. It was hard to get behind some of the characters because they made decisions that while adding to the drama, did not seem like decisions actual people would make. All of the pandemic/Covid references were fun. Overall, an enjoyable read that I would recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of his book!

Thank you Atria Books and Net Galley for the e-arc of this book!

This is actually my first Weiner novel, but I enjoyed this family drama. It’s very character-driven and at times, does feels long with the chapter style. I enjoyed thoroughly getting to know each character, and each chapter built up to the inevitable eventually happening. It was interesting to see how all of the build-up unfolded at the end! Being familiar with Cape Cod, it was a joy to read about so many places that I recognized as well.

My only dislike was that I don’t think I was particularly attached to any character since there were so many decisions I couldn’t get behind or relate to.

I think that this pandemic-era novel will resonate with many people and look forward to seeing it on shelves in May!

This book was good! It's the third book I have read by her and I was happily surprised that it wasn't her usual love style. It was a great quick read and she is really becoming one of my favorite writers!

Jennifer Weiner is one of my favorite authors of all time. Ever since I read Good In Bed (probably too young but there you have it), I've been hooked and I've read and loved everything she's ever written. I was very grateful to receive an early copy of her latest book, set to publish in May 2022. Reading this book was such an enjoyable experience!

Briefly, this book is about the Levy/Weinberg/Danhauser family, who are getting ready to celebrate a wedding at the site of their family home in Cape Cod. The great thing about this book, is that every single character has a deep, dark secret and I am HERE for it. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will want happy endings for all.

I highly recommend picking up "The Summer Place" as soon as you can. It is truly a delight!

This book had a lot going on but nothing really happening. Let me explain.

With a non-linear timeline following the secrets of multiple characters, I enjoyed the first half of the story of a blended family finding themselves after the Covid pandemic suddenly planning a wedding. Each chapter is told from a different family member's perspective. About halfway through, the book started to lose steam, all forward progression lost. The different perspectives started being repetitive and I found myself bored with the story and frustrated that the characters were doing so little to deal with their issues. 75% through the book I found myself skimming the text. And (SPOILER ALERT) after the second incident of possible accidental incest, I couldn't take it anymore and stopped reading. I didn't like any of the characters and they all had such BIG issues and secrets that they were dealing with and no one was doing anything productive to resolve them! In the end, I found this book to be a big disappointment.

I appreciate the publisher for gifting me an early copy of this book, but sadly I won't be recommending this book to anyone.

Sarah Danhauser is totally caught off guard when her stepdaughter Ruby announces she is engaged to be married and the date is only 3 months away. Ruby has already asked permission from Sarah’s mother, Veronica, to have the wedding at the family beach house in Cape Cod. As the family starts to gather it is apparent that all of them are dealing with their own battles. Veronica faces some very unexpected news. Sarah’s husband, Eli, must confront a lapse of good judgment from years ago. And Sarah faces and unexpected reappearance of someone from her past.

THE SUMMER PLACE is a tale of an imperfect, large family with all of the messy details exposed. Another perfect beach read from expert writer, Jennifer Weiner. I found this to be a quick and easy read with plenty of high drama and interesting twists to keep you fully engaged. The multiple points of view were great and they gave great insight into the characters’ minds. I always look forward to the next Jennifer Weiner book after finishing one up!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway and I received an ARC from Netgalley. This is about a family in post-pandemic life. Every chapter is about a different character. There are a lot of secrets and regrets and Complicated family dynamics. Sometimes it’s a little far fetched, but somehow it all works. There is a little Encanto house element, but that is actually not the most far fetched plot point.

I liked the idea of looking at life with COVID in the rearview mirror… how the stress and trauma and non-stop togetherness left an impact on everyone and in different ways, often exposing cracks in foundations. That being said, this book was way longer than it needed to be. A few times, the same story was told twice, but from different perspectives. I found myself skipping a lot of pages just to get to the point.

Overall, a quick read and I did enjoy it.

Another amazing book by Jennifer Weiner! This is so fun and there are so many moving parts. I loved every character and wanted the best for all of them. (And I was very unsure about if that would even be possible.)

Every book of hers is a favorite of mine and this is no exception. Highly recommended.

I teeter between concluding that this book sought to reinforce that either good people can make bad decisions or, that every person in the universe of this story was a bad person disguised by the guilt that kept them in line throughout long periods of time. Due to my personal opinions which are reinforced by my values as a living, breathing human being in the non-fictional world, I will affirm that people can be innately regarded as good. However, responsibility should be taken for our decisions & if we find ourselves not agreeing with what we chose to do, then we might seek out choices which reinforce who we are trying to be; i.e. mistakes do not define a person completely nor does any one good action pardon a lifetime of pain.

With that being said allow me to introduce you to the array of characters which litter this book with their redundant & flamboyantly ignorant mistakes. The Summer Place is written in three (3) parts, each of which is separated by the advancement of time; the plot moving forward towards the culminating event which is the anticipated wedding between Ruby & Gabe. On the bride’s side we have: Eli (father), Annette (mother), Sarah (step-mother), two half-brothers whose names I cannot recall, Veronica/Ronnie (grandmother), Lee (grandfather), Ari (paternal uncle), Sam (maternal uncle), Connor (cousin). On the groom’s side we have: Rosa (mother), Amanda (aunt). As well, there are an array of tertiary characters such as Connor’s paternal grandfather, father & mother, some past love interests for Sam, Owen, some past love interests for Ronnie, etc. There were a lot of people in this story.

I highlight the number of characters who made appearances in this book not because I found the number obnoxious but rather, for opposing reasons. I really enjoyed the amount of people who came through the pages & brought to the story some form of authenticity. Weiner truly did her utmost to ensure that every character that we knew by name was more than the physical description they were given; these were people who, though for some, we saw only through the eyes of another & in very small doses, were granted enough substance for us to believe that they were living a full life. This is something I want to praise very highly because it was the main reason I kept reading for as long as I did.

This book is centered around a handful of people & Weiner writes a chapter for each of them; they have their first person point of view expressed from a personal standpoint & by so doing we are able to fully grasp their feelings & reactions in a genuine way. I will admit that this method of approaching character dialogue did render the chapters very, very, long. As someone who seeks to finish a chapter before putting down a book, this was a bit of a negative aspect as there were so many pages per chapter that the reading segments really dragged on. Which leads me to my next point.

The redundancy in events was excruciating. Due to there being an obscene number of active characters in this story I will keep my critique centered around a few specific people. Eli, for example, continues to ramble about the possibility of Gabe being his biological child for every chapter which he narrates. This is a man in his 50’s yet we have to read about him questioning the biological connection between him & this other person for the entire story. I highlight his age here because having had, what we can assume as being, a great deal of life experience, one would think that Eli would simply do the math & deduce that Gabe was not his child. Given the fact that we know Gabe grew-up with an impoverished single parent who relied very heavily on the support of her family to raise her child, it’s not far fetched to assume that Gabe would have told Ruby had he been a premature baby. This aspect would have increased the difficulties that he & his mother encountered while she was trying to provide basic needs for her child. As this was never brought-up, ever, & because Gabe is a solid four (4) months younger than Ruby - why do we have to continuously read about a situation which is pointless to dwell on?

Also, if Eli was worried that Ruby was having incestuous relations with a person that could possibly be her biological brother, would it not be more important to tell her to not have sexual relations with this person rather than focus on the ego wound that would ensue from saying that Eli slept with someone else during his relationship with Annette? This leads me to my next point, monstrous self-absorption.

I admit that I wanted to like this character from the very start. She seemed to be well-rounded & held a hopeful view of life. How very unfortunate for me when very early in the book her true colours began to shine through to an extent which made me confused. First of all, Sarah has been married to Eli for 15 years & he uncharacteristically is going through a difficult time emotionally. How do we know this? Because Sarah repeatedly tells the reader that Eli is not as attentive to her & her needs as he was throughout the bulk of their relationship. Are you telling me that the basis to which you calculate the well-being of your life partner is by their ability to be there, uncompromisingly, for you & not,… say, their general overall behaviour towards themselves, their hobbies, their employment, etc? Why is him not being able to emotionally hold the bag for you the reason you’re going to ask him to sleep in another room? Is Sarah so incompetent as a person that she cannot be patient & kind towards the man that she describes as being the ideal partner?

I suppose one might regard this situation as a breadcrumb amongst the loaf. One might say that Sarah is using this marker as an outwards example so that the reader might better understand why she’s so frustrated & why she subsequently jumps at the occasion to have sex with a person she knew when she was 18….yet, I think that’s a load of bull. You do not just abandon the person you claim to love because they’re having a rough time, for the first & only time in over 15 years. Let me highlight that this emotional time was taking place during a pandemic so, one might be in the right to assume that many people were going through difficult times. The fact that Sarah cannot comprehend that Eli is an emotionally complex person, such as herself, & might be having a difficult time expressing his emotions, is frustrating, to say the least.

I really lost full interest in her character when she throws her marriage out the window when Eli does not come out & tell her what is bothering him the first time she asks. We never see her attempt legitimate conversations with him. We read about her wanting to have sex with her husband but never sitting with him while he’s outwardly displaying sentiments of distress. For whatever array of flaws Eli does have, he is a family man & obviously wants to be in the family he has. He deliberately denounces having an affair & yet Sarah cannot comprehend that someone she loves might be sad so, she goes out & decides to do whatever she wants, to serve her own self-interest, rather than put forth any level of effort to be present in the life of someone she’s invested 15+ years with. Wild.

I want to give Sarah the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Owen. As someone who has never been in love I will admit that I cannot possibly speak on her total & all encompassing infatuation with a person she knew over 10 years ago, for a couple months. Yet, I find myself confused about the entire ordeal. How little must you have going on to spend your entire adult life thinking about someone you knew for all of 5 minutes eons ago? Again, maybe I’m just not getting it so perhaps many other readers will come to this point in the story & state that it was wonderfully well-done & that love never leaves the heart; like a memory that haunts the conscience.

I appreciated the way Weiner approached the topic of children; adopted, biological & surrogate (in any way). I appreciated reading a story in which the main focus, throughout all the mass hysteria was to ensure that every child had a fighting chance to be the person they were & not be bogged-down by the issues that every adult person was encountering. This is a very important piece of the plot & a very valuable part of the story. Though I admit that Connor’s storyline was dramatic & incredibly sad, the fact of the matter remains; we saw a person (Sam) sit with himself & seek to provide this child (Connor) with a healthy life in every way possible. It’s important that these dramatic storylines not neglect the fact that children carry the burden of adult problems more frequently than one might like to admit. Seeing adult people try & settle their issues while granting their children the freedom of ignorance, the sentiment of safety & the environment to be a kid, was wonderful & I applaud Weiner for reinforcing that point.

When all is said & done this is a highly dramatic plot. If you do not want to read about a handful of cheaters cheating on their partners, exploring their sexuality, having children, experiencing death, working through familial relationships, talking about personal issues, etc; I would advise you to steer clear. This is a story that packs a heavy punch. There is a lot going on & people don’t always (or nearly ever) act in logical ways. Everything is overblown, people don’t always seek to express themselves & things get lost in the sauce, which I admit is one thing I truly dislike about stories (point finale). However, Weiner is a good author. Every character had a distinct voice, the scenes were clearly set & the imagery was detailed & all encompassing. It was evident that this author put in effort into ensuring that, however flawed her characters were, they were real people in this story & we got a true glimpse into their lived realities.

Sure, many of the things that happened in this book were ridiculous. Sarah deciding on a limb to have an affair with someone she hadn’t seen for 10+ years because her husband was closed-off; Sam having sexual relations with Gabe on the night when Ruby left him a break-up note, Rosa ignoring Eli because she can’t be an adult & have an adult conversation; Eli lying to Annette so he could have a child; Annette blaming Eli for birthing a child that she knew she wouldn’t be able to emotionally care for, etc. But, I guess if you can look past some of the more extraordinarily wild things that happen, you might enjoy this book.

As for myself, there was too much of too many random & ignorant things happening for me to forge a connection with any particular character which might leave me feeling fondly about the story itself. I really truly enjoyed the way the book was written & for that, I allocate it’s own star because it was very enjoyable up until about the middle point of Part 2. Regardless of that, this was a weird & interesting, bizarre & enthralling story which would indeed be a good summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books & Jennifer Weiner for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

#TheSummerPlace #NetGalley

This is a gloriously typical beach read sure to entertain fans of authors like Mary Kay Andrews (with a lot more spice), Kristen Higgins, or Susan Mallery. It has a little more hanky-panky (very descriptive) than I like, but the rest of the book is just filled with enough angst, affairs, family secrets, lies, and illness to make a beach-read lover swoon.

Intrigue, the questioning of sexuality, the wokeness, possible incest (or not!), father/or not father. Oh my, I could just keep going on, and that is just the first half of the book!

The last part of this book starts with more adultery, questioning of parenthood, and wedding plans. Then even more adultery.

It is interesting that the author chose to make the pandemic and its aftermath part of the story and to blame a few of the family problems on it.

This book has mostly exceptionally long chapters, which is a bit of a problem for someone like me who just has to read to the end of a chapter before doing anything else!

You might be asking yourself why I didn't give this book a better rating when so many other early reviewers loved it, the fact is that I saw this book for what it was (but this is only MY opinion) and I felt that what it was was a bunch of people that couldn't keep their reproductive organs in their pants. Okay, so some of them weren't lying; they just were volunteering the entire truths!!!

It wasn't a horrible book and as I said it will make someone with a different outlook on life than mine, a wonderful beach read.

Jennifer Weiner's writing continues to get better with every book she writes. "The Summer Place" is proof of that. In a post-pandemic world we read about the struggles of one large blended family. We are also transported back in time to a more nostalgic time to see how the characters are shaped into the people they become today.

I have been a huge fan of Jennifer Weiner’s for many years and have enjoyed her sharp witted, humorous heroines of her earlier novels through to the more edgy, mature women of her later novels. Certainly the last couple have taken on a newer, darker edge and have lost some of that wit, cheek and laughter of her earlier novels. That doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed them just as much, we are all older and I have loved growing older with her characters.
There is a line in this book that has stuck with me since “A mother is only as happy as her least happy child.” How true is this statement! I feel this every time I see my daughters anxiety levels peak or my sons disappointment for a non-perfect score on a test. It doesn’t matter how amazing my day has been, their sadness becomes my sadness. I believe all mothers want to take the pain away and hide their children from the hurt that will inevitably come, That is what the core of this novel is all about.
Weiner has had a tough couple of years and I can’t imagine how it feels to lose a mum.. these losses have given her novels a depth and poignancy that weren’t there before. Her mother and daughter are superb, thoughtfully explored and imperfect as all relationships are.
Bravo to another beautiful read.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Jennifer Weiner is a great writer and I always look forward to her books. While the books always seem to be categorized as "beach reads," he stories and characters are always much more complex. The Summer Place is no different. Taking place in current times, still in the throes of the pandemic but past the worst of the worst (post-vaccine), young Ruby, who spent quarantine living with her parents and new boyfriend, is engaged and getting married at her stepmother's house on the Cape (always love the Cape settings, being from MA!). The announcement leaves a multitude of family members tangled in a web of deceit, secrets, and realities that are forced to face sooner rather later. They all decide the day after Ruby's wedding will be the day they share their secrets, but, as it always does, the truth finds a way to come out before the big event comes. Weiner's latest book is a heartfelt look into the intricacies of not just families but of individuals, and the pressure and consequences of doing things and making decisions in a certain way that fits the conventional path laid out for them.

This started off slow, and the chapters are pretty long. However, it picked up after the middle and there were a few twists that were unexpected which kept me reading.

*Thank you to Jennifer Weiner, Atria books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

'The Summer Place' by Jennifer Weiner explores complicated relationships in many forms; infidelity, bisexuality, motherhood and the messiness of marriage. There are so many layers to this one that sometimes it is hard to keep straight what is actually happening. There is Gabe and Ruby, a young couple right out of college, who decide to get married. Eli and Sarah, Father and Stepmother to Ruby, who are facing their own challenges. And Sam, a new widower, who is questioning his own sexuality. This book had it all; drama, steam, raw relationships, infidelity and a woman facing her own mortality as she tries to bring her family together. A complicated but excellent novel that only Jennifer Weiner could write. What a ride!

My goodness there is a lot of family drama happening in these books. I realize that it’s a fictionalized family, so obviously the drama is going to be a little outside of the ordinary, but literally every family member is hiding a giant, life-changing secret—so many that the plot seems too unbelievable to be real. A family with this many secrets, even with the best of intentions, could not possibly be functional.

That being said, Weiner always brings such life to her characters that you feel like you know them. There were lots of perspectives in this book (probably around 7 POVS) and despite not getting a ton of time with every character, I knew what made them tick and felt like I was somehow part of this crazy family. And despite the length of this book, which took me longer than usual to finish, it didn’t feel like it dragged on at all.

There were two parts that bothered me—and both of these I will not touch in a spoilery way—but the fact that the house was personified was strange to me, though I understand why Weiner did it, and one of the major “truth bombs” that was supposed to be revealed that weekend never got out. We got a resolution about it, sure, but why bother to make it a central part of someone’s story if we’re not going to see it through to the end…

Even though I didn’t love this as much as some of her other work, the characters alone are worth reading and getting to know—just make sure you have many hours to put aside, because it’s a long one.

3.5 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster and Atria Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

When Ruby and Gabe announce that they have set a date for their wedding, Sarah is thoroughly surprised but smiles as a good stepmother should. It will be held at her childhood summer home on Cape Cod. Eli apparently has little to say. The dependable, handsome endodontist - who would normally have an opinion regarding his only daughter getting married at 22 - can barely pay attention to the conversation. Gabe is lovely and has spent a year during the pandemic living with the Danhausers in Brooklyn while he and Ruby finished college online. But Gabe resembles a sweet overenthusiastic puppy with little direction and zero skills unlike Ruby who has always been a determined, focused student. Sarah cannot understand how Eli has changed over the past year. It’s clear they were all getting on each others nerves during quarantine but she and their two young boys have forged ahead while everything Eli does grates on her very last nerve. Wondering whether her husband is having a midlife crisis, an affair or both - Sarah is at her wits end to save their marriage as she plans Ruby’s. Out at the beach Sarah is constantly reminded of the power of first love, the loss of her father and conflicting childhood memories of her own mother. The Cape Cod home, with its big beating heart is at the very center of the Danhausers lives. Three generations face many of life’s difficult decisions and reveal the untold secrets that challenge the true meaning of family. Drama with a dash of humor at its best, another winner by Jennifer Weiner. Available May 10, 2022.

Always a delight to read Jennifer Weiner. She writes the kind of books that cause me to postpone whatever looming chore is hounding me, or to race to an appointment because I thought I could read just a little more before leaving. I found myself waking in the night, and deciding to read just a little more... not because there was a rush to finish, but because I found myself enjoying spending time with this family.

In The Summer Place, we find a real family with a fair share of secrets and dysfunction. The mistakes and secrets are human, normal and relatable. While not as compelling as some of Weiner's other recent work, still fully enjoyable and timely.

Read the acknowledgements.

Jennifer Weiner does it again!

The best way I can describe The Summer Place is family drama on steroids. Centered on the Weinberg-Levy family who summers on Cape Cod, the book jumps from character to character, each of whom has a BIG SECRET. The upcoming wedding of Ruby, the adult stepdaughter of Sarah, is the core event around which the book revolves, but the real magic is learning about the characters and their backstories. Throughout the book are interstitials told from the Cape Cod house's perspective, where the house animates to worry about the dysfunctional family that it has known and loved for generations. And yes, there is a connection to the last Cape Cod book, which is a fun Easter Egg for die-hard Weiner fans. (Wait, are we Wein-hards?).

At first, I was a bit nervous that this book was just going to be too much. The POV of the house struck me as odd at the beginning, and there are a couple of plot divets (not really holes but just...bumps that I felt didn't make a ton of sense) that bothered me in the early chapters. But those were quickly blown to smithereens once I really settled in and let this wild, topsy turvy book take me on its insane ride without resistance. I really feel like this is one of the wildest stories Weiner has ever written and I love how she still manages to surprise me after many years of devouring her books.

I really loved how the book dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic. I am one of those people who enjoys reading fiction set during this awful time period. I guess I just am a glutton for punishment. But it was really interesting how Weiner dealt with the minutiae of having to be in forced proximity to one's family during a pandemic. I can literally hear Eli's orthopedic flip flops going up and down the stairs...

I also loved Sarah and Ruby's relationship, which was a really sweet and realistic portrayal of a stepmom/stepchild relationship. But the character who fascinated me the most was Annette, even though we don't see her very much. Annette is someone who left her child when that child was a baby and I thought Weiner's exploration of a character who is an ineffectual mother was honest, empathetic, and nuanced. Bravo.

This book publishes in May, just in time for beach reading season. Have a blast--I definitely did!

With a house as the central character, Weiner's latest offering returns readers to the Cape for another binge-worthy summer read.

Through multiple points of view, THE SUMMER PLACE explodes with its soapy secrets and exceptional characterizations. The multi-generational family is dynamic and complicated—Weiner is a master at creating authentic, witty, self-depreciating characters. And Shakespeare fans will love the nod to A Midsummer Night Dream.

Riveting and unputdownable, THE SUMMER PLACE is a testament to family, forgiveness, and sacrifice.