A book that makes an island the main protagonist.
Ben lost his wife and doesn't want to deal with any relatives or the shiva in the city so he escaped to their home on Fire Island. Matty and Dylan have been together for a few summers. They had a summer romance. As soon as Dylan was on the ferry boat, she would text Matty and he would meet her at the dock. They were inseparable all summer on the island. Everyone knew everyone and gossip ran rampant amongst the town but Julia loved her island and she was happy to have one last summer here, even if she wasn't really there.
This story is told some of you point of Julia who is passed away recently and it's following her grieving husband best friend Renee and her neighbor around the island and making sure that everyone is ok after she is gone. As she tells the story we get many stories about Fire island and how people fall in love, get divorced and heal.
This book was very poignant, humorous and heartfelt. It really lets you in to why Julia and Ben picked Fire Island as their home and how much the island loved its own. Its the kind of novel that will stay with me for quite awhile.

This was such a special heartwarming and magical story. Character development was great and I felt a real connection to them. It’s the perfect beach bag read.

This is the perfect beach read that also happens to have a beach setting. It's a love story of sorts about a book editor, Julia, who falls in love with and marries an author, Ben. What makes this story different is that Julia is dead and telling the story of what happens that first summer Ben goes to their home on Fire Island (Long Island NY), by himself. Yes, it's about love and loss and is quite sad at times but there are also laugh out loud moments over the summer as Ben starts to heal from his loss. I also fell in love with Ben, his neighbors, and the Fire Island summer lifestyle.

This is a beautiful story about moving on after grief. You will fall in love with the characters of this story just as I did!!!!!!! I laughed, I cried a little bit, and felt happiness for these characters. This is an amazing story and possibly my favorite of the year.

I know some of you will stop right now when I tell you the main character of Jane L. Rosen’s novel, On Fire Island, died of cancer. That’s not a spoiler. Julia Morse is the narrator of the book, and she starts the story at her funeral. But, cancer will be a trigger for some readers, so I wanted to get it out of the way immediately.

Julia Morse was a book editor, and she landed the author she always wanted, Benjamin Morse. She read his first manuscript, but didn’t have the clout to get her oily boss to buy it. When she finally met Ben, they were both shy, but she privately fangirled over him. They eloped to avoid her mother’s plans for a big wedding, and they were married almost ten years when she died.

Julia knew Ben would be lost. He agreed to sit shiva for seven days, but he couldn’t even handle the crowds at their house, and he took their dog and escaped. Julia knew where he was heading, and she wanted one last summer at Bay Harbor on Fire Island. So, like Ben, she caught the ferry. No one expects to die at thirty-seven. A summer of Fire Island will give her one last season with the people she loves.

Julia recounts her love of the island. Now, she can observe Ben as he mourns, her best friend, Renee, after the brutal breakup of her marriage, and two teenagers experiencing summer love. Then, there’s Shep, the eighty-year-old man from across the street who has moved into Ben and Julia’s house, mourning his own wife. He’s one step ahead of Ben, and together they get through every day, sometimes with music and laughter, sometimes drowning their tears. Julia tells of a small community where everyone knows each other, roots for the local baseball team, shops at the only market in town. The gossip isn’t a secret, but people can choose to laugh at it, or cry.

Although the narrator is dead, On Fire Island is actually just a summer beach read with a few losses, disappointments, and successes. There’s also several hilarious scenes. It’s a story of mourning, and learning to get on with life despite loss. It’s obvious the author shares her love of a community and an island, and shares a few secrets with her readers. If you can move beyond Julia’s death (Julia does), it’s an enjoyable beach read.

I love Jane Rosen's previous novels, so when I saw her new title "On Fire Island", I grabbed it. I didn't really read what it was about, but assumed it was a beach read. Well...it is sort of a beach read, but with a twist. It was so much better that I dreamed it could be.

"And I left this world, after just thirty-seven years in it, convinced I would be heading toward another. Between the two worlds it turned out, there was one last summer...on Fire Island."

On Fire Island is told from the point of view of Julia. We learn the story of Julia and her novelist husband Ben Morse. Julia passes away from ovarian cancer and gets to spend one last summer on Fire Island observing her husband and her closest friends. Ben escapes sitting shiva in NYC and heads to their island home. It is here that Ben feels most comfortable as he tries to deal with his grief. Ben is joined by Shep his 80-year-old neighbor who recently lost his wife, and Matty, a teenager coping with his parents' divorce. The three form an unlikely trio as they navigate the summer as a found family.

This was such a heartwarming story about hope, faith and resiliency of humans. It is a truly beautiful novel, that makes you think about life, death, and how so many people's experiences can be interconnected.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this great story.

I really liked On Fire Island - it was a lovely gem of a book. Sweet, but not too sweet, and always with the edge that the main character is, you know, dead. I loved the idea that we get to stick around to see what happens to our loved ones after we are gone, and the impact our lives made on them. Definitely will recommend to those looking for a light-ish, but not romance heavy, summer beach read.

I had a run of great books set on Fire Island and my third and final this month was this one. Julia was only thirty-seven when she died after a battle with cancer, but she’s not quite ready to go. This novel is told from her point of view as she “follows” her husband to their Fire Island home after Julia’s funeral. She spends the summer keeping an eye on him, following the friends they’ve made on the island over the years, and trying to come to terms with her own death.
I love @janelrosen and her beautiful writing. I went in to this book without even reading the synopsis knowing I’d love it, and I was a little surprised when I realized what it was about. The cover looks like a beach read, but death didn’t seem like a light subject. But this book was perfect. Despite the undertones of grief, it was a book about hope and healing, about moving on without letting go, and it was so lovely.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

What if when faced with death you get a chance to live one more summer? What would you do? This was a good book and I enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

I loved On Fire Island so much that I read it within 2 days! Jane's writing makes you feel like you live on fire island...I could picture the island, the ferry, the baseball field and ultimately had me going to realtor.com to see what houses were like!

On Fire Island tackles grief, the afterlife, inter-generational friendships, community and much more. I fell in love with both Ben and Julia and felt their love throughout the book. I laughed with Shep and could feel the pain of his loss but the strength he had in helping Ben with his grief. All of the characters were not just likeable, but loveable.

This is a must-read for summer, on the beach or literally any time of the year!

ON FIRE ISLAND by Jane L. Rosen may cause you to shed a few tears, but it will certainly surprise you and make you laugh. For a book with a main character, Julia Morse, who dies from cancer at age thirty-seven, it is hilarious! This wonderful celebration of Julia's beloved Fire Island and the many friends who live there is Rosen's best yet (after Nine Women, One Dress; Eliza Starts a Rumor; and A Shoe Story). Thanks in large part to a rabbi friend, Julia is at peace with her death and the funeral, including the poem We Remember Them, is a beautiful tribute. Unusually (or not, who knows?), Julia is then somehow able to observe her husband, Ben, as he leaves Shiva and heads for their cottage (the "Love Shack") on Fire Island. There, he learns to cope with grief accompanied by curmudgeonly neighbor Shep, who is in his 80's and has recently lost his own wife. Their adventures are often joined by sixteen-year-old Matty, son of Julia's best friend, Renee. The inter-generational aspect and quiet insights from different life perspectives is one of my favorite parts of this novel which deals with loss of a soulmate, but also loss in other ways - divorce, virginity, and family dysfunction. And yet, in this close-knit community, "There was so much love all around – palpable love." Author Elin Hilderbrand calls ON FIRE ISLAND "an irresistible escape." Enjoy and happy summering!

I had a hard time with this book, I really wanted to love it, especially after seeing so many raving reviews. I think this book was just a case of, it wasn’t for me. I felt like there wasn’t really a plot and that with Julia as the narrator, we were missing out on a-lot of information. I recommend checking out other reviews for this one, I know others loved it!

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Julia Morse is a 37 year old woman totally in love with her husband, Ben and their summers on Fire Island. The story begins with Julia’s death, which might sound morbid, but it is quite an uplifting story. Julia’s soul hangs around for a while, enabling her to watch Ben and all of her friends and family mourn but continue to live, during their summer on Fire Island. The quirky characters such as Shep, an older man sleeping in Ben’s house, after his wife died, which used to be his house, strengthen the story line and offer humor. I highly recommend this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you Berkley for the gifted copy.

On Fire Island is such a great summer read. You have Julia, newly deceased but not crossed over to the other side, following her husband for one last summer in her favorite place - Fire Island. She watches the goings-on of the island until she feels ready to move on.

I loved the side characters in this one, and I think they made the book. Shep is a hoot and his bicycle saga made me laugh so hard. Matty and Dylan's quest for a condom cracked me up too, and their story was just sweet. I mostly loved the baseball game though, because I could just visualize it happening! The author did such a great job describing the setting and the characters, I felt like I was watching everything as I was reading.

Julia's journey to whatever comes next wasn't nearly as sad as I was expecting. I thought it was going to be all about her and a sob story, but it really was a book about the group of friends on the island. Fire Island was almost like a character in itself, and I found myself googling images even though I had a pretty good idea what it looked like.

Very well done, and I'm anxiously awaiting the next book by this author!

This book is recommended to all that want to read a book filled with so much about Fire Island where the author found it to be a magical place.

Julia is dead. Actually, truly dead. But she's not ready to say goodbye just yet.

For one final summer, she watches over Fire Island to make sure everyone she left behind is going to be okay. She watches love stories rise and fall, watches people change their hearts and minds and dreams. But most importantly, she watches her husband catch small glimpses of what life will be without her.

This book landed in my inbox at the worst or maybe the best time for me. I wouldn't say I'm in the best mood to be reading about the end of life. But this book turned out to be so hopeful despite its tragedy - a reminder that just because lives end doesn't mean memories have to.

I needed this book, and I hope if you need it, you'll find it comforting too.

A story based on Fire Island in New York, told through the eyes of a newly deceased 37 year old. She wants to spend the summer on the island she’s always loved instead of going on after death. As the story unfolds you see how she has affected not only her husbands life, but her friends and neighbors as well. Grief is a unique topic. It’s not always sad. You still laugh while sad, you still live your life, and you grieve as well. A poignant, touching, character rich story that touches on death, cancer, divorce, growing into adults, and more.

📖𝙊𝙣 𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙄𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙
✍🏻Jane L. Rosen
🗓️5.23.23
💘Women’s Fiction, Romance
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

In hopes of busting my reading slump, and trying about ten different books, #OnFireIsland was the winning read that did the trick.

I loved A Shoe Story, and was so excited to read this.

Once again, I loved Jane’s beautiful writing and instantly connected to the characters. The book is narrated by 37-year-old Julia after her sudden death, as she watches her loved ones as they grieve her death, and try to overcome loss.

I thought it was a unique take, using death as part of the story of love, friendship, and having one last Summer on Fire Island to be with her husband in spirit, try to move forward.

The story brought so many laughs, which you wouldn’t expect from a book that includes a death, but I absolutely loved it!

🎧 I both read and listened to the audiobook, and really enjoyed the narration performance!

𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵
🏖️beautiful island setting
🤝themes of friendship
✡️Jewish rep
💔themes of grief, loss and love

Thank you @berkleypub @berkleyromance and Netgalley @prhaudio #gifted

The afterlife. What is it really? This ever present question competes with time itself. Even if your personal belief mirrors someone else’s, your visions are most likely dissimilar…comparable to Edmund Wilson’s quote, “no two persons ever read the same book”. This book isn’t about whether or not there is an afterlife. It’s a love story about an untimely death and the ability of the deceased to spend time with her loved ones for one final summer.

Narrated by Julia after her death, this is a story of friendship, love, and the lasting impact one person can have on so many others. Julia chooses to spend one last summer on Fire Island, witnessing the grieving process and private actions of her husband and closest friends. Not only does she see how much she was truly loved, she bears witness to their emotional growth and preparation for a life without her.

I couldn’t put this one down and finished it in a day! I listened to the audio and Emily Lawrence had me cracking up with her spot-on narrative! This cast of characters is definitely unique and I feel she gave each of them the voice they deserve!

I know, so far, I’ve made this sound like a heavy read but it’s totally not! The author mixes in humor, sarcasm, and a little teenage angst to lighten it up and it works perfectly! I’m recommending this book to everyone who has ever lost someone, loves a feel-good beach read, and enjoys a game of backyard baseball every once in a while.

Thank you to Berkley for the advanced copy of this book!

On Fire Island is the story of a woman, Julia, who tragically passes away from cancer only to spend one last summer looking over her newly widowed husband and their circle of friends and family grappling with her death while on Fire Island for the summer. My heart. Oh my heart. Such a fabulous book about grief, friendship, love, moving forward and the profound impact that one person has on a whole group of people. It was so endearing with humor smattered throughout and a very entertaining and lovable cast of characters on the island. A story of letting go and resilience but not forgetting. Instead taking the memories and the love and using it as you plunge ahead.