A delight of a book! I laughed, I cried, I felt seen. If you want to read something light, but meaningful and to feel understood, don't miss this one!

Sandwich is a slice of summer life in a family that yearly vacations in Cape Cod. Rocky fondly remembers when her children were younger and needed her more. She has excellent and open relations with her children, but as she goes through menopause, she sometimes misses the way things used to be and when everyone needed her more. One snippet that rang true to life was her keeping up with everyone's doings by what they were ordering on her Amazon account.

What I liked about the book most was the witty dialogue and characters that really jumped off the page. The character of Rocky felt very real, if a little angsty. She didn't annoy me as much as she seemed to some of the reviewers.

Where the book fell short for me was the plot. The storyline was very thin to me, and while the good writing kept me going to the end, the story itself didn't.

Thank you to NetGalley, Catherine Newman, and Harper Collins for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Parts of this were charming and moving — it’s rare to read a book from the perspective of a menopausal woman who is so unapologetic about her needs and feelings. And the discussion of reproductive choices and regret was nuanced and powerful. But lots of the narrator’s quirks, which I suspect I was meant to find endearing, were just baffling and exhausting and off putting. And that in turn made it hard for me to care about some of the bigger emotional reveals. So, mixed bag.

While I quite enjoyed the ambiance and setting of this book, I was distracted and annoyed at some of the opinions of the matriarch and disagreed with some of the flippant opinions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper for the complimentary e-copy of this book.

Rocky looks forward to the week her family spends in a tiny Cape Cod rental every year. She's now approaching menopause and is juggling hot flashes with her two adult children who have moved away from home but are still young enough to need their mother. Every family has secrets, and Rocky learns to prepare herself for openness and change while accepting the things she cannot undo.

I wasn't sure about this book at first--I couldn't quite tell where the plot was going and some of the humor didn't quite land with me. But by the end, it turned into a beautiful story about womanhood, female bodies, and family. I still do not think I grasped the full range of emotions the author had in mind due to the fact I am not a mother, but nonetheless, this book still had me laughing and crying. This is a quick read if you are still nostalgic for summer!

This is an enjoyable, easy summer read—quick and undemanding. It's a great example of modern women’s fiction, offering more than just light entertainment. The title "Sandwich" plays on two ideas: the Cape Cod town where the story is set and also symbolizes the narrator's role in her family, caught between caring for her aging parents and her almost-adult children, much like a sandwich with too many ingredients.
The long-standing tradition of summer vacations on the Cape provides a nostalgic backdrop, with both humorous and poignant moments. I found myself drawn to the universal themes of family ties, generational responsibility, and the bittersweet nature of change. Though a short read, you will relate to many of the characters.

3.5 stars . I enjoyed the cape cod content, though unfortunately most of it consisted of made up places and such. This book overall kept my interest. However, at times it saddened me , made me anxious, and even a couple times annoyed me.

This went right down the middle for me.
There were parts that tugged at my emotions and really left me relating or thinking of similar instances but the mom POV was very hard for me.
I'm a mom, not of teenagers but adolescents and she just read very immature and annoying at times, definitely felt more of an older generation...like an late 80's helicopter, less social parent.
I understood her wanting to keep things to herself, her views on her children as adults and sort of teaching them to see parents as not just parents but humans as well.
I really didn't enjoy her lashing outs at her husband, it honestly was kind of triggering to read growing up with an angry adult household.
The narrator was very easy to read, the writing style was breezy but didn't lack importance. I just didn't find it was marketed properly is what it comes down to... it isn't a beach read or even a summer read just because the cover is shown as such.
I take a cape trip every year with my family, sometimes two, and some of it sort of went along but it was sometimes just hard to overlook the annoyance in some parts to really see the messages within.

Poignant, relatable, and right on time for this current stage of my life. Made for a really lovely and perfect summer read for me.

Thank you to Harper, NetGalley and the author for this wonderful ARC.

This is the story of a family over the years during their annual vacation to Cape Cod. The kids are getting older and so are Rocky’s parents. She’s going through menopause and reflecting on her marriage to Nick. It’s a new era for their family and motherhood.

I enjoyed this book although I’m in a much different place than Rocky is. I have a baby that’s just born and I understand her feelings of being overwhelmed at times. It’s a really beautiful look at what’s it’s like to be a parent. I also love Cape Cod and go every summer. It’s truly my happy place.

Terrific on audiobook- the narrator captures the characters well. Newman provides realistic portrayals of the ups and downs of marriage and parenthood while maintaining witty humor. Willa is especially hilarious. CW: reproductive needs

Newman's latest is a quiet meditation on family, living in the present with an eye toward the past and the future. I enjoyed the setting and her characterizations very much. I could see her writing more about this cast in future books. Will recommend.

4.25 stars
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this as an ARC. I truly loved this book. I felt like the author climbed into my brain and into my family and wrote a book. I saw so much that was familiar in this book. I don’t know how to describe exactly what this book is about- on the surface it is about a family’s yearly trip to the same place on Cape Cod. But below the surface it is about being a mother, a wife, a person. It is about loving so much it hurts, grief, the constant fear and joy of being a parent- and of watching your own parents age. I laughed out loud at a few lines in this book. There is humor and love and grief. I’m glad I read it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this title. I didn't hate it but I definitely didn't love it. Solid three stars for me.

This book is just ok. It has the potential to be really good but it just fell flat for me. I am menopausal so I could identify with the main character's issues but the relationship she had with her children seemed a little far fetched. It's a quick read but not one that I would recommend.

I really liked the mom in this book, but I felt like there was something missing. It was very good, but had then potential to be great, but it fell short. I wanted more.

FRANTIC - I kept hearing that word as I was reading, about how much she loved her children, how menopause was driving her to distraction, how her husband couldn’t really fathom it. I wished for just a tiny little bit of calm and quiet. Can you really be so ruined by love - there are enough things written about it including a large part of this book so I can be convinced.

Told in chapters of when her children are each of a certain age, Rocky is all over the place and I got it - she talks about motherhood - being so “anxious and really tired, …. always with a heavy feeling of potential loss. Preemptive grief”. It takes her children to anchor her to the world. There is a dark secret that keeps bubbling up and pushed down and swirling around, it is causing Rocky to crack into fragments and that is what I had so much trouble resolving.

On their annual summer vacation to Sandwich, Cape Cod, MA, in a tiny summer rental, Chicken, their cat is “honking up a hairball”, Rocky’s children are sleeping on the floor, her elderly parents are about to arrive bearing whitefish salad in a cooler bag, to spend their “strict two night policy” and her husband is scared Rocky is going to leave him. Just another day in the life.

I liked it, just didn’t love it but rounding up for the writing, humor and self-reflection. Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for a copy.

I might be bias, as the Cape is one of my most favorite places and family sagas and shared spaces tend to open us up to both observe and absorb. There is something about family sagas set in the Cape that offer the deep unraveling of human dynamics and Newman doesn't disappoint with "Sandwich" I was carried away. A great read!

This was a hilarious and "over the top" summer vacation read. Always love books set on cape cod. This family is "one hot mess," and it's a summer of facing their family history and secrets.

This is the book of the summer. It’s impactful, makes you think, and will completely consume you in the best way. The cover is the perfect representation of it.