This took me a while to really get into, but I’m here glad I stuck with it. The Endicott family dynamics will be relatable to many readers. One important takeaway for me was that you can’t get time back so say what needs to be said or you’ll end up with regret. The ending was sadder than I would have liked, but it was well-written & fit the story.

This book was excellent with multiple POVs - chapters jump to flashbacks and the present. As I read this book, the word that kept coming to mind was "delicious" - the siblings had such rich inner and outer lives, and I was hugely entertained. Really great character development, and I also got to know North Dakota. I highly recommend it to all who want a big literary hug.

If you're a People Magazine reader this one is right up your alley... If you believe that "celebrities, they're just like us" then you will find this book a delightful look into the lives of famous people and how they deal with being recognized by their public. Jennifer E. Smith's novel is about a family of four siblings each of whom is extraordinary. Gemma, the eldest, has pretty much raised Connor now a National Book Award winning author, twins Jude and Roddy, she an (almost) Academy Award Winner and he a (gay) well-known soccer player.

Jude is harboring secrets that have separated the siblings from being in contact for three years The cute and clever theme is the summer trips the four kids have taken with their mostly absentee mother, as they attempt to visit all 50 states. The insider peeks at the private lives of famous people
will tickle the fancies of those who have wondered what it's really like. You know, lots of money, clothes, assistants, travel agents, private jets and stuff like that.

But Smith knows her target audience and provides a fast-moving and fun-packed story with cute kids and freezing cold snow. If you are so moved, you may find yourself teary. If not, it's a fast page turner of a read. Thank you for an early copy to Net Galley and Random House/Ballentine.

This book was so messy. The writing style was so hard to get used to. I read the author’s previous published book and I enjoyed it. But I had really hard time with this one.

This was my first time reading a book by this author and it won't be the last!
I really, really liked how the author balanced family drama, some delicate topics, and sense of humour altogether.
Also loved the alternate chapters between the present (with multiple POVs) and the past when the siblings were much younger and going on car trips with their parents.
I pretty much enjoyed every single character and did not mind the - sometimes - longer chapters.
It was a delightful reading experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who is into contemporary fiction with character-driven stories about families.

Thank you, NetGalley and Ballantine Books, for providing me with a free eARC of this adorable novel.

Fun for the Whole Family tells the story of the 4 Endicott siblings who grew up in a somewhat dysfunctional family. They haven’t spoken for nearly 3 years, and this is the story of their sudden reunion, as well as many flash backs to their childhood. 

Was a bit busy with the flashbacks and somewhat predictable in the end. Still an enjoyable story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In my opinion, the book’s title could be changed to "The Road Trips of the Amazing Endicotts", as it presents four siblings who follow completely different life paths, finding happiness, success, and passion in their own ways. After an emotional breakdown three years ago—coinciding with the death of their father—the siblings grew estranged. Resentments boiled over into words that couldn’t be taken back, leading to tears, screams, anger, sadness, and hurt that tore their relationships apart.

Three years later, Jude, one of the youngest siblings and a movie star recently nominated for an Academy Award, sends her siblings a cryptic message, summoning them to North Dakota. This brings back memories of their troubled mother, who used to take them on road trips full of promises for adventure and fun, which sadly ended in tragedy.

Gemma, the eldest sister in her early forties, lives in Chicago with her loving husband, Mateo, and works a mundane marketing job her siblings secretly belittle. She receives Jude's message in the middle of the night, feeling emotionally fragile after several miscarriages and a recent embryo transfer that may be her last chance to become a mother. For years, Gemma has taken on the role of caregiver for her siblings, replacing their troubled mother, who only visited once a year to take them on road trips while their father was constantly away for work. Now, Gemma fears turning into their emotionally unstable mother and questions whether she’s ready to raise a family of her own.

Connor, an aspiring author gaining success with a novel based on his family’s past, finds himself alienated from his siblings due to his portrayal of their memories. Recently divorced and missing his two children, Rosie and Hugh, Connor spends his days in Nashville bars, drowning his sorrows as he battles a creative block. Initially hesitant to attend Jude's family meeting, his emotional turmoil eventually drives him to confront his siblings.

Roddy, Jude’s twin, is engaged to his nerdy scientist boyfriend, Winston, and is on the verge of signing a new contract to play soccer with an Orlando team. However, his knee pain after several surgeries and the physical toll of aging weigh heavily on him. When his agent insists he head to Orlando earlier than planned, complicating his wedding date, Roddy grapples with how to break the news to Winston. Upon receiving Jude’s message, he realizes it's time to reconcile with his siblings and confront their differences.

Though Jude appears to have a perfect life—an Oscar nomination, a movie star boyfriend named Spencer, and a bright future—she harbors many secrets that have been eating away at her. After three years of self-imposed exile from her siblings, she knows it’s time to come clean, even if it risks alienating them further.

What begins as a meticulously planned reunion soon devolves into a locked-room drama when the siblings find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with no electricity or phone service. Forced to face long-buried issues, old resentments, and devastating secrets, their relationship is on the verge of being changed forever.

Oh boy! This book hit me hard on so many levels! Your emotions will be all over the place by the time you finish, and if you have siblings, you’ll probably want to call them as soon as you read the last page. Get ready to cry like a baby—keep plenty of tissues nearby! This heartwarming, engaging, and emotional family saga will resonate with you more than you can imagine. It’s realistic, heartfelt, powerful, and undoubtedly one of the best fiction novels of 2025—I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine Books for sharing this heartwarming family drama’s digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I’ve always thought Jennifer E. Smith’s writing was super compelling and genuinely unputdownable but this might be her best yet. Even though books about siblings are my weakness I usually find myself zeroing in and hating one in particular, but all the Endicott’s were so thoughtfully fleshed out I was rooting for every single one of them. I found the big reveals easily predictable, but I also don’t think that matters in the grand scheme of things when the book is doing such a good job of asking the question I think every sibling asks as an adult “how do you keep a family going once everyone has grown up?”

I loved this book. Four siblings grow apart in adulthood after relying on each other due to mostly absent parents. The tale of this dysfunctional family is told with a light hand through each sibling’s eyes and memories.. My only quibble is I don’t think the author stuck the landing with the last chapter or it just didn’t work for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Review posted 10/4 on Litsy and Instagram.

I loved the author's last book, and although this was a different type of book, I loved it so much, too. The writing was excellent and I enjoyed the in between chapters of the past timeline.

This was a wild ride of a story. They’re definitely was some predictability, but I think the 4 siblings were well developed characters. The side characters were fun and each added to the story.
I loved the very short chapters that were only a blip of where and what and when of one of the main characters life.
This story also makes you take a step back and look at your relationship with your family.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes a good family that’s comes together story!

I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this book, but it ended up being a beautifully written family saga with doses of humor and sentimentality. The Endicott family had an...unusual childhood. Their mom ran out on them, then returned every summer to take them on a wild road trip in an attempt to hit all 50 states, until a traumatic event happened and she disappeared from their lives more permanently. Each kid dealt with the abandonment in a different way; Gemma, the oldest, now lives a quiet life in Chicago with her husband, contemplating whether she wants a kid of her own after essentially raising her siblings. Connor, a writer, published a book that was a little too on the nose for his siblings. Twins Roddy and Jude each found fame, Roddy as a soccer star and Jude as an actress. After some estrangement, Jude calls all the siblings together to hit one obscure state together on a snowy weekend in February. Turns out Jude has been holding in some secrets, and they're about to come out as all the siblings (plus a few extras) are trapped in a snowed in cabin in North Dakota.

I love a story told from multiple perspectives, and this one didn't disappoint. I laughed, I was crying by the ending, and overall this was a beautiful testament to the bonds of family.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith is an easy, engaging read that moves quickly, making it ideal for a few relaxing sittings. I read it on the beach while on vacation and this felt like the perfect read for that occasion! The unexpected twists, particularly around Jude’s secrets, kept the story intriguing, and a detail of the ending offered was surprising. Readers who enjoy light, heartwarming stories with a focus on family relationships will enjoy this book.

I feel like this my reading experience does not reflect a universal experience and the following comments are made with that in mind.. Although I generally appreciate novels with multiple character perspectives, I felt that this book did not utilize that mechanism effectively; the siblings often felt flat and indistinguishable from one another, which hindered my connection to their individual journeys. Additionally, I found parts of the story, especially the dialogue and resolutions a little predictable and, at times, slightly corny.

Overall think this would make for a fun light summer beach read!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books, NetGalley, and Jennifer E. Smith for providing an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

An incredibly touching family drama about four siblings. This book was beautiful, raw and emotional. The characters were extremely well developed and multi-dimensional.

The Endicott siblings are brought back together after being completely estranged for three years. They are reunited for a trip to North Dakota. Through each other, they rediscover the beautiful complexities of what it means to be a family. This is a moving book about forgiveness, grief and relationships.

The characters in this book was truly the highlight of it. I didn't love nor hate the book, I am very in the middle. However I think the characters and their dynamics, personality, and the way their think and act was fun to follow and I enjoyed that aspect of the book because I tend to lean towards character rather than plot in books like this.

I really enjoyed Smith’s previous book “The Unsinkable Greta James” and was excited to get my hands on this advanced readers copy of her next book. I hated how this book ended but I think Smith put a noble effort into depicting complicated family relationships. I can’t get over how played out the ending was though, which is why this is rated below four stars.

In this novel we follow four siblings through different periods of their lives as they struggle to disentangle their relationships with each other. After a harrowing car accident as kids, different paths are pursued by each that leads one to become an author, another to become an actor, and a third to become a professional soccer player. The author revisits their dynamics as children on their infamous summer road trips and how their memories affects their experiences and dynamics today. The youngest sibling brings them all together in the present day to drop bombshells about their shared history and shatter their perceptions of the past.

I think the author tried to do too much with four siblings and as a result each character came out feeling slightly one dimensional. I think with one less sibling the characters could have been built out more in their early adulthood. We only get peeks into their summer road trips as children and then their present day lifestyle. As I mentioned above, I detest how this book ended. I easily predicted what the third “secret” was going to be and physically screamed at the “one year later” section. I wish this could have been more nuanced and less predictable.

I do applaud Smith for her vivid vignettes between chapters that accurately depicted a deep sense of longing between the characters for each others’ presence in their lives. I personally think longing or the act of missing is a difficult feeling to get across to a reader and Smith succeeded here. If you like complicated family sagas, you’ll really enjoy this read!

This book publishes on April 15, 2025. Thank you to the publisher for an early copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

*Fun for the Whole Family* by Jennifer Smith is a deeply moving, bittersweet novel that beautifully explores the emotional complexities of family life. Smith masterfully weaves together themes of loss, resilience, and healing, creating a story that tugs at your heartstrings. The characters are incredibly well-drawn, each grappling with their own struggles while trying to reconnect as a family. While there are moments of warmth and hope, the book’s emotional depth and poignant storytelling make it a truly impactful read. A touching, unforgettable novel. Five stars!

The story centers the four Endicott siblings - Gemma, Conner, and Roddy & Jude, the twins. In addition to each of their perspectives, we get some flashbacks to their childhood. After a few years of no contact, Jude summons her siblings back together to reunite. The way the characters spoke and behaved was so relatable, and even though time had passed, it was clear the love and connection was needed for each of them. I loved seeing each of them develop throughout the novel.

This is a very character driven book, and is in the genre of "family drama" so I found it interesting and dynamic. If you relate, you will love it too!

In this engaging family drama, the lives of the four Endicott siblings—Gemma, Connor, Roddy, and Jude—are skillfully woven together with complexity, heartache, and hope. The story is set in motion by an unexpected invitation from Jude, now a famous actress, who summons her estranged siblings to a remote town in North Dakota. What follows is a beautifully layered narrative about the bonds that hold families together, even after years of silence.

Each sibling is grappling with personal crossroads: Gemma, the nurturing older sister, is faced with a life-altering decision about motherhood; Connor, a novelist struggling with writer’s block and divorce, is searching for purpose; and Roddy, nearing the end of his soccer career, is fighting to save his relationship. While Jude, seemingly the most successful of them all, harbors deep secrets that will shake their fragile reunion to its core.

The strength of the novel lies in its emotional depth. The siblings’ individual struggles are portrayed with nuance, making each character relatable in their own way. The tension between them feels natural, driven by their shared past of being raised by a mother who was more myth than reality, whisking them away on spontaneous road trips but always leaving them to fend for themselves.

The author expertly builds suspense as the secrets Jude is hiding slowly unravel, and each revelation brings the family closer to a reckoning. What makes this story particularly poignant is its exploration of what it means to reconcile with both the past and the future—how we shape our identities around familial expectations and how, sometimes, breaking apart is the only way to come back together.

The small-town setting adds a layer of intimacy to the story, serving as the perfect backdrop for the siblings' confrontations and revelations. It's a place where they can't hide from one another or themselves.

The book is a compelling examination of sibling dynamics, personal growth, and the messy, beautiful nature of family. This is a must-read if you enjoy character-driven stories that delve deep into relationships and the secrets that bind and divide us.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Endicott siblings are all successful in their own ways -- one is an Oscar nominated movie star, one a published author, one a professional soccer player, one a happily married woman who may (or not) want to become a mother. As children, their mercurial mother would come in and out of their lives to take them on adventures across the US. After their mother's death and a serious falling out, they haven't spoken in 3 years. Then Jude, the youngest, calls them together to meet in North Dakota, of all places! Over the course of a few days, we learn what really happened in their childhood and secrets are revealed that will have implications for their future relationship.

I really liked this book. It was entertaining, touching, suspenseful, and realistic. The story unfolds in flashbacks, so it could be confusing to some since there is a constant flipping back and forth in time and place. I really liked the character development. Each character is distinct and has an intriguing backstory. As the story progressed, I was completely involved and anxious to learn how things would turn out for each of the Endicotts. Probably not the best book I've read this year, but definitely worth the time. A great story about family dynamics and the cost of secrets.