Jennifer Weiner understands the angst of women who don't fit the same mold as pretty, slim, popular women. She tapped into Gen X emotions with a band that hit its heyday in the early 2000's. There are a few factors that either seemed irrelevant or misguided (the weird stepson thread didn't quite make sense and was tied up too neatly. The parent situation was a little tone deaf)

Overall, I felt this was a page turner and I really enjoyed watching the story unfold.

Can we talk about how versatile of an author Jennifer Weiner is? And all her characters are so interesting and "real".
I really enjoyed this novel about two sisters who were once popular rock stars (now in seclusion or hiding that fact) and the niece that tries to uncover their story, searching for her own story in the process. Weiner's writing is so easy to read and she has a way of getting "into" her characters' heads so that you feel like you know and feel what they do.
Highly recommended!
I will be posting on my blog about this title closer to Pub Day.

This was a fun read. I enjoyed the multiple timelines and the relationships of the sisters and mother and daughter.

Thank you to netgalley for an advanced copy. My opinions are my own.

As a music-loving woman who is NOT a size 0 (now or ever), who was also a young adult in 2003, this book hit me hard in the emotional memory bank.

I'd like to think that we have come so far, and I guess maybe we have, but the body positivity journey is SO LONG. Weiner herself just shared a story about comments made to her while she was preparing for a 5k, because she doesn't have what is considered a "runner's body." Parts of this book may seem harsh of larger bodies, but that is reality. That is what celebrities went through in the public eye. That is what non-celebrities went through in their private homes. We have been brainwashed and convinced that bodies must be a certain size to be worthy of love and positive attention.

I really felt like I was there with the Griffin sisters. I know these women because I have been each of them at various points in my life. I understood the knee-jerk reactions, and jealousies, and immaturity. I remembered being in college and what it was like trying to win the affection of some idiot boy. I remember the feeling of losing friendships over miscommunications. I remember how long it took to grow in confidence and acceptance of myself. That I need to be happy with myself and my actions, not my looks or who liked me.

I devoured this book because I related to it so much, and therefore I wanted more resolutions. Not for the music component, but maybe for their personal lives. Does Cherry find out about her dad or her dad's family? What happened to Bix? Do Cass and her other family members also have reunions? I had a lot of unresolved questions.

Overall, a good read that kept me interested until the last page.

Thanks to Daisy Jones & The Six, everybody and their bass player is doing rock and roll historical novels right now, and this is Jennifer Weiner's addition to the list. I've read everything Weiner has ever written and I've loved most of it, but this one isn't my favorite.

Zoe and Cassie are sisters who are complete opposites in every way, including their talent -- Cassie is a musical genius, while Zoe, the one who craves stardom, is just a pretty face. Their short-lived pop music career tears them and their lives apart. I loved Daisy Jones & The Six and expected to love this one just as much, but it just doesn't compare.

The premise is engaging enough -- Zoe and Cassie are now has-beens, Zoe's teen daughter dreams of stardom herself but doesn't know much about her mom's past. She chases her dreams and tries to get Zoe and Cassie to mend fences along the way. But Zoe has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, there's a weird subplot about a creepy stepbrother that's never resolved, Cassie has run off to, of all places, Alaska (because that's a totally normal thing to do), and Cassie is so obsessed with her appearance that it colors everything else about the story.

The Griffin Sisters record exactly one album when they're barely out of high school, but somehow that launches them to superstardom -- SNL appearance, headlining a national concert tour, being remembered 20+ years later as creators of music that is ground-breaking, life-changing, blah blah blah. They're on the charts for less than two years, with a total of maybe 5 to 7 singles (if their album is, as we are supposed to believe, of the same caliber as Thriller, which is unlikely), but Zoe has A-list celebrities at her wedding? Think back to Taylor Swift's first album, or even her second -- she didn't launch herself into the atmosphere with her first effort. And I seriously doubt the Griffin Sisters did either. In the acknowledgements, Jennifer Weiner talks about all the research she did, but it failed her somewhere along the way. The music business doesn't work like this, and I found it completely unbelievable.

Cassie, we learn very early on, is fat. She's obsessed with it, and with what everyone else thinks of her appearance. In many ways it's the underlying premise of the whole book: Zoe is pretty (I kept picturing Descendants-era Dove Cameron), and Cassie is not. Okay, we get it, Jennifer. LET IT GO. I realize that many of Weiner's novels involve heroines who are overweight, and that this is something Weiner herself dealt with in her teens and beyond, and that she feels very strongly about the way overweight people are treated. And she's certainly not wrong about any of that. I also realize that the fatphobic comments in the book mostly reveal what Cassie thinks of herself -- Jennifer Weiner is by no means saying Cassie is less worthy because she's overweight. She's saying CASSIE finds herself less worthy because she's overweight. I get all that, I really do. But the constant emphasis on Cassie's appearance is just relentless and so over-the-top. As if Cassie's name isn't already too on-the-nose, there's even a reference to Mama Cass Elliot, which rubbed me wrong for so many reasons. Just stop with the fatphobia. Even in a book set in the early 2000s, it was gross.

Zoe is just an awful person, and nothing she does later in the story makes up for her behavior early on. Terrible sister, daughter, mother, wife, friend -- I don't see how anyone tolerates her at all. I can hold a grudge with the best of them, so maybe I'm not the right audience for this book, but I just don't see how forgiveness happens here. Cherry, Zoe's daughter, isn't as compelling as she needs to be to make up for her mom's many flaws as a main character. I did enjoy Aunt Bess, because her attitude toward Zoe so closely mirrored my own.

The whole book feels as if it should be set further back than it is -- maybe in the 80s, at the dawn of MTV. But the whole thing revolves around Cherry being a rebellious teenager. So if you want that part to work while still being set in the present day, 2005-ish the best you can do. Maybe the whole thing should have been backed up 30 years -- I might have found the whole "shoot straight to superstardom" thing more believable in an era when the music business was far different than it is today. The story is obviously meant to evoke Fleetwood Mac, and there's a reference at one point to Zoe having no more talent than Linda McCartney. Coupled with the Cass Elliot reference, it all doesn't fit an early-aughts vibe.

But even a mediocre Jennifer Weiner book is still better than most fiction out there. I stayed interested, and I cared what happened to Cassie and Cherry, even if I never lost the feeling that Zoe needed to take a long walk off a short pier. If this is your first Weiner book, go back and read her very early stuff, and the more recent ones with a Cape Cod setting.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book.

When you read a description of the way a song is sung and feel like you might be listening in on it, you know you are reading something terrific!
And when the author is able to convey what a voice and song does to a person listening, the authors skill is palpable.
I enjoyed The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits right out of the gate. I like the POV changes and the generational timeline travel throughout the book. I felt the raw tenson between mothers and daughters and again between sisters. I tried to slow down and only read before bed each night to savor the story.
Well done, Jennifer Weiner!

Thanks to Jennifer Weiner, NetGalley, and William Morrow Books for the advanced copy. All opinions expressed are authentically my own.

I absolutely loved this one! I tried reading it slower to soak it all in and savor it, but I had to devour it to know how it played out. I loved Cassie from the start, but Zoe and Cherry truly got me to warm up to them. I loved the nostalgic vibes it gave me with the dual timelines of now and the 2000s. I was shocked by some of the twists but loved the mystery along the way and just had to keep reading to figure out how it all played out. Such a beautiful family dynamic that includes messy, raw, hard, honest moments but also the loving, caring moments of forgiveness. This truly moved me! I was so entangled up in the Griffin Sister's drama that I needed it to be sorted and okay, lol. I loved the character development for Cherry, Zoe, and Cassie. It was just brilliant all around. The ending got me teary-eyed. Easily 5 stars!

Longtime Jennifer Weiner fan. Read ALL of her books and short stories. Even went to see her speak at an author event in Philadelphia. Had very high expectations for the Griffin Sisters, one of the most anticipated books of 2025. Had this been published before Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, I would be able to evaluate the Griffin Sisters on its own merit. Unfortunately, I found myself drawing parallels between the two and Daisy Jones won every time. Both books start after the band has already broken up among tragedy and the story unfolds through flashbacks. The Griffin Sisters had some strong characters, but I just can’t help comparing it to a legend.

From start to finish loved this story! The parallel story lines kept me engaged from start to finish. Loved the accuracy of the Wisconsin storyline as a former small town WI girl. The truth about reality TV and the highs and lows of the music industry could be felt deeply through the story telling!

So grateful to NetGalley and Jennifer Weiner for the ARC!

I received a free copy of, The Griffin Sister's Greatest Hits, by Jennifer Weiner, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Sisters Zoe and Cassie are a year apart and complete opposites, they used to be in a band together, but now they do not even talk to each other. Zoe's daughter Cherry, wants to get the band back together. This was a likeable read.

I enjoyed the back and forth and switching between characters. Great story of love and loss. I'd be interested in future stories involving the same people.

3.5 Stars

The show follows two sisters as they rise to fame and then drop off the radar. Zoe is the sister who wants to be a famous singer, except she’s not very talented. What Zoe lacks in talent, she makes up for in beauty. Cassie is the sister who is extremely talented but she doesn’t want to be in the public eye. She’s a shy introvert and is very self-conscious about her looks, especially her weight.

Zoe talks Cassie into performing in a talent show by telling her sister that she really needs her, really needs this. A talent agent, or a relative of a talent agent spots them, and they quickly get discovered. There were times when Zoe came off as very selfish and mean. The truth is both sisters hurt each other. After a tragic accident, the two sisters disappear from the spotlight. Fast forward, 20 years and Zoe‘s daughter, Cherry has Cassie’s talent and Zoe’s looks.

I liked the story, but I didn’t love it. Even though Zoe did some horrible things the truth is siblings, do sometimes become jealous of each other, and may hurt each other as a result of that jealousy. Cassie also hurt Zoe but her main issue was that she didn’t seem to like herself, or at least not the way she looked. I like the way the story ended, but would’ve liked a little bit more of an epilogue. I’d like to thank net galley and Harper Collins publishing for this copy in Exchange for an honest review.

Great book from Jennifer Weiner about two sisters who make it big in the music industry. Shy, introverted (possibly autistic) Cassie who has amazing talent on the piano and singing along with less talented but showy, longing for stardom sister Zoe are practically overnight sensations. How they handle stardom and tragedy will test their sisterhood.

The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner really struck a chord with me. It's a fantastic read about the highs and lows of sisterhood set against the backdrop of the pop music scene. Cassie and Zoe Grossberg’s journey from overnight pop sensations to estranged siblings is both fascinating and heartbreaking. Two decades later, Zoe is now a housewife, and Cassie is off the grid. Their teenage daughter, Cherry, is on a mission to uncover the truth behind the band's breakup. This quest forces the sisters to confront their past and the secrets that tore them apart. Jennifer Weiner does an incredible job of delving into themes of family, rivalry, love, and guilt. This novel beautifully captures the power of music and the process of forgiveness. If you’re into stories about sisterhood and the music industry,

I really enjoyed this book! I liked the multiple perspectives and timelines - it was enough to keep it interesting and to keep me reading, but it wasn't confusing as sometimes multiple perspectives/timelines can be. I loved the writing (usually true with anything by Jennifer Weiner), and the storyline.

I didn't love all of the characters, which is why this book got 4 stars instead of 5. In particular, Cherry felt too forceful and uncaring of her aunt's fears and really seemed to only be pushing for her own agenda.

But - despite that - I loved the book and highly recommend it.

This book was okay. I enjoyed reading about the dynamic of the sisters but felt it was a litttle too unrealistic overall. I had trouble liking the characters

This was the third book I have read by Jennifer Weiner, and it did not disappoint. Zoe and Cassie are sisters who are as different as night and day. Zoe is beautiful and ambitious. She believes she has star quality, and sets out to reach her dreams. Charged with looking out for her less attractive sister and socially challenged sister from their earliest days as schoolgirls, she shoulders this responsibility gracefully until Cassie’s musical talents drive Zoe from the spotlight. The story follows the musical career of their band The Griffin Sisters. Fortune and fame and new relationships challenge their sisterly bonds to the breaking point. The question is, can what appears to be irreparably broken be fixed and forgiven?

A second plot going on follows Cherry, Zoe’s daughter who wants a musical career of her own. Learning about her family’s musical legacy and dealing with her mother’s reticence to discuss her past, she sets out on a journey to reach for the stars and connect with the aunt she never met. The linking of the two plots and the contrasts among the characters makes for a powerful story that had me eager to find the resolution.

The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits follows two very different sisters, Cassie and Zoe, who rise to fame as a musical duo in the early 2000s. Cassie is a gifted musician but dislikes the spotlight, while Zoe is beautiful and struggles with living in Cassie’s artistic shadow. Their brief moment of stardom is marred by betrayal, fracturing their relationship. Twenty years later, Zoe’s daughter, Cherry, is determined to make it in the music industry despite her mother’s warnings. As the story unfolds, family secrets and painful lessons come to light, exploring the complexities of fame, family, and ambition.

I would have LOVED more references to the early 2000's p0p culture scene to make the book really come alive.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Jennifer Weiner, and William Morrow books for the opportunity to read The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits.

I’ve always enjoyed Jennifer Weiner’s storytelling style, particularly how she weaves the lives of two main characters together. This book was no exception. I loved how richly detailed both Zoe and Cassie were, from their personalities to their appearances. Perhaps because they’re so close in age to me, I really connected with the nostalgic references to music and pop culture.

The two sisters, born just a year apart, are starkly different in every way, from childhood to adulthood. Zoe is outgoing and dreams of stardom, but lacks the talent to make it on her own. Cassie, the shy younger sister, possesses the voice and talent of a generation. The complexity of their childhood relationship, shaped by the way their mother loved them differently, is both heartbreaking and vivid.

The Griffin Sister Band, born from their shared dream, is formed and dissolved within a year, ending in tragedy and a public secret. Zoe moves on to a life as a housewife, while Cassie vanishes from music and her family. When Zoe's daughter, Cheery, sets off to make her own path in music, the truth about their past begins to surface, forcing all three women to confront what they’ve been running from.

This is a story about relationships, family dynamics, love, lies, and ultimately, forgiveness.

Zoe and Cassie are sisters. Cassie is a musical prodigy and Zoe wants to be famous. Together they become The Griffin Sisters and experience a meteoric rise to a brief early-00s career. The band implodes tragically and the sisters are estranged. It’s 20 years later as the truth of their past is revealed.

Told on multiple timelines and from multiple POVs, this was a well crafted story of sisterhood and heartache. My heart broke for Cassie, and eventually I saw Zoe’s position (but I still didn’t like her much at all).