A fun and easy read about family, secrets, growth, and change. Completely enjoyable.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217453225

While I liked the premise of the book, I didn’t care for the execution. I’m usually a fast reader and this book took me days to get through. The writing felt overly detailed and very drawn out. For example, we don’t need to know every detail of each meal and who ordered what. It was a lot of fluff. This was definitely more women’s fiction / drama versus a romance. I think with some editing, this could be pretty good, but as it stands, this is a pass for me.

Thank you Penguin Group Dutton for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Maine Characters. There was family drama, secrets and lies, and a little romance. I couldn't put this book down. I had to know how it was going to end. I was not disappointed. It was a great ending.

Review: Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein. When Vivian pulls up to her family’s Maine summer house, the last thing she expects occurs: it’s inhabited and the occupant is the half sister she never knew existed, Lucy.

Lucy, who grew up in the same town as the house, couldn’t be more different than savvy New York City dweller Vivian, is utterly bereft that their shared father has died. She is constantly miffed that Vivian barely seems ruffled.

I really enjoyed this book, though many of the situations the characters find themselves in feel contrived, created just to add tension, though this didn’t make me like the story any less. When Vivian repeatedly and continually struggles with whether or not to sell her father’s vacation home I begin to feel antsy, just waiting for another situation to occur that will make her change her mind for the umpteenth time. Nevertheless, it’s a sweet book and one you should pick up if you are in the mood for a “Parent Trap-esque story with two completely opposite characters that have to work together for the good of both of their lives.

Both women serve as clear character. In Lucy we see the floundering heroine while Vivian sticks more closely to the villain role. Many of the other characters (Celeste/Caleb/Oscar) are stand-ins for the villain role and White Knight role. Cleary outlining who’s who would give too much away, so you’ll just have to read to find out which protagonist is which. I encourage you to do so, this is a fun read and thanks to an end of book twist, it stays interesting.

I received this advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

This was a sweet story about two sisters set against the dreamy, beautiful backdrop of lakeside Maine. I found the alternating third person narration a little harder to connect with each character.

Maine Characters was so beautifully written and for a little bit, I was trying to recall which one of my friends recently discovered their half sister 🤦🏼‍♀️ lol

This is a captivating story of grief, discovering our parent’s imperfections and friendship. Highly recommend and can’t wait for you to read it.

Maine Characters comes out May 13,2025 so go pre-order and put it in the calendar because you will not want to miss it!

i loved this book. it truly was the parent trap but for adults. so much fun. thank you netgalley and pengiun group

I really enjoyed Maine Characters. The story was interesting and engaging. The characters were flawed and likeable. The ending was fairly predictable but that's ok. If you want a slightly dramatic family story with strife and redemption, this is the book for you.

The cover is absolutely gorgeous and my reason for picking it. Then you through in there that it is like the parent trap?! Im in. We all loved parent trap as kids, right?

This was a cute read, although it could have been a little shorter. It touches on tough issues we go through in life which makes the characters very relatable. There is a love story to be seen here. But this is more about the found family and working their way through those challenges, so its not a typical romance book. This was my first book by Hannah, and I loved it. I cant wait to read more by her in the

4.5! this book is a beautiful story of sisterhood and family, and it’s set on a beautiful lake in Maine. This book was so atmospheric and really took me to Fox Hill in Maine… Although it’s not a real place, I want to go there immediately. This is such a good summer read, both because of its setting and because of the feel good ending. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows by any mean, but I loved seeing the growth all of the characters had. This book had a little bit of everything some romance, some mystery some family drama and it was, very well written.

The cover and the premise drew me right in; I love The Parent Trap plus Maine is a great setting for a summer story! I’d recommend this book if you love family drama, secrets, and messy relationships. Overall I wish the book was shorter and that the two main characters were more likable (the cheating bit was unnecessary), but it was entertaining and would be a good beach read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for a copy of this eARC!

To start, this cover is stunning and is the whole reason I requested this book. Overall, this book wasn’t for me. I should have read the description better and skipped. It's not my type of story but the author did a nice job with what she was trying to do.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this one. So original and The depictions of grief, sisterhood, and love, were so important. The characters were so well out and multi layered I loved it.

This was my first book by Hannah Orenstein and I enjoyed it overall. It didn't quite suck me in. I was drawn in by the cover and the Maine reference.

Every summer, Vivian Levy and Lucy Webster spend a month with their father at his lake house — separately. Raised in New York City, Vivian is an ambitious sommelier with a secret that could derail her future. Lucy grew up in a tiny Maine town, where she now teaches high school English while watching her marriage unravel. They’ve never met. While Lucy envied her half-sister from afar, their father kept Vivian in the dark.

When Vivian arrives at the lake to spread his ashes and sell his cabin, she's shocked to find Lucy there, awaiting his return. In an ideal world, they’d help each other through their grief. Instead, forced to spend the summer together, they fight through a storm of suspicion and hostility to untangle the messy truth about their parents’ pasts. While Lucy is desperate to hold onto the house, Vivian is scrambling after a betrayal. After thirty years apart, is it too late for them to be a family?

Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin Group for the ARC!

Talk about a book with a ton of substance, wow! But in an extremely good way. I was intimidated at first by the long chapters and equally as long paragraphs, but despite that, I flew through Maine Characters.

Viviane and Lucy are two characters with a ton of baggage, and it was an honor to read about them and watching them grow. As stated, there’s a ton of substance. But it was really, really good.

Kind of insufferable at first (attitudes, childish behavior, etc.), both Vivian and Lucy get off on a horribly wrong foot. That only made their reconciliation so much more wholesome, in my opinion. I was able to see the exact moment Vivian grew into her character, and I was able to see the exact moment Lucy learned to love herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed Maine Characters. It’s an all around wholesome novel with relatable characters that kept me wanting to continue their story.

Overall rating: 4/5
Spice: —

This was a good read! The characters were interesting and complex and I enjoyed the writing. So glad I got to read it early!

Thank you NetGalley and Hannah Orenstein!

I desperately wanted to love this book and at times I did, I even found myself crying multiple times. however, half the characters were so insufferable I had the hardest time wanting to continue reading. Every time Vivian opened her mouth and said something rude and then turned around and thought something hypocritical I wanted to throw my Kindle, every time she thought about Oscar but had the audacity to judge her father made me want to throw my Kindle, every time she got mad at Oscar for being condescending about Fox Hill, but she herself was condescending about Fox Hill and her excuse was “well it’s mine so I can be condescending towards it.” That’s not an excuse Bestie. And her personality shift is like a flip was switched instead of a gradual changing of her mind. One moment she’s completely fine with a man leaving his pregnant wife for her and the next she is kicking him out and offering to give her half sister (who she hated up until literally moments ago), half the money from the sale And also offering to not even sell it in the first place, so I felt like her character shift wasn’t earned. Don’t even get me started on her mother. That’s a different story. I generally don’t mind characters that are unlikable, but we are meant to like her by the end of it and I do like her by the end of it, but it was such a tonal shift at 75%. I hated her for 75% of the book and then bam, we’re supposed to like her in the final 25%. meanwhile Lucy is likable the entire book Vivian is just so dislikable in contrast. Dawn, Lucy’s mom, is an angel and I did cry reading the letters from Hank but so much of the emotional moments I felt were undeserved on Vivian’s end.

In general, I felt like it was a very precious story or could’ve been a precious story…If the character growth was earned instead of simply placed and the same goes for Lucy because half the book she spends it pining after her ex-husband, she then goes on two dates, gets back with her ex-husband who she’s been pining over and then immediately leaves him again. which I understand why she left him, but it felt out of character and unearned. Why have her even go back to her husband when she was just going to leave him again when she could’ve been building herself up the whole time they were separated and realize she didn’t need him through their separation and finding strength in herself instead of realizing it when they’re back together and she’s just not wanting him. “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else” except Lucy never feels like she loves herself. She spends the whole complaining about her curves, being jealous of Vivian’s thin shape, etc etc etc. the author even focuses on Lucy taking extra servings MULTIPLE TIMES. I don’t know, I thought it was weird.

I really wanted to love this book but found the character development to be weak and most of the characters to be unlikable.

2.5 stars out of 5.

After reading the description for the book, I was excited to crack it open but honestly, this book was not for me. From the beginning I could not stand either of the sisters, especially Lucy. She sounded like a whiny brat and Vivian seemed to have a flat personality. Their back and forth arguments were annoying and really took away from the story of the book. I did like the ending, how everyone came together and put their differences aside. The setting of the book seemed so beautiful too. Overall, not my favorite.

In Maine Characters, we meet Vivian and Lucy. 2 half sisters that didn't know about each other until their father died. Vivian lived life in New York with her father and mother, who is a best selling romance novelist. Lucy lived with her mother in Maine only seeing their father for the month of July at the lake house. Vivian and Lucy bump into each other and meet for the first time at the lake house. They discover their father never told each other about the other. Vivian is dead set on selling the lake house but Lucy doesn't want to sell. The rest of the book explores their relationship and what will happen to the house at the end of the summer.

Thank you Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Oh my goodness! When I got the notification for this book, I was so excited. I had heard about this author and the cover gives off a lake house vibe and you know it is going to be good. Well honestly, this book was an emotional rollercoaster. Trigger warning: dad grief. I have dad grief. The emotions between Lucy and Vivian in the aftermath of their dad's passing was so real. It made my chest hurt sometimes. At times, Lucy drove me crazy but as I imagined missing out on things about my dad's passing and life due to a sibling that I didn't know about and being brushed aside, I cried. Then I thought of Vivian and how it must have felt for your dad to have a second family and all the turmoil you are in, regardless of what you acknowledge, after his passing. Then throwing them together and their complicated love lives. WOW! Rollercoaster. Vivian was sometimes a harder character to enjoy. She was just so cold sometimes that I feel I didn't like her until almost the end of the book. I really enjoyed Lucy though. I think I could have done without the affair relationship that Vivian was having. It was just not my favorite. Patrick bugged me sometimes too. But in the end, this was an amazing story about grief, heartache, coming together in a time of need and honoring our loved ones in the way they would have wanted. I really loved the ending and I look forward to more books from this author. Thank you SO much for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book gave me all the feels!

It was an interesting concept for a book about two half-sisters meeting at a cabin after their dad dies, but I would’ve loved for the characters to feel more dynamic, interesting, and real. I also wanted to see the Maine setting come through a bit more. I still love the cover!