This book fell flat for me unfortunately! There was a lot going on with the various love triangles and drama. Sadly the two main characters were very unlikeable. Honestly most of the characters weren't likeable and hard to read about. I wish this gave more parent trap vibes and just a kinder story. I was annoyed reading the girls bullying and belittling each other too muc.

While I understand that Lucy feels slighted and is mildly in shock... She is so annoying to me. Cause Vivian is better than me. I would have had her arrested for trespassing. So for her to get snooty about which bed she is sleeping in all because Vivian makes more money, is so immature. You're not owed anything. If she said "I'm his daughter too" one more time, I was going to lose my shit. "It's July...." Little girl, if you don't get somewhere and sit down. If you want to be mad, be mad at your Daddy. He kept you a secret. He didn't make provisions for you in his will. Direct some of that ire towards him instead of romantising your relationship with him. Meanwhile, Vivian is equally as stupid. Trying to get seed money to start a business with a man not serious enough about her to leave his wife. So as mad as she is with her Dad for cheating on her Mom; you're the other woman too Boo. Plus she was cheated on too, so... What are you doing?

I wasn't invested in either of them. Actually none of the characters. Caleb's character really wasn't strong enough for me.

I kept waiting for one of these characters to do something I could get behind, but by the halfway point I was so steeped in disdain, it was irredeemable.

The sisterhood! This book requires some patience, understanding and time. It felt like o was grieving with them

3.5 stars ⭐️ Something about the characters just didn't click with me and draw me in. However, I still finished it and liked it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Book for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Complicated family dynamics, grief and loss, and romance all in a lake house setting... What else could you want in a novel? I enjoyed reading this and felt like I was sitting right alongside the main characters throughout the book.

This follows Vivian and Lucy in a parent trap inspired twist where the dad passes and they find themselves at their family beach house together. Vivian is the “main” daughter that gets all the benefits of benefits of being the rich kid growing up and Lucy gets one month every summer with her dad and gets a more loving version of him than Vivian knows.

Definitely a story about found family and coming together after many years of pent up anger from the secrets their dad was keeping.

There’s drama, secrets, love, heartbreak and closure in this and definitely worth picking up

I've been in a reading slump and Maine Characters brought me right out! This story is of two women who, after the passing of their father, are brought together and find out they are sisters. As the story unfolds, they uncover how messy their family history really was but ultimately find the sisterly bonds they were missing.

What I enjoyed most about this book, is the author Hannah Orenstein, created a story about two half sisters, that had never met, until their father passed away. Hannah told their story, the way it would probably play out in life. The day they meet, with the distrust of each other, the not liking each other, to them ending up sharing the camp together, and all the ups and downs, that comes with it. I saw the girls relationships with their mothers, because each one had created the person they are because of the things that had happened, there are many different points of views.
As the summer moves forward, so do the girls, but in life, they second guess themselves, and sometimes, tries to go back to fix something that didn't end the way they thought they wanted. Hannah takes us through it all, and life goes on, their life starts to look a little different. At the end of summer, they discover who they are now, because of all they have gone through, they have made plans for the future, but life would still test them to see if they were sure.
The details, the author showed us, and as they moved on in life, there is always doubt and wondering about what ifs, and the author included it all in their story. I enjoyed this book, because for me, this is the way life would be for them.
I received an ARC from Dutton through NetGalley, and this definitely was a book worth fighting for. When you read the book, you will know why I wrote this.

Two half sisters finally meet as adults because their father has died, which leads to the "Parent Trap for adults" description only insofar as they are sisters of about the same age who did not grow up together (well maybe in one other way that would be a spoiler). You have the relationship between the sisters as well as each of their relationships with their dad, his house, their moms, and past and present love interests. The character dynamics lead to perfectly messy moments, but what I really loved were the author's foodie descriptions of wines and foods, as well as her detailed location descriptions of restaurants, bars, and Fox Hill Lake, which I would like to visit except for it being fictional. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy!

My family has an old lake house, and that’s the main reason I chose to read this book. I related a lot to the characters in terms of their relationship to the lake and the house, and I totally understand tough sibling dynamics, though I admit this is not a situation I have ever found myself to be in. This was a cute book but serious when it had to be, and I quite enjoyed reading it.

I love the Parent Trap like everyone else but I wished that we could’ve found out more about the characters story lines earlier in the book. It would’ve helped me connect with them better

The ending saved the book for me! The author did a great job of changing my views of the entire read and the last 25% of the book was a 5 star read.

I wanted to read this book because of the Parent Trap reference but there was nothing Parent Trap about this book. For the first 75% of the book I found myself hating both Lucy and Vivian. I thought there were both self-centered spoiled brats. The last 25% I realized that while life led them in two directions, they were truly sisters, soulmates.

The book wasn't my favorite but was a great sit on your couch with no expectations kind of read to get you through a cold day in January. (And it did make me want to go to the winery tomorrow).

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Dalton for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is such a fun summer read! The two main characters of this book are Lucy and Vivian, and they are half-sisters. They find out about each other when they both visit their deceased father's cabin in Maine. Vivian goes to Maine to sell the cabin. Lucy goes to the cabin to visit her father, who she thought was alive. The book delves into the story about how each of them process finding out they have a half sister, the grief of losing their father, and what to do next with the cabin. I enjoyed how the author described the setting and made it seem like you were there in Maine. I also enjoyed learning more about Lucy and Vivian outside of them finding out they had a half-sister. I enjoyed reading the parts about their backstory. I do think the book was a little too long in places. I also thought the book became a little too cliche in places as well. Overall, I would give it a 3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the arc in exchange for a free review!

I liked the two main characters and their journey to acceptance of their family issues, but. I found the way that it ended a little convenient and predictable.

I didn’t particularly enjoy this book, found it a little boring. Maybe I just wasn’t the target audience, but I thought it was well written and I enjoyed the setting as I live in Maine myself.

If you are a fan of the parent trap I highly recommend this story.
I enjoyed the seeing the relationship between Vivian and Lucy grow even more then the romantic sub plots in the book.
I did find the story to be a little slow getting into and I do think I would have enjoyed it more if it was in first persons perspective of both Vivian and Lucy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I requested this book simply based on how beautiful the cover is and I’m glad I did. But beyond that cover is a story of family and grief and Orenstein captures a realistic essence of both with all their flaws. I really enjoyed this book.

"Every summer, Vivian Levy and Lucy Webster spend a month with their father at his lake house — separately." Vivian lives a glamorous life in the city working as the top sommelier for a high-end restaurant, but she hides a secret that threatens to blow her perfect life apart. And Lucy lives a far humbler life in the small town of Fox Lake, Maine, teaching high-school English and still reeling from her recently imploded marriage.

When Vivian arrives at the lake house to spread her father's ashes, she's shocked to encounter Lucy, the sister whose existence has been kept from her for her whole life. Instead of bonding in their shared grief, the two immediately clash. Forced to spend the summer together, the two navigate the mess left behind their father, shedding light on secrets and the truth about their parents' pasts. In a journey to resolve unanswered questions, the biggest one of all remains: after thirty years, is it too late for them to be a family?

This synopsis of this book hooked me in from the beginning, as did the tagline of "adult Parent Trap" (one of my all-time favorite movies, as a twin myself). All in all, I'd say the novel delivered on its promises of a compelling family-centered drama. Both Vivian and Lucy were such complex characters, and I'd be lying if I said I liked both of them the entire time. In fact, both of them were downright obnoxious and insufferable at different points of the story and it took me a long time to warm up to both of them. My one complaint would be that it was hard to get into the story because of the difficulty in resonating and rooting for either of the main two characters at first.

However, while Vivian and Lucy's actions and choices were often frustrating, they also always rang true. Their behavior was undeniably rooted in their individual circumstances and situations, and as a result, they came across as truly grounded and tangible characters. I really enjoyed witnessing the development of their relationship, from hostile half-siblings to begrudging roommates to friends to sisters. Their relationship was truly at the core of this book, even with the romantic subplots for each of them (another compelling aspect of this book!)

I truly feel this book excelled in its characters and their growth. I also love how the setting came alive in the story and the random details that added extra interest to the story and also just made it feel more real and personal: Vivian's wine knowledge, Celeste being a romance writer, and Caleb's dream trip to Southeast Asia. I definitely want to read more from this author in the future.

Overall: I recommend for those who enjoy a good family drama and complicated sibling dynamics. There's also plenty here for the romance lovers and even for the skeptics. Just be prepared to roll your eyes a few times in the beginning, and then later on: to tear up and feel genuine pride for Vivian and Lucy's individual journeys!

A really interesting examination of grief from two half sisters who recently lost their father, a man who gave them very different experiences as children. The two come together for the first time, processing his death at his beloved lake house in Maine while simultaneously figuring out their own lives. Vivian was raised in luxury in NYC with her aloof father and disaffected mother, while Lucy grew up sequestered in a remote lake town in Maine. After their dad dies, the two are thrust together at his lake house to figure out what to do with it. Each has a different idea of what needs to happen with the house, prompted by their very different upbringings, and they must work together, despite their grief and other things happening in their respective personal lives, to figure out the best path forward.

This was poignant, tender, and thought-provoking. Maine Characters would be a wonderful twist on a summer beach (lake?) read - it's not romance-centric, but almost felt like reading a cousin of Emily Henry in some respect. I loved this.

Vivian and Lucy spend every summer with their father in a rustic Maine lake house, separately. Lucy, the illegitimate daughter from father's old flame, knows of Vivian. Vivian knows nothing of Lucy--raised in and amongst Manhattan's elite schools and social scene--until Vivian shows up at the cabin after her father died.

Vivian wants to sell the cabin and collect the proceeds. Lucy is LIVID. Can the two salvage a relationship and solve the mystery of who their father was?

Ultimately, Vivian is highly unlikeable until well into the book. Their dad was a real piece of work, and honestly, I feel like there was way too much reverence for a man with such questionable moral ethics. There were portions of this I did really love and found this book engaging and highly readable.