
Member Reviews

I have loved following this series, and seeing the world within Fire Island. This is the perfect summer novel about “finding yourself”, and your family along the way.

A very sweet summer read about interconnected family drama and found family. I would have loved a little bit more exploration of the mother-daughter relationship.

This is my first read of Fire Island books.
Maggie Mae and her best friend Jason write themselves letters at age 13 to be opened at age 30. She was adopted and wants to find her birth mother. She runs and lives above the bookstore where she grew up. When she gets to Fire island she finds more than just her birth mother she finds home in Matt and the island.

This was good! Heartfelt, sweet, captivating. First book by Jane L. Rosen, and third of this series but def did not need to read the others to enjoy this one! I loved Matty & Maggie’s relationship 😍 My only nitpicks are why does every daughter in this book from aged 6-50 years old call their fathers ‘daddy’? A bit weird imho… oh well.

Rosen takes us back to some of her original characters introduced in On Fire Island, the first book in her loose Fire Island trilogy. (Loose in the sense that they are all standalone that have characters in common.). Songs of Summer introduces us to Maggie May Wheeler, 30, who lives in Ohio, but ends up receiving a letter that takes her to Fire Island to try to find her birth mother. A great summer book with characters that suck you in.

Songs of Summer is a cute beach read, perfect for summer. I love the Fire Island setting, and I love how each chapter is a song title. I enjoyed reading about Maggie's journey to meet her biological mom and all the chaos that came along with it, but I'm not sure I was a fan of the multiple POVs. I feel like it took away from the book a little, limiting the time spent developing each character. Overall, it is a sweet, fun summer read.
Thank you NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Jane L. Rosen for this read.

𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥 is a must-add to your summer reading list!
Jane L. Rosen revisits Fire Island, the site of her last two books 𝗢𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 and 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀, as she tells the story of Maggie, who was adopted as a baby and after turning 30, heads to Long Island to find her birth mother. I couldn’t stop listening as secrets get revealed, family dramas play out and romance blooms. The narration was wonderful and while this one can easily be read as a stand alone, I loved learning the updates on what happened to characters from the previous books. And the music references were terrific - be sure to give the playlist the author put together on Spotify a listen.
Thanks to Berkley and PRH Audio for the copies to review.

This was very cute! Very much in the Elin Hilderbrand vein of a summer read. I love a fake dating trope and any story that manages to work in a good soundtrack!

This is a quintessential beach read with the beach setting, sweet romance and found family! Something is missing in Maggie’s life and her search takes her from an apartment over her record store to the small community of Fire Island where her birth mother will be attending a wedding. Jane Rosen takes us along on this quest and in the process gives us the messiest of families in a charming and heartwarming story. The characters are the heart of this novel, and they each bring so much vulnerability to the story. The hurts, the longings, the love feel so authentic. And the story balances out the emotional with humor but masterfully gives both!
Maggie finds more than she bargained for in her very complicated family and does she want to open herself to that or retreat to her very safe and content life back home?
Maggie and Matt’s lives revolve around music, and the playlist incorporated into each chapter is so on point and allowed Rosen to incorporate so many classic music references which just added to the entertainment of this book!

This one started out very promisingly. I do love music, music festivals, and the like. Unfortunately it became difficult to engage, partly the pacing but mostly because the story ranged between too many characters, without ever pulling me in to focus on one. .

This was a very entertaining book. There was so many layers to it and I found it very enjoyable.
Adoption and being an adoptee were written so well. Maggie's aversion to change and dependency on those she has left are very relatable to many people. This was adventurous and contained wonderful soul-searching.
I would read more by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

When Maggie May finds an old letter to her future self, it sends her on a soul-searching journey to Fire Island looking for the birth mother she’s never known. Caught between the life she’s built and the family she never had, she’s forced to rethink everything she thought she wanted. It’s a summery, music-filled story about love, identity, & finding where you truly belong.
This one had so many elements I love—a beachy setting, layered family dynamics, & quirky characters. I also enjoyed the musical thread running through it, with each chapter as a “track” complete with a song title; this was such a fun & creative touch!
That said, the pacing was a bit uneven for me. The short chapters made it feel fast, but the story itself moved slowly, almost like it was unfolding over weeks instead of days. I kept waiting to be fully pulled in, but the connection never quite clicked.
Still, it’s a solid summer read—light, heartfelt, and well-crafted. Maybe it just wasn’t the right book at the right time for me.
Thank you to Berkley for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

5 out of 5 stars. If I could give more than 5 starts, I would.
Even though it is only June, I am going to say this will be one of my top books for 2025. "Songs of Summer" is the third book in Jane L. Rosen's Fire Island series. The first book in this series is one of my favorite books of all time. This unfortunately set the bar very high for me regarding the second book in the series, "Seven Summer Weekends", which I did not enjoy as much (again, my hopes were really high so it was likely a really good book but I wouldn't have known it). This current release in the series takes me right back to my feelings regarding the first book.
Once again, the reader is brought into the world of Fire Island. The main event is the wedding of Julia's best friend from "On Fire Island". Maggie Mae Wheeler, a young woman who owns a vintage record shop, comes to Fire Island to try and reconnect with her birth mother, whose identity she has just recently learned about. Through a series of events, Maggie becomes involved with the Fire Island gang and all the events that lead up to the wedding.
I have always enjoyed the writing style of Jane L. Rosen. It can be said that her books fall into the "Romance" genre but - no offense to Romance book lovers - her novels are much more nuanced than that. Ms. Rosen's books rarely follow the boy & girl fall in love/event tears them apart/they get back together and live happily ever after story arch. And if they do, there are so many other details and sub-plots around the story that the reader barely notices this. My main reasons for rating this book so highly are as follows:
- I love how every character, no matter what role they play in the plot line, has a defined story and background. There are no "NPRs" ( a term my kids would use) in the this novel. And I didn't find that there are so many characters that it becomes confusing to keep track of everyone. I believe this is because the descriptions are so well done and nuanced that it is easy to remember all the various players in the story.
- The book is funny. Not a huge, laugh out loud funny, but more of a sarcastic underlying humor that keeps the story from becoming too cute and predictable.
- This is a personable preference but one of my favorite things: I LOVE all of the pop culture references in the story. Because Maggie owns a vintage record story, she has vast knowledge of classic music and music artists. Despite the age of the characters (which I think is older Gen Z or young Millennials? I'm not quite sure which group people in their late-20s are categorized as) there are a lot of Gen X references to music and movies, which I always enjoy.
So run - don't walk - to your nearest library/book store/on-line book purchasing website to get this book. Then when you're done it, lend it to a friend. It is the perfect summer read!

Thank you Berkley for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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3.25 stars
When I first started reading this book, I was immediately hooked because I loved the main character, Maggie’s, voice and felt like she was speaking directly to me. However, the multiple POVs in this story became overwhelming for me and I regularly found myself wishing we stayed in certain POVs longer while in others I felt they weren’t strongly necessary to the story. I usually love multiple POVs but I was getting whiplash from how often we pivoted in this story.
This story makes for a good, casual beach read to slowly follow along with while in a climate similar to the characters. If you’re hoping for a simple feel good read focused on family and personal growth, you’ll be happy reading this. If you’re a big music lover, you’ll probably also have a strong interest and connection to this story. Although it wasn’t my all-time favorite book, I don’t regret reading it.

I loved getting to interview the author about this book! She absolutely made me want to visit Fire island!

Songs of Summer by Jane Rosen is a delicious escape to Fire Island! There is so much heart in this book, from adoptive parents to birth parents and best friends to soulmates. Maggie finds herself on a journey of self-discovery from small town Ohio to the beaches of Fire Island. This was a page turner with lots of drama and humor throughout. I devoured Rosen’s novel in just two days! Now I need to go back and read Seven Summer Weekends (that I somehow missed)!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC!

Although this started off slow for me, it was very light and sweet. I loved the characters and the different perspectives.

This is the perfect ending to Rosen’s Fire Island trilogy. Maggie and Jason have been best friends and are considering moving to a different relationship, but Maggie is determined to first find out who her biological mother is before committing. When she realizes that her biological mom, Beatrix, will be at a wedding on Fire Island, Maggie travels from her Ohio town, where she lives above her record store, to Fire Island, and the fun begins. Many of the beloved characters from the previous books reappear, as Shep, Renee, Matt, and others. Dylan and Matt have also been best friends, but when Matt meets Maggie, he is immediately lovestruck, complicating more as he cannot let on who Maggie really is and what she is doing on Fire Island. The musical references enhance the story. Highly recommended as a summer beach read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a beautiful story of taking risks and following dreams, even if it means leaving a comfortable bubble. I loved how every chapter header was attached to a song, and truly followed what was happening in the chapter. This book had a strong playlist that I'll be sure to enjoy this summer. I enjoyed this book, first time from this author between the setting, the family drama, and the amazing characters, this is a wonderful summer read.
Received this book from NetGalley for honest review.

Such a fun beach read! I loved being transported once again to Fire Island, for the third in Jane L. Rosen’s trilogy. She has developed a diverse and fabulous cast of characters and a beach community I was excited to revisit, and this heartwarming and joyful story did not disappoint. Moreover, I had a ball discovering the song title headings for each chapter and singing those tunes as I read.
Recommended to those who have already discovered Rosen as well as to fans of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Elin Hilderbrand and Meg Mitchell Moore.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the privilege of a complimentary ARC. Opinions are my own.