I thought the premise of this was fascinating, and I think the overall idea of handling grief was compassionately done. Overall, for me, it was a little too slow-moving. I wanted more time with the two MCs together, and the short bursts from other characters were a little hard to follow at times. Even when I saw who was speaking in the chapters, I still had a hard time switching from the previous POV.

I struggled with this book and a liked it too. There was so much back and forth between 5 of the characters. It took me about a 100 pages to keep them straight. I also was not a big fan of the ending.

I have forever been a fan of An Brashares and was super excited to read this one. With that being said, I enjoyed this book. Although I do wish that there was a little more depth in term of story-lines. It sort of felt all over the place and I found some of it to be rather confusing. On the other hand, the writing style and how the story is presented to us is unique and something I really loved about the book. So I would certainly share this novel with others. It's an honest and well told story albeit a bit scattered.

Thank you to Net Galley, Ann Brashares and the Publisher for providing me with my digital copy for a fair and honest review.

I really wanted to like this more and was really excited to receive my copy. I agree with all of the reviewers on Good Reads. Nobody was able to make much sense of the disjointed and choppy writing. It was very confusing with having so many different characters points of view with some being only a couple paragraphs and others with a lot more to say. It is unexpected because I loved The Sisterhood of the travelling Pants so much. I hope that it finds at least some readers who will appreciate it. Some of the themes really were inappropriate for a Young adult audience.

I've been an avid reader of Ann Brashares since I was a teen! I have always felt that she did a great job at crossover novels that bridge YA and adult fiction. This novel does not disappoint! It has all of the lovable hints from her past novels with something new and refreshing for readers to enjoy. I read this book on a trip to Chicago to see a friend and had people asking me about it in the airport and on the plane. I could not put it down and had to slow down so that I could savor it! I loved the family dynamics and how the house itself felt like a character. I would definitely recommend this for a high school classroom, along with all of Brashare's other YA novels!

I apologize for my following review.
* I received this book for free, in exchange for an honest review, and its going to be very honest*

This book made me feel awkward, there is stuff in this book that I do not support, and will refuse to support said topics by purchasing this book, or recommending it to others.

Sexism, racism, body shaming, and the like are topics I refuse to read, and will not encourage others to read as well. We need to move behind this way of thinking, and books being printed, are not helping the younger generation to rise above the hate. No thanks, won't read this book ever again.

I was rather disappointed that my expectations for Ann Brashares' The Whole Thing Together were unmet. After having read her other YA works, I expected the sort of characterization and insight found in those other stories. Unfortunately, this lacked emotional pull, humor, and the truths of adolescence that are usually in abundance with Brashares' stories.

Book: The Whole Thing Together
Author: Ann Brashares
Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank Netgally and the publishers ,Delacorte Press and Random House, for providing me with an ARC galley in exchange for an honest review.

I, like so many others, fell in love with Ann Brashares through The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I just loved the series and whenever I saw she had another book coming out on Netgalley, I put my name in. I was actually kind of surprised that I was selected for an ARC. I had very high expectations, but was kind of let down by the book.

The Whole Thing Together is your typical summer read. There is a huge cast of characters, who are supposed to be really great characters and well rounded. I felt like the characters just fell flat and were not developed at all. It seemed like they were all trying to get their own spot in the book. The book is 304 pages, which really is not a super big book. With their being close to five point of view characters and so many side characters, it was just so choppy. Plus, it felt like sometimes the point of view would only be told from a certain character’s point of view for no longer than a few paragraphs. To me, it was just very choppy and difficult to keep everything straight.

The amount of characters also affected the writing. The writing was very choppy and I’m hoping that’s because I have an ARC copy. I really do hope that the publishers take what its reviewers are saying and revisit the book. I know Ann is a very capable writer, but the writing in The Whole Thing Together is just not up to her normal standard. It was a very hard book to follow and a very hard book to stay engaged in.

Yet, I did give The Whole Thing Together a three star review…Why?

There were actually parts that I did like a lot. I did like the relationship between Sasha and Ray. I was a little confused to how they had never met before, but the more I read, the more it made sense. I know a lot of people are not a fan of their relationship, but I actually thought it was pretty cute. Them writing back to each other, just made the story.

I also did enjoy the ending. Now, it was sad, but I did like how it brought everyone together. Though I never did fully understand just what happened…I mean, I get the big picture, but a few more little details would have been helpful.

The Whole Thing Together will be out on April 25, 2017. I think it will be a best-seller, but before I buy a copy of it, there is going to have to be some major changes.

Beautiful ending. I wished for a little more of Queenie so the ending would have resonated a little more deeper, but I loved the story concept and the complicated family tangle.

The description of the book is just about completely different from what the actual story holds. The description makes you assume that it is probably about a couple of star-crossed, love struck teenagers and while it kind of is like that, I would have to say the description is used to draw people in while the actual text is different. Ray and Sasha were not as big of a part of the story as I had originally thought they would be. Instead, the story rotated the POV to all their shared sibling's and then Ray and Sasha in between them. The characters were dry and I would to believe they really lacked in the story. There wasn't any real character development and it all kind of runs really fast. If it was just focused on Ray and Sasha I think it would've been a better read.

This might've been a serious case of it's not the book it's me but I struggled to get through this one. I couldn't get into the stories plot, didn't like the characters, and felt disconnected to the writing style. A quarter of the way through I took a extensive break and then didn't want to go back, finally repicked it up and still felt a disconnect with it.

I gave this book a 3.5/5 stars and rounded it out to a 4.

This story is told in snapshots with different points of views and many characters, and that might be what held my attention most about it. It's unique, and just compelling enough that we want to read to know what happens to that character we most identify with.

Overall, I loved the family dynamic of the story and how it was more about that than anything else. It touched on all aspects of life; love, loss, betrayal, without seeming too far-fetched. !!SPOILER!! The thing that kept this story from really hitting a four or five for me was that Quinn had to die for the parents to get over their disagreements. !!SPOILER!!Why is it up to a child or a woman to fix these kinds of things? People should want to fix their families for the sake of the family, and not only let tragic events dictate their choices. I was sad that this was the route Brashares went for. I'm not about self-sacrificing resolutions.

This book was an interesting read. Some of the plotlines, such as Ray/Sasha, could have used a bit more fleshing out. But I just loved the idea of a family becoming whole once more.

What i loved the most about this book is Ann's narrative, she's so prolific that you get involved in the story from the very beginning. I loved the young characters (not so much the grown ups) they felt very realistic. I'm glad that i've read such a moving story.

Seventeen-year-olds Ray and Sasha share a bedroom. They've seen each other from afar, but have never met. They also share three older half-sisters. His mother and her father, now bitterly divorced, and share ownership of a beach house and take care to assure their paths don't cross. Sasha is wealthy, Ray is not. That's the basis for a possible romance.

Sasha and Ray were engaging characters. I was interested in both (dysfunctional) families and the setup that allowed the sisters' same-aged half-siblings to have never met through careful illustration of separate birthday parties, opposite side seating at graduations etc.

Ann Brashares, of THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS fame, had trouble pulling me in with the third person omniscient point of view. The beginning of THE WHOLE THING TOGETHER was mostly backstory, which I found confusing because I didn't yet know or care about the characters. I love Brashares' crisp, clean writing style and the ease at which the story unfolded.

I think most readers will enjoy THE WHOLE THING TOGETHER, but worry that some readers might not be engaged early enough in the story to keep reading.

I struggled with this book. It was very hard to keep everyone straight, because of the point of views changing, and how everyone was referred to by name, instead of mom, dad, etc. The plot was really cool, but it was a hard read for me, personally.

The Whole Thing Together was an okay read for me. I think that there were too many POV's which made the storyline more complicated than it needed to be. I also felt that the romance in this one was a bit weird and felt a little forced to me. The characters were developed okay but I wasn't extremely attached to any of them. But on the other hand it was a quick an fluffy read. Overall this was an okay read for me.