Ratings13
Average rating3.5
'If you have time for only one book this summer, pick this one' New York Times 'An ambitious, immersive novel from the author of In Her Shoes' Red Magazine 'Engrossing' Sunday Mirror ____________________________ From the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of That Summer comes another heartfelt and unputdownable novel of family, secrets, and the ties that bind. When Veronica Levy bought her dream house on the Outer Cape, she imagined a place where generations of her family would gather for years to come. Now, forty years later, with her children barely speaking to each other, or to her, Veronica has decided, reluctantly, to put the place on the market. She'll invite the family to gather one last time (and insist on their good behavior) at her granddaughter Ruby's wedding. She'll spend one last summer by the beach, with her daughter Sarah, her son Sam, and whichever grandchildren can be coaxed into making the trip. Then she'll say goodbye to the house she's loved for forty years. But three months is a long time. Time enough for an old love to reappear, for secrets to come to light, and for three generations of Levy women to decide what kind of lives they want to live, in the summers they have left. The Summer Place is a hilarious, delicious, and wickedly observed story about parents and children, husbands and wives, the places we call home, and all the ways that love can surprise us. ____________________________ Find out why everyone's talking about Jennifer Weiner: 'You'll love this book and wish she was your friend' MINDY KALING 'Fiercely funny, powerfully smart, and remarkably brave' CHERYL STRAYED 'Like Helen Fielding, Weiner balances fresh humour, deft characterisations, and literary sensibility' GUARDIAN 'Mrs Everything is like Beaches but with mothers and daughters and sisters. I may never recover' JILL GRUNEWALD 'Generous and entertaining' Publishers Weekly 'You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to read it again' TheSkimm 'Jennifer Weiner has done it again. She has made me feel more emotions than I've felt in a long time' Goodreads reviewer 'Beautifully written and heart-touching' Goodreads reviewer
Reviews with the most likes.
Way too long. I enjoy a good character development but when pretty much none of the story in present day I was looking forward to reading is in the book I got irritated. Everyone is flawed, and over the top. Not a single redeeming character
DNF at 50%. The blurb promised a novel about a dysfunctional family hashing it out at their summer beach house, but instead all I got was a lot of info-dumping and backstory on too many people. Weiner seemed to be trying a weird mix of family drama and Shakespearean comedy farce, which did not mix well. Skimmed the rest of the book, and saw that the characters finally start interacting with each other at about 65%. By then it was too late to pull me back into the story.