Name: The Summer Place
Rating: 3.5625 (8 reviews)
ISBN: 9781797138381

Jennifer Weiner

Sutton Foster

A Novel

The Summer Place

Alexus Duffy

Staying married, she'd decided, was a choice; one that had less to do with love and more with forbearance

Karma might not always be fast, but that bitch is always on time. And now she'd sprung her trap. 

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of That Summer comes another heartfelt and unputdownable novel of family, secrets, and the ties that bind. When her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter announces her engagement to her pandemic boyfriend, Sarah Danhauser is shocked. But the wheels are in motion. Headstrong Ruby has already set a date (just three months away!) and spoken to her beloved safta, Sarah’s mother Veronica, about having the wedding at the family’s beach house in Cape Cod. Sarah might be worried, but Veronica is thrilled to be bringing the family together one last time before putting the big house on the market. But the road to a wedding day usually comes with a few bumps. Ruby has always known exactly what she wants, but as the wedding date approaches, she finds herself grappling with the wounds left by the mother who walked out when she was a baby. Veronica ends up facing unexpected news, thanks to her meddling sister, and must revisit the choices she made long ago, when she was a bestselling novelist with a different life. Sarah’s twin brother, Sam, is recovering from a terrible loss, and confronting big questions about who he is—questions he hopes to resolve during his stay on the Cape. Sarah’s husband, Eli, who’s been inexplicably distant during the pandemic, confronts the consequences of a long ago lapse from his typical good-guy behavior. And Sarah, frustrated by her husband, concerned about her stepdaughter, and worn out by challenges of life during quarantine, faces the alluring reappearance of someone from her past and a life that could have been. When the wedding day arrives, lovers are revealed as their true selves, misunderstandings take on a life of their own, and secrets come to light. There are confrontations and revelations that will touch each member of the extended family, ensuring that nothing will ever be the same. From “the undisputed boss of the beach read” (The New York Times), The Summer Place is a testament to family in all its messy glory; a story about what we sacrifice and how we forgive. Enthralling, witty, big-hearted, and sharply observed, this is Jennifer Weiner’s love letter to the Outer Cape and the power of home, the way our lives are enriched by the people we call family, and the endless ways love can surprise us.

every character was so goddamn messy but i ate it up

julie reads

i LOVE family drama!! it got confusing with all the characters but i’m glad it was tie into a pretty happy ending, but cheating runs in this family..

debbie <3

From the #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 home on the Outer Cape, she imagined generations of her family gathering there each summer for many years to come—but things didn’t work out that way. Forty years later, Ronnie’s husband is gone. Her son, Sam, is in California, and rarely makes the trip back home. Her daughter, Sarah, packs her kids’ summers full of enriching, educational, resume-building activities that do not include collecting seashells or playing Frisbee on the beach. When Sarah’s stepdaughter announces her engagement, it feels like a natural end point. Ronnie will reunite the family for one last summer celebration, and then say goodbye to the house she’s loved for her entire life. Another soon-to-be smash hit from the “undisputed boss of the beach read” (The New York Times), 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.

Kristen Claiborn

I had been looking forward to this book. I recall enjoying one of Jennifer Weiner’s previous books, and this one was highly anticipated. I was excited to get this one off a library hold and I dug right in. 
	Unfortunately, I rode the struggle bus throughout the entire book. This one reminded me a lot of Danielle Steele’s books. There was a lot of story building but not a lot of storytelling. I endured pages-long paragraphs that were bland and pointless. The characters felt flat and were not at all likeable. The only character I didn’t dislike was the house, but the house and its role in the story was weak as well. It would have made more sense if the house had a bigger part in the whole story, but instead it was just inserted randomly in places that didn’t quite feel right. 
	I have little else to say about this book. Obviously, I didn’t enjoy it, and I wouldn’t recommend it to any of my book buddies.

The Summer Place A Novel

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