This is the third summer-themed book by Jennifer Weiner, all set in Cape Cod. The first was a mystery, the second was an issue book, this one was quite different from all of them. What did I think? Check out my Review of The Summer Place!
Review of The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner
The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner
To be published on May 10 2022 by Atria Books
Synopsis of The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner
When her twenty-two-year-old stepdaughter announces her engagement to her pandemic boyfriend, Sarah Danhauser is shocked. Headstrong Ruby has already set a date and spoken to Sarah’s mother Veronica, about having the wedding at the family’s beach house on 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 and must revisit the choices she made long ago. Sarah’s twin brother, Sam, is recovering from a terrible loss, and confronting big questions.
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.
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.
Review of The Summer Place
I’ll talk about The Summer Place and then talk about it in relation to the other “summer” books.
So … I do love a divisive book because it makes book blogging and reader discussions so interesting. I feel like The Summer Place is one of those love-it-or-hate-it books. I didn’t hate it, and it wasn’t a bad book, but it also wasn’t the book for me.
I also want to add that, in her afterword, Jennifer Weiner says this book is a love letter to her mother, who died recently. I hope Jennifer’s mother is smiling down at all the good-natured family chaos that her daughter created in her honor.
The Summer Place is a trippy, drama-filled book. I grew up watching 80s soap operas, with their improbable, rambling plots, and The Summer Place reminded me a little of that.
In the acknowledgments, Weiner also says that she thought of this book as farce (not a fan of those) and a little bit A Midsummer Night’s Dream (my least favorite Shakespeare play). So maybe this book was just not going to be for me.
But let’s discuss The Summer Place, so you can see if it might be for you.
As a beach read, The Summer Place could be a great fit for a reader who loves books about family drama. There’s a lot of out-there stuff, but also some really funny and insightful scenes of pandemic and post-pandemic life.
I laughed hard when the main character was filled with inexplicable rage at her husband’s annoying orthopedic flip flops, because when my entire family was together 24/7 I felt that way at times.
Crossover Characters in That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
In comments, Loryn pointed out that Dr. Veronica “Ronnie” Levy, who is Sarah’s mother, is a crossover character from from That Summer. Diana, one of the main characters in That Summer, also makes an appearance as the owner of Safe Harbor, where Ruby is holding her wedding. Love crossover characters.
If there are others that we have missed (I haven’t read the other “summer” books for some time) please let me know!
If you’ve read The Summer Place and want to discuss all the drama, please come to my spoiler discussion post for The Summer Place!
My Ranking of all the Summer Books
I’m not sure if there are more “summer” books to come, but my favorite by far of the three summer books was Big Summer, with its cozy Cape Cod murder mystery. My review of Big Summer is here. if you’ve read that and want to discuss it, you can find my Spoiler Discussion for Big Summer here.
The second summer book was That Summer, which is my second favorite. That Summer was the most serious of the three, more of a women’s fiction/issue book. I felt the ending was unsatisfying, and you can find my Spoiler Discussion of That Summer here. I also reviewed That Summer, and you can read that by clicking the photo below.
If you want something more chick lit:
The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner
Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Please tell me in comments, and be sure to click the bell icon to be notified of responses!
As a big fan of Weiner’s, I have to say this wasn’t my favorite from her, but I did enjoy it. It got off to a slow start for me – getting everyone’s background story felt tedious at times and seemed like the story had no forward momentum. But the second half really clicked into place for me and from that point on I was all-in.
First off, so great to see you! And weirdly, I was the opposite. I liked the family relationships, which felt like classic Weiner and then when things got wilder and more unrealistic, it became less of my kind of book!
Jennifer Weiner is one author I’ve seen about and never had much motivation to read anything from. I like that her latest book focuses on family because I could see that family drama interesting me but there’s just something which doesn’t grab enough of my attention to make me buy.
I get that. Her very earliest books like Good in Bed and In Her Shoes) are more chick lit but over the years she has definitely moved more into the women’s fiction lane. She’s great at creating relatable characters and family relationships. She has been experimenting over the last few years with the “summer” books. Big Summer was a mystery, while That Summer felt a little like issue-driven women’s fiction and The Summer Place was more soap opera.
Did we notice Diana from That Summer as a crossover character, as well as Dr. Levy AKA Ronnie AKA Veronica?? I love this kind of transtextuality!
I love crossover characters! I’m going to add this to the post and credit you 🙂