The Summer Place: A Novel

This novel was really interesting & I love the storylines of all the characters. I love the generations of women that ate entwined as well. Highly recommended.

Really wanted a nice relaxing beach read type novel, but this is a weird mix describing lives of highly privileged people (the usual beach houses and NY brownstones) on the one hand and a lot of not entirely likable people with unrealistic approaches to relationships and somewhat unrelatable behaviors on the other, like not addressing issues for months or years between couples or jumping around between sexual orientations/ partners/ generations etc. And so much adultery and dishonesty… And the sex scenes… too much in a variety of ways… additionally, the politically correct storylines are so trite: Someone decides they are suddenly sexually attracted to a whole different category and everything is just unicorns and rainbows. In real life there would be resentment, feelings of betrayal, recriminations, etc. which would make for far more interesting storylines. I guess if you don’t subscribe to the trite cliches and applaud at every opportunity you must be “bigoted”… But it would be a whole lot easier not to be bigoted if the writing was better… I suspect that the politically correct storylines being so poorly written, like propaganda, reflects that writers feel they must include them and treat them according to current politically correct orthodoxy lest they be cancelled. Makes for trite writing by not untalented writers otherwise. Save your money.

I have been enjoying books by her for a very long time. This was very interesting tale of several peoples lives intertwined into each others. Weiner does such a great job of character development and really explores their personalities very well here. I've always appreciated that about her work.

I've been a faithful reader of Jennifer Weiner's and enjoyed all of her books. This one just didn't do it for me and I was surprised by that. WARNING BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD -I think one of my issues with the book was the cliché of not talking to one another and keeping secrets. I know that adds for drama, but when everyone is doing it that's just too much. I also didn't find the characters very likable and they didn't have many redeeming qualities.Eli keeping that secret about his daughter potentially marrying her half brother was just ridiculous! How in the world could he have possibly let them carry on dating and sleeping together with that possibly being the case‽ Even though I knew Gabe wasn't his son that still kind of grossed me out that Eli let that happen without determining for sure if he was Gabe's father or not.While I sympathized with Sarah about her marriage having problems I could never fully connect with her. Maybe if she had been the main character? That also might have been a problem I had with the book was all the different perspectives. I don't mind more than one narrator but this felt like a bunch of little stories all lumped together. With whole chapters telling what happened in the past.The other issue I had was the whole "I'll tell them later" thing. That drives me nuts when people just don't talk about things. Not that it would have kept Ronnie from dying but I would be very upset at my parent withholding that information from me.Overall it as an ok book but not one I would read again.

A family retreat in Cape Cod. Every Summer, Sarah, Her twin, her sister and other brother met at their Grandparents home for summers. The best memories they could of had growing up. A romance between Owen and Sarah, Sarah's twin who got married, after Sam's wife passed away he realized he was living a lie. Sarah met and married Eli who was a single dad to Ruby! The story goes into the characters childhoods and into adulthood. There are a lot of in-depth feelings about their life choices and how they felt living with it and what they sacrificed for family. I very much enjoyed this book and the author who wrote it! Jennifer Weiner, kudos!

First of all, I think Weiner is a great writer. I love many of her books and That Summer was probably my favourite one of all time. I wanted to love this one just as much but unfortunately, it just missed the mark for me. It wasn’t BAD by any means. I spent a couple of evenings quite engaged as I got through it, but I found myself lifted out of the story by little things that irritated me — the framing device of the sentient house for one thing. (Goofy, in my opinion.) And as others have said, there was so much infidelity. Maybe that’s true to life, but it’s simply not my taste.Again, this isn’t a criticism of the author really. This book wasn’t a big winner for me, but these things are personal and not objective. It was well-written and I still look forward to whatever Weiner does next.

I have and will read anything this author writes. As the years and the books roll by, it becomes easier and easier to see the echoes of her real life in her fiction. Knowing the year she had made this book, especially the ending, more poignant. The story rounds out the summer trilogy of books over the past few years. Jennifer Weiner tells stories that are so compelling, with such rich characters, that you inevitably get a book hangover after you finish and wish you could meet and befriend her characters IRL. If this is your first read of hers, I wish you joy as you pick up all of the other delicious books out there. She’ll make you laugh, cry, and cringe sometimes all on the same page and she’ll always leave you wanting more.

This book was not great literature, but it was a good story with sympathetic characters. Central to the story was an extended family, the Levy-Weinbergs. There were several painful secrets between family members. Ms. Weiner is a gifted storyteller. This is a good light Summer reading book.

I absolutely love JW and have read and will continue to read everything she writes. But I couldn't finish this. It wasmeandering, the language was full of clichés and in some parts just odd ("a bird called twit-whoo, twit whoo") and the main cusp of the story hinged on possible incest. In the end I didn't care about the characters I just wanted it to stop. Come JW in her early days when the story was engrossing the characters engaging and the language beautiful

Loved the entire book. Especially enjoyed the idea of the house seeing all and welcoming Ronnie home in the end !

Stinker is all I want or need to say. Do not waste your money buying this one. I wish I hadn't!

There is nothing that she has left out. You name it, it is in this book. Awesome book. I highly recommend it.