The Summer Place

 

The Summer Place
by Jennifer Weiner

I always enjoy Jennifer Weiner's books and this one didn't disappoint. It's the kind of book that I do keep going back to because I'm just that nosy and need to know what's going to happen.  

Ms. Weiner introduces us to a family that is blended and has the usual issues.  I think Sarah is the main, most followed character of the story.  She has a twin brother, Sam, who is a single dad to his stepson. Sarah is married to Eli who is 10 years older than her and has a young daughter, Ruby, when they wed. Eli's ex is a woman who never wanted nor intended to be a mother. Eli has a "ne'er-do-well" brother. Sarah & Sam's parents are financially well off due to a couple of books Veronica, their mother, wrote prior to their birth. 

The main event is going to be the wedding of Sarah's step daughter to her college boyfriend. It will take place at Sarah's parents' summer home. 

I won't give away all the issues, but everyone has them and some may be unexpected.  I will say that secrets abound in and about this extended family.  As the secrets are revealed to the reader, I completely expected the story to end with a huge blowout at the wedding.  But... I'm not going to say more than that, either it does or it doesn't...

I really enjoyed the way the story was told, each character having a chapter devoted to his or her background and current life and JW braiding them all together revealing "just enough." To be honest, I though I had figured out the main issue early on, however, it wasn't held secret and so wasn't the "A-ha! I got the spoiler!" that I thought I had. 

I did find that the characters were a bit more understanding in one particular instance than I could have imagined them to be. I wonder if I am alone in that thought. I may explain more in the spoilers. 

My rating of The Summer Place is 4 shots of 5. It was a fun book, easy to read and get through - perfect for the summer months! 

SPOILER ALERT!

This is where I recount the story for my own poor memory. Proceed at your own risk! 

Lets begin with all the secrets!  
Eli, Sarah's husband, formerly married to Annette.  When he was with Annette they were footloose and fancy free, traveling the world and working wherever they touched down. Annette wanted to live her life that way and had no interest in marriage.  Then she got pregnant with Ruby. She eventually left both Eli & Ruby, becoming an absent parent rather than a neglectful one.  Eli's secret is that he cheated on Annette and may have another child - who he believes is the boy Ruby is engaged to. 

Sarah, Eli's wife, still has a lingering love for her summer-before-college romance who promised to keep in touch but ended up ghosting her.  During a troubling time in her marriage and right before the wedding she indulges herself with the former love who just happened to pop back into her life. 

Sam, Sarah's brother, is famously shut down at the six month mark of every relationship he's had. When at last he find a woman who loves him beyond the six months and they marry, she is killed in an auto accident and he is left with her son who's father has no interest in raising him. Sam is happy to be Connor's father.  But, unrelated, he is soon questioning his own sexuality. 

Veronica, Sarah & Sam's mother has a sister who thinks it's a great idea to send the adult twins 23 & Me DNA test kits. As a result of this it's revealed to the reader that Veronica had a years long affair with an editor in NYC at the time she was also preparing to marry the man who becomes the twins' father.  She has never known for sure which man fathered the children. 

Ruby realizes right before the wedding that she had expected or at least hoped that someone would call her out on not being ready for marriage.  She flees with her bio mother the night before her wedding. 

Gabe, Ruby's fiancé, hooks up with Sam at a gay bar that night. They haven't met prior to this point and don't realize who they are in relationship to each other.  This is the part that I have a problem with after all is said and done. They start a long relationship and no one is bothered by the fact that Gabe & Ruby were almost married.  I just don't think many families would be that accepting.  I could be wrong... 

I'm sure there is more I haven't covered but this should be enough to help me recall the book should I need to.  

And as an aside, yes, they live happily ever after. 

Then Came You

Then Came You
by Jennifer Weiner

One of the reasons I write a book blog is because I have a very bad memory.  God's honest truth.  I am one of those people who could probably read the same book over and over again and still be surprised by the ending... same with movies.  Sadly, this comes back to haunt me when I fall so far behind in my blogging and can't really remember a book well enough to review it.  Insert heavy sigh here. 

Jennifer Weiner is an author that I really enjoy.  I can't recall much detail of this story, even after revisiting the synopsis at the Barnes & Noble website.  I won't try to bluff my way through a review.  I think the next few posts will simply be me trying to update my record of the books I've read without much commentary. 

But I'll save you searching for the synopsis.  From Barnes & Noble:

AN UNEXPECTED LOVE STORY . . .

Jules Strauss is a Princeton senior on a full scholarship who plans on selling her “pedigree” eggs to help save her father from addiction.

Annie Barrow, a struggling Pennsylvania housewife, thinks that carrying another woman’s child will help her recover a sense of purpose and will bring in some much-needed cash.

India Bishop, thirty-eight (really, forty-three) and recently married to the wealthy Marcus Croft, yearns for a baby for reasons that have more to do with money than with love. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to Jules and Annie to make her dreams come true.

But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Bettina, Marcus’s privileged daughter, becomes suspicious that her new stepmother is not what she seems . . .

Told with Jennifer Weiner’s trademark wit and sharp observations, Then Came You is a hilarious, tender, and timely tale that explores themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and charity, the rights of a parent and the measure of a mother.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

"Certain Girls" by Jennifer Weiner

I recently referred to Jennifer Weiner as one of my favorite chic lit authors. I think I did her a disservice. Her novels are filled with themes and issues that are certainly of interest to women but they are nowhere as light as chic lit. I find them a bit meatier.

"Certain Girls" is a sequel to "Good in Bed" picking up Cannie's life several years later. She is now happily married and her daughter, Joy, is a young teen. Joy is aware that she was conceived out of wedlock and her father isn't the man she calls her Dad. After "Good in Bed" left off Cannie became a minor celebrity with publication of a novel that was a fictionalized autobiography, written in anger. Joy decides it's time to covertly read the novel her mother wrote years before and takes it as truth.

Certain Girls is written from both Cannie's and Joy's voices. It looks at adolescence from the confused perspective of a child struggling with too many questions, wondering if her mother truly didn't want her, why her birth father disappeared, who her mother really is - the woman in the novel? - and much more. She is a daring and brave young girl with too many misconceptions. It also looks at the bewilderment of a mother who couldn't love her daughter more as she is excluded from a life she wants desperately to protect.

Unlike chic lit, Jennifer Weiner doesn't tie up her novel with a pretty ribbon and give us the perfect ending to a perfect story. The ending is satisfying but as in real life, lacks happily ever after.