The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner: Audiobook Review

The Summer Place is a dynamic story of family and secrets set in Cape Cod. The story is told in multiple time frames and has a large cast of characters. Let me introduce you to this book.

[book-info]

From The Publisher:

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 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, 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.

My Thoughts:

Jennifer Weiner is another of my auto-read authors and I look forward to each new release. As the synopsis shows, there is a large cast of characters in this book. Weiner excels is in her ability to provide multiple well-developed characters that immerse the reader into her story. The use of multiple time frames to accomplish this was brilliant.

Multiple generations of the same family gather together for a wedding at the Cape Cod home of Veronica the matriarch of the family. This will be the last gathering of the family here before Veronica sells the house. Each of those that are gathering has their own secret they carry with them. Infidelity features prominently in these secrets. Living your best life is also a significant theme in this book.

I enjoyed observing the relationships between family members, which included a set of twins. As the family gathers for the wedding, secrets begin to reveal themselves and the family begins confronting one another. Soon reality sets in as a family member collapses.

The was plenty to keep me engaged in this book, but it felt a little too long for me. The story jumps timeframes frequently and it was a little challenging with this large cast of characters. Nevertheless, I appreciated seeing the transition of the characters over time and how the relationships changed. I recommend this book to those readers who enjoy books about large families or Women’s Fiction.

I listened to the audiobook version of The Summer Place which was narrated by Sutton Foster one of my favourite narrators. Her performance was enthusiastic and easy to listen to. I recommend this format of the book to those that enjoy audiobooks.

What I Liked:

• Well-developed characters
• The family relationships
• How each backstory interacted with the current story

Acknowledgments:

Thanks to my local library for bringing in this audiobook.

Similar Books I’ve Reviewed:

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner