Family is complicated. We love them and we spend time with them. That does not mean, however, that it is sunshine and roses all of the time.
Jennifer Weiner‘s new novel, The Summer Place, was released back in May. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sarah Danhauser’s 22-year-old stepdaughter Ruby announces that she is engaged. Moreover, Ruby is determined to marry her fiance in three months’ time. The preferred location is the family’s summer house in Cape Cod.
Despite the fact that Sarah is doing her best to support Ruby, it cannot go unignored that Ruby spoke to her safta (grandmother) before telling her parents. Veronica (Sarah’s mother) would like one last hurrah before the property is sold to someone else.
As the months go by and the wedding gets closer, each character starts to reveal themselves to the reader and the secrets that they have been hiding. When they finally reveal the truth, it becomes a question of how that truth will be accepted (if at all).
I loved this book. It is an exceptional read that immediately pulled me in. The people in this novel are three-dimensional and human. In going through their individual journies, they reveal our common humanity and the flaws that we all have.
Do I recommend it? Absolutely.
The Summer Place is available wherever books are sold.