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amanda884's review against another edition
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Abortion
arireadsitall's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Multiple POV, dual timeline family drama with characters you genuinely want to know more about. The story is centered around Ruby and her somewhat shocking wedding announcement to her boyfriend she met during the pandemic (the covid references set the stage for the family dynamics). Her wedding brings along a cast of characters including her birth mom, her dad, her step mom, her step grandmother, her fiance, his mom, and her uncle. Sounds like a lot but all of these characters have connections that may surprise you. The short chapters paired with the building story lines make for a really interesting read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
kimmykelly's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Cancer, Classism, Death of parent, Abortion, Death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship
lmy612's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A perfectly hatable family filled with perfectly hatable people. Even the characters who weren’t awful weren’t that great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Abortion, Cursing, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Grief, Cancer, Death, and Death of parent
kdailyreads's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
So many of the characters made so many choices that then made it hard to like them. Also, some of the plot points were truly wild - like, made me feel both uncomfortable and annoyed because it seemed too far, yet also a little intrigued despite that. This novel definitely mentioned Covid a lot but it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it might going in - probably because there was no discussion of any of the characters themselves falling ill or personally losing someone to it. For example, one character is a nurse and zero percent of the book addressed what her experience during Covid would have been like as a nurse. There were two parts of the book that made me cry because they were truly sad (heartbreaking, really), but actually had zero connection to Covid. Jennifer Weiner’s ability to write in an an engaging way is very strong and her style of writing draws me in. Plus, I did enjoy all the descriptions of Cape Cod summers. Ultimately, I wanted to keep reading to see what happened. I got to the epilogue and was mad at first because it seemed like there was no way the book was going to wrap everything up in a way that I would feel satisfied with, but then it mostly did. The final moments of the book were particularly well crafted.
The performance of Sutton Foster on the audiobook narration, I would give 4-5 stars! Definitely increased my enjoyment of this novel.
The performance of Sutton Foster on the audiobook narration, I would give 4-5 stars! Definitely increased my enjoyment of this novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Grief, Abandonment, Car accident, Death of parent, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Sexual content
Moderate: Abortion, Alcohol, and Antisemitism
mandalacb19's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was a beautiful story about a family and a place and how the two are connected. I adored the characters and found the story compelling and rich. This will be another best seller for Jennifer Weiner, I'm sure. The settings were vivid, and the emotion was beautifuly written and illustrated.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
Minor: Death
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