Goodreads

Release date: May 11, 2021

Publisher: Atria

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Synopsis:

Daisy Shoemaker can’t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful; her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows she’s got it good. So why is she up all night?

While Daisy tries to identify the root of her dissatisfaction, she’s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one punctuation mark away from her own. While Daisy’s driving carpools, Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisy’s making dinner, Diana’s making plans to reorganize corporations. Diana’s glamorous, sophisticated, single-lady life is miles away from Daisy’s simpler existence. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want with Daisy?

From the manicured Main Line of Philadelphia to the wild landscape of the Outer Cape, written with Jennifer Weiner’s signature wit and sharp observations, THAT SUMMER is a story about surviving our pasts, confronting our futures, and the sustaining bonds of friendship.

Review:

A new JW book is always cause for celebration for me, I so enjoy getting invested in the wonderful characters she creates and it doesn’t hurt when her books are set somewhere pretty. I do want to warn that this goes a little darker and heavier than I was expecting it to, don’t let the cute cover fool you.

Female friendships always seem to be at the heart of a JW book and this is no exception. But this time there’s a new, budding friendship blossoming between Diana and Daisy. You know going in that these two are connected someway and that it’s only a surprise to one of them as to how they’re connected, but I saw the connection pretty early on. It didn’t matter though because it was more about the way the two women handle things than the actual connection itself and the author did a beautiful job of exploring some heavy and timely issues. Besides hearing from Daisy and Diana you get Daisy’s daughter, Beatrice’s point of view as well and I adored this feisty, unique perspective. This is a beach read with depth, think #MeToo movement for an idea of what I mean. It is still infused with the authors trademark wit and warmth, just know that it’s not super light but it’s such an amazing read!

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.