That Summer

December 1, 2020

In the New York Times best-selling Henry's People We Meet on Vacation, vivacious travel writer Poppy once vacationed yearly with straight-and-narrow best friend Alex, but their last vacation left their relationship in shreds, and Poppy must talk him into one last trip so they can right the balance. In Jenoff's The Woman with the Blue Star, 18-year-old Sadie Gault is hiding in the sewers after the liquidation of the Krak�w ghetto when she forms a tentative friendship with wealthy Polish girl Ella Stepanek (500,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). In Just Last Night, the latest from the internationally best-selling McFarlane (If I Never Met You), Eve is still crushing on Ed, among their group of four forever best friends, but her questions about what might have been are interrupted by a catastrophe upending all their lives (50,000-copy first printing). Best-selling novelist/memoirist Maynard returns with Count the Ways, which tracks the fate of a family when the parents break up after an accident that permanently injures the youngest child (50,000-copy first printing). Oakley follows up You Were There Too, a LibraryReads pick whose film rights have been sold, with The Invisible Husband of Frick Island, featuring an ambitious young journalist disgruntled about having to cover a fundraiser on Chesapeake Bay's Frick Island until he discovers the townsfolk pretending to hear and see a man who's not there--all for the sake of his widow. Inspired by a real-life individual, Phillips's The Family Law stars a crusading young family lawyer in early 1980s Alabama whose efforts to help women escape abusive marriages brings death threats that eventually endanger a teenager she has befriended. In Shipman's latest, terminally ill Emily wants the lifelong friends she made at summer camp in 1985 to scatter her ashes at the camp, and The Clover Girls find another life-affirming request from her when they oblige (100,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). No plot details yet on Weiner's That Summer, but the setting is sunstruck Cape Cod, and there's a 350,000-copy first printing. Weir's Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife, tells the story of twice-widowed Katharine, cornered into marriage with Henry VIII and shamelessly used by an old lover after Henry's death.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2021
Revenge for a long-ago assault takes the form of an elaborate long con. "She is fifteen years old that summer, a thoughtful, book-struck girl...." Weiner's new novel opens with a prologue set during Diana's idyllic summer on Cape Cod, babysitting for a lovely family, hanging out with the other nannies, and meeting a cute boy named Poe who hands her a red Solo cup on what she is certain will be the best night of her life. The reader is not so sure. In the next chapter, we meet an unhappy housewife named Daisy Shoemaker, nee Diana, who receives an invitation to a fancy birthday party in wine country that is meant for a different Diana, one whose email address is one character different than hers. When her reply to that email is answered immediately by the other Diana, rather than the party giver, she doesn't suspect there's some kind of phishing going on. Again, the wily reader is not fooled. But there's a whole lot of book left, and we still don't know exactly what happened in Cape Cod, or which Diana is which, and whatever happened to that ominously named Poe? The strongest character in this book has little to do with the main plot--it's Daisy's rebel daughter, Beatrice, who creates some comic relief with her irritated thoughts and dead-mouse taxidermy projects. "Maybe I'm dead and this is hell: my mom quoting John Mayer songs and talking about orgasms." Fans will enjoy references to the murder plot of Weiner's previous novel, Big Summer (2020), and sprinklings of Weiner's signature descriptions of food and cooking. But the stereotyped characters, the contrived morality-tale plot, and the amount of preaching are not worthy of this author. Socialist realism for the #MeToo era.

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April 16, 2021

An email mixup figures in Weiner's second "Cape Cod" story (after Big Summer). Midlife ennui has hit Daisy Shoemaker hard. Her husband Hal's patronizing attitude is exhausting, her daughter Beatrice is in the throes of teen girlhood, and her best friend has recently died. Then she receives an invitation to a lavish 50th-birthday party--but it turns out to be intended for someone with an email address similar to Daisy's. Daisy and the intended recipient, Diana Starling, strike up a correspondence, and Daisy is immediately impressed with Diana's poise and sophistication. Their friendship leads Daisy to wonder what could have been if she hadn't left college early to marry Hal. But Diana has an ulterior motive; as a teenager, she was sexually assaulted, and her quest to confront her rapist has led her to Daisy's doorstep. Each chapter features a different perspective from Daisy, Diana, or Beatrice, providing insight into the characters' motivations, as well as glimpses of their pasts. VERDICT Weiner's ability to take a complex, painful situation and spin it into an engaging, thoughtful story about women's inner lives is showcased throughout this novel. The beautiful beachside settings and aspirational lifestyles that women's fiction readers gravitate toward are on full display, but the depth of the story is what shines. A likely summer blockbuster, this will have readers looking forward to the third volume in trilogy.--Nanette Donohue, Champaign P.L., IL

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2021
Daisy Shoemaker spends her life catering to her husband, Hal, 12 years her senior, and their 15-year-old daughter, Beatrice, who just got kicked out of Hal's tony boarding-school alma mater and is overflowing with teenage disdain for her ineffectual mother. Daisy teaches ad hoc cooking lessons, but her life mostly revolves around her family. So when an email mix-up puts her in touch with Diana Starling and the two hit it off, she is thrilled at the prospect of making an actual adult friend. But Diana isn't who she says she is, and she has deliberately thrown herself into Daisy's orbit to attempt to reconcile her past. Spurred on by the #MeToo movement, the characters explore the weight that victims of sexual assault carry, and the damage left in the wake of unchecked privilege. But there is also a warmth to the novel, fueled by the Cape Cod setting and deft characterization. Daisy is a classic Weiner heroine, an underappreciated and unconfident woman who grows wings; Beatrice is endearingly strong-willed; and Diana is heartbreakingly sympathetic. Weiner's storytelling skill is such that she paints an uncompromising, complicated portrait of the insidious dangers of the patriarchy that is also a lot of fun to read.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Weiner's latest is a summer banger with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot, which is sure to garner lots of attention.

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