Julie's Review: The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel

Author: Elyssa Friedland
Series: None
Publication Date:  May 18, 2021
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 384
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Perfect summer read about family, traditions and new paths
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Summary: In its heyday, The Golden Hotel was the crown jewel of the hotter-than-hot Catskills vacation scene. For more than sixty years, the Goldman and Weingold families – best friends and business partners – have presided over this glamorous resort which served as a second home for well-heeled guests and celebrities. But the Catskills are not what they used to be – and neither is the relationship between the Goldmans and the Weingolds. As the facilities and management begin to fall apart, a tempting offer to sell forces the two families together again to make a heart-wrenching decision. Can they save their beloved Golden or is it too late? Long-buried secrets emerge, new dramas and financial scandal erupt, and everyone from the traditional grandparents to the millennial grandchildren wants a say in the hotel’s future. Business and pleasure clash in this fast-paced, hilarious, nostalgia-filled story, where the hotel owners rediscover the magic of a bygone era of nonstop fun even as they grapple with what may be their last resort. ~amazon.com 

Review: If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I do love my family drama novels and Last Summer at the Golden Hotel definitely fits into that category. This time though you have 2 families and their drama that is intertwined. 

The days of glory in the Catskills of New York has waned and therefore the Goldman and Weingolds have a major decision to make: keep the hotel and try to revive it or sell it to a Casino company only to have them bring it to the ground. This isn't going to be an easy decision as all of the parents, kids and grandkids have a vote. This of course brings up old issues and maybe a few new issues. It brings back old feelings and new feelings between all family members. 

What I loved about this book is that you understand all viewpoints from the founders, the Grandparents, to the grandchildren who think their grandparents are too traditional for the current culture. Of course as a GenXer, I identified with the parents who were caught between respecting their parents and wondering what they hell their kids are thinking. 

I found myself laughing a lot during my time with these clans. I found the novel to be endearing and fun with some nostalgia. I truly loved the ending of this book and felt it was pitch perfect. This is a perfect summer read no matter where you read it. 

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Sunday Skim

Week of 6/20/2021:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

Looking forward to some downtime this next week. I want to get to some of my backlisted books as well as a few coming in July. Hope you all have a great week! 

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Sunday Skim

Week of 6/13/2021:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

I start PTO this upcoming Wednesday but Thursday - Sunday is at an out of town baseball tournament so I'm not so sure how much reading I will get done. I think I want to focus on some backlogged books while I'm out on PTO. I'm sure I'll be mom taxi as well but I will fit in reading time. 

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Julie's Review: Blush

Author: Jamie Brenner
Series: None
Publication Date:  June 22, 2021
Publisher: Putnam
Pages: 381
Obtained: pubilsher via NetGalley                                                       Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Family, Wine and beating the patriarchy
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: For decades, the Hollander Estates winery has been the premier destination for lavish parties and romantic day trips on the North Fork of Long Island. But behind the lush vineyards and majestic estate house, the Hollander family fortunes have suffered and the threat of a sale brings old wounds to the surface. For matriarch Vivian, she fears that this summer season could be their last—and that selling their winery to strangers could expose a dark secret she's harbored for decades. Meanwhile, her daughter, Leah, who was turned away from the business years ago, finds her marriage at a crossroads and returns home for a sorely needed escape. And granddaughter Sadie, grappling with a crisis of her own, runs to the vineyard looking for inspiration. But when Sadie uncovers journals from Vivian's old book club dedicated to scandalous novels of decades past, she realizes that this might be the distraction they all need. Reviving the "trashy" book club, the Hollander women find that the stories hold the key to their fight not only for the vineyeard, but for the life and love they've wanted all along. Blush is a bighearted story of love, family, and second chances, and an ode to the blockbuster novels that have shaped generations of women. ~amazon.com

Review: I've always been a reader, pretty much have always carried a book with me for year which means I've read a lot of different genres but my favorite as a teen were the steamy books of Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins and Sydney Sheldon. My absolute favorite being Jackie Collins' Lucky Santagelo series. To me Lucky was brazen, smart and beautiful and someone not to be messed with. So when Ms. Brenner started giving clues about what this book would be about I KNEW I couldn't miss it. 

The Hollander Estates  is in trouble except no one knows except the two men in charge, Leonard and Asher. Even the matriarch, Vivian has been left in the dark until Leonard can't keep his wife in it anymore. As the family gathers for their annual visit, everyone is brought in much to the dismay of Leonard. Even though Leah was ousted from the family business 20 years prior for not being the right gender, she is trying to think of ways to save the business. Sadie, Leah's daughter, comes for her portion of the visit only to come upon her grandmother's old book club journal. 

Sadie is so curious that she looks for the novels in her grandparents expansive library. As she starts to read the books she wonders what her proper grandmother found so intriguing about these books. Meanwhile, the journal takes Vivian back to a time and some secrets she would have prefered to remain packed away. 

As in real life, the past collides with the present and Vivian has to deal with the choices she made years ago and the repercusions it might have on the survival of the business. 

I loved how Ms. Brenner connects the 3 women to the classic characters and how it helps make them bolder and braver. She definitely shows how maybe there is a bit more substance to these "trashy" novels than meets the eye. 

I have read all of Jamie Brenner's novels and have enjoyed all of them immensely but Blush is her best to date. I would highly recommend this one to anyone. 

Julie's Review: Pack Up the Moon

Author: Kristin Higgins
Series: None
Publication Date: June 8, 2021
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 463
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: You know the ending but it'll still get to you; so have those tissues ready
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Joshua and Lauren are the perfect couple. Newly married, they're wildly in love, each on a successful and rewarding career path. Then Lauren is diagnosed with a terminal illness. As Lauren's disease progresses, Joshua struggles to make the most of the time he has left with his wife and to come to terms with his future--a future without the only woman he's ever loved. He's so consumed with finding a way to avoid the inevitable ending that he never imagines his life after Lauren. But Lauren has a plan to keep her husband moving forward. A plan hidden in the letters she leaves him. In those letters, one for every month in the year after her death, Lauren leads Joshua on a journey through pain, anger, and denial. It's a journey that will take Joshua from his attempt at a dinner party for family and friends to getting rid of their bed...from a visit with a psychic medium to a kiss with a woman who isn't Lauren. As his grief makes room for laughter and new relationships, Joshua learns Lauren's most valuable lesson: The path to happiness doesn't follow a straight line. Sometimes heartbreaking, often funny, and always uplifting, this novel from New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins illuminates how life's greatest joys are often hiding in plain sight. ~amazon.com 

Review: If you knew you were dying, what would you do to ensure that your spouse, the love of your life, would be ok? Could you and would you write letters for each month for the first year after you are gone? How hard would that be? This is exactly what Lauren Park does for her husband Joshua. 

We are told Joshua and Lauren's love story through both of their eyes. We live through their love story as Lauren writes letters to her dad, through Joshua's life with and after Lauren and then of course the way she continues to love him through her letters.

Lauren has an understanding of her husband that she knows that his response to losing her will be to become a recluse and a workaholic again. She wants more for him so her letters are a way to make him continue to live. It is almost a guide for him and by following his wife's tasks he brings people into his life that he would never have encountered. He also grows his relationships with those people already in his life. 

There are laugh out loud parts, parts where you are sad and in the end you better have that box of kleenex handy. I didn't and I was using my shirt. 

This is a departure from the other Kristan Higgins novels I have read but she wrote it with obvious emotion and research into the terminal illness that Lauren has in the novel. In the end, the take away from the book is to live each day and love each day. 

Sunday Skim

Week 5/30/2021 and 6/6/2021:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

Boy did my reading slow down due to a bunch of baseball and activities. I'm so happy that I have time off at the end of the month. I hope I can get some backlogged books read! In the meantime, I'll keep plugging along.  

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