Julie's Review: The Most Likely Club

Author: Elyssa Friedland
Series: None
Publication Date:  September 6, 2022
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 328
Obtained: Book of the Month
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: It's never too late to realize your dreams
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Summary: In 1997, grunge is king, Titanic is a blockbuster (and Blockbuster still exists), and Thursday nights are for Friends. In Bellport, Connecticut, four best friends and high school seniors are ready to light the world on fire. Melissa Levin, Priya Chowdhury, Tara Taylor, and Suki Hammer are going places. Their yearbook superlatives confirm it: Most Likely to Win the White House, Cure Cancer, Open a Michelin-Starred Restaurant, and Join the Forbes 400. Fast forward twenty-five years and nothing has gone according to plan as the women regroup at their dreaded high school reunion. When a forgotten classmate emerges at the reunion with a surprising announcement, the friends dig out the yearbook and rethink their younger selves. Is it too late to make their dreams come true? Fueled by nostalgia and one too many drinks, they form a pact to push through their middle-aged angst to bring their teenage aspirations to fruition, dubbing themselves the “Most Likely Girls.” Through the ensuing highs and lows, they are reminded of the enduring bonds of friendship, the ways our childhood dreams both sustain and surprise us — and why it’s deeply uncool to peak in high school. ~amazon.com 

Review: High school, such a long time ago for me and Ms. Friedland has caught what it feels like to perhaps have your dreams change on you from when you were 18.  It doesn’t mean that you don’t love your life or what you’ve done; it’s just you thought you’d be elsewhere.

For friends Tara, Suki, Priya and Melissa they were all a part of senior superlatives aka Most Likely…the only one to achieve it was Suki. So the rest of the 3 make a pact to get back to their dreams even if they are 

Each friend brings something different to the table, which I think readers will be able to identify with each of them throughout the book. Each friend hides something from the other until the end when all their secrets come out but it makes their friendships much stronger. Women are told we can have it all: family, jobs and friends but the problem is no one tells us how to balance it all. What do we give up or ourselves to attain status, etc? 

I really liked that each one of them had their own chapters but I wish we had gotten Suki’s POV earlier in the book.

For those of us who were in high school or graduated in the 1990s, The Most Likely Club is one not to miss. 

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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Julie's Review: The Floating Feldmans

Author: Elyssa Friedland
Series: None
Publication Date: July 23, 2019
Publisher: Berkely
Pages: 366
Obtained: library
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 3/5
Bottom Line: I wanted to laugh more than I did
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: Sink or swim. Or at least that's what Annette Feldman tells herself when she books a cruise for her entire family. It's been over a decade since the Feldman clan has spent more than twenty-four hours under the same roof, but Annette is determined to celebrate her seventieth birthday the right way. Just this once, they are going to behave like an actual family. Too bad her kids didn't get the memo. 
Between the troublesome family secrets, old sibling rivalries, and her two teenage grandkids, Annette's birthday vacation is looking more and more like the perfect storm. Adrift together on the open seas, the Feldmans will each face the truths they've been ignoring—and learn that the people they once thought most likely to sink them are actually the ones who help them stay afloat. ~amazon.com 

Review: Sometimes I fall into the trap of reading a book that has a lot of buzz but then falls short because of that buzz. In the case of The Floating Feldmans I had trusted people tell me it was funny and I should definitely read it. So when it came in at the library I dropped all other books to read it. Now let me say, that I did enjoy the book but for me it wasn't funny. I'm not even sure if I chuckled. 😑 What I did like was the character development throughout the novel and the realization that as a parent sometimes you have to let them find their own way.

The Feldman's are splilntered across the US with the adult children being in California and Colorado while the parents are still in their family home with very little visiting between all of them. In fact, they struggle to remember when they were all in the same room together. They have all gone their own way with varying degrees of contact. They are definitely not intimately involved in each others lives.  They all do jump at the chance to go on a cruise for their matriarch, Annette's, 70th birthday.  What they don't realize is all the secrets they are keeping will come to surface pretty rapidly as they are all together.

How hard is it for parents to forget who their adult kid was when they were younger and accept that maybe they aren't that person any more. Or the one that you pinned all your hopes and dreams on, doesn't really have it together. The one you dismissed as a screw up found their own path and created a place for themselves and didn't share with you becasue they were worried you wouldn't accept them.

Families are never easy but being in a confined area with a lot of together time typically highlights the issues or secrets you are trying to hide. This was definitely the case with the Feldmans. I liked how each character had their own storyline that meshed with the main plot and how in the end it wasn't tied up with a bow but they all do finally have respect and maybe more love for each other.



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