A review by rachels_booknook
Seven Summer Weekends by Jane L. Rosen

5.0

Advanced Book Review! Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for sending me this book for review. Opinions are my own. 

Seven Summer Weekends was my first book by Jane L. Rosen and definitely not my last. I’ve On Fire Island on my list to read for a while, but I read this one first in preparation for a pre-pub book club chat with the author. I didn’t realize the two books were connected! You can definitely read this one as a stand-alone though. 

I really loved this book – the Jewish rep, the Sex and the City references, Addison’s friends, the art descriptions, and especially the Fire Island setting and community. Having been to Fire Island about six years ago to stay with my husband’s relatives, I felt like I could easily picture it. 

After Addison inherits a Fire Island house from her estranged aunt, she spends the summer there to decide whether she wants to keep or sell the property. Over the course of seven weekends, she hosts various visitors to the island, and gets to know her neighbours – one in particular – who help her connect with her aunt and figure out her path forward. It’s a story of how much can change over the course of a summer and how relationships with both new and familiar people can impact your life in various ways. 

It was kind of a miscommunication trop between Addison and Ben. As you all know, I normally don’t love miscommunication in a novel, but this was done so well and so much better that I didn’t mind it. 

I was so sad for Addison, having to learn about her fabulous aunt from others, following a falling out between her aunt and her father. Jane Rosen kept me in suspense throughout much of the book waiting to find out what they fought about and I can honestly say, I was truly surprised. I loved that Addison was able to connect with her aunt through their passion for art, and through that, Addison is able to find important pieces of herself she thought she had let go. 

I need to mention how much I love the cover. After you read the book, you realize its significance even more so. The publishers really knocked this one out of the park (IYKYK about baseball in this book).