Review: Drawing Home by Jamie Brenner

Drawing Home by Jamie Brenner

Expected Publication: May 7, 2019

Publisher: Little Brown and Co.

Format: via NetGalley

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Summer has started in idyllic Sag Harbor, and for Emma Mapson that means greeting guests at the front desk of The American Hotel. But when one of the town's most famous residents, artist Henry Wyatt, dies suddenly, Emma learns he has mysteriously left his waterfront home - a self-designed masterpiece filled with his work - to her teenage daughter, Penny.

Back in Manhattan, legendary art patron, Bea Winstead's grief at her lifelong friend and former business partner Henry's passing turns to outrage at the news of his shocking bequest. How did these unknown locals get their hands on the estate? Bea, with her devoted assistant Kyle in tow, descends on Sag Harbor determined to reclaim the house and preserve Henry's legacy.

While Emma fights to defend her daughter's inheritance, Bea discovers that Henry left a treasure trove of sketches scattered around town. With Penny's reluctant help, Bea pieces them together to find a story hidden in plain sight: an illustration of their shared history with an unexpected twist that will change all of their lives.

Drawn together in their battle for the house, Emma and Bea are forced to confront the past while facing a future that challenges everything they believe about love, fate, and family.

My Thoughts

In Drawing Home we met Emma and her daughter Penny who live in Sag Harbor and have formed a life there. Emma is a single mom and Penny her daughter, who suffers from OCD are just living their lives until one day when a dear friend dies and it changes their lives forever.

Penny befriends Henry who is an artist and over time they form a friendship and Henry helps out Penny with her art. So when Henry unexpectedly dies Penny is hurt to her core but is speechless when it's revealed that he left everything to her in his will. No one is more surprised than Henry’s old friend Bea who when she finds out goes to Sag Harbor thinking she is the heir to his will. Bea is determined to get what she thinks is hers but over time she soon realizes that Henry brought her there for other reasons.

Emma is just trying to be the best mother she can be, she has been a single mom since Penny was little but suddenly Penny’s dad has come back into the picture call it a coincidence or not but since Penny got this big inheritance he suddenly wants sole custody. Her life is turned upside down trying to fend off her ex and now Bea who wants to take her down and a daughter who she can't see eye to eye with, what is Emma to do?

In time Penny and Bea begin to spend time together mainly because Bea wants to see why Henry would leave all his belongs to Penny but as she begins to truly see Penny she soon realizes what a talented kid she is and why Henry felt the way he did about her. She begins to feel bad about the way she has treated her and about all she has done to her and her mom.

I really enjoyed this novel about family and how you can find it in the least expected places. The way Jamie Brenner gives us characters that you never thought could come together but in the end, they do. I loved how through all the bitterness and arguments forgiveness still shined through. What started out as strangers and rivals, in the end, gave us family and showed us its never too late to see the good in one another.

April TBR

Review: The Husband Hour by Jamie Brenner

The Husband Hour by Jamie Brenner

Expected Publication: April 24, 2018

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Format: via publisher

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Lauren Adelman and her high school sweetheart, Rory Kincaid, are a golden couple. They marry just out of college as Rory, a star hockey player, earns a spot in the NHL. Their future could not look brighter when Rory shocks everyone-Lauren most of all by enlisting in the U.S. Army. When Rory dies in combat, Lauren is left devastated, alone, and under unbearable public scrutiny.

Seeking peace and solitude, Lauren retreats to her family's old beach house on the Jersey Shore. But this summer she's forced to share the house with her overbearing mother and competitive sister. Worse, a stranger making a documentary about Rory tracks her down and persuades her to give him just an hour of her time.

One hour with filmmaker Matt Brio turns into a summer of revelations, surprises, and upheaval. As the days grow shorter and her grief changes shape, Lauren begins to understand the past and to welcome the future.

My Thoughts

In the Husband Hour, we met Lauren who has recently lost her husband Rory who was NHL player and military man. Lauren moves back home to New Jersey to get away from it all and from everyone who wants to know her and Rory’s story. After some time a filmmaker named Matt comes in search of her hoping to have her blessing in making a movie about her husband. Matt’s presence soon shakes up everyone's lives and secrets that didn’t think would surface comes up and people are hurt and lives could be ruined forever. This will either break Lauren forever or it will heal her in a way she never thought possible, all because of Matt.

I really enjoyed this story, at first you think this is just the story of Rory and Lauren which it is but I see it more of Lauren trying to get her life back. She has loved Rory since they were teens so when he passed away it broke Lauren to pieces he was her world so it was understandable that she would try and save this reputation but she soon finds out things about him that will break her image of him. I also loved how her family played a huge role in the story. Her parents had a subplot in this which was also interesting and the dynamics between Lauren and her sister was also very interesting and we get to see how their relationship plays a role in all of this.

The Husband Hour is another winner from Jamie Brenner who gives us characters with such depth that you can't help but get invested in their lives. She gives us a story of love, loss, forgiving but most important one of rebuilding. To pick yourself up after something so devastating takes more courage than anything and that’s what makes this read so wonderfully page turning. Do yourself a favor and take the time to fall into this great novel.

Review: The Forever Summer by Jamie Brenner

The Forever Summer by Jamie Brenner

Published: April 25, 2017

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Format: via publish

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

Marin Bishop has always played by the rules, and it's paid off: on the cusp of thirty she has a handsome fiancé, a prestigious Manhattan legal career, and her father's hard-won admiration. But with one careless mistake at work, Marin suddenly finds herself unemployed and alone. Before she can summon the courage to tell her parents, a young woman appears, claiming to be Marin's half-sister. Seeking answers, Marin agrees to join her on a soul-searching journey to Cape Cod, to meet the family she didn't even know she had.

As the summer unfolds at her grandmother's beachside B&B, it becomes clear that her half-sister's existence is just the first in a series of truths that will shake Marin's beliefs--in love, and in her own identity--to the core. Filled with shocking revelations, heartfelt romance, and resilient women banding together against the most unexpected twists of fate, THE FOREVER SUMMER is an emotionally resonant page-turner and a delicious escape for any season.

My Thoughts

We enter Marin’s life just when it seems it is falling apart. She has dumped her fiancée after an affair with a co-worker, her parents are divorcing and she just got an email saying she has a half-sister she never knew existed. After having to deal with all of this she gets fired and doesn’t know what to do next. Her sister comes by and wants her to join her in meeting their grandmother whom she just found out about. Marin not believing any of this decides to go and get away from all her troubles and just see where and what she wants to do next. I truly felt for Marin she just discovered that her father isn’t really her father and that she has a whole family she never knew but she just lost her job and soon finds out she is pregnant and doesn’t know who the father is, can her life get any worse?

I also was really drawn into the story about her grandmother that storyline was amazing! We see why her relationships with her kids were strained and how her wife tied into it. I truly enjoyed this read it is indeed the quintessential summer read. While it has its share of drama it also has a great story about family. It shows us that family isn’t just the one you are born into but it's much wider than that. That family isn’t just about DNA but it's also about building one with the ones you love no matter if you are related or not. The Forever Summer is a wonderfully written novel one that demands to be on everyone's summer reading list.

Waiting On [152]: The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner

Waiting on Wednesday [Wow] is a weekly event hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner

Expected Publication: June 7, 2016

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Synopsis

Meryl Becker is living a mother's dream. The oldest of her three beautiful daughters, Meg, is engaged to a wonderful man from one of the country's most prominent families. Of course, Meryl wants to give Meg the perfect wedding. Who wouldn't? But when her two younger daughters, Amy and Jo, also become engaged to celebrated bachelors, Meryl has to admit that three weddings is more than she and her husband, Hugh, can realistically afford.

The solution? A triple wedding! At first, it's a tough sell to the girls, and juggling three sets of future in-laws is a logistical nightmare. But when Hugh loses his teaching job, and Meryl's aging mother suddenly moves in with them, a triple wedding is the only way to get all three sisters down the aisle. When the grand plan becomes public, the onslaught of media attention adds to Meryl's mounting pressure. Suddenly, appearances are everything - and she will do whatever it takes to keep the wedding on track as money gets tight, her mother starts acting nutty, and her own thirty-year marriage starts to unravel.

In the weeks leading up to the nuptials, secrets are revealed, passions ignite, and surprising revelations show Meryl and her daughters the true meaning of love, marriage and family. Jamie Brenner's The Wedding Sisters invites readers to the most unpredictable wedding of the year.

Why I Can’t Wait

Weddings, drama and family secrets...now this is my kind of read! This one sounds like the perfect summer read, one with all that’s going on has something for just about everyone.