A Wedding and a Murder?!

Hi friends! 

Today I am back with another BOTM book review! 

I recently added Jennifer Weiner's new novel, Big Summer to my June box. This was a selection offered in May but it sold out so fast, and it really had some rave reviews. So of course, I succumbed to the hype and decided to pick it up. My best friend also added it on to her box and my mom had won an ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) so we decided to try doing a three-way buddy read. 

Man guys, I don't even know where to start. This book had a LOT of hype and really didn't meet it's mark for me. Several times while reading it, I thought to myself, I could be reading so many other books right now. But before I get into THAT, let me start off by telling you all what this novel is about.

Big Summer follows our main characters Daphne and Drue. Two "best" friends who are very, very different. Daphne is a plus-sized Instagram influencer, trying to encourage women around the world to admire their bodies, just like she learned to do after a lot of hardships. Drue WAS Daphne's best friend growing up and was essentially royalty. She was pretty, popular, and rich. Oh, and she used people too. So when Drue shows up on Daphne's door six years later, asking Daphne to be her Maid of Honor in her upcoming luxurious wedding, Daphne is confused and resistant. After a lot of grovelling and convincing from Drue, Daphne agrees. When she gets to the Cape Cod wedding, the night before she learns some secrets and starts to understand why Drue wanted her here. Then, a murder happens and things get a little out of hand. 

Man guys, I really wanted to love this book. I was really sad that I didn't enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to have. 

This book is broken up into three parts, so I am going to discuss each of the parts separately while incorporating themes that I usually talk about in my reviews.

Part One is SLOW. I literally had to push myself to get through it. I get the importance of knowing the background stories of our two main characters, but damn. I think there was a little too much emphasis on it. I seriously kept finding things to take my attention away from reading during this part because I was THAT bored. I was reading an E-ARC on my Kindle while reading this one (I never double read) just because I could not get into this story. And this is my first Weiner book so imagine how my impressions were. 

Part Two definitely picked up, especially with the way that the first part ended. I mean, it was somewhat surprising but not at the same time because of the discussion around this book. The pace was a bit faster and my attention was held for much longer. But it still dragged on. Oh and don't forget the random romance that happened in part one that was really out of the blue. 

Part Three was also pretty fast-paced (thankfully) but the big reveal at the end had me unimpressed. I didn't see it coming, which is usually great, but in this case, it just didn't make any sense to me. The ending was really lackluster for me.

I will say I did enjoy how Weiner used Daphne to empower women and their bodies, and to accept and love their bodies as they are. I think every woman struggles with body image, so to see our main 

character also struggle and how she overcame it, was inspiring. The main character showed a lot of growth and that made her much more relatable. I couldn't have cared less about Drue though. The author did a good job at giving her little emotion.

Unfortunately, I don't think I will be picking up more books by Jennifer Weiner in the future. 

Rating: 3 Stars