The Jetsetters

Boring. Took me forever to finish it. I read it because it was One of Reese Witherspoon's picks.

I was excited to read it because it was supposed to talk a lot about traveling, places they went and things they ate. There wasn't much. Absolutely nothing happens. It's full of cliché family drama. The characters are bland and forgettable. There was nothing I enjoyed.

I enjoyed the premise of the story. It was entertaining and enjoyable but I wish there had been more meat to the storyline. I never fell in love with any character.

Narration is fantastic. Funny story, sweet, sad, believable, surprising. Great (flawed and like able) characters, with different ages and personalities. European cities! Hilarious description of a cruise. Loved it! Easy to read - but still lots that could be discussed in a book club.

Not sure if I liked it or not, typical, characters with typical issues, very long winded

The narration was good but the story was sadly disappointing. It felt like the characters didn't learn anything or develop and the ending was way too abrupt.

Loved it but didn’t love the ending… Wish there would have been more of a “happier ending.”

Light reading. Ideal for vacation. Maybe it will turn up as a nice tv series.

The author’s descriptions of a cruise are hilariously on point. The narrator doesn’t know how to pronounce words, which is very distracting.

I found it hard to like the characters enough. I finished the book, but it will be quickly forgotten.

I may have enjoyed this more if my download worked better. Several times the recording would stop and abruptly end. It was very frustrating.

The narration of this book was great! I loved how she brought the characters to life. The story was good and kept my interest throughout. I gave it four stars because I like to save 5 for books that are above and beyond, stay with me, and evokes emotions.

This was a really messed up family that started from a bad marriage but spiraled due to substance abuse. The rest of the journey is each person trying to reclaim that youthful part of their life when they felt safest and happiest.

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Not what I needed at this moment, but good. Reality at its finest.

I enjoyed it, it was a quick listen, it paired well with the Floating Feldmans, offering a more positive view of cruises.

It was interesting to see all the sides of the family dynamic, or rather the lack of a dynamic. Many fun parts, some surprises and an ok ending.

I devoured this book, read it in under a day. I found the language the characters used to be a bit immature and stilted at times, but overall it was well done and fast paced. Most of it felt like a typical family drama, but there were a few surprises thrown in that I really enjoyed. The characters were all very unique and I wouldn’t say this book was predictable at all.

What fun. Fizzy, sexy read about family and finding a new life when you're not so young anymore. I loved it!

I had trouble reconciling this one - it seemed like it wanted to be frivolous and a bit of a send-up of family dynamics, but it included some really heavy issues: coming out, suicide, manic depression, addiction and it just didn't fit the tone. All these come to the surface on a family cruise on the Marveloso Splendido which mom, 70-year-old Charlotte wins by submitting a (really bad) revealing essay about losing her virginity. cringe. She invites her kids: Lee a washed up actress who has just lost a relationship and all her money, Cord, a closeted gay alcoholic living and working in NYC, and Regan, the child that stayed closest to home, married Lee's high school boyfriend, settled for conventional and is now facing a marriage that is falling apart. All are 'haunted' by the ghost of their father Winston who was a bully and brute and terrified them all until he died suddenly leaving Charlotte as a single mother to raise them all. Lots of scarring here, but the healing feels surface only as they each are brought to confrontation on this dysFUNctional Mediterranean cruise to Greece and Italy. The comic moments are funny - Charlotte is a piece of work, but also damaged by her rich, proper upbringing, so lots of shadows dim the comedy. Cord reflects: "her love was so heavy. As a child, he'd yearned for her to take care of him, and as an adult, he'd felt he had to deny who he was to keep from breaking her. He was fragile too!" (226) This pretty much sums up the relationship they all have with her and with each other - yearning for love, but erecting boundaries and facades to mask it. All resolves neatly at the end which also felt a little contrived. "We Are All Adults Here" balanced better.

a very dysfunctional family who is somewhat estranged embarks on a cruise together and drama ensues.

When matriarch Charlotte rather abruptly wins a family cruise in the Jetsetters contest, she hopes to bring her adult children together and recreate something that didn't exist when they were young or even now. The family is quite dysfunctional. The father who is now deceased definitely seems to have passed his problems onto his kids in various forms. The cover and premise really belie an underlying depressing story that moves too quickly between the characters and doesn't address anything. It looks like it should be categorized as a beach read, but isn't.

This wasn't the greatest read in my opinion but the story line moved quickly and the characters were interesting. I feel like the plot fell flat quickly at the end. I gave it 4 stars because it kept me interested enough to read it in a couple days and finished it.

A 70-year-old mother, Charlotte, enters a contest to win a vacation cruise for four people. Her intention is to win and reunite with her three estranged children and become a family again. She suffers lingering bad memories of her childhood as do all of her children. She is a lonely widow from an unhappy marriage to a depressed alcoholic who was a terrible husband and father and left his mark of mental abuse on the three children. The oldest child is Lee who is a washed-up Hollywood actress who has no work or money and her latest boyfriend has left her for another woman. The middle child is Cord who is a gay alcoholic and afraid to tell his mother and siblings about being an alcoholic and his gay lifestyle. The youngest is Regan who is in an unhappy marriage with two children of her own.

Reading about these people and all their problems made me tired. I got so I didn't want to hear about any more problems of this dysfunctional family. I found none of the characters likable but I managed to stick with it and then suddenly found myself abruptly at the end left wondering.

I did enjoy the cruise ship's stops because there was little bit of history and descriptions of the cities: Athens and Rhodes, Greece; Valetta, Malta; Sicily, Naples, Rome and Florence, Italy; Marseilles, France; and Barcelona, Spain.

This novel was the March selection for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club. Really?

I read this because it was a Reese Book Club pick, but I don't understand the hype. I didn't care for any of the characters. Charlotte, the mother of the group, was a 70+ woman longing for some eroticism in her life. She dreams of sex. Lee, the eldest daughter, is an unsuccessful actress, longing for love and success. Cord, the brother, can't admit to his family that he is gay and an alcoholic. Regan, the youngest daughter, is a woman in a loveless marriage.
All of these people are damaged. They take a cruise that their mother supposedly won in a contest. The funniest parts of this novel are when the author describes the things that happen on cruise ships and on the designated tours of the areas. As someone who has taken multiple cruises, I can relate!
#TheJetsetters #AmandaEyreWard