Author: Amanda Eyre Ward
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: March 2020
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: When seventy-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the "Become a Jetsetter" contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist who can't seem to find a bride; and Regan, a harried mother who took it all wrong when Charlotte bought her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday.
Charlotte yearns for the years when her children were young and she was a single mother who meant everything to them. When she wins the cruise, the family packs all their baggage—literal and figurative—and spends ten days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship, the Splendido Marveloso.
As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the Perkins family is forced to confront the defining choices in their lives. Can four lost adults find the peace they've been seeking by reconciling their childhood aches and coming back to each other?
In the vein of The Nest and The Vacationers, Ward has created a delicious and intelligent novel about the courage it takes to reveal our true selves, the pleasures and perils of family, and how we navigate the seas of adulthood to cruise—we can only hope—toward joy.
My Thoughts: The Jetsetters by new to me author Amanda Eyre Ward brings us the story of Charlotte Perkins, a seventy-year-old widow who wins a ten-day cruise starting in Athens and finishing in Barcelona. She brings her three adult children with her on the cruise. Now, I don’t know about you, but this family should be the poster child of dysfunctional families and perhaps a cruise isn’t the best idea. The children are all estranged. The oldest, Lee, tried her hand in Hollywood, only to find herself a washed-up actress who has just been dumped by her more famous than her boyfriend. Cord, the only son and middle child is a major mover and shaker in his New York City investment firm and has never settled down. The youngest, Regan, is married to her sister’s ex from high school and strives to be the perfect wife and mother, but all she wants is her freedom.
I was surprised these people even agreed to spend ten days in close proximity. They are all keeping secrets from one another and in such a small, confined space, it’s only a matter of time before the truth comes out.
I liked the pace of the story. With so much to unpack with so many characters, the author does a great job of keeping everyone straight. Each chapter of this book is broken up into the different points of view of the family with interesting tidbits associated with each port of call they arrive. I enjoyed getting to know all the characters and found them to be interesting, but I didn’t really feel a connection with any one character over the other.
The story also has a dual timeline that revisits Charlotte’s youth and her cold mother as well as Charlotte’s husband. The reader is also given more insight into the lives of Lee, Cord and Regan. Their history with one another and the baggage all of these people carry. They probably should have gotten into therapy together instead of going on a cruise.
My Final Verdict: Overall, I am not sure if the cruise had the outcome that Charlotte hoped for. There were some major events that happened near the end of the story that I didn’t feel any closure with. The reader is left to draw many conclusions. Despite the outcome, I enjoyed the story and recommend this story to fans of women’s fiction and stories that are heavy on family drama and relationships.
Thank you to the publisher, Ballantine Books, who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
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