The Jetsetters

By: Amanda Eyre Ward

Narrated by: Therese Plummer

A Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick

"Are you ready to set sail on a literary adventure? This month I am listening to The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward! I love the sense of adventure in this story - it’s about a disconnected family that reunites on a cruise ship traveling through Europe. If you're packing for spring break, be sure to include a copy of this fun listen and follow along with Reese’s Book Club!" (Reese Witherspoon)

When 70-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 10 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.

©2020 Amanda Eyre Ward (P)2020 Recorded Books

Unresolved Family Baggage, The Book

Believable characters, with a plot that doesn't seem to resolve. While the message is clear: a lifetime of miscommunication can't be resolved in a trip, I felt like I had to drag through this book and all the quiet drama and I don't feel like I got the neat little bow of satisfaction at the end.

The writing style was at least nice, and the narrator did an amazing job.

Missing cruising

No cruise vacations for a long time. Brought back lots of memories of the ship and European excursions. Characters well developed, but wished the book was longer. Want to know the futures of each character.

just ok

Narrator was good. Story was lacking.
One little twist was not enough to save it.

Twists and turns and surprise ending

As a frequent reader, I was surprised at the intersection of history, travel stories, and familiar family relationships lead to an excellent book. I just felt it stopped too soon. Still have questions about the future of the characters.....but listen and see if you also get transported to the cruise and the stories.

Well Done

The narrator was amazing and really added to the story!! A delightful story to listen to and from work.

Funny, sad like life.

Enjoyed this, creative POV character chapters. Listened while driving and the miles flew by. I will look for other titles by Ward.

Good story but hard to follow at times.

I liked the story of the imperfect family.
Hard to follow at times.
Narrator was good.

Loved all of the flawed messed up characters!

The storyline was good and the narrator was excellent. The characters were delightful in their terribly messed up lives.

Wanted to like it but couldn’t

Ends decently but seemed like there were too many issues these poor characters were saddled with simultaneously. They are memorable characters but the foreshadowing was awkward and overdone. The travel parts of the book were fun. Almost didn’t finish the book and that’s rare for me.

The story teller was good

I liked the reading but I wanted to know more about what happed to everyone at the end.