I won this in a GOODREADS giveaway! ( )

I was intrigued about this title because I think it was recommended because I read The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson, maybe. I was embarking on a trip with some extended family at the time, as well.

I think a lot of people didn't like this book. However, I did. It perfectly shows how easily miscommunication occurs, and I believe miscommunication is too be blamed for a lot of dysfunction found in families. I did enjoy the book. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed it. ( )

Laced with humor, this shipboard comedy features a disjointed bi-coastal family gathered for a weeklong Caribbean cruise to celebrate the 70th birthday of the prickly matriarch. In attendance: an adult daughter lacking in financial boundaries, her husband who is leaving his stable job, their two teenage children who are in anguish because no one paid for their Wi-Fi; and a former-family-screwup-turned-weed-entrepreneur son and his trophy girlfriend. Fireworks ignite when secrets are revealed and everyone hates everyone else for most of the vacation. There's also the patriarch, silently suffering from leukemia, and the cruise director, unwilling to marry his longtime boyfriend. It makes for a merry mix and there's plenty of enjoyable snark, but the denouement is a little too pat and predictable for my taste.

Quote: “Annette conducted herself as though there was an audience around at all times, her performance carefully crafted to please adoring fans who, as far as Elise could tell, lived inside her own mind.” ( )

I guess this book was supposed to be a funny look at a dysfunctional family, but I honestly didn't laugh at all. I felt the book was trying too hard to make things seem outrageous, e.g. the first scene in the book and the scene with the Baked Alaska.
I really didn't care about any of the characters, they were all absorbed in their own worlds.
The premise of the story is that Annette, the matriarch of the family, is turning 70, so she and her husband, David, invite their children and grandchildren to take a cruise together.
Elise and Freddy, siblings, haven't seen each other in quite some time. Elise is married to Mitch, and they have 2 children, Rachel and Darius. Freddy has a young girlfriend named Natasha. Elise and Mitch are both hiding secrets. Freddy hasn't told his family of his enormous success as the owner of a medical marijuana company. Annette hasn't told the family that David is dying.
While on the cruise, the family continues to be self-absorbed, and eventually everything comes to a head and secrets are spilled.
I thought this book was mediocre, but it did have some OK parts, just not enough.
#TheFloatingFeldmans #ElyssaFriedland ( )