A very good tale of a southern woman living in New York working as a chef with ambitions of running her own restaurant. Who is forced to return home to the South Carolina coast and help with her family’s dying restaurant.
Great characters, interesting love story.
My only complaint was the author mentioning her late mother’s name repeatedly throughout the book.
Don’t get me wrong I have read every Dorthea Benton Frank novel and loved them, but I thought it was a little much to constantly bring her up in this book.

Victoria Benton Frank follows in her mother's footsteps in writing a family based beach read. Magnolia is trying to make it as a New York chef when she receives a call that her Grandmother has fallen ill in Charleston, Magnolia flies home to be with her Grandmother and finds her family and their restaurant are in shambles. She is torn between helping her family and pursuing her dreams in New York, This book is ripe for a sequel as many subplots are very loosely tied up.

🖤BOOK REVIEW🖤
🌺My Magnolia Summer by Victoria Benton Frank
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A beautifully written debut contemporary women's fiction novel! My Magnolia Summer follows Magnolia, a NYC chef who is pulled back to the South Carolina low-country when her beloved grandmother is in a car accident. This novel's southern charm shine's brightest through the scenes at The Magic Lantern, the place where 3-generations of women in this family pour their heart into, now reliant on Magnolia to help bring it back to it's glory.

If you like novels with generational family drama, a strong female lead and with a romantic sub-plot (not the leading story arc) then this is a book for you!

My Magnolia Summer is Victoria Benton Frank's first novel, written in honor of her mother's wonderful career as one of the queens of Southern Women's fiction. Capturing not only a mother-daughter conflict as they try to put aside past rifts to handle the family restaurant when the matriach (grandmother) is in a car accident, this is also a story of sisters facing adulthood together and in its strongest element, it is the story of Maggie choosing between her dream to be a noted New York chef and her sense of duty to her family. Seem like too much? Of course not, especially when you add in a colorful mix of secondary characters, the history and charm of Charleston and Sullivan's Island, and the smells and tastes of this family's southern classics. Anybody ready for fried chicken, pie, and sweet tea? I hope Victoria Benton Frank has as many tales to tell as her mother did. Looking forward to the next book.

I loved these characters and the style of writing. Can’t wait to see what these characters do in the future!

Maggie (Magnolia) is working in NYC and trying to work up the ranks in the kitchen. The chef gives her a note from the night before that she needs to call home urgently. When she does call him she’s told her grandma is in a coma and needs to come home. She races back to NC and her life starts to unfold of what she really wants to do.

Thank you for the advance copy #NetGalley!

Review will be posted on 5/17/24

Magnolia is a chef in New York City and her life isn't exactly going as planned. She isn't where she wants to be career-wise, so when she gets the dreaded call that her beloved grandmother, Rose, was in a car accident, she returns home to Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. For generations, her family has owned a restaurant on the island, The Magic Lantern. Without her grandmother there to run it, it has been struggling as it fell into Magnolia's mother's hands. Magnolia's mother, Lily, is an alcoholic and her boyfriend's influence doesn't help either. To make matters worse, Magnolia's sister, Violet, is unexpectedly pregnant by her boyfriend, so this complicates things for the family even more. Magnolia didn't plan on staying at Sullivan's Island as she left a boyfriend behind in New York, but her family needs her here in more ways than one. My Magnolia Summer by Victoria Benton Frank, daughter of Dorothea Benton Frank, is a light beach read, but Frank tries too hard to fill her mother's shoes in this summertime novel.

My Magnolia Summer follows the typical formula of a woman returning home to a town that she left years ago and facing family; plus, all the problems that come with it. My Magnolia Summer, at its core, is a story of sisterhood and family, but ultimately, it fell flat to me due to hokey dialogue, uneven pacing, and surface level characters. There were some tender moments between family members, but overall, it wasn't enough. I did enjoy the details surrounding The Magic Lantern and I was rooting for Magnolia to turn the restaurant around for her much-loved grandmother. Overall, I felt like My Magnolia Summer never reached its full potential, but fans of Victoria's late mother, Dorothea, may like returning to beloved Sullivan's Island.

Thank you to NetGalley for the gifted copy of 'My Magnolia Summer' by Victoria Benton Frank.

Unfortunately, this for me was a DNF. As a lover of contemporary romance, and feel-good summery romances, this one didn't hit the spot for me.

Where the novel lacked for me, I must note the appeal of this book was based on it's beautiful artwork, previous reviews & description of novel.

A chef leaves New York to head back her beloved Charleston roots to take care of an aili g Grandma. The description of the setting is luscious. Throw in so.e romance and you have a great read.

A great beach read y’all. Family, food, Charleston. All the right ingredients for a southern summer read.

While not a chef, I worked twenty years in the front of the house, often helping back of house and Victoria- you nailed restaurant life.

3.5 rounded to 4 stars

I received a copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

This was one of favorite books of the year! Victoria Benton Frank continues writing the same type of books that I cherished that her mother, Dorothea Benton Frank wrote! I am looking forward to reading her next book.

Where do I begin?!? This book was amazing. It was the perfect book to keep summer alive well into fall. I loved the characters (most of them, anyway), the settings, the stories, and knowing that we get to learn more about them next summer! I know - that’s a lot of love - but I was truly captivated. I actually limited myself to a chapter or two each day just to make it last longer, because I could have devoured it in one sitting. The author had a way of making you feel like you knew the characters forever and were part of their family. I immediately felt invested in their story, and having visited Sullivan’s Island many times, the lowcountry setting really resonated with me. I felt like I should be able to drive over and visit the Lantern for a meal - she made it so realistic. I had the honor of meeting the author during her book tour and I loved learning some of the ‘behind the scenes’ of how this book came to be. There is no doubt that she is very talented and will be very successful. I already miss Maggie and Violet and Gran and cannot wait to find out what happens next in their lives.

This was so much fun. This had great characters, and I loved the family drama and storyline. It was a fitting tribute to her mom. Dorothea Benton Frank (loved her mentioning of Dorothea and her books) . I hope Victoria intends on writing more novels. She is a great addition to the beach read community.

This book is an entertaining summer beach read. The story is beautifully written and the setting is what captured my attention along with the charming characters.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the complimentary copy.

This was a fun summer book. The story was good, the characters were interesting, and if at times some of the descriptions were a little more than necessary, I was able to overlook it. All in good, I enjoyed this read and hope to see more from this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. Summer's not over yet - you still have time to read this book!

I love returning to Sullivan's Island in the beautiful low-country of South Carolina. Maggie leaves her job in New York to return home when her grandmother is hospitalized. Her sister Violet calls and Maggie knows she is needed to run the family restaurant The Magic Lantern. Secrets seem to be itching to escape and Maggie is shocked about her mother and grandmother's relations. Southern fiction at it's best.

MY MAGNOLIA SUMMER is a debut novel by Victoria Benton Frank, daughter of the best-selling novelist Dorothea Benton Frank and that name recognition should spark interest. However, the story itself is not that unique (young woman with low self-worth returns to her family home and finds romance, plus purpose in restoring family business). The Magic Lantern, a long-established restaurant in the South Carolina Lowcountry is now being managed by reformed alcoholic Lily with her boyfriend, Buster. Lily is mother to New York City chef wannabe Magnolia (call me Maggie) and local photographer, Violet. Car accidents, heart attack, a pregnancy, and other crises add drama to the family relationships, but the characters often feel stereotypical, with stilted dialogue and even multiple off-putting references to Dorothea Benton Frank's writing. A much, much more nuanced story which also features family dynamics and the restaurant business is Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal.

Thank you to the publisher, author and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before release.

Unfortunately this was not it for me. I had high hopes and loved Frank's books. I'm thinking it was right book wrong time and will try again another time.

Love, love, loved this one!!! What a cute summer read!!! As soon as I finished I was ready for the next one...I hope it is a series!! My son attends College of Charleston, so it was fun to be familiar with a lot of the Low Country locations. The characters were strong, perceptive, funny and quirky! I could imagine myself sitting right at one of those tables in the Magic Lantern chatting it up with one of the "flower" girls!!! Can they be my friend? Distant cousin?

Victoria picks up where her mother left off and does her proud. You are transported ack to the Lowcountry with her rich descriptions. This is a story of three generations of women. Gran, her daughter Lily and Lily's daughter Maggie. Gran, the matriarch, is in a coma after a car accident caused by Maggie’s troubled mother, Lily. But once Maggie returns, she finds that her hometown of Sullivan’s Island holds even more secrets. The Magic Lantern, the restaurant owned and run by generations of women in her family, is now rudderless, and her sister seems headed for a savage breakup. Maggie feels herself changings, rediscovering the roots she left behind, and a new and different version of herself.

I got 28% in and couldn’t find myself invested in the story. Gave me Where the Crawdads Sing vibes, but make it romance?? I live in the south, and it just sadly wasn’t my speed!