My Magnolia Summer is a book I have heard about for awhile so I was very excited to read an early copy! The story centers around three generations of women - Maggie (Magnolia), her sister Violet, her Mom Lily and her Grandma Rose - all very different women but who all share their love for the Lowcountry of Sullivan's Island. Maggie left her hometown to work as a chef in New York but returns home when her beloved grandmother is in an accident. The Magic Lantern is their family-run restaurant and Maggie can not believe what has happened to it in her absence! During her stay besides waiting for grandmother to recover she tries to get the restaurant back on track and also tries to help heal some of the relationship issues she had with both her mother and her sister. Throw in her best friend Jimmy (who I loved!) and a very handsome farmer/doctor and you have an excellent story! Just loved these characters and the beautiful setting! I think I just discovered a new favorite author and I can't wait to read what Victoria Benton Frank comes up with next!!!!

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for giving me the opportunity to read this book! I squealed when I received notification I was approved for an advance copy. I was a huge fan of Dorethea Benton Frank books and was heartbroken when she passed away.
I was excited to hear her daughter had written her first novel. It did not disappoint! Victoria Benton Frank has written a delightful tale from the Lowcountry that her mother wrote about so brilliantly and where Victoria calls home. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing better would have been reading it on a beach with a cool drink. I am a fan now and will continue to read any novels written by Victoria Benton Frank. DBF is a very proud mother up in heaven! Victoria can WRITE and is a wonderful storyteller as was her mother. She has stepped into the shoes of a beloved author we lost too soon.

A young woman, Magnolia who has trained to become a chef is in a dead end job at a New York City restaurant. When her grandmother is involved in a car accident and is a medically induced coma she returns to Sullivan's Island. She is reunited with her alcoholic mother and sister. To make matters worse, the family restaurant owned by her grandmother is on hard times. Coming home Magnolia begins to find herself when she meets a new love and begins to take over the family restaurant. Family and love help her make decisions for her future. This a a tale of strong women and the men who love them, hard work and making hard choices in our lives.

I will highly recommend this book to my fellow readers! Thank you again NetGalley!
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Magnolia Adams is slaving away as a chef in a New York city kitchen when she gets a call that her beloved Grandmother has been in an accident. She packs up her knives and rushes home to Sullivan's Island South Carolina. Her Grandmother is unconscious in the hospital, her mother has fallen off the wagon, the family restaurant is in trouble and her younger sister Violet is trying to hold it all together.
Maggie and Violet try to revamp the restaurant and keep their mother out of trouble. This is the perfect summer, beach read. This book has two of my favorite things to read about cooking and the Lowcountry.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of this book for review.

I loved the culinary theme of this story and the characters are just incredible! The beautiful Low Country descriptions are so lush and vivid. With the loss of Dorothea Benton Frank, I was afraid my annual summer "vacations" to the low country wouldn't continue - but reading Victoria Benton Frank's story, was like going on that vacation, only with a new friend - somehow different, but just as warm and welcoming.

I loved getting to know the Flower Girls - Lily, the disfunctional mother; Magnolia, who's following her culinary dreams as a chef in NYC; Victoria, who's pursing a photography career and Rose, the matriarch of the family. Rose and Lily are in a car accident leading to Violet calling Maggie home, where she finds the restaurant in their family for generations has been left in Lily's hands and has dramatically changed. They struggle to find their way back together and save the restaurant. The secondary characters are just as fleshed out and interesting to learn. Alice is like the second grandmother every wants, Jimmy is the perfect friend and confident and Sam is just dreamy and says all the right words. There are a lot of things going on in this story - substance abuse, family dynamics, love, forgiveness, learning which dreams to hold on to and which to let go. I hope the story continues - there are a few things not completed wrapped up with Violet's situation, why great-grandma's photo is always hanging crooked, what did their paternal grandfather mean about forgiveness and what about those postcards Rose was so desperate to find.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

This was a fun read, I enjoyed it & look forward to more by the author. I hope this is the first in a series, because I have questions!

Magnolia (Maggie) comes back to the low country of SC after her beloved Grandmother is injured in a car accident. I liked the family dynamic & restaurant setting,

Thanks NetGalley!

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. I can’t wait to buy a copy for my collection and hope she does a book tour.

Victoria Benton Frank is the daughter of the treasured author Dorothea Benton Frank who passed away a few years ago. This debut novel felt like it had high expectations around it, and it delivered! This story is set in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Magnolia (Maggie) arrives back home after receiving news of her mother and grandmother's car accident. Maggie had been advancing in her career as a chef in New York City, but that hometown pull is strong once she pulls back into South Carolina, and after she sees some of the changes that have been done over the years at her family's restaurant, the Magic Lantern. She and her sister Violet have to face several things head-on - the recover of Gran, their mother's dealing with various vices, the future of the restaurant, and relationships past and present.

I was tickled pink when I was granted a copy of this ARC for review. My Magnolia Summer is a beautifully written story about family ties, the good and the bad. Told with all the charm and sass of a true southerner, this book pulls you in from page one. For all the fans of DBF, Victoria Benton Frank has done her mama proud. I have a new author to add to my favorite list. I loved this book. Thanks to Victoria Benton Frank, publisher William Marrow, and NetGalley. I received a complimentary copy of this ebook. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

My Magnolia Summer is Victoria Benton Frank’s debut novel after the passing of her mother who I loved, Dorothea Benton Frank. She takes us to the lowcountry of South Carolina where it tells a story of 4 southern women and her lives. It was well thought out and I loved all the charming characters. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my review. Looking forward to her next novel.

I really enjoyed this book. So well developed and so many little extras. Characters had different levels to them. A very pleasant surprise!

My Magnolia Summer is the debut novel by the daughter of the beloved low country author, Dorothea Benton Frank. Having read all DBF’s novels, I was curious to see how this author would wear the mantle (and the burden) of her mother’s legacy. I’m happy to report that she succeeded in blending the best elements of her mother’s writing with her own unique style.

Drawing on her own experience as a chef, the author created an enjoyable, if not original, storyline centered on a well-respected Sullivan Island restaurant that has been in a family for four generations. The protagonist, Magnolia (Maggie), is the great granddaughter of the restaurant’s founder who returns from New York when her grandmother is seriously injured in a car accident. Unbeknownst to her, her mother and a new boyfriend have stripped the restaurant of its charm and authenticity turning it into a tacky, pirate-themed tourist mecca complete with frozen foods and canned sauces. Maggie’s dilemma is compounded by the breakup of her relationship with a fellow chef and being passed over for a promotion with the eventual loss of her job. Torn between her dream of being a New York chef and the pull of her familial roots deep in low country plough mud, she is compelled to sort out her priorities to choose her home and career.

There are many evocative lyrical passages that make this novel interesting and satisfying. My only criticism is the ending. After exploring all the family dynamics for many pages, the conclusion felt rushed and a little too perfect for real life…but then this is fiction. Overall, this is a great beginning for the author, and I look forward to more of her books.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

A beautiful homage to the author's talented & much-missed mother, Dorothea Benton Franks!
A charming & entertaining summer read set in the iconic South Carolina lowcountry. Heartfelt, engaging, funny & relatable.
Especially liked the DBF references sprinkled throughout!
An impressive debut--look forward to reading more.

With great thanks to NetGalley & William Morrow for this e-ARC!

I"m thrilled that DBF's daughter is taking over her Sullivan's Island stories. This was great! I wasn't sure how well she could write, but I maybe even liked this better than some of Dottie's books! A family of girls named after flowers are all together for the first time in 10 years. Each dealing with their own issues. Pregnancy, jobs, addiction, etc. How will they all ban together to be a true loving family again? I powered through this. it was so good! the first of my summer reads for this year.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read My Magnolia Summer by Victoria Benton Frank. I predict great things for this young writer. I was both excited and somewhat cautious about reading Ms. Frank's debut, but found myself slowly savoring the words and phrases and hoping the story would never end. Bravo!!

Told mainly in the voices of sisters Magnolia (Maggie) and Violet Adams, My Magnolia Summer is the lyrically told story of two women finding themselves and their futures over the course of a hot South Carolina lowcountry summer. Maggie returns to her childhood home on Sullivans Island when she learns that her beloved grandmother Rose, who raised her, has had a stroke. At first, not much has changed. Her mother Lily is still dealing with bitterness and alcohol abuse and her sister Violet has not yet convinced her boyfriend Chris to marry her…not for any lack of trying. But it is The Magic Lantern, the family restaurant for generations, that has been changed. Lily and her boyfriend Buster have turned the quaint family style dining room into a touristy, pirate themed horror featuring not Maggie’s grandmother’s homestyle cooking but instead fast foods and canned sauces. Maggie is facing problems with her mother, her grandmother’s health issues and money problems at the restaurant. A chance meeting with a doctor/farmer, however, adds interest to what she plans will be a brief stay. And Violet has interesting problems of her own. It takes a lot but the women finally learn the importance of family.

So we all know that Victoria is the daughter of beloved Southern writer Dorothea Benton Frank. What we didn’t know is that she can write! My Magnolia Summer is a beach book, a rainy day book, a curl up by the fire book…you get the picture. This is a story about strong women and the men who love them, about hard work, choices and the beautiful marshes and creeks of the lowcountry or as Maggie says “this place was the landscape of my soul.” Victoria Benton Frank, your mother is so proud of you! I can’t wait to read what comes next! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow and Victoria benton Frank for this ARC.

I’m not going to lie. I was a huge fan of the late great Dorothea Benton Frank. I swallowed up her novels like bowls of grits. When I read that her daughter Victoria was going to try to write a novel, I was excited. Last night, I received the arc for Victoria Benton Frank’s My Magnolia Summer, I was thrilled, but also apprehensive. I wanted this book to be good. I started reading this book at nine o’clock this morning. I could not put it down until I finished it seven minutes ago, at two-thirty. I LOVED THIS BOOK! Yes, she has some of her mother’s voice in her writing, but Victoria has her own style! The “Easter Egg” tributes to her mother brought a smile to her lips. Victoria, you have done your mother very proud! I look forward to reading her next novel!

I was saddened by the passing of Dorothea Frank so I was excited to see a new novel by her daughter. Set in the Low Country of South Carolina, the first chapter immediately drew me in with descriptions of the area; the smell of plough mud, the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, etc. However as I read further in the book, the story seemed to take a familiar theme. Home town girl leaves the south to pursue her love of cooking in a famous NYC restaurant
A tragedy brings her home where she finds out how important family is and what it means to be part of a community. That said, I did enjoy the book and look forward to reading more from this new author.

The first paragraph of this book is written beautifully, evoking the feel and smells of the low country. There is one sentence in particular I find incredible, “ If you were to cut me open, you’d find the water of the Atlantic instead of blood, driftwood instead of bones, and seashells in place of everything else.” Pure poetry.
That’s why I found it disappointing when the characters were so over the top, creating a southern caricature in my mind. The plot was nothing new, woman leaves the south for New York City, something happens so she must return, realizing this is where she really belongs.
The inevitable comparison to her mother has to be mentioned as I find the style of this book very similar to hers, but all through this novel I found little gems, like the first paragraph, reminding me of Anne Rivers Siddon and this makes me interested in reading her next book to see how Victoria comes into her own as a writer.