Writing for readers who have missed books by Dorothea
Benton Frank since her passing in 2019 is her daughter Victoria Benton Frank,
who has captured all the elements of fun chick lit set in South Carolina
Lowcountry. My Magnolia Summer, out June 6, is the story of a family of
strong women with the focus on sisters Magnolia and Violet Adams.
Hard to believe Maggie would choose New York City over
her roots in Sullivan’s Island, but she’s killing it there on her way to becoming
a culinary chef. The days are long and hard as she works her way up in the kitchen
career she has chosen, and a phone call from Violet changes everything with the
news that their mother and grandmother have been in a serious car accident.
Maggie heads to Sullivan’s Island where she finds her
grandmother Rose in a coma and her mother Lily has fallen off the wagon. Equally
troubling is that The Magic Lantern, the family-owned restaurant, has
deteriorated after having been turned over to Lily and her boyfriend Buster.
The pair have changed the menu from homestyle cooking and created a pirate-themed
dining room, neither of which is helpful for the future of the business.
The logical solution would be for Maggie to stay and take
over the kitchen but that would mean giving up her dream of being a chef in the
Big Apple. Her sister Violet has been trying to help out in the restaurant
working in the front and with paperwork, but the kitchen has become a frozen
food disaster instead of the place where family recipes were prepared to the
delight of the customers. In addition, Violet is pregnant with a baby whose
father is not ready to make any commitment.
The Adams women have been going strong since great-grandmother
Daisy opened the restaurant, and Maggie and Violet are determined to find a
solution to all of the situations they face including a hospitalized
grandmother, a bitter and broken mother, and a business that has been turned
upside down.
Victoria Benton Frank partnered with her mother to
create the children’s book Teddy Spaghetti (2020). Frank was born
in New York City and raised in Montclair, New Jersey. A graduate of the College
of Charleston and the French Culinary Institute, she worked in restaurants in
New York before returning to Charleston, South Carolina, with her family.
My review will be posted on Goodreads starting May 8,
2023.
I would like to thank William Morrow, an imprint of
HarperCollins Publishers, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return
for an objective review.
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