06/01/2023
DEBUT Frank, daughter of the late best-selling novelist Dorothea Benton Frank, pays homage to her mother by offering a sweet, engaging, and predictable story with relatable characters on an island in the South Carolina Lowcountry, where many of her mother's novels were also set. Magnolia "Maggie" Adams is living her childhood dream, working in the kitchen of a trendy restaurant in Manhattan, when an emergency call from her younger sister Violet sends Maggie and her best friend Jim on the next flight out to South Carolina. A serious car accident has left Maggie's unreliable and egocentric mother Lilly with slight injuries and her steadfast and sensible grandmother Rose in a coma. Back home on Sullivan's Island, Maggie finds that much has changed, especially with their family restaurant, the Magic Lantern. Family tensions rise, and Violet tries to be the peacemaker between Maggie and their mother as they wait for Rose to improve. Meanwhile, Maggie wrestles with the direction of her career and her ties with family and friends. VERDICT Plot discrepancies and uneven pacing detract from full enjoyment the narrative, but fans of Dorothea Benton Frank will appreciate revisiting Sullivan's Island.—Joy Gunn
2023-04-12
A 29-year-old Manhattan chef who returns home to Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, when her restaurant-owner grandmother is in a car accident ends up staying for the summer.
Magnolia Adams’ grandmother Rose is her beacon: the light by which she sees the world. After years of prioritizing her own goals of being a chef and working in New York, trying to make her way in the restaurant world, all she has to show for it are a poorly paid job where she is not treated well and an on-again, off-again open relationship with co-worker Ronny. The one highlight is that she lives with her best friend from back home, Jim, an aspiring actor. When her grandmother is put into a medically induced coma after a car accident, Magnolia and Jim race back to South Carolina. Magnolia ends up staying for the summer to help her family—her mother, Lily, who struggles with alcoholism and broken dreams, and her sister, Violet, who's recently found out she's pregnant—and the family’s restaurant, the Magic Lantern, a neighborhood institution that was founded by her great-grandmother Daisy. Things are much more dire than she’d realized, and her mother’s boyfriend, Buster, has all but run the restaurant into the ground. The story follows the complicated relationship of Magnolia and Violet as they work through their respective relationship troubles—Magnolia with Ronny back in New York and Sam Smart in South Carolina, and Violet with her live-in boyfriend, Chris—and as the sisters move on to new things in their efforts to save the restaurant and support each other, their Gran, and their mother. Frank writes in a breezy style that often belies the anger and discontent below the surface of her story, and though her characters are fully formed, she gives them glossy surfaces that tend toward expected gender norms: The women are slim, beautiful, and well dressed, the men are tanned, toned, and quick to offer help.
A story that focuses on the competition, love, and anger of sisterhood and the responsibilities of family.
No one can ever take the place of Dorothea Benton Frank, but by writing My Magnolia Summer, a novel of low country food, family drama, and just the right amount of romance, Victoria Benton Frank shows that she is the rightful heir to the crown of summertime storytellers. Her mother would be so proud.” — Ann Patchett
“In My Magnolia Summer, author Victoria Benton Frank spins all the plates and brings all the magic of the lowcountry to life. A tale of the complicated relationships between mothers, daughters and let's not forget, sisters—this enchanting novel will bring romance and sunshine to your summer reading list.” — Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Five-Star Weekend
"My Magnolia Summer is a sensory treat and a mesmerizing tribute to the complicated strength and solace of family. Frank's warm and wise prose is splashed with just the right amount of wit in this sultry Lowcountry tale. With a delectable peek behind the kitchens of the best restaurants, a romp through the marshes of South Carolina, and a glimpse into the intricate hearts of sisters, this is a powerful debut. Proving that when things fall apart, indomitable women come together, My Magnolia Summer is enchanting, hilarious and insightful.” — Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author
"Southern fiction has a fresh, fabulous voice in Victoria Benton Frank who owns summer with her delicious debut novel. Put out the beach chair and pour the wine as Maggie Adams navigates her lost dreams in a family of strong southern women more powerful than their secrets. My Magnolia Summer proves you can go home again. Love, fate and family on the glorious shores of Sullivan's Island—book clubs rejoice!" — Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone
“Pass the tissues, please. I have a sneaking suspicion I won’t be the last reader to find themselves crying and laughing over this book. Victoria brings the same Frank sense of humor that endeared readers to her mother’s cast of characters.” — Garden & Gun
“Written by the daughter of the late bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank, this novel has extra special meaning to it.” — Katie Couric Media
“A coming-of-age tale brimming with humor, wit, and the enchantment of the tide-shaped landscape.” — Charleston Magazine
“Ideal and delightful summer read … My Magnolia Summer is a spicy novel that will tug at her heart strings, and makes an ideal summer read by the pool, the Isle of Palms, or even on Sullivan's Island.” — Charleston.com
“Equal parts hot and sweet.” — Booklist
“Breezy.” — Kirkus Reviews
"My Magnolia Summer delivers a beautifully written summertime read navigating female family relationships while celebrating Maggie’s path to happiness." — Novels Alive
"With her debut novel My Magnolia Summer, Victoria Benton Frank does her mother proud." — Lowcountry Weekly
