The Summer That Made Us

August 15, 2017
A family in crisis returns to the lake house where, years ago, an unexpected tragedy tore them apart.When the Hempstead sisters decide to spend the summer together in Lake Waseka, Minnesota, Charley has just lost her job as a daytime television host, Meg has stage 4 breast cancer, and they both need a break from their worried partners. But their mother, Louise, has forbidden them from using the house ever since the summer their youngest sister, Bunny, drowned at the same time Charley, then a teenager, found out she was pregnant. Meg's dying wish for a family reunion inspires Charley to enlist the help of her Aunt Jo and her cousins Hope, Beverly, and Krista to get Louise to change her mind. Jo's family also fell apart when Bunny died, and though time hasn't healed everything--Hope is struggling to cope with her divorce, Krista is in prison, and Beverly has kept her distance after leaving the family for foster care--everyone is hoping for a fresh start. With so many mothers, daughters, sisters, and cousins to track (not to mention their husbands and boyfriends), there are many sides to each story and no shortage of drama as the women confront their past. The summer flies by as old wounds are healed, new alliances are formed, and lives are changed forever. It sounds like a nightmare of a family vacation, but with strong relationship dynamics, juicy secrets, and a heartwarming ending, it's a blissful beach read.

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October 1, 2017
Charley Hempstead is at loose ends when her talk show is cancelled, but she soon finds purpose in caring for her sister. Meg, who has breast cancer, has a final wish: to spend one more summer on Lake Waseka, Minnesota, with their cousins, something they haven't done since the fateful summer their youngest sister drowned. Krista is the first cousin to arrive, on a bus fresh from prison. Hope is less enthusiastic about leaving her tony Philadelphia neighborhood but is enticed west by the prospect of securing her inheritance. Charley isn't sure anything can fix her relationship with her mother, Louise, nor the relationship between Louise and her sister, Jo. Far more happened that summer than the tragic accident on the lake, and Louise wants to keep it buried. This novel of sisters and secrets has a pleasant setting, a leisurely pace, and a sweet story line for Krista that will please fans of Carr's Virgin River series. Themes of responsibility, forgiveness, and the agony and ecstasy of female relatives will appeal to readers of Debbie Macomber and Susan Wiggs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2017

In this latest women's fiction entry from the No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, a television talk show host booted out when her ratings tumble returns to her neglected childhood summer home. A gathering of female relatives reveals very different memories of what happened during a fateful last summer there. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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