One family learns that love is the greatest miracle of all—from USA Today bestselling author Bette Lee Crosby.Aspiring journalist Meghan Briggs has always been the responsible one in the family. So when her father passes away unexpectedly, leaving behind his at-risk business, she steps up to save his legacy—even if that means putting her own dreams on hold.Tracy couldn’t be more different from … couldn’t be more different from her sister. She’s always been the rebellious type, without much direction in life. But in the wake of her latest romantic disaster, she finds herself moving back home as a single mother.
As Tracy experiences the difficulties of new motherhood, Meghan faces her own struggle: trying not to fall for the stray puppy she rescued. This is no time for attachments—not to the adorable “Sox,” whose owner is bound to turn up any day, and certainly not to the handsome new vet in town. But as the summer unfolds, she discovers that, like Sox, she may need rescuing, too.
As both sisters navigate unexpected challenges and exciting new relationships, they’ll find that putting the past to rest can make way for beautiful new beginnings.
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The Summer of New Beginnings is just like the author’s other books that I’ve read it is a very enjoyable read. Bette has a way that makes you feel a real connection. Even though the book starts out very sad, Bette’s wonderful way of writing changes that very quickly. It is a story of loss, love and hope. It touches on death of a family member, giving up dreams to keep that person close, it is about coming to grips with a disability and a family sticking together. Many life lessons to be learned in this book. I loved how this book showed me that even though things look bad there is always something around the corner to change it. I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it.
What happens when you have set plans for your future and a life-altering incident changes it all? With the untimely death of her father, Meghan Brigg’s dream of going to college and becoming a journalist are put on hold. Instead, she feels obligated to keep her father’s legacy alive by running his business and keeping a roof over her family’s head. Sister Tracy, on the other hand, is carefree, rebellious, and in love. She moves away with her boyfriend and years later shows up at the family home unmarried and with a baby.
This is a story of loss, new beginnings, family bonds, mental abuse, a child with disabilities, and most of all love. This author has a way of pulling at your heartstrings, making you care for the main characters, and rooting for the rights of those that have been wronged.
This is a great start to a new series. You will fall in love with the characters. The characters deal with a child with a possible disability, loss, abuse, love, and an animal rescue. I cannot wait for the next book! This is my favorite of Bette Lee Crosby’s books.
I read this book as an advanced reader. I loved the story and the characters. One of Bette ‘s best!
I hope there is a sequel coming.
#TheSummerOfNewBeginnings #NetGalley
Bette Lee Crosby writes such wonderful stories and I think this is my new favorite! It tells the story of the Briggs family and the many things that each family member has to deal with. The story immediately drew me in, I felt like I knew them all personally. I felt their love, happiness, sadness and fears. I hated to see the story end. I do hope that Bette Lee writes more stories with these characters. I want to follow them some more and see where life takes them all.
Thank you Bette Lee Crosby, Lake Union Publishing and #NetGalley for the advanced ebook to review.
The Summer of New Beginnings by Bette Lee Crosby has got to be one of the sweetest books I have ever read. There is so much Southern charm in this book, and Crosby takes some very heavy topics and tells them in an impeccably light manner.
The Summer of New Beginnings is the first installment in the Magnolia Grove series, and tells the story of a family that is going through a lot. After their father passes away suddenly, Meghan and her sister Tracy are left making some tough decisions, along with their mother Lila. After a few hurdles along the way, everything finally starts coming together for the family.
I feel in love with the characters in this book and their small town of Magnolia Grove, Georgia. There were a couple of things in the book that felt a little too rushed, but overall the story is just so sweet. I teared up multiple times, so you may want some tissus!
Final Thought: The Summer of New Beginnings read incredibly fast, and I found myself flying through the pages. You pretty much know what everyone’s thinking in this book almost all the time, with some first-person chapters that feel like diary entries. I really enjoyed this style of writing, and I haven’t actually come across it too often. This was my first time reading Crosby, but I cannot wait to read the next installment of this series!
The Summer of New Beginnings in 3 words: Hopeful, Fluid, & Candid
HEARTWARMING!
Fantastic start for this new series! The best compliment I can give an author is when I’ve finished the last word, I immediately say, “How long do we have to wait until your next book?” This is one of those books! The Summer of New Beginnings has it all – an imperfect family that loves unconditionally, a crazy ex that continues to stir emotions, a new baby and all the joy and challenges that brings, a precious stray dog that ties everyone’s hearts together and brings with him hope for new beginnings of love, growth and healing, old friends and new love. You will love the characters because they are so REALISTIC! I was provided an ARC by the Publisher and NetGalley. The opinions expressed here are completely my own and without influence.
This is a great novel about the relationships of sisters during times of family strife. Their father has recently passed and they are faced with many challenges to save his business. Both are facing personal challenges as well, with Tracy dealing with motherhood and Meghan, trying to deal with her feelings for a stray pup she found.
I would recommend this book for anyone that loves a good family based fiction novel. The characters were likable and easy to relate to. I would recommend this book to friends and give it a 5 star rating.
The Summer of New Beginnings: A Magnolia Grove Novel by author Bette Lee Crosby is another wonderful story about the interwoven threads of a family. Bette Lee Crosby is a wonderful storyteller. Her books are believable, almost as if the characters in the story are living on your block.
In The Summer Of New Beginnings, it starts with a summary of Lila and George Briggs. A wonderful couple who have the best of plans for a family and happy life. I will not post spoilers, but read the book, because you may find, when your day seems to be the darkest, a ray of light can shine forth.
As the story progresses, we read about the two girls, Meghan and Tracy. They are ready to venture out as individuals with their own personalities and priorities. Then there are a series of events which happen within the family. Life is changed, the family dynamics are changed, and each one must go forward with the choices they have made. Life choices become very real when we have to consider the future of a child in our actions.
The emotions of love, disappointment, heartache, fear, and redemption are all expressed in such a beautiful way in this book!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the Publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book.
“They say that after a person goes to his maker, a part of them stays behind with those they’ve loved.”
This is the thesis of this wonderful heartwarming story.
A family who each has to find their own vocations in life, as they move forward after the sudden loss of the patriarch in the household. A man who had the answers to most questions and yet was gentle and kind in his ways.;whose favorite words were “Possibly” and “Probably”.
This book will touch your heart and soul!
It gave me renewed faith to believe that things do happen for a reason and our loved ones do watch over us.
I enjoyed the writing, the family, and most especially Sox, who is more than a dog!
PS- You will possibly or probably need tissues while reading at times!
Thank you to Bette Lee Crosby and to Lake Union for allowing me to read this terrific novel!
I have to thank NetGalley and Lake Union for the honor of reading this awesome book.
I never expect anything but the best from Bette Lee Crosby and she has never let me down.
This is a very sweet, emotional story of loss, love, laughter and family.
It starts out a bit on the sad part then it gets better and better all the way through.
Meghan has plans to go to college to be a writer/journalist but when her father dies she puts her plans on hold to continue running his small business, Snip N Save. It’s a way to keep her father alive. She works hard and is a very capable and dependable daughter.
Tracy, Meghan’s sister, is a bit unreliable. She up and moves away with her boyfriend, Dominic who is really just a big jerk. She ends up coming back home after several years with her baby boy, Lucas.
Lila, the mother of the girls and widow of George. She just wants her girls to be home, happy and get along.
Sox, a dog that Meghan rescues from the lake is one very smart dog. He loves Meghan and Lucas dearly. He has ways that made me fall in love with him. We should all have such a good dog. Smart, loving and has a way of getting Meghan to see things that she might not have seen without him.
Will these young ladies find love and happiness. Will Tracy stay home and make a good life for herself and her son?
Bette outdid herself with this book. It was wonderful from start to finish. I truly loved it so so much. I always know I’m in for a good read when Bette writes a new book. Look forward to hearing more about this family.
I want to thank Bette and the BFF Clubhouse for the opportunity to read this fantastic book! It’s another great story by a truly gifted storyteller and author, Bette Lee Crosby. She has a beautiful gift of putting words on pages that bring them to life and make you feel the emotions of the characters. The book started out so sad and heartbreaking. It broke my heart. But true to the way Bette writes, she brought the story around to how things that happen can bring good things. One of the quotes I liked is this one, “Fate isn’t controlled by wishes. It just is what it is, and it happens whether you want it to or not.” I really liked the way Sox, the dog, was in the story. I am a huge dog lover and her way of weaving him into the book is exactly how I feel about my dogs. It made me feel so good that Sox “picked” his person and he was so vital in the story. The other quote that stood out to me was this one, “That’s what love is-wanting something good for some body more than what you want for yourself.” I so enjoy Bette’s books because she has such great wisdom and life lessons in them. I truly loved this book and highly recommend it.
You can always depend on Bette Lee Crosby to give the reader a great book and this one is no exception. It’s a story about a family that works through many hardships as they continue to love each other.
Lila and George have the perfect family with daughters Tracy and Meghan. George has a small news flyer that he publishes weekly called Snip ‘N Save and his daughter Meghan frequently helped him with it. The summer before she was due to go to college, there was a tragedy in the family when George died unexpectedly. Meghan decides to wait a year to start college to try to help the family. Her sister Tracy starts to ignore curfews and family rules and eventually runs away with her boyfriend. Lila and Meghan try to keep the family together as the dynamics of the original family change because now it’s only the two of them wondering and hoping the Tracy will return to their family.
This is a wonderful story about love and forgiveness within a family. I hope that this will be a series because this book is mainly Meghan’s story and I’d love to read more about Tracy. I am hoping that since the title calls it a magnolia grove novel, that means that this is the first book about this family with more to follow.
Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed this book – especially Meghan Briggs, the youngest daughter of George and Lila Briggs. She seemed mature beyond her years – while her older sister, Tracy, ran off with her boyfriend, she gave up her dream of attending college to run her father’s business, the Snip ‘N Save. When her sister returned home with a baby who displayed some evidence of having challenges with learning, it was Meghan who advocated to bring him to a doctor and, when she suspected what was wrong, researched what could be done to help him (which, in the process, introduced Tracy to Gabriel which will hopefully be another story!). The author did a great job with character development as well as with the story line – the Briggs women really came together to triumph over adversity. I was provided with an ARC by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was an easy read. Loved how Meghann realized her nephew was deaf before anyone else realized it.
If Bette Lee Crosby writes it, I’ll read it! Her style of writing is refreshingly honest and real. “The Summer of New Beginnings” starts the Magnolia Grove series. It’s a touching family story about two sisters, Meghan and Tracy, and how their father’s death impacts the family. The sisters are very different so they deal with his death by going down their own paths. Please take this journey with them as they deal with their struggles and challenges in this beautiful story about love and new beginnings!
Thank you Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this book in exchange for an honest review.