Overall, I enjoyed reading The Summer of New Beginnings. The characters are well-developed with emotions that ring true to the situations in the book. The story line is interesting, with the story being told from many different points of view. At times, though, the time transitions felt stilted to me. I was involved in the story, anticipating what might happen next, and then it suddenly jumped ahead a few weeks or months.

The Summer of New Beginnings by Bette Lee Crosby is A Magnolia Grove Novel. Meghan Briggs has just graduated from high school in Magnolia Grove, Georgia and is looking forward to attending the Grady College of Journalism in the fall. But then her father has a deadly heart attack, and Meghan steps in to take over the running of her father’s business, Snip ‘N’ Save magazine. She wants to preserve her father’s legacy and memory by keeping the publication alive. Tracy is more about enjoying life and rebelling against the norm. When Tracy’s boyfriend, Dominic gets a job in Philadelphia, she announces she is moving with him. Two years later Tracy returns home with her son, Lucas who has yet to start talking. Tracy has grown up while she was away and begins helping Meghan with the magazine. It turns out that Tracy has a flair for graphic design. Meghan has devoted her time to running the magazine and not allowing anytime for a personal life. One day Meghan is out running and sees a puppy struggling in the lake. She rescues the little fellow and names him Sox. She does not want to fall for the him in case his owner shows up, but Meghan is soon under his spell. Meghan takes Sox to Dr. Tom Whitely to check for a chip, and she discovers her love of working with animals. Megan used to write in composition books and she picks up the habit again. It gives her an opportunity to work out her thoughts and emotions. As the summer progresses, new challenges are put in their paths. These women will need to reconcile the past in order to have a bright new beginning. Come along for the journey in The Summer of New Beginnings.

The Summer of New Beginnings is nicely written and has a relaxed pace. Bette Lee Crosby has a writing style that is relaxed (conversational) and draws the reader in. The point-of-view switches between the characters with sections that remind me of diary entries. It allows readers to discover what each character is thinking and feeling which I appreciate. I like how each character is dealing with real life issues such as the loss of a loved one, problems with a child, limited income, dealing with an ex-boyfriend, falling in love, having to give up on a dream, etc. There is a great family dynamic and it is lovely seeing these three women come together (help each other, support each other and love each other). The author created realistic characters that readers can relate to along with their issues. Ms. Crosby handled the issue with Lucas gently and with sensitively (I would say more but I do not want to spoil it for you). There are some lovely life lessons in the story that many people will be able to relate to and apply to their own life. The Summer of New Beginnings is what I call a feel-good book that will leave you with a smile on your face and a good feeling in your heart.

I loved this book. Bette Lee Crosby writes such wonderful, heartwarming stories and has done so again with The Summer of New Beginnings. I thought the story flowed beautifully from beginning to end with very likable and well-developed characters. It was indeed a very touching story about family being there for each other no matter what the circumstances may be. I'm so looking forward to reading the next book in this series. I highly recommend The Summer of New Beginnings.

A big thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

The Summer of New Beginnings: A Magnolia Grove Novel is the love story of Lila and George Briggs. They raised their two daughters, Tracy and Meghan, in the small town of Magnolia Grove. The book essentially spans summer through the end of one year. Tracy is the self-proclaimed Wild Child while Meghan is more reserved. Tracy chose not to attend college; Meghan cannot wait to start. Then, George dies unexpectedly less than two months before Meghan is set to start college. She delays college entrance to run George's publication, Snip 'N Save until a buyer can be found. Tracy moves to Philadelphia with her boyfriend Dominic. All three women start learning how to go forward without George. Later, Tracy returns with her infant son Lucas. Soon after, Meghan rescues a puppy from the middle of the lake during a storm that came up quickly. Lucas and the puppy Sox become fast friends. Dominic tries to make Tracy and Lucas' life as difficult as possible.
This is also the story of how these three women adapt to the curves that life throws at them. It is an intimate look into how changes start and come to fruition for the women due to different chapters which are devoted to one character's thoughts and feelings. There are also places where a reader may pause and reflect on his/her opinion or views on a particular issue. Several important, relevant issues are effectively addressed here - loss of a spouse/parent, a child born with health issues, domestic abuse, and being true to one's own talents and ambitions, sometimes without even realizing one has them.
I received an advance copy of this book in return for my honest review.

Over the past few years, Bette Lee Crosby’s books have been among my favorite “go to” books for pure
enjoyment. The Summer of New Beginnings did not disappoint. It is the wonderfully heartwarming story of an average family facings life’s difficulties, death, disappointment, fear, love and forgiveness. Each character seems to come to life under the magic pen of Ms Crosby writing. The dialogue between characters is so real that it seems you have somehow been transported unseen into the room with them, and the obstacles they face are believable. At the end of the book, you are left wanting more, to continue to visit with your new friends and anxious for what new trials and triumphs the family faces. Bette lee Crosby’s next book can’t come soon enough

Sweet Southern Charm and Pass the tissues! Bette Lee Crosby has written a delightful novel with “all the feels”. I love that the author can take some intense family issues and show deep love of sisters, mothers and children. The death of a patriarch, single motherhood, putting careers on hold, a child with a possible disability…and Bette Lee Crosby weaves a lovely story of the strength and love of family. I really enjoyed this book, it’s a page turner and keeps you interested from Chapter 1. I fell in love with Magnolia Grove and I’m looking forward to more from this sweet, small town full of hope, strength and love. 4.5 stars.

The Summer of New Beginnings was a beautiful, heartfelt novel. I enjoyed the way the characters' struggles were depicted and their emotional journeys. I also enjoyed the beautiful quotes throughout the novel. Meghan's father has passed away unexpectedly shortly after she graduated from high school. She decides to give up her dream studies to take over his business. At the same time, Meghan's sister, Tracy, is involved in her own struggles in her life. Both of their lives change drastically as they navigate decisions they must make. This novel is about family, motherhood, and love. It is about personal struggles and the challenges that people face. It is also about loss, change, and new beginnings. (less)

The Summer of New Beginnings started out much like the movie UP...a great love story of a great couple. As the book progresses, you meet their children and begin to love the whole family. As death rattles the entire household, you see the remaining family members struggle to find their 'new normal'. Both together and individually, each searches for where they really belong when the 'glue' of the family is no longer around. I love that you don't see everybody making perfect choices and you watch them grapple with what is right vs. what they want. There is sweet, sappy, sad, struggle, triumph, and a dog. Always a dog in a great book! There's a cat, too, but whatever. ;) You'll watch them learn to love, grieve, and create new paths. And I'm partial to books with writers in them. I'd suggest this book without hesitation.

This is a beautifully penned story, a story of loss, hope, the struggles of life and love when George Briggs passes away suddenly he leaves behind his wife Lila and two daughters Tracy and Meghan. Tracy is working in a bank and Meghan is just about to go off to college to become a journalist. Losing her father changes all of that as she decides to stay home and run the business that her father started. This is a story that will have you turning the pages to join this family on their new path in life.

Meghan was always very close to her father. She is the sensible daughter and Tracy can be a bit of a wild child and losing their father affects them differently. Lila worries that things will be hard for them all. Tracy falls in love with Dominic and goes against her mother’s wishes and moves to another state. Meghan supports Tracy saying that she must find her way in life. This ends in the birth of a little boy and Tracy struggling.

Meghan continues to write in her journals and run the Snip and Save magazine and does well but she does struggle. When she rescues a dog from a swollen lake her life takes on a new meaning, and Sox as she calls him seems to be a gift, but from who? And this leads her to the new local vet, Tom. Emotions and feeling blossom in such a gorgeous way between the two of them
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This is another beautiful and compelling story from Ms Crosby. She knows how to pull at the readers’ heartstrings, bring characters to life and to make the reader feel a part of the story. This one is moving and emotional and ticks all of the boxes for a story that I would highly recommend. And yay, it is the first in a series, so I look forward to more stories set in Magnolia Grove and keeping in touch with Meghan and Tom, Tracy, Lucas and Gabriel. Thank you Ms Crosby for another keeper.

A very touching story of 2 very different sisters who learn to deal with struggles of everyday life amidst the loss of a loved one. I felt like I knew the characters on a very personal level. Highly recommend!

This was my first book by Bette Lee Crosby and I loved it. This story was so sweet! Highly recommend it,

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

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

The Summer of New Beginnings is a sweet, gentle story of the loss three women experience when there is an unexpected death in the family. This event leads to change and some re arranging of plans and hopes.

Meghan to me seemed the most affected of the two girls, she was close to her father and had a good relationship with him. As the days go by it feels like her Dad is watching over her and leading her along in ways that will refill her sorrowing heart. When she was young she lost a very beloved pet, now a new dog comes into her life and with him comes both the fear of losing him and the excitement of new possibilities.

Tracy has always felt a little "less" than Meghan and has tended to rush into things that just aren't that good for her. When she returns home with a son who doesn't talk, she is a little prickly about it. However as she re finds her feet at home, she begins a deeper relationship with her sister and she can see that Meghan has a heart that cares deeply about her and little Lucas. Megan will go to great lengths to help them.

Lila their mother is a more in the shadows figure, she began the family off with their father years ago and has established a home that is caring and compassionate. And of course she is at first thrown by the loss of her husband. She is an accomplished cook and keen to be a grandma.

The family face real life situations, experience a range of conflicting emotions and are able to face together the challenges thrown at them. This is a heart warming and enjoyable story. A good read for a cosy read by the fire or beach. And a perfect cover to go with it. And the touch of romance just was the icing on the cake!

I fell in love with this family right from the start. Bette Lee Crosby does an excellent job of bringing these characters to life. I found this story to be both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I would like to thank Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this wonderful book. I highly recommend this wonderfully touching story.

REVIEW: Lee Crosby can pull you into the story with such grace and ease. She builds her characters in a way that they become part of you. You, as the reader, will experience everything they experience, which causes the reader to form a deep attachment with the characters. The Summer of New Beginnings will tug at your heart and give you hope. I think every reader will be able to relate to the characters in this book and the story will be one that will touch them. A spring read must.

At it’s core, this is a novel about family – the good times, hard times, triumphant times and sorrowful times. At the beginning of the book, the father, George, dies of a heart attack. His wife and two daughters seem to fall into a downward spiral in their own unique ways in the aftermath of his death.

Meghan becomes ultra-responsible, setting aside her long held dream of going to journalism school in order to run her father’s business (which she thinks he would want her to do, but likely he would have rather had her go to college.) Lila loses all control of her oldest daughter, Tracy, and doesn’t seem to know how to reclaim it…so she doesn’t. Tracy goes super rebellious, runs off with her boyfriend and is gone for years, until she shows back up with a baby that her mom and sister have never met.

The rest of this book is about how these three women try to pick up the pieces of their broken lives. There is a sweet dog that comes into the picture, a cute vet, the awful ex shows back up periodically, and a major medical problem for Tracy’s son, Lucas. All of this is thrown into the pot, and for me, it felt like it dragged…a lot. Every time it seemed like one of the storylines was picking up steam, the narrator would switch to one of the other characters. The pacing was way off, and it took me much longer than I would have liked for me to finish it.

It was just lacking in several ways. The pacing was the worst offender, with character arcs taking forever to come to fruition. I did enjoy all of the characters, and the basic idea behind how everything tied together, it was just in execution that it fell a bit short. All in all, I thought that the premise of the story was really great. I liked moments of the book very much, but as a whole, it was not all that I was hoping it would be.



Rating:
2.5/5.0

Overall, I give The Summer of New Beginnings 2.5 STARS. It’s right on the cusp of 3 stars, but just not quite there for me.

*A big thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!*

George and Lila live in the small town of Magnolia Grove and have two daughters ... Tracy is the oldest and bit of a wild one and Meghan is the good daughter. When George passes away suddenly, Meghan postpones her dream of going to journalism school to run his small-town magazine. Rather than letting it go, she sees it as a way of keeping a piece of her father. Tracy, on the other hand, heads off to Philadelphia where Dominic, her boyfriend, has gotten a job. The relationship doesn't work out and Tracy moves back home with her infant son. As Tracy tries to get her life together, Meghan finds a stray pup who she names Sox and hopes his owner doesn't turn up to claim him.

I thought this book was okay. It is written in third person perspective, though some chapters are in first person perspective ... they are short and italicized and the name of the person is at the beginning of these chapters so you know who the focus is. This style worked for me as it let me get into their heads and know what they were thinking and feeling.

I wasn't crazy about Lila. Considering all that Meghan had given up and taken on, she didn't seem very grateful and still treated her like a child (for example, initially forbidding her to keep Sox). Dominic was a jerk who hadn't treated Tracy or their son very well yet she still waffled for years about going back to him.

If you are looking for a nice clean wholesome story, you will enjoy it. It is the first in the Magnolia Grove series.

This is a wonderful story with all the feels that will leave you wanting more when the last page is read. Heartwarming and full of hope, I can't wait for the next book in this series. Also, if you love dogs, wait till you meet Sox!

Megan and Traceys story is full of heartwarming laughter and sadness both. If you have a sibling you know the struggles that you go through growing up and starting over and Ms. Crosby did a great job at portraying that in this book. I would highly recommend this as a read for a day when you need a pick me up or when you’re just feeling a little bit down