A Month of Summer (Blue Sky Hills Series #1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Lisa Wingate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2008

First in a new series from a national bestselling author whose ?novels [are] like those of Nicholas Sparks and Richard Paul Evans.?(Bryan-College Station Eagle)

For Rebecca Macklin, an ordinary summer brings about an extraordinary change of heart when she discovers that her aging father has been wandering the Dallas streets alone, and his wife, Hanna Beth, has landed in a nursing home. Now Rebecca must put aside old resentments and return to her childhood home. In this moving story of separation and forgiveness, two women will unravel the betrayals of the past and discover the true meaning of family.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

After a call from the Dallas police, Rebecca Macklin leaves her family and law practice in California to return to her childhood home to deal with her estranged father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. She has built up a lifetime of resentment toward her father after he divorced her mother and married Hannah Beth. Arriving at the house, she finds everything in disarray and Hannah Beth recovering in the nursing home from a debilitating stroke. Hannah Beth’s mentally disabled son’s simple joy starts to thaw the resentment that Rebecca has built up for decades, and she is torn as she takes care of her father, who confuses her with her mother, and desperately misses her own family even though there are problems with her marriage. With her signature gentle spiritualism, Wingate sheds light on the toll that aging and disease take on families as she launches a new series with broad appeal. --Patty Engelmann

About the Author

Lisa Wingate writes both Accent novels and contemporary romances for NAL.  She lives with her husband and two sons in the central Texas hill country, where she is a popular inspirational speaker, writing instructor, and magazine columnist.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451224035
• ISBN-13: 978-0451224033
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #356,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Wingate is a magazine columnist, inspirational speaker, and the author of a host of mainstream fiction novels, including the national bestseller, Tending Roses, which is currently in its fourteenth reprint. Her books have been featured selections for Doubleday and Literary Guild book clubs, selected for The Reader's Club of America, and have garnered LORIES Best Fiction and Reader's Choice Awards, and been nominated for the ACFW Book of the Year Award. Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others, as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. Lisa loves sharing with readers via Facebook, Youtube, and her website. More information about Lisa's novels can be found at www.Lisawingate.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Month of Summer, July 1, 2008

By 

Ed Stevens - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Month of Summer (Blue Sky Hills Series #1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Lisa Wingate's tenth book, A Month of Summer

"Life, Claude says is a journey by train. Outside the window, the scenery is rushing by. If you look away for even an instant, something passes uncaptured. Far in the future, when you leaf through the photo album of memory, your finger, aged and crooked, will rub lightly over that empty space, and you'll wonder, What might have been there?" And so begin the journeys of Rebecca, Hanna Beth, Claude, Edward, Teddy and others as they all eventually meet in a Texas nursing home.

Rebecca, Edward's estranged 45 year old daughter, living with her husband and daughter in California, gets a call from the Dallas police that her father has been found wandering the neighborhood, and that something must be done. This brings Rebecca to Texas and so begin her experiences with an aging father, afflicted with dementia, and a mother in law, Hannah Beth, who is in the nursing home after a stroke.

As I read this extraordinary story, my mind kept wandering to the movie that's sure to come. Who would be in it? Jack Nicholson could be Claude, the kindly nursing home resident who once drove the trains loaded with the former prisoners from the concentration camps. Julia Roberts could be Rebecca. Meryl Streep could be Hanna Beth, while Tom Hanks could be Edward. What a movie that will be!

Wingate takes a serious subject, a subject that each of us may one day encounter, creates interesting characters and weaves them into exciting stories and mixes the story with humor that makes this book unforgettable. The Incontinence Olympics description is a must read! I'm still laughing about it.

I started reading the book in the late afternoon and didn't lay it down until finished in the early morning. I really loved the book and highly recommend it! I have now read it three times.

Ed

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Month of Summer, July 31, 2008

By 

Leah Loyer "TxAngel" (Heart of Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Month of Summer (Blue Sky Hills Series #1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book was an all nighter. I just couldn't put it down. Lisa always writes such interesting books, especially for women. I love eveything I have read by her to date. I always look forward to the next release.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love Lisa Wingate Books, August 5, 2008

By 

Lynn Betsanes - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Month of Summer (Blue Sky Hills Series #1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Great book as usual. Very nice story ~ not so predictable ~ just good clean writing.