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    The Summer of Good Intentions
    The Summer of Good Intentions
    The Summer of Good Intentions
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Summer of Good Intentions

    Written by Wendy Francis

    Narrated by Marguerite Gavin

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Cape Cod summers are supposed to remain reassuringly the same, but everything falls apart when three sisters and their families come together for their annual summer vacation, and they are carrying more secrets than suitcases.

    Maggie is the oldest sister. She's hurt that her parents' recent divorce has destroyed the family's comfortable summer routines, and her own kids seem to be growing up at high speed. Is it too late to have another baby?

    Jess is the middle sister. She loves her job but isn't as passionate about her marriage. She's not sure that she can find the courage to tell Maggie what she's done, much less talk to her husband about it.

    Virgie is the youngest, her dad's favorite. She's always been the career girl, but now there's a man in her life. Her television job on the West Coast is beyond stressful, and it's taking its toll on her, emotionally and physically. She's counting on this vacation to erase the symptoms she's not talking about.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 26, 2016
    ISBN9781515971412
    The Summer of Good Intentions
    Author

    Wendy Francis

    Wendy Francis is the author of five novels: Summertime Guests, Bad Behavior, The Summer Sail, The Summer of Good Intentions, and Three Good Things. She is a former book editor whose work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, The Washington Post, Redbook, Yahoo Parenting, Salon, HuffPost, and WBUR’s Cognoscenti. She lives outside of Boston with her husband and son.

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    Reviews for The Summer of Good Intentions

    4/5

    37 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      4.5 stars.

      In The Summer of Good Intentions by Wendy Francis, the Herington family's annual trip to their summer cottage on Cape Cod is rife with tension and minor discord. Unlike years past, the family vacation is anything but relaxing as each member is faced with challenges that play out during the month long visit.

      Oldest daughter Maggie McNeil is looking forward the chance to unwind and escape from her hectic life. This über organized mom of three is more than ready to leave behind the hustle and bustle of busy days and enjoy a relaxing month at the beach with her extended family. She has managed to schedule everyone's visits and figure out sleeping arrangements and now it is time for her to let her husband, Mac, lend a hand with kids while she hangs out with the rest of the family. But the first hint of trouble arrives when her mom, Gloria, arrives at the summer house early which puts her visiting at the same time as her father Arthur, whom Gloria divorced eighteen months earlier after nearly 46 years of marriage.

      Jess, Maggie's twin sister, is next to arrive with her husband, Tim, and their two young kids. Although she is excited about the upcoming visit with her family, she is dreading spending extended time with Tim. Their marriage has hit a very rough patch and the two are barely speaking to each other. Their relationship has disintegrated to the point that Jess can barely stand to look at him and her flirtation with a neighbor has come very close to crossing the line into infidelity. The time away from their normal routine is just what Jess needs to rediscover the man she fell in love with, but will Tim forgive her if she admits her attraction to another man?

      Youngest sister Virgie has a successful career in journalism but she is definitely feeling the stress from her demanding job. She is also in a new relationship with a wonderful man but since he so different from her previous boyfriends, she is a little unsure what comes next for them. She has also been experiencing a few troubling health issues but the symptoms are so vague she finds them easy to ignore. However, a fainting spell lands Virgie in the ER and the diagnosis becomes a crossroads for her.

      The sisters' dad, Arthur, has been floundering since his divorce from Gloria. He is still deeply in love with her and although he maintains his normal daily routine, he is having troubling finishing his latest novel. He still enjoys his volunteer position at a local library but he has picked up a rather strange habit that is vaguely troubling to his daughters. However it is Arthur's lapses in memory that everyone finds most disconcerting but is his forgetfulness just a natural part of aging?

      Written in alternating points of view, The Summer of Good Intentions is a poignant and heartwarming novel with a realistic storyline. Wendy Francis brings the seaside retreat vibrantly to life and the idyllic setting perfectly balances the characters' weightier issues. The characters are brilliantly developed, likable and although each are facing life altering situations, the plot is delightfully free of angst. A warm and inviting story with a close-knit family whose bonds are strengthened by crisis.
    • 5/5
      It is a beach read, but it is also about a family, experiencing problems. The Herington extended family gathers at their beach house, as they do every summer. But soon one sister faces a health scare, and they notice their father is failing. Like the family you wish you were part of, they bicker and disagree, but come together to face their difficulties, and help hold each other up.
    • 4/5
      Great beach read about three sisters, families, problems, triumphs. Wendy Francis has an easy and relatable style. It's the first novel I've read by her and I look forward to more.
    • 5/5
      I'm so pleased with how Francis gets right into her characters, just as she did in her earlier book, Three Good Things. You can see them, feel them, understand their thinking and their reactions to each other---and she's actually following several characters, not only the three sisters! Perhaps formulaic but so well done. I can hardly wait for her next novel which she is working on right now!
    • 5/5
      I really, really liked this book! Not my typical summer read because it had different content and the plot twisted around more then normal. It still put me in that spot we all want to be in the summer, a house you see every year, a beach you roam for a lifetime, a family that has the good and the bad. It's ok to do this kind of stuff on repeat!
    • 5/5
      As the dog days of summer wind down, Wendy Francis' The Summer of Good Intentions is the perfect book to read at the beach or on the porch.A family reunites to spend their annual July vacation at their summer home on Cape Cod. Maggie is mom to three, married to a great guy, and the organizer of the family. Jess is a high school principal, struggling to balance her demanding job, her children and a husband who is more interested in his job than his family. Virgie is the single one, a career-driven reporter trying to get a job as a TV news anchor and just staring a promising relationship.Their parents have recently divorced, and their mother Gloria is bringing her new boyfriend to the house. This makes their dad, Arthur, a mystery book writer, very sad as he doesn't understand why their marriage fell apart.Maggie fears that her life will become empty as her children get older and need her less. She wants to bring a foster child into the family but must first convince her husband. Jess' marriage woes have led her to place that could destroy her marriage and Virgie's work stresses have made her physically ill.I just fell into this story, reading it in two sittings. The sibling relationships felt so real, and the story of the three marriages facing different challenges was so engrossing. I felt like I was in the family vacation home, watching these people interact around me.We are privy to the secrets and feelings that each character has, and just like in life, things happen that can bring people together or tear them apart. Wendy Francis brings to life this interesting family, one just like our own, and she does so with heart and compassion that we can't help but want them to be happy even as the sad things that life inevitably brings each us do their best to bring us down.This is the second book I have read that features a character who is a hoarder (the other being Mary Pflum Peterson's upcoming memoir White Dresses), and it has given me more compassion for people who suffer from this disorder and for the family members who try to deal with them and the physical and emotional mess they leave behind.I loved The Summer of Good Intentions, and give it my highest recommendation. If you've ever sat on the beach talking with your sisters, this is the book for you.
    • 4/5
      I can’t remember when I have ever read a book in which the characters all work out their difficulties by talking about their problems together and trying to change the behaviors that are not working. Isn’t that a refreshing idea? In addition, the story can’t get much more summer-ish than this, with a setting at a beach house. A perfect little read.
    • 4/5
      I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review. I really enjoyed the book, it was a perfect book to just set back and enjoy.The locale was beautiful set in Cape Cod and the whole family tradition was just great. But, this will be the first time since their parents had gotten their divorce that they have all gathered at the summer house.The three sisters, Maggie the oldest of the twins sisters, Jess is next then the youngest is Virgie. Maggie is one of these super types that everything works out well for and she takes charge of every situation. She has three children and a wonderful husband.Jess, the middle sister is not looking forward to this vacation for her own reasons. She is having trouble with her husband, Tim. He finds her new career as a High School Principal more of a pain to the family and doesn't take it serious. He is lazy at home and doesn't communicate with her and barely the two children. She has just about had it with him.Virgie, the youngest is a journalist and is her father's favorite. She is looking so forward to spending this time with her family. She thinks she may have met the love of her life and she really hated to leave him in LA. She has been suffering from minor heath glitches that turn out to be anything but minor. They are all a bit nervous when their mother and father show up on the same day! Gloria, their flamboyant mother shows up with a boytoy and poor Arthur who is still in love with Gloria really takes a hit. But when Gloria sees Arthur is there she and her friend decide to stay in a nearby hotel. Arthur has really deteriorated mentally since the divorce the sisters have noticed it, but after all he is 72 yrs old and they give him a bit of slack until he forgets some major things and then they have decided that he needs to get to a doctor and checked out.While they were celebrating Arthur's birthday party they realize Virgie isn't around. Someone goes up to finds that she has fainted and is laying on the floor. They get her to the hospital and the ER doctor wants her to go to Boston to get more testing done. They decide to get Arthur to go as well. But things get a little confusing for the family and everything kind of falls apart. Not even Maggie can fix these issues.It has some great times and sad times. I really enjoyed the way the writer held them all together and kept the story going.
    • 5/5
      This is a pretty good summer read. The Herinton sisters, Maggie, Jess and Virgie, are back at the family home in Cape Cod to spend the summer. Their parents, divorced roughly eighteen months, are part of the visit. Though not planned this way, their mother, Gloria, has dropped in with her current squeeze, much to the dismay of their father Arthur and of the girls. Each of the sisters has secrets they are hiding and life obstacles they are working to overcome. Maggie, the oldest, the family nurturer, wants more in her life, as her youngest son goes off to school in the fall. Jess has definite problems in her marriage which she isn’t sure how to overcome or even begin to resolve. Virgie is at a turning point in her journalism career as well as having a new man in her life—who may become a permanent part of her life. Though the divorce is final and things supposedly should have settled down, Arthur still has major problems with his divorce from the girls’ mother Gloria and is floundering. Gloria, though divorced from Arthur and accompanied by her latest boy toy, also still has feelings for Arthur and while feeling her oats as a newly free divorcee. The dynamics of the family as they all interact during this one month at Cape Cod are interesting to watch. I found myself swept up in this family and their daily lives and struggles. The characters are real and enticing. The setting is a great summer one. However, don’t be fooled. This is more than just another quick fluff piece. The story and its underlying themes are real, to the point, and grab you from the get-go. I found myself totally involved in the family as they each work through their own problems and struggles. This is a possible spoiler. The only part of the book I could not understand and felt could have been eliminated was the sisters’ cleaning up of their father’s house at the end of the month. Had the author not included this in the detail she did the story would still have stood strong and steady, making this picture of the girls’ father unnecessary. It just did not lend anything to the story.This is a good book for a summer or even a beach read. However, be forewarned. The book will scoop you up out of your lazy days of summer and take you to new levels of interest and understanding. It may seem like a light hearted story of one family’s summer vacation at the Cape, but it is definitely more, with more depth and feeling. I highly recommend it. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.