Summertime Guests: A Novel

Wendy Francis

Apr 2021 · Sold by Harlequin

About this ebook

As featured in The Boston Globe
The New York Post
Bustle
Woman's World
South Shore Home, Life & Style

"Engaging...Add this to beach reads along with those by Elin Hilderbrand, Nancy Thayer, and Dorothea Benton Frank."
--Booklist

THE SEAFARER IS THE PLACE TO SEE AND BE SEEN IN THE SUMMER...

With its rich history and famous guests, the glamorous Boston hotel is no stranger to drama. But the bustle at the iconic property reaches new heights one weekend in mid-June when someone falls tragically to her death, the event rippling through the lives of four very different people.

Bride-to-be Riley is at the hotel to plan her wedding. She would have preferred a smaller, more intimate celebration, but her bossy mother-in-law has taken charge and her fiancé hasn’t seemed to notice. Jean-Paul, the hotel’s manager, is struggling to keep his marriage and new family afloat, but now he must devote all his energy to this latest scandal at work. Claire, recently widowed, comes to town to connect with a long-lost love, but has too much changed in the last thirty years? And then there’s Jason, whose romantic getaway with his girlfriend has not exactly gone the way he'd hoped and instead has him facing questions he can't bring himself to answer.

Over three sun-drenched days, as the truth about the woman who died—and the secret she was hiding—is uncovered, these four strangers become linked in the most unexpected of ways. Together, they just might find the strength they need to turn their own lives around.

"Compelling, surprising, and a wonderful summertime read."
--Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of Family Reunion

"Riveting...A smart read with plenty of meat for book clubs."
--Barbara O'Neal, Washington Post bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids

“In prose as glittering as the hotel in which the novel is set, Francis shines as a master storyteller. A must-read for anyone who could use an escape.”
—Kristy Woodson Harvey, USA TODAY bestselling author of Feels Like Falling

“The best kind of page-turner… This seductive novel will draw you into the fascinating backstories of characters sipping cocktails poolside, and you won't stop reading until you know what really happened."
—Brooke Lea Foster, author of Summer Darlings

"At a glamorous hotel by the ocean, four people face up to truths that can no longer be hidden. Summertime Guests is compelling, surprising, and a wonderful summertime read."
—Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author of Family Reunion

"Wendy Francis delivers a smart, probing drama that skillfully unravels the complex emotional lives of an ensemble cast in Summertime Guests...a reflective, deeply engaging and suspenseful story with many threads sure to ensnare the attention of rapt readers."
—Shelf Awareness

"Idyllic coastal settings, drama, dynamic characters...this story has it all!"
—Woman's World

Ratings and reviews

Summertime Guests by Wendy Francis is a mixture of summery romance and mystery. It is a story that links four different couples, at different stages in their relationships, in unexpected ways. There’s the promising first blush of new love; the more settled love of a couple trying to find their way back to each other after the arrival of a baby; the troubled rollercoaster love between two academics; and the stirrings/desire to relight the romantic flame from a thirty-year old romance by a widowed woman. They are all brought together at a famous hotel that has just been renovated and reopened. The story begins with a tragedy that affects these four couples. We explore days prior to the tragedy, their activities, their outings, their feelings, and their hurts. We discover their innermost secrets and desires, as together they find the strength they need to turn their own lives around. Ms Francis wrote a wonderful, emotional, and intriguing story that is definitely not to be missed. She provided a rich tale rich of looking into the lives of four couples over a week’s time, leading up to the tragedy and which guest died. She kept me on my toes, guessing who it was. I highly recommend Ways to Ruin a Royal Reputation to other readers. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

About the author

Wendy Francis is the author of the novels, The Summer Sail, The Summer of Good Intentions, and Three Good Things. A former book editor, she has written for Good Housekeeping, the Washington Post, the Improper Bostonian, and WBUR's Cognoscenti. She lives outside Boston with her husband and eleven-year-old son and has two stepchildren, who will soon be proud graduates themselves.