Buxton Books is proud to present Victoria Benton Frank for an in-store signing of her new book My Magnolia Summer! This is a free, in-store event. Drop in between 1:00 - 3:00 pm to meet Victoria and get a signed and personalized copy of the book! Please email rsvp@buxtonbooks.com with your name and party number to let us know you’re coming!

This June, Victoria Benton Frank, daughter of the late beloved New York Times Bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank, will publish her debut novel MY MAGNOLIA SUMMER (William Morrow; June 6, 2023; $30) carrying on her mother’s tradition of writing the perfect summer beach read. Set in Sullivan’s Island, SC, like her mother’s first book, Benton Frank writes from the heart about what she knows having lived in both Charleston and New York City where she worked in the kitchens of some of the city’s finest restaurants. The result is a spicy and heartfelt novel filled with twists and turns and more than a few good laughs.

Charleston born Maggie Adams (born Magnolia after the fairest summer flower) is chasing her New York City dream of being a chef. Sure, she misses her family and the balmy beach weather back home on Sullivan’s Island, but she’s inches away from her big break working at Bar JP, one of NYC’s most popular restaurants, and semi happily involved in a romantic relationship with Ronny, a fickle, but handsome and talented chef she works with. The stars seemed aligned in her favor, until a phone call from her sister Violet changes everything.

Gran, the treasured matriarch, has fallen into a coma after a car accident caused by Maggie’s troubled mother, Lily. Maggie rushes home to be by her side and soon finds herself playing catch-up on all the family drama that her New York life has shielded her from. The Magic Lantern, the restaurant owned and run by generations of women in her family, is being run into the ground by her mom’s new boyfriend Buster, and her sister seems headed for an epic breakup.

Back home in South Carolina, between the marsh grasses and the dunes, Maggie steps into a new and different version of herself, one who rises to the occasion to fix the wrongs that have occurred during her absence and one who can see how a minor crash into the back of a very handsome farmer’s truck may become fortunate. Or perhaps it’s even… fate?

MY MAGNOLIA SUMMER is full of humor, fun, romance, and recipes guaranteed to make your mouth water. Most importantly, it’s a story about the bond of family and the strength of women. Everyone knows that when the three generations of South Carolina women join forces—the family pillar Gran, troubled Lily, impulsive Violet, and redoubtable Maggie—anything is possible.

Victoria Benton Frank makes her home just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. A graduate of the College of Charleston and the French Culinary Institute, married to a chef, and mother of two little hurricanes, her book is alive with lived experience and love for the land of her ancestors.