A Month of Summer

Table of Contents

 

 

“Wingate paints a riveting picture of the Choctaw Nation as one woman searches for the family she never knew. Heartfelt and revealing, Wingate’s latest proves that she’s a rising star in the world of women’s fiction.”

—
Romantic Times
(top pick)

“A delightful, heart-wrenching story written in first person with captivating characters,
A Thousand Voices
is sensitively told and masterfully written. It will capture the imagination of readers from the first page. . . .
A Thousand Voices
is a book not to be missed . . . [a] perfect 10.”

—Romance Reviews Today

"Lisa Wingate provides a warm character study of a fully developed individual seeking her roots.” —
Midwest Book Review

“Heartfelt and moving, enriched by characters drawn with compassion and warmth.” —Jennifer Chiaverini, author of
Circle of Quilters

“Another winner.” —
Booklist

“A deep character study.” —
The Best Reviews

"Heartfelt, honest, and entirely entertaining . . . this poignant story will touch your heart from the first page to the last.” —Kristin Hannah

"Wingate’s smoothly flowing prose fills the pages with emotional drama.”

—
Romantic Times
(top pick)

“Wingate is an excellent storyteller who knows how to draw readers in quickly and keep them turning the pages, laughing one minute and grabbing for a tissue the next.” —
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

“Wingate presents another one of her positive and uplifting books . . . tales in the midst of turmoil that are inspirational without being preachy.”

—
Booklist

“A novel bursting with joy amidst crisis: Small-town life is painted with scope and detail in the capable hands of a writer who understands longing, grief, and the landscape of a woman’s heart.”

—Adriana Trigiani, author of the
Big Stone Gap
trilogy

“Wingate has written a genuinely heartwarming story about how a sense of possibility can be awakened in the aftermath of a tragedy to bring a community together and demonstrate the true American spirit.” —
Booklist

“Wingate’s novels, like those of Nicholas Sparks and Richard Paul Evans and others, takes a middle ground between Christian and mainstream fiction—uplifting, clean, and inspirational but not overtly religious.”

—
The Bryan-College Station Eagle

“A story at once gentle and powerful about the very old and the very young, and about the young woman who loves them all. Richly emotional and spiritual,
Tending Roses
affected me from the first page.”

—Luanne Rice, author of
Sandcastles

“You can’t put it down without . . . taking a good look at your own life and how misplaced priorities might have led to missed opportunities.
Tending Roses
is an excellent read for any season, a celebration of the power of love.”

—
El Paso Times

PRAISE FOR LISA WINGATE’S
“TEXAS HILL COUNTRY” SERIES

“A beautifully crafted and insightfully drawn page-turner…this is storytelling at its best.”

—Julie Cannon, author of the Homegrown series and
Those Pearly Gates

“A warmhearted tale of love and longing, grits and cowboys, horse psychology and dinosaur tracks.”

—Claire Cook, author of
Multiple Choice
and
Must Love Dogs

“Wingate lets her magical Texas setting and idiosyncratic supporting characters shine.” —
Kirkus Reviews

“A charmingly nostalgic treat. . . . Wingate handles the book’s strong spiritual element deftly, creating a novel that is sweetly inspirational but not saccharine.” —
Publishers Weekly

“Lisa Wingate is making a national name for herself as an excellent storyteller. Her novels . . . are upbeat and refreshingly wholesome.”

—
Abilene Reporter-News

“Leaves you feeling like you’ve danced the two-step across Texas.”

—Jodi Thomas

“Lisa Wingate writes with depth and warmth, joy and wit.”

—Debbie Macomber

“
Texas Cooking
. . . will have readers drooling for the next installment . . . [a] beautifully written mix of comedy, drama, cooking, and journalism.”

—
The Dallas Morning News

“Takes the reader on a delightful journey into the most secret places of every woman’s heart.” —Catherine Anderson

“The story is a treasure. You will be swept along, refreshed and amused. . . . Give yourself a treat and read this tender, unusual story.”

—Dorothy Garlock

NAL Accent
Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
(a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre,
Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale,
North Shore 0632,New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd.,
24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by NAL Accent, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, July 2008

Copyright ©Wingate Media, LLC, 2008

Conversation Guide copyright ©Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2008
All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:
Wingate, Lisa.
A month of summer/Lisa Wingate.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-4406-2945-7

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

To Memaw and Grandaddy Hudson,
who remind us
that true love is not found
only in a brief moment of passion
but in a lifetime of
little moments
spent together

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I can’t drive away from Blue Sky Hill without leaving behind a little love letter to the many people who helped bring this neighborhood and its residents to life. First and foremost, thank you to my brother-in -law, Vance, and my sister-in-law, Stacy, for helping me to discover the neighborhoods growing and changing in the shadow of downtown Dallas. Thank you for contributing many setting details and for driving me around, and around, and around the streets of Lakewood, patiently holding up traffic while I snapped pictures. Thank you also to Larry and Martha Mayo for answering a plethora of real estate law questions over lunch at Johnny’s, and to Elaine Morley for providing legal details pertaining to Rebecca’s work as an immigration attorney. Without your input, this story would be incomplete.