Jami Albright
press inquiries: books@jamialbright.com
The Summer That Changed Us
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May 18, 2025
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Upmarket Womenβs Fiction
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Ebook & Print
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Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play
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Steel Magnolias meets Schittβs Creek with the heart of This is Us.
At fifty, Hope Hall has done everything right. She earned a PhD, built a career, and held her marriage together with determination and stubborn denial.
When her life publicly unravels, Hope returns to her hometown in Texas, and the loud, loving, opinionated family who never quite understood her. Surrounded by her four sisters, who make everything bigger, messier, and usually a public spectacle, she expects the chaos, the old grudges, and the small-town rivalries that always seem to involve toilet paper and bail money.
What she doesnβt expect is June β her wild, fearless sister, who has spent a decade giving cancer the middle finger. But you can only run from the devil for so long, and whatβs next for June may be the thing the James family canβt survive.
Told with sharp humor, messy love, and the kind of honesty that sneaks up and wrecks you, π»ππ πΊπππππ π»πππ πͺππππππ πΌπ is a deeply moving, laugh-through-the-tears story about sisters, second chances, and what it really means to show up when it matters most.
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This is not quiet grief fiction. Itβs loud and funny and devastating in equal measure. Itβs for the reader who has loved a sibling, lost someone slowly, and laughed in a hospital room when she probably shouldnβt have.
For the woman in midlife who is still figuring out who she is, still capable of a second chance, and still surprised by how much life is left.
For anyone who has come home to a small town that hasnβt changed a bit while she became someone completely different.
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Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah
Fried Green Tomatoes - Fannie Flagg
The Clover Girls - Viola Shipman
This is Us - Television Series
Schittβs Creek - Television Series
Steel Magnolias - Film
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Jami Albright is the oldest of five girls. A few years ago, she lost her fourth sister.
When her sister was dying, the family didnβt go quiet. They didnβt speak in hushed voices or move carefully around each other. They did what theyβve always done β they laughed. Loudly. Inappropriately, probably, by some standards. Humor wasnβt their way of avoiding the grief. It was how they survived it.
That experience became The Summer That Changed Us β a novel that draws from the real events of those final months, written with as much humor as Jami could bring to the page, because thatβs the truth of how that time felt.
About the author
Jami Albright is a born and raised Texas girl and a multiple award-winning author. She started writing at fifty, published her first book at fifty-three, and has spent the nine years since building a devoted readership with her small-town romantic comedies. Her books have reached Amazonβs Top 100 and made readers snort-laugh across the country.
She is also the co-host of Wish Iβd Known Thenβ¦ For Writers β a podcast with over 500,000 downloads dedicated to helping authors navigate the craft and business of writing.
She is a wife, mother, grandmother (Coco), and in a former life, an actress and comedian. Jami lives in Texas, roots loudly for the Houston Texans, and believes puppies are the answer to most of lifeβs problems.
SUGGESTED INTERVIEW TOPICS
GRIEF & LOSS PODCASTS
What does it mean to grieve loudly instead of quietly?
How did humor become your familyβs survival mechanism?
Whatβs the difference between using humor to avoid grief and using it to survive it?
What do you want readers who have lost a sibling to take from this book?
MIDLIFE & WOMENβS LIFESTYLE PODCASTS
You started writing at fifty. What took you there and what did it take to keep going?
After nine years of romantic comedies, why this book and why now?
What does Hope Hallβs journey say about womenβs identity after fifty?
What would you tell a woman who is afraid to bet on herself at this stage of life?
BOOK PODCASTS & LITERARY SHOWS
How do you write grief with humor without it feeling disrespectful?
What was the hardest scene to write and why?
How does the small-town Texas setting function as a character in the book?
What do you hope readers feel when they finish the last page?
KEY MEDIA ANGLES
The Personal Story
A self-published author writes about her sisterβs final months and makes it funny on purpose β not because grief is funny, but because thatβs the truth of how her family survived it.
The Reinvention Story
Jami Albright started writing at fifty, published at fifty-three, and just wrote the most personal and powerful book of her career. Itβs never too late to find the story you were meant to tell.
The Texas Story
A born and raised Texas girl writes a love letter to small-town Texas β its chaos, its community, its particular brand of loud, opinionated, bail-money family love.
The Women Over Fifty Story
A book that sees women in midlife the way they rarely get to see themselves β funny, complicated, still becoming, still worth a second chance.
JAMI IS AVAILABLE FOR
Podcast Interviews
Television & Radio
Virtual Book Club Visits
In-Person Events
Print & Online Media
Speaking Engagements
For review copies, contact books@jamialbright.com
WEBSITE
SOCIAL
@JamiAlbrightAuthor