A love letter to sisters, family, and to any woman who’s been forced to start over when she thought she had her life perfectly planned out.
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 small-town rivalries that always seem to involve toilet paper and bail money.
What she doesn’t expect is June—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 what’s coming for June may be the thing Hope’s family can’t survive.
Told with sharp humor, messy love, and the kind of honesty that sneaks up and wrecks you, The Summer That Changed Us 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.
*This book contains themes of terminal illness, grief, and the death of a sibling.
Steel Magnolias meets Schitt’s Creek
The Summer That Changed Us will break your heart and have you laughing through your tears. If you have a sister, you’ll want to hug them tight. If you don’t have a sister, you’ll wish you did.
What readers are saying…
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One I’ll be thinking about for a longtime.
Some books entertain you. Some books stay with you. The Summer That Changed Us is one I'll be thinking about for a long time. .
Heartbreakingly beautiful and filled with heart,
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Heartwarming and Inspiring, Filled with Humor and So Much Love
This is a WOW! book for me. It’s beautifully written, and it’s filled with so much love from beginning to end. If you have read anything by Jami Albright, you certainly know how funny she is. It takes a skilled author to write a story inspired by the loss of a beloved sister, and to tell that story with heart, humor and warmth.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Impactful and life changing!
I read this incredible book in 2 days. I don’t think I’ve read a book beginning to end in years, but couldn’t put this one down. I cried. I laughed. I walked away inspired to leave a positive impact on this world.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I so loved this book.
This book is so well written. I feel like i know all the characters, and especially June. The emotions it evokes are so strong. But there are laughs, big ones, mixed in with the pain.