THE LIGHT IN SUMMER is the newest novel by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary McNear hitting shelves on June 20 - a day before the official start to summer.

The book introduces us to Billy Harper who believes Butternut Lake is the place she feels most at home, even though lately she believes the only one listening to her is Murphy, her faithful Labrador Retriever. Her teenage son, Luke, has gone from precious to precocious practically overnight. Her friends are wrapped up in their own lives, and Luke’s father, Wesley, disappeared before his son was even born. No wonder she prefers to spend time with a good book, especially ones where everything ends in perfection.

But Billy is about to learn that anything is possible during the heady days of summer. Coming to terms with her past—the death of her father, the arrival of Cal Cooper, a complicated man with a definite interest in Billy even the return of Wesley—will force her to have a little faith in herself and others.

And she’ll soon realize that happiness doesn’t always mean perfection.

About the author: New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary McNear is a writer living in San Francisco with her husband, two teenage children, and a high-strung, minuscule white dog named Macaroon. She writes her novels in a local doughnut shop where she sips Diet Pepsi, observes the hubbub of neighborhood life, and tries to resist the constant temptation of freshly made doughnuts. She bases her novels on a lifetime of summer spent in a small town on a lake in the northern Midwest.