Wendy Francis Books in Order

Wendy Francis grew up in the Midwest, then moved east for high school and college. She graduated from Harvard and briefly attended law school, but soon realized she was more interested in rewriting cases than studying them.

That early detour led her to the world of books.

Before publishing fiction, Francis spent nearly fifteen years as a book editor, working at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Perseus Books. Editing gave her a close look at how stories are built, but it also left her wanting to tell stories of her own.

She wrote her first novel while home with her infant son. That book, Three Good Things, introduced the kind of life changes that would become familiar ground in her work: divorce, sisterhood, parenthood, fresh starts, and the value of having someone in your corner when plans fall apart.

In Three Good Things, a recently divorced baker opens a kringle shop in a small Midwestern town while her younger sister struggles with the pressures of career and new motherhood. The story is warm and practical, with food, family history, and a difficult secret all sharing space on the page. Francis often returns to women at a crossroads, especially women trying to make room for their own needs without walking away from the people they love.

Her next novels moved toward summertime settings and wider family circles. The Summer of Good Intentions brings three sisters and their families back to a Cape Cod house where old routines, marriages, and buried worries begin to shift. The Summer Sail follows former college roommates on a cruise to Bermuda, where a celebratory trip gives old rivalries and current disappointments nowhere to hide.

Francis also writes about blended families, complicated marriages, and the stories people tell themselves to keep going. In Best Behavior, a family gathers for a college graduation weekend that forces parents, adult children, exes, and new spouses into close quarters. Summertime Guests adds a mystery to a glamorous Boston hotel, tracing several guests whose private problems collide after a death.

Her newer novels keep the coastal atmosphere but raise the tension. Feels Like Summer centers on three sisters brought together over Memorial Day weekend in a Massachusetts beach town, where a boating accident exposes secrets in their community. In Betting on Good, two longtime Boston couples head to the Kentucky Derby, only to find that money troubles, strained marriages, and hidden motives have traveled with them.

Alongside her fiction, Francis has written essays for magazines, newspapers, and online outlets. She lives outside Boston with her husband and son, and her books continue to find drama in families, friendships, holidays, and the fragile moments when an ordinary gathering becomes something much bigger.