Join the Romance Readers Book Club for an in person author talk with Abby Gill, featuring her debut novel Malibu Summer. 

Malibu Summer, is a heartbreaking yet hopeful story. Meet Ivy Bauer, a scientist and inventor of a new organic irrigation system. But after her husband passes away, she takes a summer job as a gardener in Malibu in an attempt to heal. Her new boss is Hollywood has-been Conrad Reed, who lost his wife and lives with his stepson, Hudson. As Ivy bonds with his stepson, Conrad feels his heart mending.

The novel draws from two lives lived by Medford author Libby Gill — one in Southern California working in television, another in Southern Oregon learning about soil —it is a story of grief, gardening, Hollywood and opposites attracting that was largely born in Southern Oregon. 

Libby Gill is a former television executive who headed communications at Sony, Universal and Turner Broadcasting. She is an award-winning author of six non-fiction books, including You Unstuck, Traveling Hopefully, Capture the Mindshare, The Hope-Driven Leader, and Leadership Reckoning (co-author). Libby's debut novel, Malibu Summer, was published by Penguin Random House in May 2024.

Libby is an executive coach, leadership expert, and international speaker, and has delivered keynotes on four continents and in 39 US states. Her clients include ADP, Capital One, Disney, Ernst & Young, Honda, Intel, Kellogg's, Microsoft, United Healthcare, Warner Bros. and many more.

She has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, NPR, the Today Show and in Good Housekeeping, the New York Times, O magazine, Self, Time magazine, and the Wall Street Journal.

 After many years living in Los Angeles, Libby and her husband relocated to Oregon’s Rogue Valley, where she hikes, gardens and attempts to learn golf.