Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

"This day, the one she'd been anticipating since the thrilling email from Fred Ward - subject line WHEN CAN YOU START? - had finally arrived.  Sarah Conley Hawkins, was ready to leave the AJC and Atlanta in the rearview mirror.  The question was - where would she be going?" (p 6)

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

May 2020;  St. Martin's Press; 978-1250256928
audio, ebook, print (480 pages); women's fiction

The calendar may disagree with me but Summer, 2020,  starts on May 5 when the new Mary Kay Andrews book is published.  I am a major fan and every year she publishes a perfect beach read to get her readers ready for the lazy days of summer.  Her new book, Hello, Summer, continues her trend of well-written books with believable characters and a beautiful setting in a beach town.

Conley is leaving her job as a reporter in Atlanta and headed for an even better job in DC.  Her car is packed and her condo has been rented and all she has to endure before she hits the road is a going away party from her colleagues.  She finds out during the party that the new job has fallen through.  She has no job, no prospects, and nowhere to go, so she heads home to Silver Bay, Florida, to her G'mama's house.  Her grandmother is a feisty 90 plus-year-old who lives with her long time housekeeper Winnie, who is almost part of the family. Her estranged sister, Grayson, also lives in Silver Bay and is the editor at the Beacon, a small newspaper owned by their family for years.  After some persuasion from her grandmother, Conley decides to stay in Silver Bay and work at the newspaper until she can find a big city job and advance her career.  The first job that her sister gives her at the newspaper is to proofread and re-write the gossip column, called Hello, Summer, that has been written by an old, quirky, long time town resident who loves to get the gossip and feels that she is the pulse of the community.

Life changes for Conley when she arrives at an accident scene where the local Congressman is killed.  He is a war-hero and much loved in the community but when Conley starts to look into his background, she finds a first wife and 2 children who are never mentioned plus several very expensive houses and a very rich lifestyle. She and Grayson agree that this is a mystery worth looking into.  The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it becomes to her.  Her story also gets noticed by CNN and this may be her ticket out of town.

Along with the beach setting, this book is full of fantastic characters.  Conley feels like a long lost friend.  Her sister is a kind of nasty but she and Conley begin to develop their relationship.  The 'boy next door' who has known Conley all her life brings some romance to the story.  Conley's grandmother is one of the most interesting people in the novel.  She refuses to admit to her age, dresses to impress, and makes sure that she has her drinks every evening despite warnings from her doctor.  This book brings the reader a mystery (that keeps growing), a little romance, and a family who is so well written that you won't soon forget about them.

This is the book that everyone will be reading this summer!

Buy Hello, Summer at Amazon

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter.

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