Gilded Cage Rage: Tide Crimes and Misdemeanors

Don't trust men.  At least not rich men who claim to want to take care of you.  Which may be a bold way to begin a post, but it's one of the most powerful messages of Mary Kay Andrews's The High Tide Club.

The year was 1941, the place a remote island in Georgia, and four friends were forever changed because of the man one of them promised to marry.  Now it's present day, and only two are alive, one of whom is Josephine Warrick, a wealthy doyenne looking to right her wrongs before she dies.  Enter Brooke Trappnell, a down-on-her-luck lawyer and single mom.  Her first assignment?  Track down the families of Josephine's friends, the quartet known as the High Tide Club.  So named for their penchant for full moon skinny-dipping, they shared sisterhood and secrets until one fateful night.  Although reluctant to take the case, Brooke is in no position to turn down a payday.  And once she starts digging, she can't stop until she solves what turns out to be a life-changing mystery.

Drawing parallels between past and present, Andrews spins an all-consuming saga that makes you feel like you're right there in the Georgia wilderness.  Like the forest itself, it's lush with twists and turns, none of which I ever saw coming, adding depth to an already-compelling story.

Hypnotic and haunting, The High Tide Club is more than just a beach book.  It's a testament to strength and courage that'll stay with me long after the last summer moon.

Settling the Score With 2024: Festive Fit and Fiction Finale

Dress: ModCloth

My mom's Christmas cookies.

Coat: ModCloth

Boots: Impo, Macy's

Sweater: Pink Republic, Kohl's; Boots: Apt. 9, Kohl's

Bow: Target

Pillow: ??? This is my parents' house. 😏

Dress: Xhilaration, Target

A print from a top not in this post.  Because sometimes you need an extra filler pic.  Anyway, it's from ModCloth.

Shoes: Betsey Johnson, DSW

Necklaces and bangles: Kohl's, JCPenney, and B Fabulous

I can't believe that another Christmas -- and year! -- are done and dusted.  It went by in a blur of color and chaos, but for once I have to say that it was a contented kind of crazy.  Thanks, Charlotte.  

That said, no book reviews or other reflections today.  Just a wish that you have a wonderful last day of 2024 and embrace your own kind of crazy in 2025. 🎉🎈     

Season's Readings: A Novel Noel

Somehow, it's December.  And I still haven't started decorating.  This pic is from last year, which is kind of like it being from this year because the fireplace will look the same.  Then again, the last month of the year isn't just for decking the halls -- it's for season's readings!  And I'm excited to kick off the Kringle book club with Jenny Bayliss's A December to Remember and Mary Kay Andrews's The Santa Suit.

A December to Remember is just as cozy as its cover.  (So, nothing like those Lexus commercials.  Who buys a car at Christmas, let alone a Lexus?!).  Three estranged sisters reconvene in the idyllic English countryside of Rowan Thorp to carry out the terms of their late father's will.  A wanderlust-struck eccentric, Augustus North sends salt-of-the-earth Maggie, sophisticated Simone, and free-spirited Star scrambling on a scavenger hunt to claim the money that he cached for them to resurrect Rowan Thorp's famed winter solstice celebration.  In working together, they squabble but ultimately reconnect, which is perhaps (insert heart emojis) the biggest prize of all.  A December to Remember is on brand for Bayliss and is just the kind of quirky, hipster fairy tale that warms my heart at this time of year. 

Similarly, The Santa Suit sparkles with poignant nostalgia.  City girl Ivy Perkins moves to a North Carolina farmhouse to heal from her divorce.  Yet Four Roses Farm turns out to need more love than Ivy anticipated.  Luckily, her realtor Ezra Wheeler is only too happy to help her with her busted hot water heater and drafty windows.  What's more, Ivy finds a beautiful Santa suit in a closet with a note tucked inside.  All Carlette wants for Christmas is for her father to return from Vietnam.  Touched, Ivy sets out to uncover what happened to Carlette and her family.  Along the way, she makes two life-changing friends and finds the home she always wanted.  Andrews weaves small-town charm, seasonal suspense, and old-fashioned romance with all the Christmas magic of a ribbon glittering through evergreen.  Short but sweet, The Santa Suit is a joy to read, making you believe that, in December, all things are possible.

Hopefully, that extends to me getting that tree up. 

If These Walls Could Gawk: Real Deal Reveal

You know those cold case shows like Dateline and 20/20 where they investigate the suspicious deaths of women forever frozen in outdated hairdos and wedding gowns?  Well, even the commercials for those shows make my skin crawl, so I never watch them.  That said, an unsolved murder woven into the plot of an otherwise lighthearted novel is an entirely different kettle of fish.  It comes across as more haunting than harrowing -- and yet also somehow more real.  Which, I suppose, is why I took to Mary Kay Andrews's The Homewreckers.

Savannah widow and historical home rehab maven Hattie Kavanaugh agrees to star in a reality show about renovating a hundred-year-old beach house.  Cheekily called The Homewreckers (apparently, Saving Savannah was too sleepy), it capitalizes on the reality programming mainstays of hairspray and hissy fits, all (un)scrupulously scripted to look off the cuff.  Although more at home in Carhartts than cutoffs, Hattie puts up with the Hollywood hullabaloo in hopes of repaying her boss, who also happens to be her father-in-law.  But she gets more than she bargained for when she finds a wallet that belonged to her beloved high school English teacher, who disappeared seventeen years ago.  What was Lanier Ragan doing in that house, and who was the last person to see her?  Someone doesn't want Hattie -- or anyone else -- to find out and starts sending not-so-subtle warnings.  With her last cent tied up in the renovation (TV gigs being less lucrative than one might think), Hattie literally can't afford to turn a blind eye.  Not only that, but Lanier was more than a teacher.  She was a friend who helped Hattie through a tough time.

Hattie, by the way, is what makes this book compelling.  So many mysteries feature a sleuth with no skin in the game, someone just looking for kicks or fulfilling a promise to a weaker character.  And although those premises can be fun, I often wonder why the "detectives" just don't walk away.  Life's hard enough without goading baddies into tossing bricks through your window.  Yet Hattie's invested, and each and every step she takes toward whodunit rings true.

The Homewreckers covers all the baseboards, from murder mystery to reality TV to family drama to, of course, romance.  With characters and a plot built to last, it's a story you can sink your sawteeth into.  

Panhandle Scandal

Vacations mean Mary Kay Andrews.  After all, you may recall that last spring in Cape May I picked up Sunset Beach.  And I enjoyed it so much that during last month's trip to Ocean City, I bought Hello, Summer.  Of course, I didn't get around to reading it until last week.  But then, anywhere you can disappear into a book counts as a vacation -- at least in my book, hehe.   

As with its predecessor, Hello, Summer's deceptively tranquil cover harbors a whodunit.  And although its vibe isn't quite cozy, I found it to be comforting.  Ace reporter Conley Hawkins plays career Russian roulette and loses, landing back at her family's small-town Florida weekly.  She's had enough of The Silver Bay Beacon, as well as her new boss-slash-sister, when she and boy-next-door Sean "Skelly" Kelly stumble upon the body of a congressman.  Investigating the good ol' boy's death becomes Conley's raison d'etre, and soon she's writing for NBC and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as well as The Beacon.  But Silver Bay has a lot to say about that.  Big sis Grayson wishes Conley would keep her eyes on her own paper, her grandmother is one fainting spell away from the hospital, and Skelly, although supportive, worries that his charms are no match for a hot story.  Will Conley be able to have it all?  Or will she lose it all looking for answers?  

Andrews entertains with intrigue and wit as she helps us find out.       

Books We Read on Vacation

When I packed for Cape May, I restrained myself by tossing in just one book.  Because you don't go on vacation to read, right?  But the husband goes to sleep before I do, which meant that I had some prime reading time on my hands.  So the first night, I delved into the second half of Emily Henry's Happy Place.  As you know, I've read and loved all of Henry's books (People We Meet on Vacation is my favorite), and Happy Place is no different.  Henry's dialogue is second to none, and in Happy Place, she's at her wittiest.  Her characters' conversations crackle with pithy puns and pop culture references sure to delight millennials and beyond (because technically, I'm a millennial too, albeit on the oldster side).  

So, what's this must-read all about?  Simply stated, it's a second chance romance.  Harriet is a stressed-out surgical resident in San Francisco, and Wyn is a laidback but grieving woodworker in Montana.  They're thrown together for one last magical Maine summer with their college besties before the sale of their beloved lake cottage.  So there are hijinks and, of course, all the feels.  Plus a lot about growing pains and what it really means to go after what you want.  It truly is a happy place, one that delivers a deceptively deep message.  Because happiness isn't for anyone content to stay in the shallow end of the lake.  

Needless to say, I finished it in one sitting -- and instantly felt bereft.  I do not like being without a book.  And I didn't know of any bookstores in Cape May.  So the next afternoon, when the husband and I wandered into the hotel coffee shop, I was ecstatic to see a few books on offer.  

There was a novelization of a Hallmark movie, a depressing-looking biography, and a celebutante novel by Lauren Conrad that I almost went for because I was, at that very moment, wearing not one but three LC Lauren Conrad items.  But there were also two titles by Mary Kay Andrews, an author I'd heard of but never read. 

I chose the lone copy of Sunset Beach, which turned out to be a murder mystery about an offed Florida hotel maid.  (The irony of this being sold in a hotel was not lost on me, nor was the title.  Because although this Sunset Beach is, as I've said, in Florida, there's one in Cape May too.)  Anyway, for a book chosen under duress, it was pretty good, and I read a third of it that night.  Not only did I get my fiction fix, but I might have even found a new go-to author!

Book adventures -- you never know where they'll take you.