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.