Hello, Summer By Mary Kay Andrews

I hope you have been enjoying your summer as much as I have been. I’ve been selecting more summertime beach-related books lately. My most recent read is ‘Hello, Summer’ by Mary Kay Andrews. The story has our main character, Sarah ‘Conley’ Hawkins, losing her star reporter job at a big newspaper in Atlanta and moving back home to Florida to help her sister run the family newspaper, ‘The Silver Bay Beacon’. In other words, a small newspaper in a small town where nothing happens; or so one would think.

Soon after moving home, Conley finds herself in the middle of an investigation of the untimely death of a local state representative. His current wife and son are feuding amongst themselves when the congressman’s former wife and family who have been quietly living on a farm outside town make an appearance. Of course, their presence makes heads turn. Conley’s own family includes a strained relationship with her sister who is secretly camping out at the newspapers’ office instead of going home at night and a feisty elderly grandmother hoping to create a strong united family front with her granddaughters amid an ever-changing world of print journalism. Add in other town characters such as a Southern debutante gossip columnist still living in the ‘things we don’t talk about in public’ era, a mysterious radio station DJ who rarely makes an appearance in the light of day and the antics of a county sheriff’s department; you have a story full of unusual characters who create mischief and mayhem wherever they go.

‘Hello, Summer’ includes some family history, a mystery, an investigation of a death and a little bit of romance. All things one can read and laugh about while lazing away a summer day.