Summers at the Saint
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Average rating4.3
Welcome to the St. Cecelia, a landmark hotel on the coast of Georgia, where traditions run deep and scandals run even deeper. . . .
Everyone refers to the St. Cecelia as “the Saint.” If you grew up coming here, you were “a Saint.” If you came from the wrong side of the river, you were “an Ain’t.” Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn’t rich enough or connected enough to vacation here. But she could work here. One fateful summer she did, and married the boss’s son. Now, she’s the widowed owner of the hotel, determined to see it return to its glory days, even as staff shortages and financial troubles threaten to ruin it. Plus, her greedy and unscrupulous brother-in-law wants to make sure she fails. Enlisting a motley crew of recently hired summer help—including the daughter of her estranged best friend—Traci has one summer season to turn it around. But new information about a long-ago drowning at the hotel threatens to come to light, and the tragic death of one of their own brings Traci to the brink of despair.
Traci Eddings has her back against the pink-painted wall of this beloved institution. And it will take all the wits and guts she has to see wrongs put to right, to see guilty parties put in their place, and maybe even to find a new romance along the way. Told with Mary Kay Andrew’s warmth, humor, knack for twists, and eye for delicious detail about human nature, Summers at the Saint is a beach read with depth and heart.
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Mary Kay Andrews is one of my favorite authors. I enjoy reading summer-themed books all year round. Living in Alaska with almost 9 months of dark and cold weather, nothing beats a good summer read in December.
I love going into books blind too, as I did with this one, and being pleasantly surprised with the overall read. This has summer fun, with mystery thrown in, and a little romance to top it off. Just what I needed.
I sincerely appreciate the author and NetGalley for the review copy.
[b:Summers at the Saint 195790574 Summers at the Saint Mary Kay Andrews https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1697249850l/195790574.SY75.jpg 197724423], a hefty story (448 pages) by [a:Mary Kay Andrews 21387 Mary Kay Andrews https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616599433p2/21387.jpg], earned every page. I thought initially it seemed like a big book [b:Summers at the Saint 195790574 Summers at the Saint Mary Kay Andrews https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1697249850l/195790574.SY75.jpg 197724423] because I was reading the “large print” edition (696 pages), but I'm glad I was. By the time I got halfway through the book, I didn't want to put it down and the large print edition let me read well into the night. . . long after my eyeballs normally would have given out. The book is somewhat a cast of 1000s, but, oddly, I didn't have trouble keeping track of them all. The author does a good job of reminding you who is who, especially if a character hasn't been mentioned in a while. This is a technique that usually goes unnoticed when done well, which it was. I wasn't flipping back through what I'd already read to figure out who someone was.I liked that the main character (Traci Eddings) was a little more mature while many of the other players were younger. We could see the story through a more thoughtful, mature viewpoint while the craziness of youth played out. I liked the setting as well, a resort on the coast in Georgia. A little southern charm never hurts. Traci ran the resort while the younger characters were working there, something Traci herself had done when she was younger before marrying into the resort-owning family. The Eddings were both good and bad—but when they were bad, they were awful! But, the same went for the young employees. Some fine, upstanding people, some cold heartless jerks. Of course, the sexy love interest for Traci, named Whelan, didn't hurt either.The action was non-stop. The conniving, the secrets, the danger just kept coming. It's the kind of book you almost break your arm patting yourself on the back for having found and read. Now I have to check out more [a:Mary Kay Andrews 21387 Mary Kay Andrews https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616599433p2/21387.jpg] books. I hope they are all as good as [b:Summers at the Saint 195790574 Summers at the Saint Mary Kay Andrews https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1697249850l/195790574.SY75.jpg 197724423].
Not A Casual "Beach Read". With the cover and even a common understanding of the description, one might think going into this tale that it is a breezy easy beach read. Well, I'm of the belief that any book you read at a beach is a beach read, but this book takes some effort. If you're looking for a simple tale... this aint that.
What this *is* though is a solid tale of survival on so many different levels. Yes, you have the tale of the struggle to save the resort that the description points out. But there is also *so much more* here, and the problems at the resort go *so much deeper* than is initially believed.
At first, this seems to be a tale of the resort manager building her team, Nick Fury building the Avengers style. As this slow burn story continues though, we see that not everything is as it seems, and Nick may have found Loki posing as Thor rather than the actual Thor...
Ultimately, all of the separate characters and threads do come together in a wonderful tapestry, but it takes a while to see the full picture of all that is happening and why, but for those that demand books that wrap up everything... this *is* one of those tales, at least.
Very much recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.
