Ninety nine year old Josephine Bettendorf Warrick is the eccentric owner of Talisa Island, Georgia. She has cancer and has found out it is terminal and has decided to hires young attorney Brooke Trappnell to locate and gather the descendants of her 3 best friends from childhood, the "High Tide Club" What is shocking to Brooke is that Josephine hired Brooke because her Grandmother was one of the “high tide club” members. 

Unable to handle the portion of the case which pertains to her own mother she enlists the help of her former senior partner Gabe Wyanant. Brooke manages to get the 4 women descendants to to Talisa. Josephine starts to tell the story of Brooke's grandmother's engagement party They end the night before the entire story can be told, and before Josephine manages to sign the amended will.   The next day they awaken to find Josephine has died. Was it an accident or was something more foul at foot?

This book has a lot of twists and suprises in it. Another success for Mary Kay Andrews.

Mary Kay Andrews writes fun, funny, characters in fun, funny situations.  You want to be part of their world, the only thing I don't like about her books is getting to the end.

This book was very disappointing. Not enough romance, and a not that interesting mystery. No strong relationships.

3.5 unexpected stars, rounded up to 4.

This is the first book I've ever read by Mary Kay Andrews.  I'm embarrassed to admit this, but It sat in my "to read" folder for over 5 months.  I know better, but I kept putting it off.  Why?  Because the title and the cover art made me think of something by Beverly Clearly.  

Nonetheless.  I really enjoyed this book.

It's a southern-style mysterious beach read.  It's Elin Hildenbrand meets Beatriz Williams meets...well I don't know for sure because I can't come up with a typical southern author.  Maybe it's Mary Kay Andrews?

This is the story of 99-year-old Josephine Bettendorf Warrick, the eccentric owner of Talisa Island, Georgia.  Upon her terminal cancer diagnosis, she hires young attorney Brooke Trappnell to locate and gather the descendants of her 3 best friends from childhood, the "High Tide Club".   Brooke discovers that her maternal grandmother was one of the club and realizes she has to recuse herself so she enlists the help of her former senior partner Gabe Wyanant to manage the legal aspects of the estate.

Just as Brooke makes headway-successfully gathering the 4 women to to Talisa-they enjoy a dinner where Josephine begins to tell the story of Brooke's grandmother's engagement party in 1941.  They end the night before the entire story can be told, and before Josephine manages to sign the amended will.   The next day they awaken to find Josephine has died.

Brooke must unravel the mystery of her grandmother, save the island, and figure herself out.

I'll be looking for more Mary Kay Andrews in the future.  Even if the cover art is awful.

3.5 stars. This was another enjoyable tale from Mary Kay Andrews set in the South coastal region. I like that it had some parts set back in the 1940's as historical fiction is one of my favorite genres.It drug a little in spots and was a bit long for me but still an interesting story and worthwhile reading. I would recommend it to anyone interested in chick lit or beach reads.

Mary Kay Andrews is one of my favorite authors to read and to hear talk about her books and adventures.  The High Tide Club was one of my favorites that she has written.  I was captivated by Talisa Island and Joesphine Bettendorf Warrick’s life on the island.  Josephine has quite a few secrets that she would like to make amends with the heirs of her closest childhood friends.  She contacts attorney Brooke to help her with this task. Little does Brooke know she is somehow involved in the secrets that Josephine has been holding on to.  The story gets its name, The High Tide Club,  from the group of full moon skinny dippers consisting of Josephine and her childhood friends.  Mary Kay Andrews has kept me guessing until the end of the book and I loved this tale of old friends, new friends, forgiveness, and a beautiful southern barrier island.  *Thank you to Netgalley for my copy of this book. My opinions are all my own.*

This book was so interesting and I love the bonds of female friendship, i truly did not expect the ending.  Mary Kay Andrews is on my must read list!

Very suspenseful book. Not the ordinary one that she would write as it wasnt a beach book. The secrets hidden all those years on the island come to life and Brooke is a very strong character.   Twists and turns in the book leave the reader unable to put it down.

The High Tide Club by Mary Kay Andrews is a 2018 St. Martin’s Press publication.

A Southern style beach read-

When ninety-nine- year old Josephine Bettendorf Warrick commissions Brooke Trappnell to gather her old friends from the ‘High Tide Club’ together before she passes away, Brooke is taken aback by her request. Josephine wants to make amends with her old friends and intends to bequeath them her estate on Talisa Island. Brooke is stunned to discover her own grandmother had once been a charter member of Josephine’s club, which could also present a conflict of interest on her part. However, she immediately begins to search for the ladies who will inherit the island, bringing together an eclectic group of women all harboring an explosive secret.

Meanwhile, Brooke asks an old colleague to help with the Josephine’s estate, bringing up a few unrequited feelings, while she also struggles to raise her three- year old son on her own.

Once all the ladies are gathered on the island, mostly descendants of the original High Tide Club, Josephine loosens up enough to begin weaving tale of intrigue and mystery directly involving Brooke’s grandmother.

The revelations continue to pile up, one on top of another as more people come forward claiming to be relatives of Josephine, all wanting a piece of the pie. Is it possible for Brooke to determine who the rightful heirs are? Could a long- ago mystery have any bearing on the case?

Believe it or not, this is my first Mary Kay Andrews novel. I’ve been dying to sample her work for a long time and am so glad I finally took the plunge. I see why this author is so popular and will certainly be adding more of her books to my TBR pile.

I love southern fiction and beach reads and find the two often make a terrific combo. I also love old secrets and mysteries, and especially love it when a group of ladies all work in tandem to get something accomplished.

There is a large cast of characters, which usually causes problems for me, but I didn’t have a bit of trouble keeping up with who was who, and never got confused at any time along the way. The pacing is just a tiny bit slow at times, but I never got bored or tempted to skip ahead. There are some reveals I saw coming, while others completely blindsided me.

While the mystery is quite compelling, it is the friendship and bonding of strong female characters, some quirky, some hard to like, some difficult to figure out, but all united in a common cause, that is what makes this story special. The last few chapters, which wrapped up some personal issues Brooke was dealing with was a little bit rushed through, but the epilogue was simply outstanding!
This is my last ‘beach read’ of the summer. I don’t think I could have chosen a better story than this one to close out my summer reading season.

4 stars

I loved this book far more than I expected. The cover makes it look like a light fluffy romance. It hides the fact that it is an intriguing mystery and a fascinating family drama. 

This lovely story is about an old woman's property (an entire island) and who will inherit it. Mixed in with that modern drama, you get bits and pieces of the lives of the old woman and the girls she grew up with. I am a sucker for stories that take place both in the past and the present, so this book was perfect for me. Loved it. Will definitely re read it. Can hardly wait to get my hands on more of Mary Kay Andrews books.

Josephine Bettendorf Warrick is a ninety-nine year old recluse who lives on Talisa Island in Georgia. She contacts Brooke Trappnell a local attorney of St. Ann to come do some legal work for her. Brooke is raising her three year old son, Henry alone so not always easy to get to the island. Josephine is dying of cancer and wants the heirs of her best friends to come to the island. Among those friends was Brooke's grandmother, Millie. The story of what happened to the four young ladies back in 1941 is interesting and life changing for most of them. There is a true mystery here that needs to be solved by the heirs. Can they figure it all out? The story takes many twists and really holds your interest.

A great story of friendship throughout the years. I enjoyed how this book told us the story from the perspective of the younger girls plus their grandmothers back in the 1940’s. It was a great quick read!

4.5

In 1941, four young girls form a very strong friendship.  When something tragic occurs, they promise to never tell anyone.  Fast forward to present day.  One of the women, Josephine, is ailing.  She has lost touch with two of her friends and has minimal contact with the fourth.  She hires Brooke Trappnell, a lawyer, to track down the two women she has not seen for many years.  She also wants Brooke's help with some other legal matters.  Brooke has her own issues to deal with.

This was a delightful story.  Told in alternating chapters, we slowly learn about what happened back in 1941 and how it impacted the women in current day.  I loved the characters this author created.  They are determined, funny and end up forming a strong friendship themselves.  There were some interesting developments throughout the whole story.  I've not read this author before, but I will now!


I received this book from St. Martin's Press via Netgalley.

This book seemed to take me forever to read. I liked the story and the characters, but I felt it was all over the place and too long.

I read this book as an ARC, thank you Netgalley, Mary Kay Andrews, and publisher St. Martins Press. 
I had originally started this book and posted I was not giving feedback on it. But it became our book club selection and so I started it again. To my surprise, I ended up really liking it ! There were so many characters, and storylines, I found myself not being able to put it down as I wanted to see what happened with all the dynamics and back and forth of eras. I shall read another book by this author, as others have given me a few they really liked.. so I guess “never say never” .

Lawyer and single mother Brooke Trappnell has left her well-off life in the city to start over with her son in a coastal Georgia town.  She is just trying to get by at this point when she receives a mysterious phone call from an elderly woman named Josephine.  But this isn't any old lady. She is a millionaire! Why is she calling Brooke? Well, Josephine wants Brooke to meet her on Talisa Island to talk about how Brooke, as a lawyer, can help Josephine. The more she learns about Josephine, the more complex and complicated things become.  For starters, Josephine wants Brooke to help her make sure that her house doesn't get torn down and turned into some ridiculous conference center. She also wants to make sure that her money, (and the island!), get left to her three best friends, Millie Ruth and Varina. She calls them members of the High Tide Club. But there's a problem. Josephine hasn't talked to them in ages; in fact, they are estranged.  Josephine, at this point in her life, wants to make things right, but she needs Brooke to help her get the women to Talisa Island.  Plus, there's secrets that Josephine is hiding and lots of them!

Josephine is a complex woman in The High Tide Club. Of course I didn't enjoy her character at first; she's really rather crotchety, but once Andrews explained more about her background and we flashback to Josephine as a younger woman, I really started to enjoy her more. Through the flashbacks, we get to see Josephine and the High Tide Club girls as young ladies enjoying life. I truly loved these flashbacks; they were, for me, the best parts of the book along with the coastal setting of Talisa Island.

But The High Tide Club is so much more than your regular beach read. There's secrets, romance, and......a murder mystery. I have to say a few events in the novel took me by surprise. Andrews does a good job with some plot twists! Also, I loved the setting of Talisa Island. Andrews made me feel like I was down South, on the beach with a good drink and contemplating skinny dipping with the High Tide Club gals. The parties, the beautiful homes, the private beaches and star filled skies were all so vivid and memorable.

I ended up giving The High Tide Club 3.5 stars instead of 4 due to some slow parts as well as the character of Brooke. While I liked her, her romance in the story left me feeling a bit flat and I didn't feel as drawn to her character as much as the other aspects of the story, such as Josephine's secret.

Nonetheless, if you like your beach reads with not just romance and a gorgeous Southern setting, but also historical details and a side of intrigue, then check out The High Tide Club before the summer is over.

The High Tide Club by Mary Kay Andrews was a bit of a shock to me. Shock is probably a bit much, but it was not what I was expecting and I am not saying that in a bad way. I have always put MKA books in the  chicklit/contemporary genre, I would put this one in mystery/contemporary. It is not all light and fluffy, but the cover and title do not reflect this. So, I do think those are a bit misleading. The story is solid, but did take me a little bit of time to become fully immersed. Once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it and savored my reading time.

I fell in love with all of the characters. This is a story of friendships spanning 90+ years. the secrets they kept, and the love they passed down through generations. These women met adversity head on and became stronger for it. The twists and turns kept me reading. I honestly didn't want this story to end.

The High Tide Club by Mary Kay Andrews is the perfect summer beach read.  It is based a the sea, which is fun. But it is full of friendships that span years and buried secrets that come to light many years later.  Ms Andrews wrote really interesting characters whose actions will keep you reading late at night.  This is a book with great depth of emotion and some surprises, too.  I highly recommend it!  I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher.  These opinions are entirely my own.

Brooke Trappnell is a single mother struggling to make ends meet in southern Georgia.   As the newest lawyer in the small town, Brooke is forced to take all of the odds and ends cases in order to make ends meet.  And even then, getting her clients to pay her requires a toughness that she just doesn't have.   She is surprised to receive a call from a wealthy, eccentric ninety-nine-year-old Josephine Bettendorf Warrick.  Josephine's days are coming to an end and she wants to make amends with her childhood friends.  Friends that were part of the "High Tide Club."  Except most of them have already passed, leaving behind heirs that Josephine would like to see instead. Josephine wants Brooke to track them down and she is shocked to discover that her grandmother, Millie, was a member of the High Tide Club. To avoid a conflict of interest, Brooke calls on an old friend for help.  But there are other secrets that Josephine was keeping. And when she suddenly dies, those secrets go to the grave with her.  Brooke and her new friends are left to seek out those secrets and discover some truths about themselves along the way.

It just isn't "Beach Read" season without Mary Kay Andrews.  This year's installment takes us to an island off of the Georgia coast.  The element of mystery was somewhat new for Mary Kay's summer books, but it really made things fun.  You know how I love a good mystery. Brooke Trappnell is a character that is to be admired.  She has made a lot of tough choices in her life, like leaving her fiance at the altar, leaving Savannah, and raising a child by herself.   The thought of having a wealthy client was too good for Brook to pass up, but she is willing to make tough choices to avoid the conflict of interest.  Brooke's old friend, Gabe, seemed like a good guy, but I kept getting a sleazeball vibe from him.  After Josephine's death, there were a lot of twists and turns, but I really enjoyed watching how Brooke became friends with Lizzie and Felicia.  Brooke needed some girlfriends in her life and Josephine delivered.  In the end, the twists and turns are revealed and none of it was really a surprise, but the end was perfect. - CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS

Bottom Line - While The High Tide Club was not my favorite MKA book, it was certainly one that is not to be missed.

Details:



The High Tide Club by Mary Kay Andrews
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Pages: 464
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 5/8/2018
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