Initially I struggled with getting in to the book as it is not your typical Mary Kay Andrews storyline. HOWEVER, I kept on reading and am so glad I did. It was terrific. The cast of characters was interesting and a couple of unexpected twists were the icing on the cake. If you are a fan, don’t miss it!

I’ve always liked books by Mary Kay Andrews and this one does not disappoint. It’s a little different than her norm, because in addition to her normal likeable characters and pleasant settings, there is a mystery that runs through the whole story. I could not put it down and zipped through the book. A great summer read!

I recently discovered Mary Kay Andrews and it makes me question why I waited so long to read her books! I love how she effortlessly combines the element of mystery and intrigue with romance seemingly to happen! I really found the characters relateable and at times I didn't know who or what I was rooting for at times. The twists were shocking yet not completely ridiculous that they seemed out of left field. It truly is the perfect beach read.

I enjoyed Hello Summer so much. It was just what I hoped for from a "summer" book and what I have come to expect from Mary Kay Andrews.. I think I identified with Conley on many levels and also identified with Grayson. I loved that Conley was able to leave her childhood home to go to another place and enjoy a successful career. I could sympathize with Grayson knowing that her marriage (and life) just hadn't turned out as she had planned. I enjoyed reading the dialog between characters. I was born in the Deep South and lived there 45 years so I was pleased to read many words and sayings that are used daily in the south. I recommend Hello Summer and hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Mary Kay did her usual fantastic job on this book. But I must tell you her writing style has changed a lot from her beginnings. The topics are less frivolous. The storylines and characters are more profound and more mysterious. The last few books have less humor and off- the- wall characters in them.

This book was filled with mystery, intrigue, family, murder, unlikable characters (and I must admit that it took me a very long time to connect with and warm up to, Conley Hawkins, our main character) lies, romance and the usual luscious descriptions of the deep South.

This book will be a must-buy for avid Mary Kay Andrew's fans, and I highly recommend this book to those that love a good mystery and tales of the South.

*ARC supplied by the publisher.

Conley Hawkins is a successful Atlanta newspaper reporter headed for Washington to accept a new position when she learns of this paper’s demise. Having no job and no home to return to, she heads for Florida and her small hometown to visit family and start a job search for a new position with a major newspaper. Her sister runs the Silver Bay Beacon, the town’s newspaper which has been in Conley’s family for generations. Unfortunately, the newspaper is barely viable - that is until Conley starts reporting on the biggest story for decades involving the death of the local congressman and the scandal he leaves behind.
Aside from the news matters, Conley is distressed by the increasing frailty of her Grandmother having not seen her for several years. She learns of the Congressman’s history of cover up from her Grandmother’s cook Winnie. Her married sister has lost a significant amount of weight and appears to be sleeping at the office. A former boyfriend, Skelly becomes someone Conley learns to lean on. Maybe Silver Bay has more to offer her than she remembers?
The book portrays the challenging and, sometimes invasive, work of an investigative reporter. Conley was very good at her job but, in my opinion, would sometimes cross the line between merely reporting the facts and going for the insensitive sensationalism inspired by many reporters today.
I was engaged throughout this book which kept me wanting to read more. The plot was well paced and the characters interesting. There were many moments of humour - I loved the small town flavour added to the Beacon’s public notification of police reports and social affairs. I’d recommend the book to all readers of General Fiction.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for the honest review provided here.

Conley Hawkins is excited to move from Atlanta for her new job in Washington, DC, but at the last possible moment, she learns the newspaper where she’d be working has folded. She decides to visit her G’mama in Silver Bay, Florida—the hometown she has avoided since her father’s death—while she looks for another job.

She finds her G’mama frailer, her sister more resentful, and her oldest friend, Skelly (on whom she had a secret crush) available. Improbably, she happens on the biggest scoop of her career, and agrees to stay to cover it for the struggling family newspaper.

As she navigates memories, political scandal, social changes, and more, Conley realizes Silver Bay may hold more promise than regrets.

Nobody does mystery/romance/ beach read better than MKA. HELLO, SUMMER is nearly 500 pages and I still read it one sitting. I really want to know, though, why my grandparents never bought a beach house for me to move into when I’m broke. #HelloSummer #NetGalley

If you are looking for a perfect, summertime beach read then look no further! Mary Kay Andrews has done it again blending together family drama, mystery and romance into this breezy read.
Conley, a news reporter, heads back home to her small town of Silver Bay and quickly finds herself investigating a car accident she herself stumbled upon late one night. She discovers more about the victim's secret past and the scandals don't stop there. Can this breaking story help keep her local family newspaper afloat and be her ticket back out of this once sleepy town?
It is a longer book, but you won't even notice and make sure you put on SPF when you take it to the beach with you because you will not want to leave!

Thank you to the author, Netgalley, and St. Martin's Press for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars! Typical Mary Kay Andrews, and I mean that in a good way! I needed something to clear my mind after the heavy books i've read recently and the heaviness in the world lately and this was the perfect book! Love story and murder mystery all woven in to one adorable story. And omg how can you not love (and hate at the same time) Rowena. Everytime i'm at the beach, I have to watch the sunset. I could appreciate the love that Conley and her grandmother have for them and I loved that they had to watch them. I thought Winnie was a great character too and loved the relationship between her and G'mama and how Conley wanted to fight for justice for her sister. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hello Summer by Mary Kay Andrews was a much needed distraction! I really liked the premise of the story. Conley coming home after suffering a career blow -she had not anticipated. It was obvious that the return was much needed but Conley did not anticipate all of the changes. G'mama has begun to decline....Winnie is just as salty as ever....Grayson is even more high-strung ( How is that even possible? the newspaper is failing). The perfect boy next-store, Sean Kelly aka Skelly is all grownup and available again. Will she be the change that her sister and the paper need? Is Skelly the change that Conley needs? Suddenly there is a questionable accident and Conley is all caught up in the town drama! Will this story repair her career? Will Conley decide that family and the perfect guy are good enough reasons to stay in the sleepy little town? Read Hello Summer and find out!

I’m conflicted on this book. I struggled with the first half which just wasn’t all that interesting to me, but I’m glad I kept reading because the second half was everything I’ve come to expect from this author, lots of interesting characters and twists and turns in the story. This is a perfect vacation read.

The calendar may disagree with me but Summer, 2020, starts on May 5 when the new Mary Kay Andrews book is published. I am a major fan and every year she publishes a perfect beach read to get her readers ready for the lazy days of summer. Her new book continues her trend of well written books with believable characters and a beautiful setting in a beach town.

Conley is leaving her job as a reporter in Atlanta and headed for an even better job in DC. Her car is packed and her condo has been rented and all she has to endure before she hits the road is a going away party from her colleagues. She finds out during the party that the new job has fallen through. She has no job, no prospects and nowhere to go, so she heads home to Silver Bay, Florida, to her G'mama's house. Her grandmother is a feisty 90 plus year old who lives with her long time housekeeper Winnie, who is almost part of the family. Her estranged sister, Grayson, also lives in Silver Bay and is the editor at the Beacon, a small newspaper owned by their family for years. After some persuasion from her grandmother, Conley decides to stay in Silver Bay and work at the newspaper until she can find a big city job and advance her career. The first job that her sister gives her at the newspaper is to proofread and re-write the gossip column, called Hello, Summer, that has been written by an old, quirky, long time town resident who loves to get the gossip and feels that she is the pulse of the community.

Life changes for Conley when she arrives at an accident scene where the local Congressman is killed. He is a war-hero and much loved in the community but when Conley starts to look into his background, she finds a first wife and 2 children who are never mentioned plus several very expensive houses and a very rich lifestyle. She and Grayson agree that this is a mystery worth looking into. The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it becomes to her. Her story also gets noticed by CNN and this may be her ticket out of town.

This is the book that everyone will be reading this summer!

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

As always, Mary Kay Andrews brings us a breath of fresh air with a mystery to solve with her latest book, Hello Summer. I have never gone wrong with a Mary Kay Andrews book and the same goes for this one. Hello Summer kept me on my toes and wanting to know more about what would be uncovered by Conley Hawkins about the recently deceased Symmes Robinette and the tangled web he had been weaving.

Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews is this year’s exciting beach read with a twist. Readers get both the MKA they love plus the journalist she once was as she recounts this tale of a newspaper family. Grayson Hawkins manages The Silver Bay Beacon in Silver Bay, Florida, while her younger sister Conley has left the fold and is an award-winning journalist in Atlanta, Georgia.

When Conley’s latest job offer doesn’t pan out, she finds herself heading south to her Florida hometown. While she’s only there for a visit with her grandmother who has a property on the beach, she finds her reporting skills are needed for the family newspaper when a big-shot politician is found dead in a one-car accident at 3 a.m.

Since she happened to stumble across the accident on her way home from an outing with a life-long friend, she is in the perfect position to cover the accident which leads into covering a small-town scandal. Soon she is not only reporting for her family newspaper, she’s stringing for bigger markets in both newspaper and broadcast arenas.

The whole accident story turns into a mystery. What caused the one-car accident? Why did the politician deed his 800-acre farm back to his first wife? Why was his second wife holding him prisoner in his own home? Why was Conley getting a death threat?

The novel is interspersed with journalistic accounts of the accident and follow-up stories along with chatty gossip-type dispatches from a long-time local columnist. The reporting is top notch as it accounts for the details that unfold that include a case of elder abuse. The story becomes a page-turner as readers won’t be able to put it down until the final details are dispatched.

Add to the mix a sweet romance as Conley reunites with a local she once had major fantasies about. The two share several romantic beach walks, one which ends in a hot love scene.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting April 18, 2020.

One of my favorite summer beach-read authors is Mary Kay Andrews. I especially enjoyed this novel with its journalistic facet. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy a fast-pace mystery with a beach angle.

I’d like to thank St. Martin's Press. and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

I found this book to be a combination of womens fiction/romance, with a litlte bit of myster/suspense added in. This book was definatley a LONG book. I do not know the page count but it took me several days to get thorugh the entire thing. There were many different story lines to floow through the book, but not too many that the reader gets confused. I liked how Mary Kay Andrews dispersed bits and peices of Buddy Bright in the book... just enough to keep you wondering. who is this guy, and what role does he even have in this book".

The end was pretyt typyical, but there were some surpirses in the book and especailly in the ending!

Conley Hawkins is in the process of saying goodbye to everyone at her farewell party at the newspaper she works at in Atlanta when she receives a text letting her know that the job she is heading to is no more. So instead of leaving for Washington D.C., Conley gets in her already packed up car and heads south instead, down to her g'mama's house in Florida. While there, her g'mama coerces her to work for the family newspaper The Silver Bay Beacon until she finds something else. When a local congressman dies under mysterious circumstances, Conley's spidey-senses start tingling and she starts digging. The more she digs, the more dirt she uncovers. And soon she has a stalker who's determined to cause her harm on top of it all.
At times I thought this book went a little slow, but I think a lot of that was because of the news stories that were told about the congressman were so similar it felt almost like I was reading the same thing over and over. But I really liked the newspaper columns "Hello Summer". Those were a hoot. This has a good storyline, a good mystery and towards the end a lot of suspense. There is even some romance thrown in for good measure. So I think this is definitely one to add to your pile of beach reads.

Mary Kay Andrews books are great for the beach or the backyard. Humor and family dynamics are usually employed. That said, this one was a little too long. Would like to have known more about what happened to Conley's mother. Also, the ending was a little rushed.

Conley Hawkins retreats to her small town located at the beach after a very disappointing turn of events. After quitting her job to accept a very high powered position in Washington DC, Conley is suddenly left jobless. She tucks her tail between her legs and head back home to the place she never really wanted to return to and the family newspaper, now run by her sister, that she did not want to be associated with. She views her visit as a stopping place to regroup and figure out her next step. However, she’s pressured into helping out the newspaper and she’s faced with a mystery. After a night out she witnesses a fatal accident of a very high profile local congressman. Things start to unravel and become dangerous for Conley as she tries to find out what exactly happened to the congressman. This book keeps you turning the pages as you try to figure out Exactly what happened to the congressman. We also have a front row seat to the coming undone of Conley and how coming back home may just help her deal with lifelong issues of loss and abandonment.

Such a fun summer read! I absolutely loved becoming immersed in Andrews characters. This book is yet another one of Mary Kay Andrews beach reads and I can't wait to recommend this to all of my friends and sisters once it comes out into publication.

I enjoyed this trip to the beach and the mystery involved in what happened to the congressman. I enjoyed seeing Conley reconnect with her family and her friends from her hometown. This was a sweet, fun read!

I received an advanced reader copy of this book and am voluntarily reviewing it.