Hello, Summer didn’t disappoint! I have always loved reading her books and I like how she is weaving mystery and drama into her newest novels. I recommend this book for a great beach read! Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced reader copy.

You definitely want to put this on your summer reading list. This is a story of Sarah (Conley) Hawkins. She loses out on a journalist job in D.C. and ends up going back to her hometown Silver Bay, Florida. The newspaper for the town is family owned and Conley's sister is the editor. Her Grandmother wants Conley to help her sister.
There is a vehicle accident that takes the life of the Senator for that area. Conley smells a rat and goes to investigate.
Great book that kept my interest the entire book.

As my first Mary Kay Andrews book to read, I have to say that perhaps my expectations were set high and unfortunately this novel fell short. I was expecting a fast-paced read as more of a romance and light-hearted beach read when I picked it up and yet it was more like a murder mystery with a touch of humor instead.

Some of my favourite parts of this book, I must say, were the sisters and their work environment. I have a sister whom I wouldn't want to work for and to read the interactions was quite dreadful and yet comical.

Giving this a 3.5 star rating, rounding up to 4 stars as I don't think it deserves to only be 3 stars, even if I wasn't fond of the story itself the writing talent is definitely present.

Thank you Mary Kay Andrews, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. Always so grateful for the opportunity to read complimentary books!

Conley has returned to her hometown to get her life back on track. She is forced to work at her family run town newspaper which leads her to a story that makes her famous. Does she stay in town to save the paper, get to know her family, and nurture new relationships or does she reach for the stars of big time network news? This lighthearted is perfect for sipping cocktails on the back porch in the summer.

You can go wrong with a Mary Kay Andrews book. They can be read cover to cover in one sitting because you just can’t put them down. You have to find out how the story ends and everything comes together. A wonderful small town story by such an accomplished writer. We all will the love the relationship between the sisters and grandmother because they are so well written and well defined. The book had humor, mystery and fun, all at a good pace.

This book stayed true to the Mary Kay Andrews style. A true summer, beach read. The characters came to life and I felt like I was a part of the community within this book. A 2020 summer best of the best!

As in Mary Kay Andrews fashion, Hello Summer is the perfect way to start summer. Very enjoyable and easy to read. Good character development.

Summer: for me this means- flip flops, sun, sand, a drink and MARY KAY ANDREWS. she remains a must buy author for me and seems to only get better with each novel.

I really liked this book. The characters were all very like able (especially Skelly) and I liked the mystery because it made this book a little more substantial than a typical summer beach read.

Another great story from Mary Kay Andrews! Her beach reads are always a way to escape, even if we aren't at the beach! I loved the family dynamics in this story, with the strong matriarch, G'mama. I also enjoyed the layered stories with the Buddy Bright connection coming into play at the end. I will definitely pass this along to my girlfriends as a great summer read.

Love all Mary Kay Andrews books and Hello, Summer is a real treat. I loved it. Perfect beach read!

Many thanks to the author, the publishers, and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Conley Hawkins left her family’s small town newspaper, The Silver Bay Beacon, in the rearview mirror years ago. Now a star reporter for a big-city paper, Conley is exactly where she wants to be and is about to take a fancy new position in Washington, D.C. Or so she thinks. When the new job goes up in smoke, Conley finds herself right back where she started, working for The Silver Bay Beacon. Soon she is given the unenviable task of overseeing the local gossip column, “Hello, Summer.” Then Conley witnesses an accident that ends in the death of a local congressman—a beloved war hero with a shady past. The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it gets. As an old heartbreaker causes trouble and a new flame ignites, it soon looks like their sleepy beach town is the most scandalous hotspot of the summer. review: When I think of quintessential summer reads, Mary Kay Andrews is one of the authors that immediately comes to mind! Her latest book packs a punch with every bit of family drama, mystery & a bit of romance too! I really loved the journalistic aspect of this book - I thought it was a great element and lent to telling the story well. I really enjoyed the characters in this book - they were all so relatable and real with their own issues. I can never pass up a boy-next-door romance either, so I loved it! This will definitely be the perfect read to get you in the mood for summer! rating: 4 out of 5 ⭐️

You take on a new job, one you wanted...BUT...it goes up in smoke, never worked out, so we head back home to work with our sister. Look at it this way..How many can work with their sibling so we already know trouble lurks ahead. Conley gets her own column and then secrets erupt. An accident, Conley sees it, then she deals with an old lover and more trouble hits her. I enjoyed this book as it kept me reading what would come up next and could Conley overcome it and be happy or is this the way her life will be. I want to thank Net Galley for providing me with a copy to review.

I received a complimentary review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.
I have read almost all of Mary Kay Andrews books and sadly this one was not one of my favorites. It is more mystery than summer romance...and for some reason the romance falls a little flat.
The mystery is a good one...the journalist angle is believable. I think I just need more low country, beaches, and low country.
It is a long book...and there were some characters that could be left out. I don't regret reading it..it just wasn't my favorite MKA book!
Check out Save the Date, which was a five star review for me!

Simply put, Mary Kay Andrews never disappoints. The author’s former career as a print journalist shines in Hello, Summer, where she introduces us to Conley Hawkins, an esteemed newspaper journalist, who, in a career twist leaves Atlanta for DC, only to land back home in Silver Bay, a fictional small town in the Florida Panhandle, where she finds herself caught up in a political scandal right off the bat. Highly entertaining and timely. Hello, Summer, is another home run for MKA.

Sarah "Conley" Hawkins is suffering from career obsalescence and family dysfunction. After quitting her job at a prestigious Atlanta newspaper to take a job in D.C., she discovers that her new employer has collapsed financially. She scoots back home to spend the summer in small-town Florida, emailing resumes and chatting up her grandmother.

Instead, Conley arrives to find both her G'Mama and the family's beach home in ill health, and the newspaper that was started by her grandfather in just as much disrepair.

Shortly after her arrival, while out with a childhood friend, local pharmacist Sean Kelly, Conley happens upon a fiery single-car accident, which just happens to have killed local golden boy, Representative Symmes Robinette. Everything about the accident gets Conley's reporter's instincts riled up--especially the way the whole town wants to avoid looking beyond the funeral notice.

I had high hopes for this book, but I will be the first to admit that I haven't loved most of Mary Kay Andrews' characters for the last several years. Conley may be one of the worst, and unfortunately she plays to all of the self-centered, ill-bred stereotypes that people tend to coddle about journalists. Hello, Summer even lacks one of the fundamentals of the Andrews canon: fun, funny peripheral characters. Over all, it was oversized and underwhelming, with a dash of annoying thrown in for good measure.

Bless her heart, I sure do miss the gool ol' days of Savannah Breeze.

This is a good summertime beach read, the characters were engaging, the mystery kept you guessing, and the romance was just right. Looking forward to more stories from Mary Kay Andrews. A good book club selection.

Conley Hawkins never thought that she would find herself back in her hometown of Silver Bay, Florida. But that is exactly where she ends up after she quit her job at an Atlanta newspaper and her new job closes up shop before she can even start. Conley has only been back for the occasional weekend, but now she has to deal with her grumpy older sister, Grayson, and her aging grandmother. When Conley finds herself a witness to the death of a local politician with an old high school friend, she is forced to do the one thing she never wanted to do - work for her family's local newspaper. The deeper Conley gets into the story, the more she realizes that her smalltown is a hotbed of political scandal. And it might be the thing that saves her career and her family's newspaper. But will it be enough to save her relationship with her sister?

To me, Mary Kay Andrews is the very definition of summer. I know that summer is right around the corner whenever her newest book hits the shelf. Hello, Summer has elements of a relaxed summer beach read, but it also has a serious element of mystery. I will say that I really struggled to like Conley at first. She seemed awfully arrogant when she first arrived back in Silver Bay. I hated the way she treated her sister and looked down on her family's paper with disdain. The longer she is there, the more she starts to show a little respect for her family's history, because she starts to realize what her sister has been dealing with all of these years. The mystery itself was more "cozy mystery" than "gritty mystery" and it was a refreshing change for me. The end wasn't all that surprising, but it was satisfying. In that "happy ever after" kind of way. - CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS.

Bottom Line - While I didn't think that Hello, Summer was as "beachy" as her previous books, it was still a really good, comfortable, book to read. The kind of book to read while enjoying the sun.

Details:
Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews
On Instagram
Pages: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 5/5/2020
Buy it Here!
Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest review.

What do you do when your professional dreams disappear in an instant? For reporter Conley Hawkins, that means going back home to live with her grandmother and help her sister with a local newspaper in their small town, while she continues her job search with a news agency that is bigger and will have more of an impact. However, within just a few days of her arrival, Conley uncovers a story full of deception and disloyalty that threatens to disrupt everything she and her family stand for. While Conley investigates the story, she also faces family drama, gets caught up in a vendetta, and rediscovers feelings for a guy from her youth.

The pacing was solid, though it took me a few chapters to really get into the story. I liked the overall plot and where the author took the characters. There were a couple side plots that could have been their own stories and though they moved the main plot to where it needed to go, they also didn’t quite do it in a seamless manner. Full of colorful characters, Hello Summer is likely going to be a hit with May Kay Andrews fans.

(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and have written an objective review.)

I think this is the first book I have ever read by this author. It was a pretty good read and I liked the storyline. Conley Hawkins works in the newpaper industry. She just left her job for a more prestigious job at a bigger newspaper but on the day of her last day of work party, she learns her new job has just gone up in smoke so she is jobless. With nothing to do and nowhere to go, she decides to go back home and she ends up working for her sister at the family newspaper. Big problem is that they don't always see eye to eye on everything. One night she witnesses a horrific accident which starts her on a mysterious and dangerous journey.

I would like to thank the publisher, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. I would recommend it for a fun beach-themed read.