Book Review: Summers at the Saint | Mary Kay Andrews

I read my first Mary Kay Andrews book years ago when I traveled with my mom for a work conference to Palm Beach. I found it at a beachside bookshop and it was raining the next day. I sat with my grandfather at the pool all day under a huge umbrella to keep us out of the warm rain, and read the book. We split nachos. It was such a great day!

I bring that up to say that since my very first Mary Kay Andrews book, I’ve been hooked. Now when summer is approaching I know it’s time for a new MKA book and they always charm me. In her latest book, Summers at the Saint, romance, mystery, and long-buried secrets collide one summer at a luxury resort.

What is Summers at the Saint about?

On a small island off the coast of Georgia sits a stunning luxury resort called the St. Cecilia, that is more commonly referred to as the Saint. Traci Eddings was six when she first spotted the pink castle-like building of the Saint. She was thirteen when she first stepped on the property for a friend’s birthday party. She was fifteen when she and her best friend Shannon got summer jobs working at the ice cream parlor at the Saint and learned that there were two social classes: the Saints and the Ain’ts. She was nineteen when she met and fell in love with Hoke Eddings, the son of the family who owned the Saint.

Nineteen years later, Traci is widowed and the owner of the Saint. When staff shortages and financial troubles plaguing the hospitality industry since the pandemic threaten to upend the busy summer resort season, Traci finds a way to restaff and keep the resort running. She has converted an old building into dormitories so staff have a free place to stay for the summer, and she’s gone out to recruit a new chef and customer service staff. Including the daughter of her former best friend Shannon, who is not pleased to have her daughter working for Traci or the Saint, and the daughter of her unscrupulous brother-in-law who turned down a summer program to help out at the Saint.

When new information comes to light about a tragic drowning that occurred at the hotel twenty years earlier, Traci finds herself up against nearly insurmountable challenges to keep the resort afloat. Things are off to a rocky start, and when another murder occurs at the resort, Traci may not be able to salvage the resort she’s loved from the moment she laid eyes on it.

What did I think?

Summers at the Saint is a wonderful example of what a talented storyteller Mary Kay Andrews is. Whether you’re new to her books or a longtime fan, her latest novel will captivate you. Well-crafted characters and vivid imagery make the reader feel as though they are at the Saint as the events of the novel unfold. I could picture the pink-and-white striped awnings, the lush green golf course, and the sweeping ocean views.

Traci is the central character, but Andrews builds out a full cast who add texture and intrigue to the story. Chapters are narrated from a variety of perspectives, including Shannon’s daughter Olivia, the son of a wealthy family whose dad wants him to learn a lesson by working at the Saint, and Traci’s beloved niece, Parrish. The characters are well-developed, but what makes them shine are the complex and often emotional relationships among them. There are several families who are experiencing the seams beginning to pull apart. Traci and Shannon’s friendship is introduced in the first chapter, and their falling out and hurt feelings in the present harken to real life friendships.

There were characters I loved and others I loathed. There was a bit of romance in a subplot that added a light breath that lifted the story up. Traci can’t seem to catch a break this summer. More than anyone else, the Saint is important to her and so is her husband’s legacy. But with so many things going wrong, it’s hard to not wonder if this is a streak of misfortune, or whether someone is behind it. The drowning from two decades earlier seems when it’s first introduced as the catalyst that broke Traci and Shannon’s friendship, but as the book goes on it becomes clear that the drowning may have more fallout than it first appears to.

The threads of suspense, mystery, family, friendship, secrets, forgiveness, drama, romance, and status weave together throughout the story, building a layered story that had me locked in to the story. A cast of complex characters and a beautiful and vivid setting make this book a perfect beach read.

What did I think of the audiobook?

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for my copies. Opinions are my own.

If you liked Summers at the Saint, what should you read next?

About the Author

MARY KAY ANDREWS is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels (including The Homewreckers; The Santa Suit; The Newcomer; Hello, Summer; Sunset Beach; The High Tide Club; The Weekenders; Beach Town; Save the Date; Ladies’ Night; Christmas Bliss; Spring Fever; Summer Rental; The Fixer Upper; Deep Dish; Blue Christmas; Savannah Breeze; Hissy Fit; Little Bitty Lies; and Savannah Blues), and one cookbook, The Beach House Cookbook.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia. After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction.

Her first novel, Every Crooked Nanny, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of Savannah Blues. In 2006, Hissy Fit became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by fifteen more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese.

She and her family divide their time between Atlanta and Tybee Island, GA, where they cook up new recipes in three restored beach homes, The Breeze Inn, Ebbtide, and Coquina Cottage—all named after fictional places in Mary Kay’s novels, and all available to rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals. In between cooking, spoiling her grandkids, and plotting her next novel, Mary Kay is an intrepid treasure hunter whose favorite pastime is junking and fixing up old houses.

About the Book (official synopsis)

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. (synopsis from Goodreads)