Mary Kay Andrews on Her Secret to Longevity and How to Use Setting or Place as a Character In a Bestselling Novel

We’re continuing to add to your beach read pile today with another fiction pick I couldn’t get enough of: Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews, which is out May 7. Mary Kay is so talented at making the setting or the place of her books as a character in the novel, and she certainly does that in this latest book with “the Saint,” a landmark hotel on the coast of Georgia. Traditions run deep here, but scandals run even deeper. “The Saint” is shorthand for the St. Cecelia, and if you grew up coming to this hotel, you were referred to as “a Saint”; if you came from the wrong side of the river, you were “an Ain’t.” In the book we meet Traci Eddings, who was one of those outsiders; her family wasn’t rich or connected enough to vacation at the Saint. She did work at the Saint, however, for one summer, and she married the boss’ son. In this book we find her the widowed owner of the hotel, attempting to get the Saint back to its glory days, even though she’s got a mountain of opposition standing in her way. She’s got one summer season to turn it around, but then, new information about a drowning that happened long ago at the hotel threatens to come to light, and then a tragic death of one of the Saint’s own brings Traci to the brink of despair. It’s a love story, it’s a mystery, and it’s definitely worth a place on your TBR pile. Mary Kay Andrews is such a talented writer—she’s a New York Times bestseller and her hit books are too numerous to name, but I’ll try: The Homewreckers, The Newcomer, Hello, Summer, Sunset Beach, The High Tide Club, The Beach House Cookbook, The Weekenders, Beach Town, Save the Date, Ladies’ Night, Spring Fever, Summer Rental, The Fixer Upper, Deep Dish, Savannah Breeze, Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies, and Savannah Blues, and I know there are many others that I left out. She is actually a former journalist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and lives in Georgia; Mary Kay Andrews is actually a pen name she adopted in 2002—her real name is Kathy Hogan Trocheck—and (I find this so interesting!) her pen name is inspired by the names of her children, Mary Kathleen, so Mary K, and Andrew, so Andrews. I love details like that. I have lived in the South for 15 years this year, and I really resonate with Mary Kay Andrews’ Southern-flavored stories, but they’re relatable and totally compelling to anyone, anywhere, as her books at their heart deal with the human element.

Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews