Book Review Jackie K Cooper
THE WEEKENDERS by Mary Kay Andrews
Mary Kay Andrews is an easy writer. She creates stories that are easy to read, easy to understand and easy to enjoy. Her new novel THE WEEKENDERS is Andrews' easy to read style at its best. It is so easy and enjoyable you could probably read it over a weekend, and how is that for a title tie-in.
Andrews creates comfortable characters like Riley Griggs, the heroine of THE WEEKENDERS. Riley comes from a wealthy family, one that founded the island community of Belle Isle, North Carolina. She grew up on the island and eventually married someone her family adored. She had a daughter who was everything Riley ever wanted in a child. But then it somehow all went wrong. She suspected Wendell, her husband, of cheating on her, and then her daughter Maggy was diagnosed with diabetes. Her daughter's diabetes became issue number one in her life and she turned a blind eye to all of her husband's misdeeds both real and suspicioned.
Now she is back on the island and her husband is missing in action. Although he had sworn to be at the ferry on the day Riley and Maggy were leaving for Belle Isle he never showed up. So Riley has to go it alone and face her daughter's disappointment. She also has to face a foreclosure notice on her house on the island. It is there on the door when she arrives and all the locks have been changed. This forces Riley to take Maggy and move into her family home where her mother resides and reigns.
As the book plays out there is revenge, romance and redemption in Riley's future. She learns she has an inner strength and that comes as somewhat of a surprise to her. She also learns romance may still be in the cards for her. This happens when a handsome man from her past reappears. Yes, life is full of the unexpected for Riley and for those of us who read her story.
Andrews creates a vibrant world and welcomes us into it. We board the ferry with her at the start of the story and stay with her through all of the ensuing events of her life. We meet her family and her friends as well as an enemy here and there. It is all engaging and it is all interesting. This is what makes Mary Kay Andrews one of today's most popular authors. She knows how to spin a story and she knows how to wrap her readers in her world.
Every summer Andrews gives a beach gift to her readers. This year its title is THE WEEKENDERS. It has been anticipated for the last twelve months and will be grabbed up as quickly as possible. You don't have to sell her stories to the public. All you have to do is point them towards the beach where two out of three "weekenders" will be reading an Andrews story. That popularity is contagious.
THE WEEKENDERS is published by St Martin's Press. It contains 464 pages and sells for $27.99.
Jackie K Cooper
www.jackiekcooper.com