Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of Sunset Beach in exchange for my honest review.

As a Mary Kay Andrews fan, I was a little surprised by the beginning of this book, since it was a departure from her usual style. The mystery aspect was fun and different and I really enjoyed this book.

It took me a little longer than usual to get into the story, but once it got going, I didn't want to put it down! It is a great beach read!

This was my first book by the author and I enjoyed it. I was expecting a women's fiction beach read and was (pleasantly) surprised that it was a mystery, two mysteries in fact! There were lots of twists and turns and some nice character development. I especially liked the growth in the relationship between Drue and her dad.

Believe it or not, this was my first Mary Kay Andrews book - and I really enjoyed it! Drue Campbell is 36, her life is a mess, and she's just lost her mom. Her estranged father offers her a job, and she reluctantly accepts and moves into the house on Sunset Beach that she's inherited from her grandparents. And then the real action begins - family drama, work's ups and downs, possible romance, and the amateur sleuth in Drue comes out as she struggles to solve a recent murder along with the mystery of a decades old disappearance. The story is quite predictable at times, but still a fun read with several great twists - the perfect beach read, loaded with intrigue, charm, and humor. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-arc. 4 stars!

This is a story about blending old with new, reconnecting with old friends and family, family secrets, a couple of murder mysteries, and hanging out at the beach with a great blue heron, waiting for the green flash as the sun sets. The mysteries were twisted and not easily solved, but it was the characters that kept pulling me in. Loved it!

It was a little slow getting started but was worth it in the end. I'm guessing it needed to set up a lot of back story in order to make everything come together. I can see a potential mystery series in the future with Drue as an investigator.

I was particularly happy to watch Drue come out of her darkest moments and really growing up at the end.

All the characters were well thought out and, in the end, turned out to be a close-knit family.

This book was gifted to me by the publisher in return for an honest review. I look forward to Ms. Andrews next submission.

Book Description
Pull up a lounge chair and have a cocktail at Sunset Beach – it comes with a twist.
Drue Campbell’s life is adrift. Out of a job and down on her luck, life doesn’t seem to be getting any better when her estranged father, Brice Campbell, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, shows up at her mother’s funeral after a twenty-year absence. Worse, he’s remarried – to Drue’s eighth-grade frenemy, Wendy, now his office manager. And they’re offering her a job.
It seems like the job from hell, but the offer is sweetened by the news of her inheritance – her grandparents’ beach bungalow in the sleepy town of Sunset Beach, a charming but storm-damaged eyesore now surrounded by waterfront McMansions.
With no other prospects, Drue begrudgingly joins the firm, spending her days screening out the grifters whose phone calls flood the law office. Working with Wendy is no picnic either. But when a suspicious death at an exclusive beach resort nearby exposes possible corruption at her father’s firm, she goes from unwilling cubicle rat to unwitting investigator and is drawn into a case that may – or may not – involve her father. With an office romance building, a decades-old missing person case re-opened, and a cottage in rehab, one thing is for sure at Sunset Beach: there’s a storm on the horizon.
My Thoughts
This is the first book that I've read by Mary Kay Andrews and as I never know how I'm going to feel about a new( to me, she has written other books) author, I was pleasantly surprised to really enjoy this read. I'm a huge fan of mysteries but don't read much romance, so I didn't know if the mix would work for me. The main character Drue was delightfully written. Someone who has had more than her fair share of ‘downs’ in her life, but manages to find her happy place in a cottage she inherits. I would consider this a cozy mystery as Drue becomes immersed in a long-unsolved cold case as well as a more recent murder. She carries quite a lot of baggage and I was rooting for her to get a happy ending. No spoilers, but this was an engaging read and I'd love to spend some time with her again(maybe a series.)Sunset Beach will be published in May, just in time for enjoyable outside reading!
A little background on the author from GoodReads: Mary Kay Andrews is the pen name of American writer Kathy Hogan Trocheck, based in Atlanta, who has authored a number of best-selling books under the Andrews pen name since 2002.
Trochek graduated from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree in 1976. She worked as a reporter at a number of papers and spent 11 years as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before leaving to write fiction full-time in 1991. She published ten mystery novels under her own name between 1992 and 2000 and switched to the Andrews pen name in 2002 to author Savannah Blues, which marked a change in her style to more Southern-flavored themes.
I received a DRC from St. Martin’s Press(thanks Beatrice) through NetGalley.

Mary Kay Andrews does it again! As a long time fan of this author, her new book, Sunset Beach, did not disappoint! I look forward to her new book release every year. I feel that these characters down in coastal Florida are filled with lots of depth, while navigating the ups and downs of life. The story line and flashbacks from the past kept me engrossed and wanting more throughout the entire book. This story is more mysterious than others that Mary Kay Andrews has written and I love it! Sunset Beach comes with a twist that you won't see coming and is so much more than your predictable beach read. Such an enjoyable and heartfelt story that I cannot recommend enough!

I Loved this book!! This book had me at the edge of my seat! I loved all the twist and turns, I did not see coming!

Love her books, and this one is just as wonderful as the previous ones. This compelling, suspenseful book will keep you wanting more with the turn of each page. If you've never read her books, you must read this. You will not be disappointed.

I am a huge MKA fan and was so excited to begin reading Sunset Beach!

Was I in for a surprise! This is a departure for MKA, in my opinion, in that this book contains a well thought out whodunit. I have long loved MKA's beach reads and thought this was another easy, breezy, settle in with a margarita book. No way! This book kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat, trying to figure out who the bad guy was.

If you are used to the usual MKA, get ready for something new, fun and very interesting. That is NOT to say her other books weren't fun and new or interesting because they were. This is just a whole different side to MKA that I didn't know existed.

Do yourself a favor and grab this book. You will love it and probably tell everyone about it, as I have done. The story flows well, the characters are interesting and easy to like (or dislike as the case may be) and I kept reading faster and faster.

Thank you to the publisher, the author and Netgalley for approving my request for an ARC. All thoughts are my own and freely given.

Love Mary Kay Andrews so I was excited for this one! Protagonist Dru has suffered a debilitating knee injury and just lost her mother when she returns to work for her estranged father and her new stepmother (who was her best friend in high school). As she begins looking into a case that had already been settled by the firm, her life becomes increasing complicated as she doesn't know who to trust and where to turn for help. Dru is vulnerable even though she projects a tough exterior, and her escapades are humorous yet poignant. Lots of surprises and satisfying conclusions reached. This would be a great beach read...or a rainy day read...oh heck, an anytime read!

Drue is rudderless. She's lost her mother and her job as well as her ability to kite board. Her estranged father informs her that she has inherited her grandparents ramshackle beach house. He also offers her a job at his law firm. She reluctantly takes him up on his offer and soon finds herself investigating an old missing person case as well as a 2 yr old local murder.
Mary Kay Andrews is an author who writes characters who live on in your mind long after you finish reading. Sunset Beach should definitely be on your summer reading list!

Drue Campbell has never had a good relationship with her father, a colorful lawyer specializing in personal injury cases. After her parents divorced when she was young, Drue saw her father on and off over the years, until things between them soured (due, in a large part, to her father’s then, new wife, who never clicked with Drue). Now, without a job and with her life adrift, Drue moves back to Sunset Beach and agrees to work for her father. What she does not know when she agrees to work for him, is that her father is now married to Drue’s grade school frenemy, Wendy, who is her father’s law firm’s office manager and who will create a life of hell in the office for Drue. One further reason, and a much-needed bright spot for Drue, is the fact that Drue has moved back to stay in her grandparents’ beach front bungalow, which she has inherited. When she arrives, however, Drue finds she must totally clean up and refurbish the bungalow because the last tenant left it in a real mess. Drue finally settles into a life she hopes will be better than the one she left, working on the bungalow and screening calls from grifters who hope her father will win settlements with lots of cash for them. The job soon becomes boring—until a client comes in about a case where a young woman was found murdered in a beach front hotel in Sunset Beach. Though cautioned to leave things alone and not get involved, Drue jumps right into the case because she senses things are not really as they seem. In between fixing up her home and working for her father, Drue delves right into this mystery, filtering through clue after clue, red herring after red herring, searching for the truth. Throughout it all, she learns a lot about her life, her father and Wendy, and about the other staff members in the law firm.

This is a pretty good book. I am not sure, but I hope it is the start of a new series, because I thoroughly enjoyed watching Drue settle into her role as daughter, step-daughter, member of the firm, novice investigator, and resident of Sunset Beach. The characters are colorful and well-done. The town comes across as a regular beach town, with all the pluses and minuses normally associated with these towns. The mystery is intriguing and, though not terribly complex, still provided me a great deal of enjoyment. I enjoyed seeing a strong woman, and Drue certainly was one. Her co-workers were also interesting, fascinating and well-done. I have read other of the author’s book and enjoyed them all. This one ranks right up there with t hem. If you enjoy a good read, with a bit mystery and a coming-of-age plot, you will enjoy this one. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews

St Martin’s Press
Fiction
May 7, 2019
Rating: 4/5

I received a digital ARC copy of this book from St Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I am pleasantly surprised with my experience reading this book. This is my first book by this author even though I’ve several of her books on my TBR list. It is the perfect balance of drama, mystery and romance. I found the authors notes at the conclusion of the novel an added bonus. She provides insight into her sources for inspiration and even a recipe!

The story is told through alternating chapters of present and past. It had been 20 years since her parents divorced and she and her mother, Sherri, went to live in Fort Lauderdale. Brice Campbell, her father, continued to live in St Petersburg after remarrying. It’s only after the recent death of her mother and a career ending knee injury that she reunited with her estranged father.

She learns that she has inherited her maternal grandparents cottage in Sunset Beach which is in desperate need of repair. With no reason to stay in Ft Lauderdale, Drue accepts a job at her father’s law firm since is no longer able of kiteboarding. Moving back to St Pete’s proved to be more challenging than she anticipated.

Drue soon discovers that her father has remarried, Wendy, her best friend from her school days. On top of having lack of reliable transportation, she constantly arrives late for work to find “See me” notes on her computer. As Drue begins to renovate the old cottage and acclimate to her new job environment, she becomes invested in a few unresolved stories. One is a mystery surrounding the death of a young hotel worker and the other an unsolved cold case she uncovers in the attic.

“But when her attention is caught by a suspicious murder case, Drue finds herself entangled in a decades-old mystery - one that may have dire consequences for Drue and the people she loves.“

This story captivated me on a variety of levels and maintained my interest without an obvious predictable plot.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2727528639

https://www.bookbub.com/books/sunset-beach-by-mary-kay-andrews

https://bookwormreviewblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/sunset-beach-by-mary-kay-andrews.html?m=1

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sunset Beach had me guessing to the end how the story would wrap up. Mary Kay Andrews weaves two mysteries together in the seemingly quaint beach town were Drue Campbell returns after a kite-boarding accident. Down on her luck, she returns to the cottage her grandparents once owned and gets a job with her father's law firm. There were parts of the story that didn't seem relevant....but it all came together at the end!

I received this book from netgalley for an honest review: Sunset Beach was an enjoyable read. It combined the genres of mystery, romance, family drama in an engaging, pleasant book. My standards for popular fiction are good story line, some character depth and overall--holds my interest--and this book did all three. There was some drama, tension and character building and it was fun to read.

Don't pack your vacation bags without adding Mary Kay Andrews latest novel Sunset Beach!

Drue Campbell is desperate to start over. She has just buried her mom, lost her kiteboarding career due to a devastating knee injury, was fired from her waitress job and ended a bad relationship which also left her without a home. Whew!

When her long estranged father shows up at her mother's funeral offering a job and the keys to her grandparents beach cottage, she reluctantly accepts.

Rehabbing Coquina Cottage brings back lovely memories of summer visits with her Nonni and Papi. She also unearths attic finds that spark curiosity in a 40 year old unsolved missing person case.

Drue struggles to build some sort of relationship with her father as his new bride makes Drue's new job unbearable. In her attempts to re-investigate a case for her father's successful slip and fall law clinic Drue;s persistence takes her closer to the truth...and danger

I never want to miss a book by this author. This book and High Tide Club have veered in a direction I'm truly enjoying. The past/present storylines and mystery make them perfect beach reads. Or on the plane to vacation reads, or lawn chair in your yard reads, or cozy chair in the A/C reads....you see what I'm saying.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sunset Beach was a great read that I could not put down. Drue returns to her grandparents cottage after her mothers death nursing a knee injury. Her past has taught Drue to trust no one, not her father who she has been estranged from since a teenager, not her new boss, or even her co-workers. So when not one, but two mysteries surface Drue starts investigating solo. Through the twists and turns of these mysteries, Drue learns about her parents, herself and finds out who is really in her corner.

I am quickly becoming a Mary Kay Andrews fan. This is my second read of hers. I definitely plan to be reading more in the future.

This author is one of those authors that I didn't expect to thoroughly enjoy. Her covers scream light and fluffy romance, which is not my thing. It's definitely not something I prefer to read regularly. However, her covers are very deceiving. Her books might be a bit lighter, but they are not a straight romance.

This book is the perfect mix of intrigue, mystery, a little suspense, and a little romance. There was enough in this book to keep me turning the pages... wondering whodunit. Who was in on it? Who will Drue end up with? Just who is the good guy? Who is the bad guy? Will I get an HEA with this book?

Needless to say, I am more than glad I decided to pick up this book. It was definitely what I needed to read.

This was my first book by Mary Kay Andrews and won't be my last! I really enjoyed it. It would be great as a beach read or to bring on vacation.

I liked the premise and the characters. It had a great flow and was a very easy read.

Can't wait to read more by this author.