This book was just so-so for me, and I can’t really put my finger on why. On paper, it sounds like it would be right up my alley - two murder mysteries, one current and one from the past, with a fierce heroine and a dash of romance. But in execution, I found myself trudging through the reading just to finish it up.

I think part of the issue was that I wasn’t invested in the romance part. In fact, I wouldn’t even say what she had was a romance. There was a guy she hooked up with, hated for a while, and then magically stopped hating, but I felt like there was nothing that happened to develop that.

The cases Drue was investigating were interesting, but the story felt so dragged out that I eventually lost interest and investment in those as well.

I think this was just slower and not as developed as I wanted. Lots of pages and yet I still felt like I was getting enough of what I wanted. I wouldn’t read this one again.

Always so happy to get my hands on a new MKA book and this one is no exception! I really enjoyed this romantic mystery set at the beach. The characters were great, the setting superb and the twists and turns kept me guessing throughout. I can honestly say that I devoured this book. I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

I really liked this book. It was the perfect combination of mystery and a little bit of romance mixed in. Not graphic like several of the thrillers I have read lately so I appreciated that! The book follows the main character, Drue, during a pivotal change in her life. She has lost her mother and has been reunited and begins working with her father who had been absent a majority of her life. Her new career brings her face to face with a cold case that she can’t seem to “let go.” What will Drue uncover?

I definitely recommend this one as a great summer beach read. It’s quick and catchy read. The author does a great job of pulling you into the storyline quickly and getting the reader invested the mystery murder.

I thought I was a Mary Kay Andrews fan, but after reading this one I checked my ratings of her books and realized I almost always rate them a 2 or 3 star out if 5. Simplistically written, the prose tends to annoy me. I love the Southern charm written into the books, and they are always quick reads. This one, like the others, was a fun read - but nothing extraordinary.

Another great summer ready by Mary Kay Andrews! Everything I expect from one of her books and just a fun read. Thank you netgalley!

Another great beach from Mary Kay Andrews! This one is a story wrapped around two mysteries, one a missing persons case from the seventies and the other an unsolved modern day murder. What made this especially interesting to me is that I heard Mary Kay speak about the missing person case being inspired by a real cold case in which a seemingly happy woman vanishes from a large department store in Atlanta. But Mary Kay solves her missing person case in the book while the Atlanta case remains a mystery. Hop on a pool float and be prepared to spend the day completely engrossed and entertained!

I look forward to every new book by Mary Kay Andrews, and I’m always a bit sad when I finish one.

Sunset Beach did not disappoint! There was mystery from start to finish, with a few laugh out loud moments in between. Dru was unstoppable, and determined and I found myself envying her perseverance throughout the entire read.

Her supporting characters added an interesting variety to the storyline and I found myself wondering who was trustworthy and who wasn’t. I was pleasantly surprised and happy about the way it ended and I’m ready for another book!

Sunset Beach is the perfect summer read; filled with mystery, romance and complicated family dynamics. Having just lost her mother, Drue is struggling with a dead end waitressing job, a recently injured knee form a kite-boarding accident and a general lack of direction in her life. Her estranged father offers her a chance to start over, at 36, in a seaside cabin working at his successful, although filled with questionable ethics, law firm. Drue finds a nitch for investigating cases that others have deemed closed, all while fixing up her vintage weathered beach house, learning to deal with her father and new step mother and trying not to fall for her irresistible preppy co-worker. I enjoyed Drue’s story and found myself rooting for her along the way. Not normally a fan of mystery novels, I liked that the mystery element was just one piece of Drue’s story and deeply woven into her journey of self-discovery. Mary Kay Andrews does not disappoint and Sunset Beach is the next fantastic novel on her list.

A sincere thank you to NetGallery and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Technically, this book came in at just a little under 3 stars for me, but it was close enough that I decided to just go with that rating. For me, this one was able to stand out as a “better than average” beach read mostly through the way that the author Mary Kay Andrews was able to incorporate a bona fide mystery into the story that actually did keep my interest but didn’t dive too deep as to overwhelm the rest of the story. I also liked the cast of quirky, unconventional characters and how most of them came from complicated, dysfunctional backgrounds – I especially liked the main character Drue Campbell, who is trying to put her miserable life back together after enduring several hardships in a row, such as being fired from her job, a life-changing injury, and her mother’s death. I like how she is portrayed so differently from the “heroines” we usually encounter in books of this genre – Drue is tomboyish, too nosy for her own good, and at times can be difficult to get along with, but at the end of the day, she’s a good person with a flawed personality who is trying her best to turn her life around. With all that said though, one thing that I felt was lacking in terms of characters was that we don’t really get to know the other characters in the story, since all the action revolved mainly around Drue and most of the time, there didn’t seem to be much of interest going on with everyone else.

In terms of the writing and structure of the story, it was a bit all over the place in that I felt like this book was trying to be too many things at once – i.e. mystery novel, crime thriller, rom-com, feel-good beach read, etc. -- to the point that, in the end, it didn’t really know what it wanted to be. For me, there were moments where I felt the story lost focus a little, some parts that were a bit dull and predictable and caused my attention to falter at times. To be honest, I actually felt the story arc involving the decades-old missing person case (which was interspersed sporadically throughout the story) was a lot more interesting than the main story – it was actually written better too! In fact, I found myself skimming certain sections of the main story and skipping ahead to the parts that talked about the case from the past. As for the writing, I found it a bit inconsistent in that there were sections which came across as overly descriptive and didn’t seem to fit in well with the story, while in other sections, the writing felt a little too simple, which to me, made the story not flow as well as it potentially could have. I also felt it was odd the way Drue got involved with the Jazmin Mayes case and seemed to come across as more competent than the detectives who had spent years investigating the case. It also seemed a bit far-fetched that an “amateur sleuth” like Drue would be allowed to poke around haphazardly on her own as much as she did without repercussions and even have access to information that seemed to always be readily shared with her.

I would say that all in all, this was a decent read that did sustain my interest for the most part, but I felt had the potential to be much more than what it turned out to be. This is my first time reading this author, so I don’t have a reference point in terms of how this one stacks up to her previous works, but I would be willing to read more from her and possibly explore her other books in the future.

Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.

While the title and the cover scream beach read, this book has more to offer. Known for her light, fluffy writing, Andrews is also great when it comes to mysteries. With two murders to solve, you find they are not easily solved. Keeps you guessing to the end.

Mary Kay Andrews did not disappoint! Drue has not had it easy with an absent father who has re-appeared after her mother dies with an offer she can't really refuse. After moving into her family's beach house and starting a job in her father's law firm, she stumbles on a mystery that she decides she's going to solve herself. A little twisty and turn-y she gets herself in quite a pickle...more than once.

I really enjoyed the characters and how they all fit together. It was an easy read for a lazy weekend.

Mary Kay Andrews is one of my auto-buy authors and she doesn't disappoint in Sunset Beach. I love her sense of setting and place. I could not put this book down and loved it. One of my favorites!

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

Mary Kay Andrews has done it yet again with this new novel, Sunset Beach. Looking at the covers of her novels you would almost expect to be picking up a contemporary romance but instead there has been so much more involved in her stories making them a bit hard to label and classify as any one thing.

In Sunset Beach readers meet Drue Campbell who is one of those characters that has really yet to find herself even though she’s in her thirties. Drue’s passion had been kite boarding but she’s had to give it up due to a major injury. To fund her passion she’s bounced from mediocre job to mediocre job.

After Drue’s mother passes her estranged father, Brice Campbell, a hotshot attorney who she hasn’t seen in years steps back into her life to let Drue know she inherited her grandparents cottage. He also offers Drue a job which she desperately needs and reluctantly accepts only to find her new stepmother, a former childhood friend, is her new boss. However, Drue quickly finds an old case that catches her attention that she’s determined to solve.

Sunset Beach really had something more going on with the characters and story with each turn of the page. Anything from family drama and personal relationships to a murder mystery from an old client case at the law office along with another mystery more close to home for Drue as she cleans and renovates the beach house. I also wondered starting off if I would even like Drue but really did so this one was one that I flew through finding it hard to put down.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Sunset Beach, by Mary Kay Andrews, is the quintessential beach read. Fast-moving, engaging characters, a mix of romance, family drama, and mystery all wrapped together. This is all fun – don’t expect anything deep or provocative. Andrews will make you feel the sand between your toes, hear the waves coming to shore, and see the palm trees waving gently in the breeze. This was a particularly fun read for me as the book was set in a town I know very well. I recommend that you tuck this book in your beach bag, right next to the sunscreen and beach towel. Enjoy!!!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was different than the other books that I have read by Mary Kay Andrews. I expected the typical beach romance, but instead it was more of a suspenseful, mystery with some romance. There were not 1 but 2 mysteries that the main character decided that she wanted to try to solve.
I enjoyed the complexity of the characters and was happy at the way the conflicts in the relationships were resolved.

When Drue's mother dies she moves into the beachhouse she inheirited and goes to work for her father's law firm. When Drue feels that the law firm did not do right by a former client, she finds herself involved in the mystery surrounding a hotel maid's death while at the same time a file she discovers in her attic embroils her in a mysterious disappearance that happened years ago. This light and breezy mystery is really fun to read. Drue is a really spunky and likeable character, and the story really draws you in and keeps you wanting to read more. It is the perfect book for a day at the beach or anywhere you find yourself with time for a quick read.

Drue Campbell returns to Sunset Beach Florida after the death of her mother. She's 36 and taken a new job working for her wealthy lawyer father. She soon finds that she's inherited her grandma's run down beach cottage and while sorting through the attic comes across news clippings about a missing person. At the same time, at work she decides to do a little digging on her own regarding the suspicious death of a young woman who worked at a local resort. It seems her father's firm handled the case and the woman's mother wasn't happy with how it was handled. So there's 2 mysteries swirling around this plot which I appreciated but found it took a long time to get to. This author is very big on details, especially with regards to the setting and surroundings, think interior design, weather, beach, etc so if you're short on patience for this (like me) you might feel frustrated with how long it takes to get to the main mysteries. Also, I didn't really like Drue. She seemed way younger than 36 and behaved in ways that didn't really seem like someone that age would behave. I think this, along with the very slow pace and abundance of irrelevant details made this a miss for me. I just didn't care about solving either mystery and wasn't rooting for Drue to do so either.

Mary Kay Andrews is one of my go-to authors for a fun beach-type read so I am grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read her latest novel. I am a fan of Andrews's southern fiction that combines elements of chick-lit, romance, and mystery with a healthy dose of humor and beach community atmosphere to create a fun, light read. Sunset Beach, which is the story of Drue Campbell who is having a rough year - a horrific injury ends her kiteboarding career, her beloved mother passes away, and she loses a boyfriend and her job as a beach bar waitress. When her estranged father reenters her life and offers her a lifeline in the form of a job at his law firm and a home that had once been her grandparents', Drue takes him up on it when she runs out of options. She ends up getting caught up in two mysteries. This all seems like a pretty good setup for a fun Mary Kay Andrews novel. What it was was a disappointment. It lacked most of Andrews's trademark humor and romance to focus more on the mystery (or mysteries in this case). As a mystery, it wasn't even that well executed and the heroine, while as capable as some of Andrews's others, wasn't endearing, just whiny.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were just offbeat enough to keep them interesting, there was the hint of romance without graphic descriptions being shoved in our faces, and there was plenty of mystery! The two main mysteries were both compelling and intriguing. Every time I thought I had them figured out, another twist was thrown in.

This is a book that's entertaining without taxing the brain too much.

Talk about a perfect beach read for this summer!

Received this arc and thoroughly enjoyed reading Sunset Beach. The plot was catchy and made me want to go to the beach right now! Haven't read too many of Mary Kay Andrews books but will from now on.