This is just as good -- or better -- than the first book in the series, and readers new to the series can jump right in with this one. The fun, picturesque setting of Lowcountry South Carolina beach town, Sullivan's Island, makes it even better. The plot centers around a group of people who are part of a legendary Supper Club and their challenges, particularly when there is an environmental scandal in the community. Recommend this great title to readers who enjoy books by Mary Kay Andrews, Pam Kelly, and Elin Hilderbrand.

Solid Story Suffers Slipshod Storytelling. Wait. Sexton. You rated this thing 5* and yet you're telling me *in the title of the review* that it actually had major problems? Yes. Why? Because just because *I* thought the multi-perspective/ prologue-as-flashforward approach didn't work as well for this story as Ms. Boyer had hoped doesn't mean that *you* will. And beyond that disagreement on storytelling (or perhaps even editing, really) approach, this actually was a solid story akin to a South Carolina Low Country version of Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, perhaps without the atmospheric nature of how Reid chose to tell that story. It has the same level of overall drama and mystery, and the actual tale being told here was just as good if not better - really depends there on whether you prefer a more genteel Old Money East Coast lifestyle or a more glitzy Nouveau Riche West Coast lifestyle. As a native Son of the South who grew up in the trailer parks of Georgia but rose to become a Vice President at a Fortune 50 global megacorporation (which sounds more impressive than it was, fwiw), yeah, I'm far more familiar with and a fan of the East Coast version. (Though this level of neighborhood snobbery, pettiness, and gossip are all aspects of the South that I've truly despised for most of my life.)

Still, ultimately Boyer tells a strong women's fiction/ drama tale that does both her characters and her setting justice, and is a great mind vacation to the area for those looking to escape whatever in your "real" life has you needing it.

Very much recommended.

EXCERPT: The morning after we hosted the Titanic of all neighborhood parties, Tucker and I were dead to the world, blissfully oblivious - a least for a few sweet hours - as to how spectacularly my plans to sow the seeds of unity in our small, fractures town had failed. I had tried my best to build bridges, I did . . . and every one of them had blown up in my face. Could there possibly be any bigger party fail than having to call the police, who hauled off several of your neighbors in handcuffs? My fall meet and greet was an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions is what I'm telling you.

ABOUT 'SULLIVAN'S ISLAND SUPPER CLUB':Welcome to Sullivan’s Island, an idyllic beachside town just outside Charleston, South Carolina. This serene, unspoiled sanctuary offers tourists a picturesque taste of the lush Lowcountry while the locals enjoy a laid-back, small-town lifestyle. Amidst an eclectic mix of newcomers and natives, lifelong resident and social maven Tallulah Wentworth’s legendary monthly dinners have united an unlikely group of women into the very best of friends.

To outsiders, this sunny, seaside haven is nothing short of paradise, but the residents of this beachside hamlet know that it harbors its share of troubles. Everyone has an opinion about the most hotly contested local issue—how to manage the maritime forest that’s sprung up on accreted land—and civility is quickly running out at both town council meetings and in online forums.

When a neighborhood meet-and-greet devolves into violence, several pillars of the community are led away in handcuffs. By the next morning, a very real, very dead body is the newest addition to Sarabeth Boone’s spooky Halloween graveyard display. But who could possibly be responsible for such a heinous act?

Did someone finally snap over the mounting tension between conservationists and cutters? Or was this a premeditated act perpetrated by an opportunistic killer masquerading as a trustworthy friend and neighbor?

MY THOUGHTS: Just, WOW! I got so much more than I was expecting . . .

The Sullivan's Island Supper Club is an enchanting book of friendship, family and community and I was right in there amongst these delightfully charming people as they supported one another through the varied crises people of our ages seem to endure - adult children and their children moving back home; structural problems in our homes; menopause; the ebb and flow of people through our lives; people putting environmental/political opinions before friendship; and that body in the garden . . .

If you like character driven mysteries and armchair travel, pick up a copy and get reading. These characters are (mostly) wonderful people who I would enjoy calling friends and the setting of Sullivan's Island is just perfect. I can still feel the sand between my toes and smell the scent of the ocean on a balmy breeze. And the food . . . there is a lot of delicious food described at these supper club get togethers. I just wish there were a few recipes at the end.

I am not going into the plot at all except to say that it makes compelling reading. As I said at the beginning, there was so much more to this book than I expected! I enjoyed every word. It is written with love, wit and wisdom.

The Sullivan's Island Supper Club, although #3 in the Carolina Tales series, is easily read as a stand-alone. I am going to be seeking out Books 1 & 2, and can't wait for #4 to be published. I'll also be reading everything else this author has written - I'm smitten!

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#TheSullivansIslandSupperClub #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Susan loves beaches, Southern food, and small towns where everyone knows everyone, and everyone has crazy relatives. You’ll find all of the above in her novels. She and her husband call Greenville, SC, home and visit the Carolina coast as often as possible.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Stella Maris Books, LLC, via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Sullivan's Island Supper Club by Susan M. Boyer for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

The Sullivan's Island Supper Club by Susan M. Boyer was published September 17, 2024.

New neighbors are invited to the Sullivan Island supper club. unfortunately, the husband ends up murdered.. good story

The Sullivan's Island Supper Club is a book in the Carolina Tales series by Susan M. Boyer.
This book tells the story of a monthly gathering of friends and each month they enjoy getting together and make the bonds stronger between everyone. That is until the fateful night they were having a meet and greet to get to know others. This is not an ordinary night and there are a lot of secrets, romance and friendship bonds get stronger and by the end of this book I felt like I was part of the group. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to reading the other books in this series.
I received a copy of this book and this is my personal review in exchange for this book.

I LOVED Carolina Tales #1, Big Trouble on Sullivan's Island and wanted to love this book as well. Unfortunately, this book just did not work as well. It did not really read the same. I stuck with it and the last 20% of the book read more like the first book in this series and was more enjoyable to me as a reader than the first 80% of the book.

I will read the next book in the series since it is suppose to be more focused on Hadley.

In the first book in this very cozy mystery series, Big Trouble on Sullivan’s Island, we met P.I. Hadley Cooper and the group of sisters-from-other-misters from multiple generations who form the core group of Hadley’s friends on Sullivan’s Island – led by the grand doyenne of the group’s beachfront Happy Hour, Eugenia Ladson.

Together, they solved a big mystery and prevented an even bigger miscarriage of justice, even as Eugenia succumbed to the cancer that had done its damndest to blight the final years of her life – but did not succeed even though it took her life.

The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club, one of Eugenia’s many brilliant ideas to “fix” one of her friends – something she was extremely good at – was designed to give her lifelong best friend Tallulah Wentworth something to focus on after the death of her beloved husband, Henry.

The ‘supper club’ isn’t really a supper club in the old tradition. Rather, it’s a monthly dinner, often bartended and occasionally even catered, organized and arranged by Tallulah at her big, built-for-entertaining, Sullivan’s Island home.

It’s a grand idea that worked for Tallulah, and has provided all of the women involved – as well as the men in their lives – with a chance to get together, enjoy each other’s company, catch up with each other – and just generally keep the sisterhood that Eugenia started going strong.

Howsomever, just as the first book in the Carolina Tales series was titled Big Trouble on Sullivan’s Island, this second book could easily have been called “Big Trouble at the Sullivan’s Island Supper Club” – because that’s exactly what it’s about, and not just because there’s more big trouble on Sullivan’s Island itself.

Although there certainly is, as an island-wide civil war is brewing over the accreted land that has been deposited on all the sides of the island that face away from Charleston as a result of work done to maintain the Charleston harbor. A maritime forest has grown up on that “new” land – all of which belongs to the town and not to any of the property owners who bought ocean-front views they no longer have – but it seems are still being taxed for. Many of those owners want the forest clear-cut in spite of the protection it provides from soil erosion. Other owners want to eliminate the rats, snakes and other small burrowing wildlife that thrive in the forests and more than occasionally invade their homes.

And there are conservationists who want the maritime forests preserved, as well as many residents who believe the protection from soil erosion is worth the occasional rat sighting. (You may shudder but still agree – as this reader certainly did).

The island’s general troubles, pitting neighbor against neighbor and bringing former friends to outright blows, is just the terrible icing on the really awful cake of personal troubles that nearly every member of the supper club is experiencing during the months leading up to the big blowup and blowout between the cutters and conservers that takes place on one supper club member’s lawn, leading to the morning discovery of a dead body out front even as another friend is in grave danger – of being placed in one.

Escape Rating B-: I picked this up because I’ve really enjoyed the author’s Liz Talbot mystery series (starting with Lowcountry Boil) and had a good reading time with the first book in her Carolina Tales, Big Trouble on Sullivan’s Island. So I was expecting more of the same, meaning a cozy mystery with a good cast of characters set in a quirky small town with plenty of Southern charm.

Which was almost, but not quite, what I got. I came here looking for the mystery to be the backbone of the story, and that’s not what happens in The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club. There were plenty of little mysteries, definitely plural, but the big mystery, the dead body on the front lawn, wasn’t any bigger of a mystery – except for the corpse, of course – than any of the other many tangled mystery threads on the way to it.

This is a story of sisterhood – and about each of the sisters individually. Often with women’s/relationship fiction, I describe them as stories about friendship in which ‘a romance occurs’ but is not the focus. The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club is a story about friendship in which ‘a romance does occur’ AND ‘a mystery occurs’.

Which was not the emphasis I was looking for. Your reading mileage may vary.

The story this time around is told in first-person, as this author’s stories often are, but in this case it was multiple first persons. For each month – and each supper club meeting – in the months preceding the ‘main event’, we get a chapter from each of the core members of the group, from their individual points of view, focusing on the individual crises in their lives that includes a personal mystery in each case. I found some of their personal trials and tribulations more involving than others – and I expect that will be true for most readers, albeit mixed somewhat differently based on the reader.

As the story went on, it also felt like there was just ‘one too many cooks’ making this particular meal, but they all do tie mostly neatly together at the end. Leaving this reader, at the end, not as sure and/or happy about the thing as I expected. I think that this was the right book at the wrong time for me and probably means I just need to find a more straightforward ‘whodunnit’ this weekend.

Howsomever, the Carolina Tales continue next year in Trouble’s Turn to Lose, with P.I. Hadley Cooper featured again as the protagonist, AND there’s a short story about the beginnings of the Sullivan’s Island Supper Club, titled, appropriately, Beginnings, that’s available now. The next time I’m looking for something a little more relationship fiction-y I’m planning to go back and see how it all began.

With new neighbors in town, the supper club includes them. Only to have the husband murdered during a party. One of the members is hosting. Who knew they would be serving up murder? But can they solve it.

While I love the Liz Talbot series, I was hesitant to read a book in this series. But I’m glad I did. A new cast of characters that reason me wanting more.

The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club is a treat I thoroughly devoured. Part mystery, part women’s fiction, I enjoyed reading about the wide circle of friendship among adults of different ages. The Sullivan’s Island setting is idyllic—a place I love to read about and would love to go on vacation. I loved it! I missed book 1 in this new series and can’t wait to go back and read it.

Thank you to Stella Maris Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I liked how beautifully the book captured the couples, their friendship, emotions, and their tradition to meet once a month.

The writing of the book is good and the characters though so different from each other, are still good friends. I liked the mystery of the book and I do want to start the series from the beginning.

I received an advance copy of the book and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a fun read about some southern characters with a mystery thrown in. Good, enjoyable, light reading!

Thank you Susan M. Boyer ( @susanmboyer ), Stella Maris Books ( @readstellamarisbooks ), and NetGalley ( @netgalley ) for allowing me to read The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club early (publishes September 17, 2024).

Set on beautiful Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, a group of supper club members become best friends, share secrets, and protect each other…even when murder is served.

I am a huge fan of Susan M. Boyer and this book is such a great addition to her new series. She makes me feel like I’m actually in the Lowcountry when reading her books. I really like that each couple has their own storyline through this book, but then there is also an overarching storyline that encompasses the whole supper club.

#TheSullivansIslandSupperClub #NetGalley #SusanMBoyer #StellaMarisBooks

The supper club is made up initially of 8 couples who meet once a month and enjoy a meal and good conversation. While adding a new couple, somehow things go haywire in a way that none expected. As the group gathers to solve a murder, they grow stronger. I did enjoy this book.

I am quite sure I would read any and everything Ms. Boyer writes.

Her characters are all of the women I've known all of my life in the South and reading this feels like catching up with old friends.

The food descriptions, the locales, the neighbors and enemies are always perfectly done.

Excellent book and series!


NetGalley/ Stella Maris Books, LLC September 17, 2024

This is the second in a new series by Susan M. Boyer, author of the Liz Talbot mysteries. I was excited for a new series, but honestly felt this one dragged a bit - it took a long time to get into the story and just wasn't as exciting as I expected.

There is a murder in the beginning, and the rest of the book leads up to that night - there are a ton of characters, but it was nice there is a listing in the beginning to help keep everyone straight. The storyline is solid - the supper club nights sound fun - there is intrigue with the islanders and arguments on how to manage the maritime forest issues. I just wish it had moved along a little faster.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review. I also received an ARC from the author.

I love Susan Boyer’s Southern cozy mysteries. I read her entire Lowcountry series a few years ago and have enjoyed her Sullivan’s Island series just as much. Susan’s books have just the right amount of suspense, are set in one of my favorite places and are full of lovable characters. If you like Southern stories, beach reads or cozy mysteries, I highly recommend this one. I’m already looking forward to the next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Very enjoyable, well written and populated with fantastic characters. You feel like you are part of the group- and it’s a great group to be part of!

As a fan of this author's Liz Talbot mysteries and the first book in this series, I have been anticipating this one, and it did not disappoint!

This book is more character-driven and takes an intimate look at the characters first introduced in the mystery Big Trouble On Sullivan's Island. An engaging mash-up of women's fiction and mystery, the mysteries are intriguing and fun, but the heart of the story is the exploration of the Supper Club members' lives and their bonds. The character development for the large cast is incredibly well done. They leap off the page, making you feel like an insider to their histories, problems, loves, warmth, strength, and deep friendships. The cast is mainly comprised of mature characters who experience real and relatable issues, and there is even a sweet romance to round out the story. The dialogue is witty and showcases the characters Southern charm.

Set in the Lowcountry, on picturesque Sullivan's Island, this is also escapist armchair travel. It was so atmospheric and vividly described that I could smell the saltwater, feel the sand at the beach, and picture the Maritime Forest and beautiful homes. Sullivan's Island comes alive and is a character in itself.

Because this reveals more background and facets of the recurring characters, it would work well as a stand-alone for those who haven't read the first book. Knowing these characters so much better will add a layer of depth as the series progresses, and I look forward to more adventures with this lovely and lively group!

Thank you to Stella Maris Books, LLC, the author, and Netgalley for the gifted ARC.

I am ever grateful to have received this book through net galley. I wait with great anticipation for Susan Boyers new releases! When I started this book I felt like there was no flow. Each chapter seemed to introduce a new story with the life of each member of the supper club explained. I felt as though each member could have had their own book. It wasn’t until the latter half of the book that it became one that I couldn’t put down. There are still many unanswered questions that I hope become answered in future books. Thank you Susan Boyer!

The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club, book 2 in Susan M. Boyer’s Carolina Tales series is a MUST READ for lovers of friendship, southern food with a good dose of mystery, and every person who eagerly downloaded each installment of the author’s Liz Talbot mysteries. Just be sure you allow yourself the time to finish reading in one sitting because you won’t want to stop reading! This installment begins with the discovery of a body before guiding the reader through the months leading up to the fateful event through the perspectives of various supper club members. The story is superb as more character layers and more than a few surprises are revealed. I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book from NetGalley. Most highly recommend!