Mary Kay Andrews offers us a pleasurable trip to Beach Town in this romancey, character-driven read. I’m not much of a “chick lit” or romance reader. But our #Booked2018 challenge includes a “beach read” prompt. So I decided to go literal and pick a book with “beach” in the title.
Greer Hennessy is a movie location manager on a mission. She has to find a charming Olde Florida town—somewhere verging on run-down. Her boss, the movie’s director, wants to start shooting ASAP. And then she comes upon Cypress Key, a sweet little spot on the Florida Panhandle.
Trouble is, the town’s mayor, Eben Thibadeaux, isn’t entirely amenable to the movie’s drastic plans for the historic casino building at the pier. This conflict is at the heart of Andrews’ light summery novel.
But don’t think it stops there. Greer’s personal life is a charmingly hot mess. She’s got family drama with some ex issues thrown in for good measure. And then there’s that cranky but (of course) sexy mayor. His family life is complicated, and somehow Greer gets embroiled in it too.
My conclusions:
Basically Beach Town is what I call a “popcorn” book, named after popcorn movies. Both are good fun, but almost as lightweight at their titular popcorn. Andrews takes all the various plots and subplots and moves them from intro to conclusion efficiently. Pleasingly also, but without shocking twists.
The characters fit quite simply into typical tropes for this genre. In fact, much of the plot is pretty trope-y as well. But I liked the main characters, and rooted for them as the plot unfurled like a multicolor beach umbrella.
Is was the perfect pick for my challenge, but will I keep it on my shelf? Not likely. I may actually add it to a giveaway I’m planning! Then one of you can visit Cypress Key also.
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