Some people stay all summer long on the idyllic island of Belle Isle, North Carolina. Others come only for the weekends-and the mix between the regulars and “the weekenders” can sometimes make the sparks fly. Riley Griggs has a season of good times with friends and family ahead of her on Belle Isle when things take an unexpected turn. While waiting for her husband to arrive on the ferry one … Friday afternoon, Riley is confronted by a process server who thrusts papers into her hand. And her husband is nowhere to be found.
So she turns to her island friends for help and support, but it turns out that each of them has their own secrets, and the clock is ticking as the mystery deepens…in a murderous way. Cocktail parties aside, Riley must find a way to investigate the secrets of Belle Island, the husband she might not really know, and the summer that could change everything.
Told with Mary Kay Andrews’ trademark blend of humor and warmth, and with characters and a setting that you can’t help but fall for, the New York Times bestseller The Weekenders is the perfect summer escape.
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Love reading anything MK Andrews writes. Great book/characters
Riley is has had enough of her husband Wendell, not showing up for the last ferry of the day to Belle Island, confirms what she already knows, separation and divorce is the only option left. Of course he would bale on her and leave telling their 12 year old daughter, Maggie that they would be separating. On top of that she runs into Nate Milas, who was her date that threw up on her at her debute ball and Wendell has the nerve to have her served with divorce papers on the ferry! Thankfully her friend Parrish and her husband give her and Maggie a ride to their summer home; but, when they arrive the remote locks won’t work. Oh why couldn’t they just have normal locks? Then they find a notice tacked to the front door, the house is in Foreclosure. It is then that she looks at the papers she was served only to see they are also regarding the foreclosure.
She has no choice, she, Maggie, and Mr. Banks, Maggie’s pug, head to Shutters, her family home on the island. There she finds her mother, Evelyn who is convinced this is all a big mistake. Wendell was close to a Saint in Evelyn’s book. Billy, Riley’s brother doesn’t share the same love for his brother-in law. Then Wendell turns up dead the next morning in the marina.
It isn’t long before Riley and her best friend, Parrish, are snooping around trying to get some answers. Not only do they find that the house is in fact in foreclosure because Wendell took out a 2 million dollar mortgage but that he has set up numerous shell companies taking out additional multi-million dollar loans. And how does Melody Zimmerman, loan officer at the bank, fit into all of this?
And then there is Nate Milas. She wants to like Nate but when she finds out he is buying up all the land in Wendell has allowed to fall into foreclosure, she is convinced all he wants to do is to develop it just like Wendell. When Annie, Wendell’s mama, spills to Parrish that instead he wants to donate the land to UNC for a marine study field to rebuild the oyster beds, Riley decides to give him a go. All is well until Maggie, a type 1 diabetic, decides to eat candy and drink coke and lands herself in a diabetic coma. Riley believes it is directly related to her being with Nate and breaks it off.
Finally, as summer is coming to a close, a hurricane is baring down on the island. It is then they find out what really happened to Wendell.
Am currently reading & hate to have to put it down. Can hardly wait until I have time to continue reading it each evening. Throughout the day i find myself trying to figure out what is going to happen next.
Mary Kay’s books are always very entertaining, contain a bit of mystery and romance, with lots of great descriptions of the various story locales. Keep writing!
This is book is great for train reading. Some of it is very unrealistic and kind of anoying. But the characters and the relationships were fun.
I thought this book took a little while to get started but I enjoyed the characters. It was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it.
I loved it. It was a page turner. I did not want to put it down. Stated up late many a night. It was also sad. But it also showed you you can pull yourself up by your boot straps and continue on with your life after a tragedy. And make a better life for yourself. I would highly recommend it,
Good beach read.
Good book but ending seemed contrived. Like it was time to end…so she did.
Easy reading, beach book. I enjoyed all the charactersEXCEPT the daughter. I quickly ran out of patience with rudeness and selfishness.
Great author!
Yet another romance disguised as something else, Tied up in a neat bow at the end. Very disappointing.
I truly enjoyed the plot of this book. Could not put it down.
I always like her books. I love the location. It adds to my enjoyment!
Fun
Overall reaction was the book had a good plot but it could have used an editor to cut out some repetition. The diabetes thread seemed overworked, and Maggie just wasn’t that sympathetic a character. Still, if you love the South and its coast, and some of the characters that seem to thrive there, this is an entertaining enough beach read.
I loved this book! Absolutely recommend!
Loved this book.
I enjoyed reading this book and could see myself and some fellow travelers being typical weekenders.
This is not the author’s best book ever, but it’s definitely eminently readable and enjoyable. Give it a read, I’m sure you won’t be sorry.