ARE YOU LISTENING? FRIDAY: SUMMER RENTAL - AUDIO BOOK REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

WELCOME TO BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S

"ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY"

I AM EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THIS FRIDAY'S

"ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY"
AUDIO BOOK CHOICE IS.....

GIVEAWAY ENDED 
SUMMER RENTAL

BY MARY KAY ANDREWS

ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK:

Ellis, Julia, and Dorie. Best friends since Catholic grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-thirties, at the crossroads of life and love. Ellis, recently fired from a job she gave everything to, is rudderless and now beginning to question the choices she's made over the past decade of her life. Julia—whose caustic wit covers up her wounds--has a man who loves her and is offering her the world, but she can't hide from how deeply insecure she feels about her looks, her brains, her life.  And Dorie has just been shockingly betrayed by the man she loved and trusted the most in the world…though this is just the tip of the iceberg of her problems and secrets. A month in North Carolina's Outer Banks is just what they each of them needs.

Ty Bazemore is their landlord, though he's hanging on to the rambling old beach house by a thin thread. After an inauspicious first meeting with Ellis, the two find themselves disturbingly attracted to one another, even as Ty is about to lose everything he's ever cared about.

Maryn Shackleford is a stranger, and a woman on the run. Maryn needs just a few things in life: no questions, a good hiding place, and a new identity.  Ellis, Julia, and Dorie can provide what Maryn wants; can they also provide what she needs? 

Five people questioning everything they ever thought they knew about life. Five people on a journey that will uncover their secrets and point them on the path to forgiveness.   Five people who each need a sea change, and one month in a summer rental that might just give it to them.
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of The Fixer Upper, Deep Dish, Blue Christmas, Savannah Breeze, Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies, and Savannah Blues.  A former journalist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia.  

Visit www.marykayandrews.com to find out more about Mary Kay Andrews life and work.

PRAISE FOR SUMMER RENTAL:

“A one-of-a-kind vacation story brought to vibrant life through Isabel Keating’s audio performance, Summer Rental is highly recommended.” 

– The Midwest Book Review

“Summer Rental…made me wish I had rented a beach house for a month with some ‘girlfriends’…Summer Rental, with its clear characterizations and snappy repartee, works whether you are lolling in a beach chair with the sound of waves in the background, or if you are cured up on the sofa in your own living room… Isabel Keating does an AWESOME job of finding different voices for all five main characters, and even the minor characters are distinct.” 

– A Travelers Library

“Andrews…is at her warm and funny best…[she] simply excels at creating the kind of characters readers can relate to, and she has a fabulous sense of humor to boot.” 

—Library Journal (starred review)

“Andrews spins a beach blanket sizzler… This warm weather treat has a lot going for it.” 

—Publishers Weekly

“Summer Rental is like a great day at the beach. You don’t want it to end. Enjoy a vacation any time of the year with the ever-delightful Mary Kay Andrews.” 

—Susan Elizabeth Phillips, author of Call Me Irresistable

 
MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
Do your summer plans include long walks on a beach where sea oat-topped dunes border the incoming tide?  Will you soon be spending this idyllic time with a group of lifelong friends? Are you all staying together at a weathered but classic clapboard cottage, complete with wrap-around porch and white wooden rockers to watch the sun peak above the horizon each morning? If you are saying no, then hope is in sight! Join Ellis and the gang in Mary Kay Andrews’ newest novel, SUMMER RENTAL! AND better still, sit back and sip that iced tea and let Isabel Keating read this delightful summer treat to you on the new Macmillan Audio Book!

As always, Mary Kay Andrews has set her book, SUMMER RENTAL, in a glorious setting in a favorite place of so many, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Andrews uses such expertise in her description that the narrative comes to life and you are feeling sand in your shoes while you listen. SUMMER RENTAL might be classified as chick lit or a beach read, and there is nothing wrong with that, but it also has all the elements of a good story that draw readers to it. With humor and romance, there also come relationships, mystery, and even some timely topics straight from today’s headlines.

Friends since childhood, brings three young women to the beach cottage known as Ebb Tide in North Carolina for a month of relaxation, fun, and catching up with dear friends. Each woman’s life has its own issues but those are to be put aside so they can share some good times…and it almost works.

With Ellis, Dorie, and Julia being friends from Savannah, Georgia, since they were children, most anything can and does happen. These women are written realistically for the most part as we all know someone like them (or perhaps ARE one of them).  The women have always been supportive of each other and they are to be credited with keeping this friendship alive all this time.

The story opens with Ellis who has just lost her job after being “downsized” along with the company she worked for. Ellis is the planner of the group and has done all the organizing in hopes this will be a perfect place for her friends to rejuvenate themselves. With the loss of her job, Ellis is counting on them to come up with some ideas to help her. Also, Ellis is lonelier than ever, having lost the daily camaraderie of friends at work. Since her early marriage right out of college failed, she has no special someone to count on either.  When she arrives early to the cottage, her first encounter is the sighting of a man who doesn’t make a great impression on her being at the place before check-in time. This she finds out later is Ty, the ‘supposed’ handyman living over the garage. But there is much more to Ty than just his good looks and “skill with his hands”!

Julia is a long legged beauty and model who is living overseas with longtime beau, Booker. However, now in her thirties, jobs aren‘t as frequent as she would like and it is beginning to affect her.  Booker, a photographer, is mad about her and wants their relationship to be more than just living together in London. His job is bringing him back to the states where he hopes Julia will marry him and even start a family. Julia just isn’t sure this is the role for her and even though her best buds tell her to go for it, she stubbornly refuses. She loves Beau but thinking of her mother, who died recently, brings fear to Julia as she can’t picture herself in that same domestic picture.

Dorie still lives in Savannah and is newly married. One would think she would be in heaven, but this school teacher is thrilled for this month with the girls, and not just because she doesn’t have to be in school. Rather, something is going on that she keeps to herself and it may have to do with the fact that her “groom“, Stephen, doesn’t come with her when he was supposed to.  Dorie secretly can’t complain about that but it is also Dorie’s sister, Willa, who would have made up the fourth and final part of this quartet (and help carry the financial load). However, Willa backs out at the last minute leaving the other three with a bigger financial obligation than they planned on. With this in the back of her mind, it is Dorie who meets Madison in town and finds out she needs a place to stay. Thinking this will make up for Willa, Dorie invites Madison, who goes by Maryn, to move in assuming she will be helping with the finances.

Maryn has secrets of her own and would seem to almost be a minor character for much of the novel. She is not very friendly and being from New Jersey, the others think it must be her background. It isn’t until near that end of the book that her role expands and her real story comes out. She carries with her a burden the girls never imagined and when revealed, it could possibly put them all in danger.

Ty enters the picture, especially because of Ellis. He also has a story that none of them would have imagined but readers know from the start. He takes on a major role and his interest in Ellis plays into the decisions he will make, as well as the part the four girls will play in it.

As all four strong personalities and stories come together, Mary Kay Andrews weaves that old summer magic to bring things to a satisfying, if not at times shocking, ending. After all, this is real life she is writing about but what fun to be the fly on the wall watching, or I should say in this case, hearing how it all happens as you listen to SUMMER RENTAL by Mary Kay Andrews.

GIVEAWAY 

THANKS TO ESTHER AND FRIENDS AT

MACMILLAN AUDIO BOOKS , I HAVE THREE

COPIES OF THIS DELIGHTFUL SUMMER AUDIO

BOOK TO GIVE AWAY TO THREE LUCKY READERS

 

--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
--INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS IN COMMENT
--ALL ENTRIES/COMMENTS MUST BE
SEPARATE IN ORDER TO COUNT
AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: READ ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK ABOVE AND COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT SUMMER RENTAL THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS AUDIO BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY 

+1 MORE ENTRY: GO TO MACMILLAN AUDIO BOOKS WEBSITE HERE AND LISTEN TO PART OF THIS AUDIO BOOK IN AN EXCERPT ON THAT PAGE AND COMMENT HERE ABOUT IT

+1 MORE ENTRY: SIGN UP FOR SWAGBUCKS IN MY RIGHT SIDE BAR AND EARN SWAGBUCKS TOWARD PRIZES-WHEN YOU EARN, I EARN AS WELL AND THAT IS HOW I BUY SOME OF THE BOOKS I GIVE AWAY. IT ALSO GIVES YOU CHANCES EACH MONTH FOR EXTRA ENTRIES TO MY GIVEAWAYS. IF YOU ALREADY SIGNED UP ON MY WEBSITE THEN JUST TELL ME AND I CAN CHECK. THANKS!

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, AUGUST 3

GOOD LUCK!