June 2011

By Cottage Cheese

What better way to kick off the summer rental season at Mermaid Cottages than with the latest adventure from our own Mary Kay Andrews, SUMMER RENTAL!

If you’re a fan of MKA you already know that she is a master at crafting intricate plot lines with muti-dimensional characters and her attention to research and detail puts you right in the thick of the action.  What I didn’t expect was to so closely identify with one of the main female characters, Ellis Sullivan!

More than a few hundred times in my life close friends and loved ones have remarked, “There’s not a big enough can of WD 40 to loosen you up like you need.  Give it a rest!”  Hi.  I’m a control freak.  I follow instructions, obey the rules, don’t buck the system nor tempt the fates.  I’m convinced that if I color outside the lines the sky will fall.  I’m wound a little tight.

Now, don’t think that I don’t ever dream about making waves.  I do.  But, that’s just it.  I think about it alot and rarely take action.  It might upset the universe.  It might not.  I might have fun, but then there’d be a price to pay.  Ellis Sullivan and me.  Two crabs at the beach.

Get out while you can, Ellis!  And that’s just what she does in this super fun, roller coaster of a summer caper.  Aided and abetted by her childhood friends Julia and Dorie, Ellis and  these Savannah gals meet up in Nags Head, NC for some pure and intentional relaxation.  A whole other cast of characters joins in to cause more turmoil at their summer rental than a holiday traffic jam of land folks scurrying onto Tybee!

MKA’s attention to detail paints a picture so vivid it’s as if you’re right there with them.  If you’ve ever been to Savannah or Tybee Island or Nags Head you’ll know all the locations by heart.  If you’ve never been to these east coast gems, after reading SUMMER RENTAL you’ll be packing the  car and heading there post haste!

It’s not your normal, everyday gal pals gone wild for a minute, giggly and jiggly escapades where the men are just boys in mid life camouflage.  Things get complicated.  The good guys are good guys except when  their gender imposed genetic codes cause them to screw up. The bad guy is a really bad guy, but at one point it seems one of the good guys might be a bad guy in disguise.  If the huge drops of summer rain and the convenience of a nearby outdoor shower hadn’t cooled things off (and sometimes heated things to a boiling point)  I was awful close to putting the book in the freezer.

What I didn’t expect was a life lesson of which  we all need to be reminded.  You can’t not live your life out of fear that bad things that happen to people you know will happen to you.  If you don’t take a few chances in life you’re certain to have lots of nothing special in the memories department.

SUMMER RENTAL is just like we like it.  A little sweet with a little salty.  Full bodied and lush.  Oh, yeah.  And, a gracious helping of scandalous, provocative, sand in your pants fun!

It’s the best kind of Cottage Cheese and I’m still tossing curds and doing it my whey!  I  sometimes even enjoy that outdoor shower, too.