Book Description
After the worst day in her professional life, burnt-out NICU nurse Daisy Stevens runs to Cape Carolina, North Carolina, looking for a new life—and possibly new romance. On her first day at her “simpler” job, high school baseball coach Mason Thaysden discovers an abandoned baby, sending ripples through the entire tight-knit town of Cape Carolina.
Mason is still struggling to reconcile the scars of the injury that kept him out of the big leagues, stuck in his hometown, and searching for a way out. This newcomer and the child they’ve saved together might be just the motivation he needs to stay put. Sparks fly as Mason acquaints Daisy with Cape Carolina, introducing her to his friends and family, including his batty Aunt Tilley, who is looking for relief from long-buried family secrets and her own fresh start.
But as Daisy becomes increasingly attached to this abandoned child, and begins facing her own demons in the process, a startling discovery is made that threatens to rip the entire town of Cape Carolina apart, placing Daisy, Mason, and Tilley in the center of the storm. In a novel that proves that “Kristy Woodson Harvey is (the) go-to for elevated beach reads” (People), they will each learn that with love, understanding—and a community theater production of Hello, Dolly!—sometimes life conspires to bring us just exactly where we belong.
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
SUMMER STATE OF MIND by Kristy Woodson Harvey is a Southern women’s fiction novel featuring a multi-generational small town southern coastal family, both by love and/or blood, a romance between two people damaged by previous trauma in their lives, and secrets, both past and present, that could destroy or free all involved. This is a book that you will not want to put down as you ride the waves of family and romantic drama.
Daisy Stevens is a burnt-out big city NICU nurse who decides after a personal traumatic experience to attempt a quieter life in a smaller hospital in Cape Carolina, North Carolina. On her first day on the job, the high school baseball coach and his star pitcher run into the ER with a newborn baby barely clinging to life that he found abandoned in a recycle bin behind the high school. Daisy feels an immediate connection to the baby.
Mason Thaysden is from a large multi-generational family in Cape Carolina. He was on the fast track to become an exceptional college baseball pitcher until a bar fight ended his prospects. After many years just surviving, he is now the local high school baseball coach with a team that could possibly win the state championship with the star pitcher Mason has mentored. While he is happy with the success he has nurtured, he still feels unsatisfied with his life.
Daisy and Mason hit it off immediately, but personal and family life decisions and secrets get in the way. Entangled in everything, past and present, is loveable Aunt Tilley, who lives in the past as much as the present. Will the revelation of the family secret from the past destroy this loving family? And can Mason and Daisy get through all their messy decisions and still be together?
This is such an engrossing story of family, love, secrets, and moral decisions. Aunt Tilley is a wonderfully lovable character that weaves between the past and present family dilemmas. I always enjoy Ms. Harvey’s complexity in her characters and the realism that makes them believable. Both Daisy and Mason have many unresolved issues and the author does not sugar coat them or even resolve them all. The entire multi-generational family is fascinating in its connections by blood and/or love, and I cannot imagine anyone not wanting to be a part of it. Sit down outside with a glass of sweet tea, maybe with a shot of bourbon mixed in, and travel to the North Carolina coast.
I highly recommend this engaging Southern women’s fiction novel.
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About the Author
Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of a dozen novels including Beach House Rules and The Peachtree Bluff Series. A Happier Life is in development for film with MGM/Amazon, The Summer of Songbirds is in development for television with Hulu, and many of her other projects are in various stages of option or development for film and television. Her work has received numerous accolades, including Good Morning America’s Buzz Pick, Southern Living’s Most Anticipated Reads, Katie Couric’s Featured Books, and Joanna Garcia Swisher’s The Happy Place Reads. Kristy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize.
A Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate with Honors of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism, her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Southern Living, Parade, Traditional Home, USA Today, and many more. She also holds a master’s in English from East Carolina University, with a concentration in multicultural and transnational literature.
Kristy is the cocreator and cohost of the hit weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction with fellow New York Times Bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, and Patti Callahan Henry, which boasts more than three hundred thousand members. She is also the cofounder of the award-winning interiors site Design Chic, with her mom, Beth Woodson.
She lives on the North Carolina coast with her husband, son, and dog, Salt, where she is (always!) working on her next novel.
Social Media Links
Website: https://www.kristywoodsonharvey.com/kristy/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristywoodsonharvey
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristywharvey/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/summer-state-of-mind-by-kristy-woodson-harvey
I am reading this now and enjoying it very much. Thanks for your post.