Mary Kay Andrews Summer Rental - It's Her House!

Many of you know about Mary Kay Andrews new book "Summer Rental". It is the best beach read for sure.

I was at Joni's the other day, engrossed in one of her long and interesting posts, gladly going down the rabbit hole of her tangents, when at the very end of the post she mentioned Mary Kay's book with a link to site that rents Mary Kay's actual summer home, Breeze Inn Cottage on Tybee Island (thank you Joni).

Well it is too cute for words, and it is certainly one summer rental that does not require a make-over! I captured the images for you from the web site HERE. I wish the images were larger, but I think you will be able to see how darling this house is. And I love the captions! I wonder if Mary Kay wrote them.

And the house is pet friendly! I would love to rent this house for at least a month! Wouldn't you???!!!

Enjoy! And Happy Weekend!

Summer Rental

Summer Rental in Nags Head

It's the first unofficial week/weekend of Summer! How many of you have a Summer rental?
In New York it is very common to rent a place by the beach (Hamptons or Jersey Shore) for the Summer. The wife and kids go for most of the Summer, and the husband commutes there on weekends.

Cottage Row in Nags Head via

Singles may take a share in a house, and alternate weekends. Or sometimes a family might rent a beach house for a week or two of Summer vacation.

Beach cottage in Nags Head

Rental houses can be funky. When I rented in the Hamptons I would load up the car with Limoges china, silver plate flatware, stacks of sheets for make-do slip covers and curtains, new lampshades, art work, and good beach towels and nice sheets for the beds.

How would you makeover this Summer rental? via

When I finally bought a little house, it was decorated all in white. It was a cottage and so cute.
Now we don't do a Summer rental. Summer mornings in New Orleans are like being at the beach. You can feel the sea air from the Gulf, and the river and humidity keep things feeling tropical.

Nags Head street

The morning light is gentle, and the air is soft. It's the perfect time to enjoy our newly refurbished patio and yard, and take a cup of coffee and book and sit outside and pretend I'm at the beach.

The beach house I once owned in the Springs in East Hampton

Like all of you I love "beach" books for the Summer. You know, the kind that used to be called "light reading", a good story so breezy you can finish the book in two or three sittings.

Visual Vamp back in the day at her beach house in East Hampton

I recommend Mary Kay Andrews "Summer Rental". I read another of her books last Summer called "The Fixer Upper", and just loved it.

"Summer Rental" has all the necessary elements for a good beach read: Woman loses her job, but is locked into a Summer rental with her best girlfriends. Each one has a story to tell. There's sexy romance, and a bit of thriller. And as with the "Fixer Upper" the house and its decor is a central character too.

The beach location in the book is Nags Head, that still has 7 of the original 13 beach cottages built 100 years ago (it's called Cottage Row). I love how people at the beach call these big old sprawling houses "cottages".

I love an old fashion beach house - sea breezes only, screens on the doors and windows, cracks in the floor to sweep sand into, funky yet charming. Nowadays beach houses are so fancy that you hardly feel like you get away from your formal life. What do you think? Funky or fancy?

Buy it HERE

And a prayer of thanks on this Memorial Day to everyone past and present who serves for us in the armed forces.