Mary Alice Monroe The Summer Guests ... Friends, Family, and Survival

Author Mary Alice Monroe has written another novel which grabs your interest and does not let go even after the last page has been read! The Summer Guests is filled with wonderful characters who are each having a personal crisis during a time of uncertainty due to hurricane Noelle. I won't post spoilers or repeat the summary, but the story focuses on how the lives of equine lovers, especially dressage riders are a very special community of caring and also competitive personalities.
Charles and Grace are owners of impressive seventy-five-acre Freehold Farm in Tyron, North Carolina. They have opened their home, stables, cottages, and hearts to friends needing a place of refuge from the oncoming storms. There are a number of characters in this story, so as I began the book, I noted names and how they related to each other and to Grace. I was happy to find Cara Rutledge in this story! The Summer Guests delves into the lives of a group of people who are being reunited with former friends and also meeting new people with their own set of priorities. I was so prepared to dislike Angel due to his seeming self-absorption. Gerta is a force to be reckoned with as she plans and schedules each day for her adult daughter, Elise. Moira is at a crossroads in her life and needs to find a passion for her future. Hannah is seeking her own identity with her new line of make-up, but will people always see her as only a companion to the famous Angel De La Cruz?
The story blends these interesting personalities, their horses, and also a load of rescue dogs together to weave an intriguing week of pivotal experiences which will direct new paths and careers.
I  enjoy being immersed in each book Mary Alice Monroe has written. Over the years and through her books I feel I have revisited so many places I have been fortunate enough to have traveled in my past. I have learned about fly-fishing, raptor refuges, migration of monarchs, dolphin rehabilitation, and of course turtle nestlings. So many of the characters in her stories feel as if they are old friends. Mary Alice Monroe does not only write best-selling novels, but she is a master story-teller!

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Photographs by Diane Lochala

"Before the Storm"