Monroe - The summers end. [Bk. 3]

Mary Alice Monroe has become the premier nature writer among southern novelists.

New York Times bestselling author Pat Conroy

Praise for the Lowcountry Summer Trilogy

The Summer Wind

Monroe reveals a variety of insights... with perception, wit and intelligence... [and] imbues her setting with such color and chemistry that any reader will be pining to visit after only a few pages into this book. Her characters soak up the atmosphere and so do the readers.... Monroe captures the essence and spreads it on her pages, and she does it with stories that touch the mind and the heart of her readers. The Summer Wind may be part of a trilogy, but it is also a stand-alone story of depth and compassion. It is the perfect beach read, and a whole lot more.

The Huffington Post

Distinct, complex, and endearing characters... Mary Alice Monroe continues to make Charleston proud with her authentic and purposeful writings.

Charleston Magazine

Monroes vivid imagery of the Lowcountrys smells, tastes and sights brings you up to the door of the Sea Breeze, so even if youre at home far from the ocean, you can imagine yourself there.

The Herald-Sun

Monroe deftly explores the unique problems each woman faces.... These are modern women addressing the prickly questions of identity and purpose in todays world, a world very different from the one their grandmother knew as a young bride.... Written with convincing Southern charm and thoughtfulness, The Summer Wind explores the bonds of sisterhood and the challenges of modern womanhood with warmth and genuine affection.

BookPage

A series I urge everyone to get into, it makes the perfect beach read and I know you will be fully invested in this family as much as I am.

A Southern Girls Bookshelf

The second book in the Lowcountry Summer Trilogy, The Summer Wind ... pulls at your heart strings even more than the first.

Posting for Now

The perfect summertime beach read. And even after the summer season is long gone, you can pick it up and be back at the beach in no time flat.

Maurice on Books

The Summer Girls

Monroe knows her characters like no one else could, and her portrayals of the summer girls are subtle, realistic, carefully crafted, and pitch-perfect.

Publishers Weekly

More than just a beautifully written, moving portrayal of three sisters finding themselves and each other after years of separation... [ The Summer Girls ] deals head-on with significant issues so skillfully woven into the narrative that I often stopped to consider the import of what Id just read. If youre a dedicated environmentalist, this book is a must-read. If youre just someone who enjoys a good story, youll get that, too, and much more.

New York Times bestselling author Cassandra King

This book contains drama, humor, and romance which any good summer read does. Plus it has the message about the care and treatment of dolphins. Monroe is an expert at making this blend and The Summer Girls is one of her most successful efforts.

The Huffington Post

Mary Alice Monroe sings a song of praise to the bottle-nosed dolphins that bring so much joy to the men and women who gaze at the creeks and rivers of the lowcountry each evening. Like all her books, The Summer Girls is a call to arms.

New York Times bestselling author Pat Conroy

Mary Alice Monroe at her best... The Summer Girls reminded me of what I love about Southern fiction.

Heroes and Heartbreakers

A captivating story of how the ocean and a charismatic dolphin reunite sisters in the alluring ecological setting of the lowcountry of South Carolina. The story resonates on a personal level and, moreover, delivers a powerful reminder of the importance of protecting dolphins and the environment in which they live.

Patricia Fair, Director, Marine Mammal Program, NOAA

Also by Mary Alice Monroe

LOWCOUNTRY SUMMER TRILOGY

The Summer Girls

The Summer Wind

Beach House Memories

The Butterflys Daughter

Last Light over Carolina

Time Is a River

Gallery Books

An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2015 by Mary Alice Monroe, Ltd.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Gallery Books trade paperback edition May 2015

GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Cover design by Laywan Kwan

Photograph of girl by Audrey Amelie Rudolph

Photograph of sky Shutterstock

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Monroe, Mary Alice.

The summers end / Mary Alice Monroe.First Gallery Books trade paperback edition.

pages ; cm (The Lowcountry Summer Trilogy)

1.Psychological fiction.2.Domestic fiction.I.Title.

PS3563.O529S892015

813'.54dc23

2015004729

ISBN 978-1-4767-0902-4

ISBN 978-1-4767-0905-5 (ebook)

Dedicated to my daughters

Claire Dwyer, Gretta Kruesi, and Caitlin Kruesi.

You are my heroines.

ISLAND TIME

By Marjory Wentworth

Piercing the layers of night with flames

that melt the long hours before dawn,

the sun gently peels a shroud of fog

from the misted island. She embraces

the ripening surface of the earth,

where houses wrapped in sleep emerge from darkness

like hundreds of seeds scattered along roadsides.

Streetlights are still burning. Beneath them,

cars pass. Weary ships with passengers

given time to rearrange the memories of night,

as the day spreads itself before them

like an unwanted offering.

Each unfilled hour, ticking

ahead on the clock in their minds.

A woman rises from bed to sit

at her window and wait for daylight

to take hold of the world

spinning into place. She is

searching for a child, the ghost

of a child, a scrap, his small voice

in the wind, a carved smile

on the face of the moon

just any familiar sign

from one of a billion stars.

And while shrimp boats glide out to sea

on the rows of first light, she watches

a dolphin caught in the marsh

swimming an endless circle

Excerpt from Noticing Eden, Hub City Writers Project, 2003. Printed with permission.

T he dawn of another summer day. Mamaw tightened the soft cashmere throw around her thin shoulders. Slivers of light pierced the velvety blackness over the Cove, and pewter-colored shadows danced on the spiky marsh grass like ethereal ghosts.