Celebrate Kristy Woodson Harvey TONIGHT!
Weekly News from Friends & Fiction—April 29, 2026
Tune in LIVE at 7pm ET tonight for this week’s episode!
Join us Wednesday, April 29th LIVE at 7pm Eastern on the F&F Facebook page and YouTube channel as the full F&F family gathers to celebrate the launch of our very own “queen of the beach read” (Cosmopolitan), NYT-bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey’s new book Summer State of Mind, which is, of course, our May Pick of the Month!
Kristy is the New York Times, USA TODAY, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of fourteen novels, including Beach House Rules and the Peachtree Bluff series. A Happier Life is in development for film with MGM/Amazon and The Summer of Songbirds is in development for television with Hulu. There’s good reason why People magazine dubbed Kristy the “go-to for elevated beach reads.” Her latest—featuring a burned out NICU nurse, a former hot shot baseball player turned high school coach, an abandoned baby, and a batty aunt with long-buried secrets—whisks us away to the tight-knit coastal community of Cape Carolina and shows us that sometimes life conspires to bring us exactly where we belong. Join us as we celebrate Kristy’s launch in grand F&F style with special guests, a signature cocktail, games, and laughs galore. Trust us—you do NOT want to miss this one!
Watch the LIVE video broadcast of this interview as it airs on Wed 4/29 at 7pm ET on the F&F Facebook group page & YouTube channel. Catch the audio version on our podcast Fri 5/1.
Meanwhile, order Kristy’s new book on Bookshop.org! Shop all of our guests’ & hosts’ books in our F&F Shop on Bookshop.org!
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for bonus Q&A’s with our guest authors which include a writing tip, book recommendation, and information about their works-in-progress, plus other great material not covered on the show!
Latest News from the Fab Four!
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY is so excited to be launching SUMMER STATE OF MIND on the show tonight and… heading out on tour TOMORROW. She can’t believe it’s already here! Just a reminder that she has stops in NC, SC, FL, IN, MO, WA, and CA, so go see her. Nothing means more to an author! Check out her full tour schedule here. She also wants to remind everyone that it’s the last call for SUMMER STATE OF MIND preorder freebies. And she sure would love it if you’d preorder to get your fun acrylic bookmark, signed book plate, magnet and readers guide! Check out the full details here. Most of all, she wants to thank you from the bottom of her heart for your years of support. It means more than words can say. She can’t wait to see you on the road!
MARY KAY ANDREWS hosted a fun(d)raiser garden party for a scholarship fund at her UGA alma mater’s Journalism School over the weekend, then took a redeye flight to NYC Tuesday to record the author’s note for the audio version of ROAD TRIP. She was delighted to get to chat with her longtime audio narrator Kathleen McInerney, and to have dinner with one of her all-time fave authors Elinor Lipman and a couple of other bookish friends before flying down to Savannah the next morning, just in time to help launch Kristy’s SUMMER STATE OF MIND on tonight’s F&F show. In the meantime, tickets are now available for the May 31 Atlanta launch party here, and for the F&F Live Savannah launch here. Much more to come about the ROAD TRIP book tour!
KRISTIN HARMEL is so excited to be launching Kristy’s SUMMER STATE OF MIND live on the show tonight…. She hopes the world is ready for this bold, brilliant, beautiful story, coming to bookstores everywhere on May 5! Kristin celebrated Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday by delivering the keynote address at the Tarpon Springs Book Festival, which is put on by independent bookstore The Gilded Page (where longtime Friends & Fiction member Nicole Fincher works—so we got to hang out a bit, too!). Her 2026 book tour for MEET ME IN PARIS is coming together, and she’s excited to announce her tour dates in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY IS SO EXCITED TO CELEBRATE KRISTY’s Summer State of Mind tonight. Patti loved everything about the NICU nurse and her love story. Swoon. Last week, Patti’s two worlds collided when she was in Auburn for Indie Bookstore Day and ALSO for her Auburn College of Nursing reunion (notice she left out how many years?). It was a wild few days and she feels so lucky that she’s had two creative careers that she loves with her whole heart. This week she’s headed to Charleston to do an event with Scary Mommy’s editor in Chief at Ladybird Books and another event in Lexington, KY. Check out her schedule if you’re near any of these!
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for an ongoing series of roundtable discussions and personal essays by the Fab Four about their careers, writing processes, and all things book and publishing related!
Upcoming Events
Kristy is on tour now for her forthcoming book, Summer State of Mind. Stay tuned to her events page HERE.
MKA will be touring in June for her forthcoming book, Road Trip. Stay tuned to her events page HERE.
Kristin will be touring in July/August for her forthcoming book, Meet Me in Paris. Stay tuned to her events page HERE.
See Patti’s upcoming events HERE.
Join us Wednesday, June 3rd for an in-person Friends & Fiction Live event in Savannah to celebrate the launch of MKA’s Road Trip! Get full details and tickets HERE!
Want to know what our F&F Live events are all about? Watch this video compilation!
In Case You Missed It
On our most recent new episode of The Friends & Fiction Show, Ron Block & Patti Callahan Henry welcomed two authors both with new novels about Hollywood icons—Lynn Cullen with hers about Marilyn Monroe, When We Were Brilliant, and Priya Parmar with hers about Katharine Hepburn, The Original.
You can WATCH that episode on Facebook or YouTube, or LISTEN to it on our podcast.
Coming Up on The Friends & Fiction Show
All shows can be watched on Facebook & YouTube each Wednesday evening at 7pm ET, and listened to on our podcast each Friday, all year long.
Already aired: Joshilyn Jackson, Missing Sister
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Lucy Score, Mistakes Were Made
WATCH | LISTEN
SPRING 2026 SCHEDULE:
Already aired: Virginia Evans, The Correspondent & Allen Levi, Theo of Golden
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Evelyn Clarke, The Ending Writes Itself
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Tana French, The Keeper
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Lynn Cullen, When We Were Brilliant & Priya Parmar, The Original
WATCH | LISTEN
Kristy Woodson Harvey, Summer State of Mind
Watch LIVE: 4/29 | Listen: 5/1
Christina Baker Kline, The Foursome
Watch: 5/6 | Listen: 5/8
Kathryn Stockett, The Calamity Club
Watch: 5/13 | Listen: 5/15
Mary Kay Andrews, Road Trip
Watch LIVE: 5/27 | Listen: 5/29
Annabel Monaghan, Dolly All the Time
Watch: 6/3 | Listen: 6/5
Ann Patchett, Whistler
Watch: 6/10 | Listen: 6/12
Lisa See, Daughters of the Sun and Moon
Watch: 6/17 | Listen: 6/19
Lisa Jewell, It Could Have Been Her
Watch: 6/24 | Listen: 6/26
F&F 2026 Subscription Box with Oxford Exchange
The 2026 FRIENDS AND FICTION Subscription Box is available for purchase now, exclusively from our friends at Oxford Exchange.
This subscription includes three separate shipments:
1. MAY 2026: A hardcover, signed, first edition of Kristy Woodson Harvey’s forthcoming book SUMMER STATE OF MIND!
2. JUNE 2026: A hardcover, signed, first edition of ROAD TRIP by Mary Kay Andrews!
3. AUGUST 2026: A hardcover, signed, first edition of MEET ME IN PARIS by Kristin Harmel!
Get your subscription NOW from Oxford Exchange!
F&F Merch Store
We have a Friends & Fiction merch store with t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and a book bag on Bonfire. We also have other items like wine tumblers, reading journals, and our original white v-neck logo tees available through Oxford Exchange.
We’ve added TWO NEW COLORS for our fan favorite name list tee-shirts. We now have them in a heathery hunter green and a kelly green—both of which match perfectly with the three new Fab Four books out in May, June & July! Get yours now and dress to match the books when you come out to Kristy, MKA & Kristin’s tour events!
F&F Official Book Club & 2025 Reading Challenge
Join Brenda Gardner & Lisa Harrison for monthly book club picks and live online author chats on the Facebook page for the F&F Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa, where they’ve amassed nearly 40,000 of their own members. You can also follow the Book Club on Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel where you can catch past discussions, including their most recent chat with Sarah Fox about her new novel, Definitely Maybe Not a Detective. Mark your calendars for May 18th for their next author guest, Wade Rouse, when they’ll discuss his new novel, That’s What Friends Are For. The Book Club is also hosting the 2026 F&F Reading Challenge. Join them for a different category prompt each month to read outside your comfort zone. The April prompt is to read a book recommended by a favorite librarian and for May it’s to read a book about a female detective.
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