Beach Trip by Cathy Holton
Release date: 2009 / 406 pages
Synopsis (from back cover): For four college friends, a beach trip promises a chance to reconnect and reminisce. Having traveled distinct and diverse paths since the early 1980s and their freshman days at a small Southern women’s college, the quartet — now in their forties — reunites for the first time in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Over the course of a week they eat, drink, laugh, and cry. But one by one each reveals the hardship and heartache she’s hidden from the others. And one secret threatens to change their lives, and their bond, forever.
First line: “Lola was engaged to Briggs Furman, so her roommates were stunned the evening she came home and told them she was in love with a boy named Lonnie.”
Review: My streak of luck continues – another review book I thoroughly enjoyed! Beach Trip is a dream read for those of us who love character development. Holton creates four fully-realized, 3-dimensional women who are equally complex and interesting. After only a few pages, I felt as if I knew each woman quite well and was able to comfortably sit back, knowing I was in good hands.
The premise is a reunion of college friends, now in their mid-forties, each having chosen a different path in life. Holton transverses time deftly – between the college years and the present, with occasional interim scenes as well. The context is a week-long visit to South Carolina and Holton’s sense of place is wonderful:
“Ahead they could see the island in the distance, with its lighthouse, Old Baldy, rising from the intereior like a giant chess piece. A sailboat passed in front of them, its sails straining with the wind. As they approached the island, Captain Mike cut the engines, and the yacht slowed to a crawl as they entered the harbor. The whole island had been built to resemble a sleepy New England fishing village. Tall gray-shingled cottages and storefronts clustered around the marina. Behind the village, to the north and west, the marsh glimmered between banks of tall grass, while the interior of the island surrounding Old Baldy was covered in a maritime forest of live oak, saw palmetto, yaupon, and wax myrtle.”
Although the friends were close in college – roommates – we quickly learn that each has secrets they were unable to share forty years ago. Revealing these secrets provides a satisfactory pace and momentum to the narrative, including a lovely conclusion, which is necessary since the book is long – over 400 pages. However, this is most likely why the characters are so thoroughly and satisfactorily known by the end.
So, I do recommend this novel to anyone who loves character development. It would be a perfect choice for a vacation read – engrossing enough to shorten a long plane ride, but not burdensome in its mood or prose.
If this sounds up your alley, simply leave me a comment and I’ll put your name in the running!
Your review of this book sounds good, many thanks for this giveaway.
I’d love to be entered in the drawing! Thanks for the review.
Put me in the running:) Thanks for providing this wonderful website!
This definitely sounds like it’s up my alley–I am a beach lover in my 40′s who has fond memories of days with my college buddies.
Always looking for good new books to read! Thanks!
I love strong characters! I am excited to get my hands on this book!
Thank you, Renee! You, Deb, Kristen, Shelia, and Marjorie are in the running!
I would love to be entered for a chance to win this book. Your review was great.
Thanks
sharon54220@gmail.com
Great review (again). Please count me in, too.
Me too, please.
Ooh, I’d love to be entered. Thanks! I’ve heard such good things about this book.
Great review of the book. I’ve had my eye on this one for awhile. Please put my name in the hat. Thanks
BEACH TRIP is high up on my wish list — it’d be wonderful to win a copy! Thank you for the chance!
geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com
Sounds like a good one! Thanks for entering me!
The review sounds wonderful…would love a chance to read this one.
Time at the beach sounds wonderful from here in sweltering Kansas!
Kristen,
Time for your wonderfully-reviewed “beach” read, even if I live in Ohio! Please enter my name into the giveaway!
I vacationed in the Outer Banks for years, Nags Head mostly. Climbed Cape Hatteras a few times too. Sounds like a great read! I’m in.
I really liked your review of this books and can’t wait to read it.
Thank you for the review – it sounds interesting. I could use a nice “beach” read.
Sounds like something i’d love to read! Sign me up please:)
Boy do I wish I had enough copies for everyone…!! I’m so glad there is such interest in this novel, too — it truly is a great summer read… I’ll announce the winner tomorrow!
Pingback: Beach Trip Winner! | BOOK CLUB CLASSICS!
I would love to be included in your giveaway.
Thanks
Debbie
debdesk9(at)verizon.net
This sounds like a perfect read for my close-knit book club!!