Title: Beach Trip
Author: Cathy Holton
Publisher: Ballantine Books
First sentence: 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.
My thoughts: After almost 25 years, four college friends plan a trip to the beach to try to rekindle their friendships and put the past behind them once and for all.
Lola is the trip planner and it is to her house on Whale Head Island, off the banks of North Carolina, that the four friends are headed. For one week they will get to enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other's company. Lola was always sort of the scatter-brained one in college and generally needed looking after. Captain Mike and April are Lola's hired help and they do a good job of taking care of her - because even after all these years - she still seems to be the fragile one. After college she had married her mother's pick of men - and left the man she loved behind. For the last 20 years he has kept her medicated so she would remain 'happy'. She has successfully raised one son who is soon to be engaged.
Annie was the housekeeper of the bunch. She always appeared to walk the straight and narrow. Her friends refer to her lovingly as being anal-retentive or as having OCD tendencies. She raised two sons who have left the nest and she has been at loose ends.
Sara and Mel had been best friends, as close as sisters - and just as competitive, before college. All this even though they came from vastly different backgrounds. Mel was the only daughter of a self-made millionaire who tried to make up for with money what he lacked in parenting skills. Sara came from what she deemed a normal household - middle-income, hard-working parents. She loved the time she spent at Mel's with their many arguments and the unending wealth. Mel went on to become a novelist after college and has been unlucky in love. Sara went on to become a lawyer and married the love of her life.
What secrets have these four women been keeping from each other since college? How will these secrets be revealed - and will they tear them apart - or make their bonds stronger?
I loved this book. It sort of helped me to evaluate my own life as I just recently went back to my 25 year high school reunion. It is set in the present time, telling the years since they were college seniors up to the beach trip in flashbacks throughout the book. Little by little the women's lives unfold and their secrets are slowly revealed. You are left holding your breath until the very end for confirmation of what the true secrets are and how they have effected each woman over her lifetime - and how it will affect their friendship now.
Beach Trip would be a great beach/vacation read. It is full of heartaches, true loves, loyalty lost and found and the deep bonds of girlfriends!
About the author: Cathy Holton, the author of Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes, was born in Lakeland, Florida, and grew up in college towns in the South and the Midwest. She attended Oklahoma State University and Michigan State University and worked for a number of years in Atlanta before settling in the mountains of Tennessee with her husband and their three children. (from Barnes and Noble website)
Visit Cathy's blog - The Surly Wench or read an excerpt of Beach Trip.
Beach Trip
Publisher/Publication Date: Ballantine Books, May 2009
ISBN: 978-0-345-50599-6
432 pages
Cathy Holton’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Tuesday, June 2nd: S. Krishna’s Books
Thursday, June 4th: Books & Cooks – Lisa
Tuesday, June 9th: Pop Culture Junkie
Thursday, June 11th: Educating Petunia
Friday, June 12th: Bookworm with a View
Monday, June 15th: Caribousmom
Tuesday, June 16th: Books on the Brain - Summer Reading Series Discussion
Wednesday, June 17th: The Tome Traveller’s Weblog
Thursday, June 18th: Books on the Brain
Monday, June 22nd: Books and Needlepoint
Tuesday, June 23rd: The Book Faery Reviews
Wednesday, June 24th: Thoughts of Joy
Thursday, June 25th: Books and Cooks-Tara
Friday, June 26th: Peeking Between the Pages
Monday, June 29th: It’s All About Books
Tuesday, June 30th: Bermuda Onion
