Books and Needlepoint: Cathy Holton

Showing posts with label Cathy Holton. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2011

Summer in the South by Cathy Holton - Giveaway!

Shared by Kristi

Title: Summer in the South

Author: Cathy Holton

Publisher: Ballantine

Synopsis: After a personal tragedy, Chicago writer Ava Dabrowski quits her job to spend the summer in Woodburn, Tennessee, at the invitation of her old college friend Will Fraser and his two great-aunts, Josephine and Fanny Woodburn. Her charming hosts offer Ava a chance to relax at their idyllic ancestral estate, Woodburn Hall, while working on her first novel.

But Woodburn is anything but quiet: Ancient feuds lurk just beneath its placid surface, and modern-day rivalries emerge as Ava finds herself caught between the competing attentions of Will and his black-sheep cousin Jake. Fascinated by the family's impressive history -- their imposing house filled with treasures, and their mingling with literary lions Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner -- Ava stumbles onto rumors about the darker side of the Woodburns' lore. Putting aside her planned novel, she turns her creative attentions to the eccentric and tragic clan, a family with more skeletons (and ghosts) in their closets than anyone could possibly imagine. As Ava struggles to write the true story of the Woodburns, she finds herself tangled in the tragic history of a mysterious Southern family show secrets mirror her own.

Read my review of Summer in the South

Special thanks to Cathy Holton for providing a copy of Summer in the South for this giveaway. Please fill out the form below - MUST LEAVE LINKS for entry to count. Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada only. This giveaway will end Sept 10, Midnight CST.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Summer in the South by Cathy Holton (Book Review)

Shared by Kristi

Title: Summer in the South

Author: Cathy Holton
Publisher: Ballantine

About the book: After a personal tragedy, Chicago writer Ava Dabrowski quits her job to spend the summer in Woodburn, Tennessee, at the invitation of her old college friend Will Fraser and his two great-aunts, Josephine and Fanny Woodburn. Her charming hosts offer Ava a chance to relax at their idyllic ancestral estate, Woodburn Hall, while working on her first novel.

But Woodburn is anything but quiet: Ancient feuds lurk just beneath its placid surface, and modern-day rivalries emerge as Ava finds herself caught between the competing attentions of Will and his black-sheep cousin Jake. Fascinated by the family's impressive history -- their imposing house filled with treasures, and their mingling with literary lions Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner -- Ava stumbles onto rumors about the darker side of the Woodburns' lore. Putting aside her planned novel, she turns her creative attentions to the eccentric and tragic clan, a family with more skeletons (and ghosts) in their closets than anyone could possibly imagine. As Ava struggles to write the true story of the Woodburns, she finds herself tangled in the tragic history of a mysterious Southern family show secrets mirror her own.

My thoughts: Ava and Will have been friends for many years. He has been inviting her to visit his home since they got out of college. One day he catches her during a crisis and she accepts his invitation to come South and stay with his aunts to work on her novel. She arrives in Woodburn and it is like entering another world. People are friendly and unhurried. Everybody knows everybody's history, and you have to read between the lines of what they say to get to what they really mean.

Ava is definitely different. She doesn't dress like the women in the South. She is very direct with what she says. But the biggest difference is that she really doesn't know anything about her family outside of her mother. They traveled a lot when Ava was a child and never really settled down. Her mother told her that her father died when she was ten. I think this is the reason that she becomes so enthralled with the Woodburn family. Their history goes back for generations and the aunts, Josephine and Fanny have kept a lot of it right in the house where she is staying. There are journals and photographs, and they just ignite the writer in her.

Somewhere along the way she meets Jake. He is from the "bad" side of the Woodburn family. He looks a lot like Will, but with dark hair and dark eyes. Where she has never really felt an attraction to Will, she feels an attraction to Jake. Jake is also more willing to talk about some of the tragedies in the family's past than Will and his aunts.

All of the talk about the family and the mysteries gave this book a very Gothic feel to me. I kept expecting some dark magic to surface to make Ava become posessed with one of the spirits/souls of the older generation. I know, nothing like this happens! There are just times when the spirits seem to come alive in the story.

You learn about what really happened in the past through flashbacks. Meanwhile, as Ava is trying to discover what really happened in the past, she finds herself in between Will and Jake and the bad history that they share - which neither is very forthcoming about.

I enjoyed this book except for one thing. Ava had sleep paralysis throughout - something she had had as a child. I am not quite sure what to make of those scenes or what we were supposed to take away from them. I do see the possibility for completely new books based on some of the characters from this one though.

~I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for my review.~

About the author: Cathy Holton, the author of Beach Trip, Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes, and the Secret Lives 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 where she studied creative writing. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with her husband and their three children.

You can find her at her blog The Surly Wench Journal or her Facebook page for Summer in the South.

Summer in the South: A Novel by Cathy Holton
Publisher/Publication Date: Ballantine Books, May 2011
ISBN: 978-0-345-50601-6
340 pages

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Beach Trip by Cathy Holton - Blog Tour (Book Review)

Shared by Kristi

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

Friday, June 19, 2009

Beach Trip Blog Tour w/ Cathy Holton

Shared by Kristi

Cathy is touring the month of June with her May release - Beach Trip.

About the book: A reunion between four friends becomes a cathartic journey into the past in Cathy Holton’s luminous new novel. Mel, Sara, Annie, and Lola have traveled distinct and diverse paths since the early 1980s and their years together at a small Southern liberal arts college. Mel, a mystery writer living in New York, contends with the aftermath of two failed marriages and a stalled writing career. Sara, an Atlanta attorney, struggles with guilt over her son’s illness and her own slowly unraveling marriage. Annie, a successful Nashville businesswoman married to her childhood sweetheart, can’t seem to leave the regrets of her youth behind her. And Lola, sweet-tempered and absent-minded, whiles away her hours and her husband’s money, on little pills that keep her happy.

Now the friends, all in their forties, converge on Lola’s idyllic North Carolina beach house in an attempt to relive the carefree days of their college years. But as the week wears on, and each woman’s hidden story is gradually revealed, they find they must inevitably confront their shared past; a failed love affair, a discarded suitor, a betrayal, and a secret that threatens to change their bond, and their lives, forever. (info from Cathy's website)

Be sure to stop back on Monday to see my review!