With all the cold, rainy weather we've been having here in the Pacific Northwest, I've turned to beach stories as an antidote to the dark days. Beach Trip by Cathy Holton did that job well. The story of four friends reuniting at a North Carolina beach house captivated me from the opening all the way to the satisfying ending. The story switches between the women's college days (1982) and their reunion (2005), and covers the years in between. The author's sense of humor kept me smiling.
I'm picky about formatting and the craft of writing, and while I didn't see any grievous errors, I felt like the editors at big-time Ballantine could have done a better job for this author. But having said that, the things I noticed didn't prevent me from enjoying this engaging story.
First Paragraph:
Spring of 1982
Bedford University
Mount Clemmons, North Carolina
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. They sat around in various poses of disbelief and concern, watching Lola and Lonnie, who stood, arms entwined, in the middle of the living room. Lola had leaves in her hair. This was six weeks before they were all set to graduate from college and go their separate ways into the wide world, and no one had suspected Lola of a secret love affair. Least of all Briggs.
Teaser (from 36% on my Kindle):
Once he realized Annie was on the Pill and there'd be no repercussions, no squalling babies or homicidal parents to contend with, Mitchell took to sex like flies to roadkill. His words. There was nothing of the romantic poet about Mitchell Stiles.
Genre: Women's Contemporary Fiction
Book Length: 433 Pages
Amazon Link: Beach Trip
Synopsis:
Mel, Sara, Annie, and Lola have traveled diverse paths since their years together at a small Southern liberal arts college during the early 1980s. Mel, a mystery writer living in New York, is grappling with the aftermath of two failed marriages and a stalled writing career. Sara, an Atlanta attorney, struggles with her own slowly unraveling marriage. Annie, a successful Nashville businesswoman married to her childhood sweetheart, can’t seem to leave behind the regrets of her youth. And sweet-tempered Lola 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 lavish 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, these four friends learn that they must inevitably confront their shared past, and a secret that threatens to change their bond, and their lives, forever.
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