Customer Reviews

Beach Trip: A Novel

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the story of four women who graduated from the same small, liberal arts college in North Carolina in the early 1980s. The women are all very different and yet have a bond that seems to hold them together even when circumstances should tear them apart. The book moves between their college years and 2005 when they all get together for the first time after college at the luxurious beach-front cottage owned by one of the women's husbands.

I was expecting a light, fun summer read along the lines of a Debbie Macomber book but it is much, much more complex and much deeper than that. The characters are well developed and are dealing with the life choices they have made and where those have lead them. Unfortunately, I actually didn't get enough sleep a couple of nights because I couldn't put the book down and turn out the light. This author really knows how to tell a story ! Great writing and some very insightful portions. Each character is three-dimensional with flaws and strenghts exposed -- I came to care about them all.

I will definitely be seeking out other books by this author and will be recommending this book to friends.

One of the challenges of friendship is if it can weather and survive the things life throws at it through the years. Mel, Sara, Annie and Lola became friends at their small, private, all girls' school in the early 80s. They've managed to at least stay in touch with one another and now find themselves in their 40s - the kids are growing up or have already left the nest, some men have come and gone, careers have waxed and waned, and each woman has significant questions about the next stage of her life.

Lola, the starry-eyed waif who married an ogre with more money and power than compassion and humanity, invites her friends to spend a week with her at her new beach "cottage" on Whale Head Island in North Carolina. Successful, single, more-mouth-than-sense Mel flies in from New York. She's between novels and trying to figure out where her life is going. Sensible, OCD, prudish Annie joins the group, knowing she's going to let them talk her into doing something she doesn't want to do. And Sara, smart and beautiful with what others think is the perfect family, relunctantly accepts the invitation even though she and Mel have, at best, had a rocky relationship over the last several years. Each woman has her own private pain, and there are secrets and guilt galore in this friendship.

What do women with too many responsibilities and too few chances to let their hair down do for a week at a beautiful, remote beach home? Why, they do what any sensible group of girlfriends would do in that situation - they fire up the blender, pour the drinks, let go of some inhibitions, and open up for some long overdue soul searching.

There's a slew of "southern sisterhood" novels out there. Some are quite good, and some leave a lot to be desired. On the surface, Beach Trip looks like a fluffy, these-strong-women-still-need-a-man type of book. Don't be taken in by the stereotype of what tends to be termed women's literature these days. Beach Trip is thoughtful and funny and manages to be entertaining while delivering some pretty good insights into the hearts and souls of its main characters. Given the title, it's inevitable that this book will be labeled as a beach or summer read, and I admit that I finished it on a sunny day, lounging on the deck with the wind rustling through the trees. But this is simply a darned good book. It was at times a bit too close to comfort to some of the same issues my close friends and I have gone through over the years (minus the expensive beach home and amenities!). I think most women will find something they can relate to in these pages, and I see this book becoming the hit of bookclubs in the next few months.

Cathy Holton's Beach Trip: A Novel is Southern women's fiction with a twist. Mel, Annie, Sara, and Lola were college roommates and reunite in this novel two decades later. Like the heavy surf churned up by an offshore hurricane, their relationships are wrought with tension, love, jealousy, and forgiveness. Each chapter shifts between the past and the present--the mid-1980s to the early 2000s.

Each woman embarks upon their own path and makes her way in the world. Sara, Annie, and Lola each marry and have children, while Mel marries and divorces a few men and concentrates on her career as a novelist. Mel is the independent, strong-willed feminist, while Sara is a follower and tough attorney fighting for the rights of children caught in the middle of parental divorce. Lola is laid back and pushed around by her husband, friends, and mother, and Annie is obsessive compulsive and striving for perfection. Each of these characters juxtaposes the other, and these characteristics weigh heavily on their relationships in college and beyond.

Holton creates deep characters with simple flaws, placing them in situations of their own making. Readers just have to sit back and watch how they make their way out. The secrets revealed by these women as they reflect on the past are sometimes cliche, but the end of this novel will leave many readers agape. Overall, Beach Trip: A Novel examines the complicated relationships of women with a flare of wit, humor, and sarcasm.

The strength in this novel was the characters' ability to stretch and rearrange the truth. Meet Mel, Sara, Annie and Lola, women in their 40's who plan a reunion at Lola's luxurious North Carolina beach house. They are graduates of a prominent liberal arts college in the 1980's which sets the tone that readers will be privy to the lives of educated, complex women.

Holton moves us back and forth from the 1980's to the present 2005. These are southern women with diverse backgrounds: Mel is wealthy, beautiful and can commit to friendship, not marriage. She is a succesful mystery writer who comes off as a harsh critic of her friends and their life decisions. Sara is beautiful, an attorney with solid parents, but appears to be consumed by guilt. Annie, the weakest character, had a discretion during their "carefree" college days which she cannot seem to absolve herself. And Lola, beautiful Lola, with the traditional southern mother who only cared about tradition foisting her daughter into a troubled adulthood.

In an attempt to reconcile their lives, they spend days together unraveling their past and connecting it to the present. Holton's flashback to the womens' southern upbringing gave me the strongest insight to interpret the present. Holton showed off her solid southern writing when she wrote of the past. I believe the plot was weaker during the day to day activities of the reunion. There is a great, satisfying twist at the end, and I was assured that Holton's theme of strong women was justified. The title, "Beach Trip" suggest a chick lit superficial story. It is not. The title should have been more representative of the comedic and literary talents of this writer.

A hit of 2009. Another book of chick lit?? Oh no!!! Don't even think it!!! Cathy Holton goes above and beyond! Her imagery and descriptions leave you breathless and you feel like you are one of the girls. I love the girls. I can't pick my favorite. Lola, because she didn't want to marry for money, she would have married Lonnie because he was simple and sweet. Mel because she was brave and a writer or Annie or Sara, who knows they were all so different and the same in so many ways!

Just blew me away on so many levels! I loved this book! I am sad it ended so quickly! I loved the cover. It said a lot, but was so simple. I am a girl that judges a book by its cover so to speak, so this was a good cover!!!

Thanks again Ms. Holton, job well done!!!

The Review


For the Summer Reading Series hosted by Books on the Brain, I was fortunate enough to get a copy of Beach Trip to lose myself on sandy beaches drinking Margonas with girlfriends. The four main characters of this story are vastly different, however they were brought together as college roommates. Years later, they scheduled a reunion at Lola's beach house on an island off the coast of North Carolina. There was one prior reunion in England, however only 3 of the ladies attended. This would be the first time in 20 years that all four of them reunited.

Mel is the sassy, sexy, wild, and free writer who devours men. Coming to the reunion after two failed marriages, she looks for good times with men wherever she goes. Lola is the quiet, subdued "kept" wife of a rich control freak and daughter of a dominant mother. However, Lola is as nice as they come, generous as the day is long and everybody loves her! Sara is the lawyer turned mom with two children and a solid marriage. She is well rounded and level-headed. Annie is the uptight clean freak who has stifled her inner goddess and sexual being. After being married to her college boyfriend, she often takes him for granted.

After the women arrive, they have a week to get caught up on each others' lives and find their way back to each other. There are a couple of strong plot twists in the story that I shall avoid discussing as these are definite "spoilers," but let's just say that it were these plot twists that I enjoyed most about the book.

Holton displays a solid writing style and you do establish a connection to the characters. Her writing is greatly descriptive which enables the reader to feel present in the story. She has created enough depth and richness for the readers to enjoy this book as the perfect summer read. The downside for me, however, is that the pace of the book is slower than I like in a novel. I found myself wanting to speed up the pace of the story and not relax on the beach with the ladies anymore. Maybe this book would have been a better read on the sand?

On Sher's "Out of Ten Scale:"


I am looking forward to the discussion that we are planning on having with this book. I've never been part of a "group read" before and this should be a ton of fun! I'm curious to see who the other readers related to the most.

The rating that I am going to give this book for genre:Fiction is a 7.5 OUT OF 10.

Four friends from collage who are now in their 40's get together for a week at Lola's beach house. Some have stayed in touched and 2, Sarah and Mel have not. There's a lot of drinking, and you get to know their past history together. The character Lola is the star of this novel. I knew what was going to happen with her and the story behind Sarah and Mel before it was reveled. I like the girls getting together novels and maybe it was because I already knew what was going to happen I gave 3 stars.All in all it's a good summer read and I would recommend it.

Beach Trip by Cathy Holton


When we first meet Lola, Mel, Sara and Annie in the first chapter, it is the very early 80's in a small prestigious Southern College in North Carolina, but we aren't going to stay there...oh my no! We have a long and winding road to go on and the author, Cathy Holton, takes pleasure in leading the way.

In the next chapter it's 23 years later and we meet up with the `girls' now women at the peak of their lives and they are going to meet up at the beach for a week long reunion of sorts. We learn how each of the woman have grown and how some have changed and that, well, some really have not changed all that much. The week becomes very cathartic, as past secrets that they all have been holding for these two decades are finally revealed. In addition, this is the crux of this novel...how we all have secrets. Secrets that even our very best friends do not know about, secrets that we don't even want to admit to ourselves. Secrets that finally come out and bite us on the butt.



We have some very hilarious moments (Mel's revenge on Mr. A Lincoln at the club and free dinner during Casino night for one) as well as some very emotionally scarring ones.
Ms Holton deftly swings from decade to decade, without getting the reader confused or pulling them out of the story, as so many authors have the habit of doing. She weaves the traditional tale of `best friends against the world' with unique and strong characters.

I am not going to spoil anything for you, but let me say that this book does have several big revelations at the end. This is a book that you read the first time straight through with no stopping because you just know something important is going to happen. You want to read it again almost immediately, so you can fit the pieces of their lives together and see why they all chose the actions they did as well as have a clearer picture of the consequences of those actions.

A great, fast paced, well plotted read, with realistic characters and great secondary characters. It is a great story and Ms Holton is a great storyteller. Beach Trip is well worth your hard-earned book-buying dollar.

A 20 year reunion becomes a pivotal event in the lives of four college friends in this darkly-comic tale of lost love and friendship. Mel, Sara, Annie, and Lola haven't seen each other since their years together at a small liberal arts college. Over the course of an idyllic week on the North Carolina coast old rivalries surface and unexpected revelations come to light as the women struggle to reconcile their lives. The surprise ending was a stunner and made me want to read the book again for clues I'd missed. A must-read for book-clubs! From the author of the hilarious "Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes."

I read and loved Cathy Holton's previous two novels about the Kudzu Debutantes. So, when I saw she had a new book out that did not continue that story, I was a little dubious as to whether or not I would enjoy it. I'll be honest, I absolutely underestimated this book.

If you've read the synopsis, then you know this is a book about 4 friends who come together in college. Over the years their lives take different paths, and they each struggle with their own demons. Twenty three years after graduating, they all get together for a week long beach trip. Over this week, the ladies slowly start to open up to one another, try to heal old hurts and attempt to renew their friendship. Now, I've read this format many, many times before...it's a very popular one.

While I enjoyed this book throughout, I was hoping something would happen that would set it apart from all those other books. Well, be patient, because you will NOT be disappointed. I knew SOMETHING was going to happen, and I thought I had it all figured out...I was wrong. The ending is what makes this book. There are some surprises all through the story, and a rather large one near the end that I didn't see coming, but I was very pleased with overall conclusion of the book, it wasn't a scenario that I'd even considered happening!

In the end, this was a great read, and I absolutely recommend it. Ms. Holton has done a wonderful job with her newest novel, and I certainly won't doubt her again. While I just love the Kudzu Debs, she has shown that she can write a very entertaining and hard-to-put-down stand alone novel. A great way to pass a lazy weekend!