Customer Reviews

Return to Sullivan's Island

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

..... but this book is just bad. I tried to find another way to say it and make my comments softer, but I felt that would have been dishonest and a disservice to people looking for honest reviews to help make decisions about what to purchase and to read.

I faithfully read Dorothea Benton Frank books and largely love them. I have read "Sullivan's Island", "Plantation" and almost all the others including "The Land of Mango Sunsets" which I recommended to anyone who would listen to me. When I was able to select this via the Vine program, I felt like I had hit the lottery since I was already on the wait list at the library even before it came out.

With that background in mind, I have to say this book was really pretty awful. Had I not agreed to review it for Amazon and had I not been such a fan I think I would have probably stopped reading by the half way point. There is so much wrong with the book that I can't even begin to recount it all. I started writing notes in the front of the book of examples of the really terrible character development and the dialogue that was often so bad as to be funny. As soon as the characters are introduced you know who's the bad guy, who's the good guy, the romance that will fail and the romance that will succeed. There is no mystery or tension here -- it's telegraphed at the beginning and you just read along until what you knew was going to happen actually happens. The characters are shallow and largely irritating (the main character, Beth, is a recent graduate of Boston College who speaks like a pre-teen girl and has decision making abilities worse than my own 14-year-old). Usually DBF books have humor and wit that is hard to match by other authors but this novel lacked both and the ending was so jarring as to appear like it just got tacked on without thought -- she needed to get it finished under a deadline?

Again, overall, I am a huge fan of DBF and will try again with her next effort...keeping my fingers crossed that it's significantly better. Had I not been in the position of loving this author previously, I might have even given it 1-star. It reads like the efforts of a first time novelist rather than the powerhouse author she can be.

I really wanted to like this book! I found Frank's book Sullivan's Island years ago and really enjoyed it. Her books have steadily gone downhill since, but I grabbed Return to Sullivan's Island as soon as I saw it, hoping it would reverse the trend.

Unfortunately, it did not. Cecily was the only female character really worth getting to know, and she was a strong but secondary character. The protagonist, Beth, is a newly-minted college graduate who is pressured to put her life on hold for a year and return to the family's house on Sullivan's Island. She does so, but resentment rolls off of her in waves. She does finally come to terms with her decision, but then makes one foolish choice after another. Even worse, she knows they are bad choices, but plunges in headfirst anyways.

The plot was heavy-handed and the entire story lacked subtlety, probably because all of the characters were stereotypes: the dutiful daughter, the judgmental matriarch, the good ole boys, Mr. Wrong-but-oh-so-delicious, etc. Finally, the conflict was resolved much too easily.

If this book was a cheap paperback, it would be an okay beach read. Not worth the hardcover price, however.

I have read Dorothea Benton Frank's Lowcountry books over the years and this was the biggest disappointment. Don't we have enough Ponzi schemes and bodies stuffed in freezers in our every day newspapers? Dorothea should return to what the lowcountry is all about with beautiful islands and beaches along with the old traditions.

Dorothea Benton Frank's latest novel returns, as the title states, to her home territory, the Low Country of South Carolina, and Sullivan's Island in particular. A sequel to her first book, "Sullivan's Island," this book has little of the charm of her previous creations. The characters are stereotypical; the villain is so quickly identified, he might well have "Bad Guy" emblazoned on his forehead. The hero is just as easily slotted into his role. As for the main character, Beth, she seems to have arrived fresh from college without a friend in sight except her family. At no point does she contact anyone from her past (or even send a text message).

My greatest objection to this book, however, is the mixing of the supernatural with the mundane. In "Sullivan's Island" a mirror occasionally reflects what seems to be a spirit, but in this book, ghosts clean up the kitchen after a party and turn down beds. I found this element of the story unbelievable and jarring. Nowhere, not even in the Low Country, do ghosts work this hard.

Ms. Frank describes her books as "character-driven." In this case, perhaps more attention should have been paid to developing complex characters and less to inserting actual locations and real people just to please her neighbors and business associates. She is at present working on a sequel to "Plantation," her second book. Let's hope she finds a more believable story line this time.

I've read and enjoyed Dorothea Benton Frank books in the past. And I was hoping to like 'Return to Sullivan's Island.' And I really didn't.

I've been asking myself why. First and foremost, there are no interesting characters. The 'heroine' is bland: poorly developed, not especially sympathetic, all too predictable, and shallow as a tide pool. (If this was attempt to reach a younger audience, I don't think Beth is what they're looking for.) 'Predictable' seems to be the best word for the plot line too. But it was the lackluster dialogue that did me in. Have you ever been stuck listening to a banal conversation between two strangers? That's the feeling that I got. The characters have little to say to each other and what they do say they say very slowly. In fact, the entire novel moved v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.

I try to rate books on a 'five to one' scale:
5 is outstanding.
4 is good enough to re-read.
3 means that I finished it and enjoyed it.
2 is thank goodness that's over.
1 is omg, I spent $ on that?

I don't mean to sound like a grouch but we're talking hardbound prices here, so look before you buy. Perhaps you'll find more to like than I did. But do take a good long look.

As is true of many of the reviewers here, I loved "Sullivan's Island," but it has all been downhill from there, and this one is truly, indescribably bad. Beth is an immature ninny who should have been reported to the SPCA for animal cruelty. Her little Yorkie, which she supposedly loves like a child, spends most of her life in a crate while Beth has sex or sits around drinking wine, and at one point is left in a hot car while Beth chats up a bookstore owner. Oh, and it only took until page 28 for the required African American servant to appear. Just once, couldn't Ms. Frank have her main character be friends with a black character who was, I don't know, a lawyer in town? Or a restaurant owner? Anything but the daughter of the former nanny, and who comes around to water the plants and deliver groceries to the ole family homestead because the 23-year-old trust fund baby who lives there (yes, Beth, honey chile, we all are talkin' about you, baby girl, honey lamb) is incapable of caring for herself. The plot takes a completely unbelievable and bizarre twist at the end, but guess what!!! Everything turns out peachy for our little Bethie!!!! And she discovers the True Meaning of Christmas! And Ms. Frank STILL has never met an exclamation point she didn't love!!!!!! Oh well, I guess she is laughing all the way to the bank.

Leave this drivel on the shelf where it belongs and read Luanne Rice's "The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners" for a truly intelligent, beautiful rendered story about a troubled family, set on one of the world's most beautiful islands.

One of my favorite writers, Dot Frank, will tell you once you've got Sullivan's Island sand in your shoes your heart will ache to return. Since the original SULLIVAN'S ISLAND was one of my all-time favorite books, I was aching to return and thrilled she decided to pen a sequel. Woe be my sandy flip-flops! Never has such a highly-anticipated book disappointed me so much, and it breaks my heart to say that.

The main problem is Beth, the central character, who is astonishing in her lack of common sense. Maybe it's an inherited trait because the beloved characters from the original seem to have undergone drastic personality transplants. I could never imagine Susan Hayes forbidding her daughter Beth, a recent college grad, from pursing her dreams and going on to graduate school to further her studies. What loving parent would demand their child baby-sit a haunted house for a year and further suggest it would be just grand to waitress at a local hotspot to finance this? And since this formerly interesting family is paying Cecily to come by everyday and check on things, pay the bills, etc. what exactly is the purpose of Beth being there other than to provide a weak premise for an even weaker story. Is there anyone who didn't see this ending coming early in the book?

Beth herself if the main reason I found this book so unlikable. She is a smart-mouthed, senseless moron (yes, at one point she says "I am a moron" and it was the truest thing she said in the entire book). Before I was a quarter of a way into this, I was annoyed by her incessant use of "for real" and "crap." For a would-be writer, Beth's vocabulary was definitely lacking. And as for her actions and motivations, she was more 7th grade than college grad. I was actually hoping something terrible would happen to her and she would get her comeuppance in a humiliating and overwhelming way. Unfortunately, a nice character has to die to make everything work out for Beth. In a most preposterous way, Beth commits a felony but comes out smelling, if not like a rose, at least like a daisy.

Also, I can't overlook the use of spirits haunting the family home. Unless you believe in ghosts, this book will be extremely lacking in substance.

I think Dot Frank was trying to tell us family is all that matters, a sentiment I can whole-heartedly agree with. Alas, she saved it for the epilogue and it was too little, too late. With all this being said, I have still not lost faith in Dot Frank's storytelling ability and will be first in line to purchase her next book, the sequel to another favorite, PLANTATION. Everyone deserves a second chance.

I loved the first book, SULLIVANS ISLAND, a terrific story about a middle-aged woman's painful divorce as well as her complicated relationship with her teen-age daughter. However, I was sadly disappointed in RETURN TO SULLIVANS ISLAND, and until I got past the first 75 pages, wasn't sure I wanted to finish it. Beth Hayes' extended family eats up most of the first 75 pages, and we don't get to know her very well until we're almost in the middle of this book. Most of this extended family are simply annoying as we don't really get to know them either.

However, after page 75 I did get interested in Beth who has been drafted into a year of house-sitting the family home on Sullivans Island while her mother, Susan, spends a year teaching in Paris, and her Aunt Maggie decides to move to California. This fact didn't make much sense either. How many families feel they have the right to hijack a daughter's life for an entire year just for their own convenience? Especially when she's just graduated from college and is making plans for graduate school. Unbelievable.

Beth is described as intelligent, a Boston College graduate, but some of the decisions she makes within weeks of arriving at the family home really don't track. I found this story simply strains believability. I came from a very large family too, but my relatives had too much respect for each other to behave the way Beth's family does. The only positive feeling I have after reading this book is a desire to see Sullivans Island for myself! It sounds like a beautiful place.

I have read most of the books written by this author and was really looking forward to this follow-up to Sullivan's Island. Unfortunately this just did not measure up to her previous book.

The beginning of the book starts off with way too many characters... hard to keep them all straight and really there wasn't much reason to do so. While there were a few amusing scenes there was actually very little that I liked about this book.

Beth a recent college graduate from Boston College and headed for her master's degree in English talks like a "valley girl" like totally fer shur. It's hard to believe she would be so stupid in her decision making. There were so many illogical scenes/scenarios it made the book ridiculous. I found myself sighing and saying to myself "this is so lame."

The "haints" or ghosts that inhabit the house, a Harvard PhD graduate in business doesn't bother to thoroughly research a sketchy investment deal, a hyper yappy-type dog that doesn't wake up when a stranger sneaks by his crate, the constant use of the word "humph"... all make for a very disappointing sequel.

This book really sounded like an interesting read to me, suspenseful and revealing, and I really looked forward to reading it. It turned out to be anything but.

The book starts out with Beth heading home to house-sit for a year while her mother and aunt are off doing other things. In the first 62 pages, we are introduced to a multitude of characters, family and friends, and given not only their names but some sort of description of them...history, job, habits, etc. It took me forever to get through this part and it turns out that most of those characters didn't need to be introduced. It just made for confusion. It reminded me of going to my husband's family reunion out of state, a large family of people I never met. I was introduced to them but I couldn't keep them all straight. That is exactly how I felt.

The book picks up a bit after everybody leaves and Beth has the house to herself. By this time, we have been hit over the head with multiple clues so that the more you read, the more tightly you wrap up the ending in your head, long before you actually get there. I wanted to like the characters but they just never seemed realistic. Honestly, some of the things they did or said were painful.

OK, so the story has unfolded and what's left is just what was implied. The romances were flat, unrealistic, and so obvious. The dilemmas, ditto. The little 'hints' throughout the book are like huge billboards giving away the story. The book ends up resolved so neatly and quickly that I felt denied even a decent wrap-up to a flat, predictable story.

I hate to be so blunt and so down on this book, but I am surprised I was able to read it all. I really gave it every chance I could. What could have been a good story with a little mystery ends up being an open book, so to speak. I would not reccomend this book.