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Bulls Island (Hardcover)

by Dorothea Benton Frank (Author) "Trouble..." (more)
Key Phrases: Big Jim, New York, Aunt Jennie (more...)
3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Will romance triumph over the feud between the aristocratic Langleys and the slightly lower-in-social-pecking-order McGees in Frank's latest Southern charm–filled romp? Though the answer is obvious from the get-go, the author fills this spirited tale with well-drawn characters, not the least of whom is formidable Charleston doyenne Louisa Langley. Betts McGee and J.D. Langley are uneasily headed to the altar—Louisa has a hard time with her son dating down. When Betts's mother dies in a car wreck, a generations-old grudge—abetted by Louisa—flares up, and Betts flees to Manhattan. There, she raises her son (J.D. didn't know she was pregnant when she left) solo and thrives in the distressed property turn-around business for a good 20 years until an assignment sends her back to Charleston to help develop a former wildlife refuge. The local partner in the venture is none other than J.D., who is now unhappily married and childless. Frank steers through several terrains with great aplomb as the story unfolds from both Betts's and J.D.'s points of view. Frank shines as Betts finds out if there's really no place like home. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"A warming female-empowerment tale with a side order of southern magic." -- Kirkus Reviews on The Christmas Pearl

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (April 8, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006143843X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061438431
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,328 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

54 Reviews
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 (20)
4 star:
 (10)
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 (11)
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (54 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets and Lies..., April 8, 2008
I'm not a 'professional reviewer', I'm just a very avid reader, so please keep this in mind when you read this review.

A very brief summary of this book - The main characters of this book are "Betts" McGee and J D Langley who, when we meet them 19 years ago are very young and very much in love. Through a tragic event on the day they become engaged, they seperate, Betts leaves South Carolina and breaks off from her family and JD. Moving forward 19 years and the true story starts.
This book is filled with a variety of emotional upheavals - I laughed through many chapters and cried through the same number, but the one thing you can't get around is everyone in this novel carries some kind of secret. Secrets and lies - this is the glue that seems to hold these two families together for bettter or worse. Ms. Franks writes with a vividness and Southern style that makes you want to be sitting on your front porch sippin' at a Mint Julep while you watch the 'gators slowly swim by in the murky river.

JD and Betts are thrown together again after 19 years when Betts, now a high-powered New Yorker, whose job it is to evaluate and restructure distressed properties for her company, finds herself forced to work on a project back home in South Carolina with Langley Developement , AND J D Langley on the Bulls Island project. Secrets and lies, and Betts seems to be hiding the bigggest secret and telling the largest lies.

I was more than half-way through this book, before Ms Frank started to make me worry that the secrets will remain untold and the lies would remain un-apologized for...more chapters went by and I started to gnaw at my finger-nails thinking she could never pull this off. Just when i thought I couldn't stand another moment of suspence it happened...Betts secret is out. I read the last chapters with much skepticism thinking that the ending was just too pat, too easy...too false. But thank God for the epilogue. It sealed the deal in making this a perfect beach -read and for making me go to the bookstore to pick up all Ms.
Franks books to add to my collection.

On a side note - In the first quarter of the book, Betts does have a bit of a fling with someone so totally out of her comfort zone, that I had to wonder why Ms. Franks bothered. But, the pieces seem to fall together in the last chapters and I see why she had Betts do
something so out of character!

I also wanted to let you know that I was so impressed and amused and happy with this book, that I immediately went out and bought 3 more by this author.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Case of the Incomplete Heroine, May 3, 2008
By Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Just when you thought you couldn't go another minute without a Dot Frank novel, she gifts her readers with the perfect beach book. The charm of the Carolina low country is facing a crisis, and our native-born heroine, now residing in New York City, returns home to deal with the new venture, estranged family, and the former fiancé she never forgot.

Betts McGee hasn't been home in twenty years. A tragic event and a dark secret sent her away, but when her successful career sets her on the path home, Betts must face a past she not only longs for but also fears to face.

Told in the intimate first-person style by Betts and occasionally by former fiancé J.D. Langley, the story moves toward the expected conclusion with a few tiny twists along the way. The problem is that Betts is not an entirely sympathetic character mainly because we see her as a highly successful career woman dining at New York's finest (Per Se, Grammercy Tavern, etc.) and living in a posh condo with numerous amenities. We don't see but rather hear in retrospect, the way those lost twenty years played out, the struggles she must have had and the torments that must have plagued her guilty conscience. So, Betts is not an easy person to sympathize with, though I'm sure a fuller picture of her would have corrected this if only the author had given us a more intimate look at her immediately after the events that threw her world into chaos. By skipping ahead twenty years, we get a successful woman who once upon a time had a problem. Of course, the "problem" reappears and must be dealt with. Again, Betts gets off rather lightly and the negative feelings towards her are pretty much skipped over until all is calm and she is reassured she is forgiven for her youthful errors in judgement.

That aside, the book is still well worth reading, as are all books by Dot Frank. However, I guess I was expecting a more tear-jerking saga about this particular problem that has been the source of so many heart-wrenching movies from the 40's and 50's. Dot Frank chose to keep it light and not make you cry in your pina colada while chilling on the beach....and maybe she had the right idea.






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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Dreadful, June 20, 2008
I'm so glad I didn't buy this book. I have really enjoyed DFB's books in the past. Betts is the snarky main character and throughly dislikable. Maybe every author only has X number of books to write. This was a huge disappointment.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT !!!!!
Another winner from Dorothea. Read it in two days, could not put it down. Great story, characters,lots of secrets. Parallel storylines that all meet at the end. Read more
Published 26 days ago by ems

4.0 out of 5 stars Good beach read
I've read all of Ms. Frank's books but was a little hesitant to get this one because they are all starting to feel like the same book with different character names. Read more
Published 1 month ago by PM

3.0 out of 5 stars This one missed with me
I found this story too contrived. It just didn't seem to flow as her others have. There were too many dysfunctional people populating the story and gaps in the history of how... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jean Kelso

3.0 out of 5 stars Used Book Buyer
I'm a senior citizen on a limited budget, being able to buy used books in such good condition is a real blessing for me. Read more
Published 3 months ago by gayle A. flick

3.0 out of 5 stars Very predictable
This was an easy read, not too much in depth. Betts, an older woman moves back home with her cat and starts over. Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Milligan

4.0 out of 5 stars In defense of females
It seems to me that some of these reviewers, who have asserted claims of unbelievable storylines and unrealistic characters, are forgetting what is at the heart of Mrs. Read more
Published 5 months ago by C. Thriffiley

1.0 out of 5 stars One of the worst books I have ever read
Boring, trite waste of time. Unbelievable characters in unrealistic situations. I have never before bothered to write a review, but this book was so bad I had to warn others away... Read more
Published 5 months ago by D. Bishop

1.0 out of 5 stars The Worst!
This was the worst book I have ever listened to........well, maybe not the worst because I at least stuck with it to its abysmal ending. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Nancy Hereford

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was hoping for
I have read each and every one of Ms. Frank's previous novels, and loved them all! Every time I finish one of her books, I decide I need to move to SC, and I'm immediately online... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Hawaii 5-0

5.0 out of 5 stars very good
i have never read this author before. really ejoyed reading and did not want to put down..good to the very end.
Published 7 months ago by C. baldock

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