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The Beach Trees

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 3,547 ratings · 514 reviews

When struggling artist Morgan Guidry dies of a heart defect, she leaves custody of her young son, Beau, to her friend Ellie Holt, along with half of her Biloxi house and a portrait of a woman. In Biloxi, Ellie makes contact with the Guidrys, who are interested in knowing how she came to own the portrait, as Morgan stole it from her grandmother, Aimee. The woman in the pain...more

Kindle Edition, 432 pages

Published (first published April 12th 2011)

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Apr 09, 2013 Jacqie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kind of a vanilla book for me. The setting was what spoke to me most about the book. It made me want to be on a secluded beach, listening to the bird calls and smelling the breeze.

There are two protagonists in the book, Julie and Aimee. Julie's story frames the book. She has become the guardian to a five year old boy after his mother dies young of a heart condition. She takes him to New Orleans to meet his family and also to restore a beach house in Biloxi that she now co-owns with that family,...more Kind of a vanilla book for me. The setting was what spoke to me most about the book. It made me want to be on a secluded beach, listening to the bird calls and smelling the breeze.

There are two protagonists in the book, Julie and Aimee. Julie's story frames the book. She has become the guardian to a five year old boy after his mother dies young of a heart condition. She takes him to New Orleans to meet his family and also to restore a beach house in Biloxi that she now co-owns with that family, also thanks to the deceased friend.

Turns out that Julie's friend ran away from her home in the South and never looked back. The mystery to why she did is the puzzle to solve in the book. In the end, the friend's reasons seem extremely contrived and unsatisfactory. There was a gothic story here, but it wasn't handled well enough to really shine in that genre.

Julie's sister disappeared seventeen years ago. Since then, Julie's never really let herself have a life due to her guilt about possibly having been able to prevent the disappearance. She spends her nights trolling missing persons websites.

Aimee (a strangely modern spelling) is the other protagonist. She's the grandmother (or great-grandmother?) to this little boy. She begins to slowly tell Julie the story of her life in the 1950's. In theory this story is to help them "put the pieces together" and figure out why Julie left.

While Aimee's story is by far more interesting, for me it didn't work as a way to tell the reader the true story of the book. It's drawn out over months and months- this might build tension in a book but it's a ridiculous way to give another person information about a problem that you both want to solve. It might have been better to do the "lost letter" thing instead of having a living person hold back information, while still wanting that person to be sympathetic.

Julie is a real sad sack in the book. Of course, there's a romance, but I couldn't feel why the man in the relationship would be drawn to her, other than "she's gorgeous" in some non-specific way. Julie's pain is sad, but she's such a fuddy-duddy for a 29 year old woman that I got impatient with her a lot. She also had tons of time (and apparently money) to spend, docenting part-time at a museum while mainly focusing on the renovation of this house, playing with the child, and wandering on the beach a lot.

There's a kind of nasty undertone to the racial and homosexual aspects of the book. Turns out that one of the characters is repeatedly raped while her husband also has an affair with (or also rapes?) the hired help. A very weird, gothic dynamic, which never really gets explored. The race aspect seems very glossed over for an issue that definitely would have had a huge impact on how these people lived, and it was a shame not to examine it more thoroughly. And then there's the "crazy lesbian" trope which I definitely could have done without. Again, if explored intelligently it could have been a great issue- I'm sure that many women had to conceal who they were and tolerate sex that they really didn't want (I'm sure this still happens) in order to conform to the dictates of society. But nothing was done with the issue that made me think that the author had thought these tragedies through.

The difficulty of moving on after loss was what the author really seemed to want to address in this book, and she did a decent job of that. (less)

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Mar 26, 2013 Deborah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Julie Holt’s own Massachusetts family disintegrated after her little sister disappeared when Julie was twelve. Forever haunted by that loss, Julie grows up and moves to New York, where she meets struggling artist Monica Guidry, seemingly by chance. Monica, too, has been profoundly affected by family tragedy and has run away from her own family for reasons Julie has yet to learn. When twenty-eight-year-old Monica dies suddenly, she makes Julie the guardian of her five-year-old son, Beau, and wil...more Julie Holt’s own Massachusetts family disintegrated after her little sister disappeared when Julie was twelve. Forever haunted by that loss, Julie grows up and moves to New York, where she meets struggling artist Monica Guidry, seemingly by chance. Monica, too, has been profoundly affected by family tragedy and has run away from her own family for reasons Julie has yet to learn. When twenty-eight-year-old Monica dies suddenly, she makes Julie the guardian of her five-year-old son, Beau, and wills her River Song in Biloxi, Mississippi, which has been her family’s beachfront vacation home for generations.

Julie gives up her job in a prestigious New York art house and drives herself and Beau to what she believes will be their new home at River Song. But they arrive to find the house in ruins, the work of Hurricane Katrina. Julie next locates Monica’s grandmother, Aimee Guidry, and Monica’s single and attractive brother Trey, in their family home in the prestigious Garden District of New Orleans. Trey is hostile to Julie as he reveals that he owns a half interest in River Song. An attorney, he threatens her guardianship of Beau and insists she must sell him her interest in the house and return to New York.

But Julie stands up to him, inviting him to contact Monica’s attorney if he intends to dispute custody of Beau. Miss Aimee, delighted to see Trey unable to intimidate Julie, encourages and supports her. Neither Miss Aimee nor Julie know why Monica ran away from her family in New Orleans, but Miss Aimee invites Julie to hear Miss Aimee’s story and the story of the Guidrys. Miss Aimee believes that if she and Julie combine what they know, they will discover why Monica ran away.

Julie commits to rebuilding River Song with Trey although she wonders why people rebuild along the low coast where damage is inevitable from future storms. She is fascinated by the beech trees that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina which artists have carved into magical schools of porpoises and birds in flight. But to Julie these transformed relics are not harbingers of hope, but are, instead, the symbols of the inevitability of human loss to the powers of nature.

As River Song rises once again, stronger and more beautiful than before, Julie sees the softer side of Trey as he is drawn to Julie’s strength and courage. Their growing affection for each other helps them heal from a past marred by loss and family tragedy. By the end of the book, Miss Aimee and Julie have pieced together the Guidry family secret that drove Monica away and have discovered Monica’s meeting with Julie was not the product of random chance. As the darkness of the past falls away from the Guidrys at last, Julie and Trey discover they have a future together at River Song with Beau.

In telling Aimee’s story, Ms. West creates an authentic picture of Southern society in the fifties when women’s lives were confined by a fixed set of social rules. This is a beautifully written book about tragedy, rebirth, love, and hope. The love story is carefully woven into the darker Guidry family story so that when all the loose ends are tied up, the reader is left with a deeper understanding of the healing power of love and forgiveness and the strength of the bond between Julie and Trey.(less)

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Mar 18, 2013 Villate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an all right story. I was a little surprised by the "twist" of who murdered whom in one case, and a little surprised by the reason for the other murder (oh come on, really? I know it's New Orleans, but REALLY?). I liked that racism wasn't a huge theme of the story but that its influence was still felt and that it affected the actions of some of the characters - that seemed more realistic than the ham-handed behaviors portrayed in, say, "The Help." The main characters were a little too b...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Deborah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After finishing THE BEACH TREES, I longed for more of the story, and to go and see what New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are like. I closed the book, and it was as though I'd left some good friends behing!

Karen White's THE BEACH TREES is an excellent and compelling read! It begins with Julie, who has inherited (part) ownership of a home on the river in Biloxi, Mississippi, along with her best friend's five year-old son. Her deceased friend, Monica, died very young, of a congenital heart problem, a...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Kerry Hennigan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In travelling south to Biloxi, Julie Holt is travelling towards her future; one in which she has a home at the evocatively named River Song, left to her by her late friend Monica, and is step mother to Monica's son Beau. Or, it could just be another episode in her life of searching.

Julie's younger sister went missing when they were both children, but Julie has never given up hope of finding Chelsea, and never stopped feeling guilty for her sister's disappearance. Monica had reminded Julie of Che...more In travelling south to Biloxi, Julie Holt is travelling towards her future; one in which she has a home at the evocatively named River Song, left to her by her late friend Monica, and is step mother to Monica's son Beau. Or, it could just be another episode in her life of searching.

Julie's younger sister went missing when they were both children, but Julie has never given up hope of finding Chelsea, and never stopped feeling guilty for her sister's disappearance. Monica had reminded Julie of Chelsea, but now she too was gone, and Julie is not sure if she wants to take on the responsibility for everything Monica has left her.

To begin with, Monica has a family who, likewise, has never given up hope of hearing from the delinquent daughter who left home never to have further contact with her family. When Julie, a stranger, turns up with Monica's son in tow, and claiming to be heir to Monica's beach house, their suspicions are aroused.

Especially those of Trey, Monica's brother and, it turns out, part owner of River Song. But the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina has left it's legacy on Monica's once cherished house, and on the entire Gulf Coast.

It also seems that Monica knew something that Julie did not - about a connection between their two families that goes back a couple of generations. Aimee, the family matriarch holds the key to understanding what that connection is. The Beach Trees is as much Aimee's story as it is Julie's, and they alternate in telling the story that will somehow make sense of things to Julie's satisfaction. Or will it?

I have to admit I got a bit impatient with the alternating threads of this novel - the past and the present. I could not understand why anyone would deliberately take so long to give someone the answers they wanted to important questions. The problem is more one of the novel's structure rather than the story it tells.

But, there is plenty of atmosphere and empathy for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the lives lost, and the lives broken by loss of one kind or another and the heroic efforts to rebuild, as symbolised by the beach trees of the title. It is the setting and the peripheral events that surround the story that make it an interesting read.

But towards the end, like Julie, I just wanted answers without all the interruptions.

Review by Kerry Hennigan
Dec 26, 2012.
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Sep 21, 2012 Julie Barrett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Beach Trees by Karen White
What first attracted me to reading this book are the words, beach and trees, 2 of my favorite things.
This is a story about Julie Holt who has traveled to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina with a 5 year old boy, Beau.
Rayvon is the older woman who answered the door. Monica's son, Beau is now her charge and she had to explain about Monica's death. She knows of the family heart problems.
Monica's paintings were how the two women had met in New York.
The house in Biloxi...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Heidi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes I love Karen White, but this wasn't one of those times. Julie was made the guardian of her deceased best friend's 5-year-old son, Beau, and also inherited her late friend's beach house. So Julie left her life in New York and drove to Mississippi, presumably to take up residence in the beach house with Beau. When she got there, however, she found that the beach house had washed away during Hurricane Katrina. With nowhere else to turn, Julie contacts Beau's extended family, who, until th...more

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Sara It did get confusing at times, that's a fair statement. It was a ridiculous amount of tragedy for a group of people. I enjoyed reading this book but I...more
Feb 17, 2013 01:28am

Deborah First point: It was confusing at first, but then it fell into a rhythm, and I knew who everyone was. I loved the story! I, too, and wanted to read mor...more
updated Mar 06, 2013 12:02pm

May 06, 2012 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-rest-of-the-south

I imagine most people would acknowledge they have kept a secret to protect someone else’s feelings at least once in their life. In this novel, however, the secrets are many and have devastating consequences despite how fiercely attempts are made to guard them. Entering this culture of secrets is Julie Holt and a five year old boy for whom she has recently been made his legal guardian. Her mission, left to her by her close friend, his mother, is to connect him to his New Orleans/Biloxi roots. The...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Marilyn Rondeau rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Julie Holt and Monica Guidry become best friends with the young artist Monica, who because of artistry and zest for life had reminded Julie of her long lost sister who had disappeared some 17 years ago and whom Julie was still looking for. After Monica, who had congestive heart failure died, Julie received a legacy of a beach house as well as guardianship of Monica’s five year old son Beau. Julie decided to head to Biloxi and discover the beach house Monica had so loved and to discover why Monic...more Julie Holt and Monica Guidry become best friends with the young artist Monica, who because of artistry and zest for life had reminded Julie of her long lost sister who had disappeared some 17 years ago and whom Julie was still looking for. After Monica, who had congestive heart failure died, Julie received a legacy of a beach house as well as guardianship of Monica’s five year old son Beau. Julie decided to head to Biloxi and discover the beach house Monica had so loved and to discover why Monica had run and hid from her family for years; the same family whom she regaled with such heart warming memories of her family life and love. What Julie finds is a decades old mystery of love, betrayal, murder, and a powerful bond of family, strength, and endurance that gives her the power to let go of guilt and resume a life that had been stagnant for far too long.

*** First of all – THE BEACH TREES was an absolutely phenomenal read! It was extremely hard to put down and even harder still to stay away from as their were two subplots with main characters Julie in the present, and Aimee’s story from the 1950’s which were absolutely riveting. Normally I hate stories that go back and forth, but in this case it was what moved the entire plot along.

Ms. White did a marvelous job writing THE BEACH TREES and I especially enjoyed the way she treated Aimee’s story with exceptional pacing that allowed Aimee (now an elderly woman) to remember all the good times as well as opening up and letting her memories come together to forge the pieces of a puzzle from long ago fit together. It was emotional, sensitive and thoroughly entertaining.

Ms. White fashioned all of the supporting characters (Aimee, Beau, Trey, Gary, Ray Von and Wes) as essential in helping to move the story forward while allowing Julie to finally come and face some bitter truths about her own search for her long lost sister all of these years, intent on blaming herself for not watching her sister more carefully. The setting of Louisiana, (post Katrina) was a study in the Southern culture and a glimpse of the fortitude of the people who live there who hold dearly to their ancestry and love of their homeland in spite of the occasional hurricane that rips apart what they treasure most.

Bottom line: As mentioned in the beginning, this book is a phenomenal read with a powerful message of faith, and determination. THE BEACH TREES is highly recommended reading!

Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com
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Jul 17, 2012 Cherie Magnus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's one thing to have a facility with words, and it's another to construct an engrossing story with a smooth release of information. Ms White is a wordsmith, but much of the time in this novel there were too many of them, and too much reading the expressions of people, along the lines of "behind his eyes he kept his secrets to himself", and having an important recollection just beyond the character's grasp and memory all to create suspense. "Something floated by in my mind that avoided me." The...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, southern-fiction, women-s-fiction, family-drama

After reading, and enjoying, one of the author’s prior novels (On Folly Beach) I wanted to pick up another of hers. Julie is a newly minted guardian of a five year old, unemployed, and still haunted by the disappearance of her sister nearly twenty years before. In addition to being left the boy, she’s left a house on the Gulf Coast, which isn’t so much a house as a strip of land post-Katrina. I thought the concept of rebuilding in a place that has a decent chance of requiring future rebuilding w...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book. It started out a little slow for me in the beginning and I found it difficult to keep track of the different characters due to the two different life stories being told but after the first few chapters I was fine.

"The Beach Trees" is a story that takes place along the Katrina ravaged gulf coast of Biloxi, MS and New Orleans, LA, focusing on the lives of two women Julie Holt and the aging Aimee Guidry. Neither have met before but they are brought together by the death of Mon...more I enjoyed this book. It started out a little slow for me in the beginning and I found it difficult to keep track of the different characters due to the two different life stories being told but after the first few chapters I was fine.

"The Beach Trees" is a story that takes place along the Katrina ravaged gulf coast of Biloxi, MS and New Orleans, LA, focusing on the lives of two women Julie Holt and the aging Aimee Guidry. Neither have met before but they are brought together by the death of Monica Guidry, Julie's friend and Aimee's estranged granddaughter. Monica left Julie with the responsibility of raising her 5yr old son Beau, (whom the family had no knowledge of) and left her a beach house along the coast in Biloxi, MS in which to raise him in, as well as an old family heirloom that holds clues that may provide some answers not just for Aimee but for Julie as well. Both women have suffered tragic loss in their lives and may discover that they are more connected than they realize.

(The story is told from the narrative of both Julie and Aimee and the chapters go back and forth between the two. Sometimes when books are written this way, it can get confusing but author White, does a nice job and the women's stories flow evenly between chapters.)

While Julie is on her journey to fulfill Monica's wishes, she discovers that the beach house was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina and there is nothing left but an empty lot. She also discovers that Monica's brother, Trey Guidry, is part owner of the property. They don't exactly hit it off but are forced to work together for the sake of Beau and Aimee.

Aimee is the matriarch of the Guidry family and is kind and loving to everyone she meets regardless of race or social status. She was a reluctant witness to her mother's death when she was a toddler and still has nightmares into old age. She spent her summers in New Orleans, living with her grandmother who was both good friends and neighbors with the Guidry family. Aimee grew up with both Gary and his older brother Wes Guidry (before marrying one of them) and shared lots of memories with their family at yearly Mardi Gras balls and their beach house in Biloxi until the night that their mother, Caroline disappeared. She raised Trey and Monica, her grandchildren, when their parents weren't able too and was devastated when Monica left without a word, feeling her loss every day.

Julie spent the first twelve years of her life in MA until the year her younger sister Chelsea went missing. Julie has always felt responsible for her disappearance because she was the one who was supposed to be watching her. She has continued to search for her every day, well into her adult years, never giving up hope. In doing so, she has giving up having a life of her own outside of a career and while she is open and easily giving to those around her (she takes in Monica and Beau during her last year of life) she isn't very good at "living" life. The longer she stays in Biloxi though, the more she begins to feel like maybe the thing she's been searching for has been right in front of her all along and maybe, the people she's met, Aimee, Trey and Beau are the ones to help her find it.

Trey has spent the past ten years searching for his younger sister Monica. There isn't a day that goes by that he hasn't tried to find her or wonder why she left, somehow feeling like he's to blame. Having lost so much in his life already, his grandmother, Aimee is all that he has left and he wants to do all he can to protect her so when this stranger Julie Holt shows up with a "stolen" family heirloom and his nephew who is an almost mirror image of his sister, the lawyer in him comes out in full force. He struggles to understand why his sister would choose to stay away all these years, not contacting him, especially after Beau was born and why, her supposed "best friend", knowing so much about him and his family, wouldn't have encouraged her to call or come home. As the pieces of the mystery of his family begin to come together, he realizes that maybe he and Julie aren't so different after all.

There is a great deal of detail about the gulf coast, what it was like before and during Katrina and what the area looks like now. Even though this is a story of fiction, it still brought back the memories of the live news coverage of Katrina for me and the sorrow I felt for the people of the gulf coast and New Orleans. Like the people in real life, the people in this story chose to be defiant and to rebuild, to "look up". One of the quotes that I loved from this book that sums up the spirit of the people of the Katrina ravaged areas, the ones who chose to come "home" and start over is:

"Look up," I told Johnny, and he did, his mouth. "Remember that all right? When everything you're about to see is too much, look up and see that the sky is clear and know that everything is going to be all right." ~ Aimee Guidry (after Hurricane Camille 1969)

Pretty good advice for just about any hardship we face...

This book has a little bit of everything in it, love, romance, heartbreak, forgiveness, murder, unsolved mysteries, you name it, it's got it. Well, unless you're looking for sparkly vampires... ;) (less)

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Jun 20, 2011 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Julie Holt knows better than most that “death and loss plague you”, she’s had a lot in her life and now as she starts on this new and frightening adventure she feels it all again. Being named as guardian to her friend’s small son after her death leaves more questions than answers for Julie so she loads herself and her small ward and goes to the other thing left to her by her friend, a home in Biloxi Mississippi named River Song. When she arrives it’s to see only empty landscape where once a hous...more Julie Holt knows better than most that “death and loss plague you”, she’s had a lot in her life and now as she starts on this new and frightening adventure she feels it all again. Being named as guardian to her friend’s small son after her death leaves more questions than answers for Julie so she loads herself and her small ward and goes to the other thing left to her by her friend, a home in Biloxi Mississippi named River Song. When she arrives it’s to see only empty landscape where once a house stood and so she takes her next step in this journey to the family that her friend left behind. Maybe she’ll find answers, maybe she’ll find solutions or maybe she’ll just find more questions.

Reading a novel by Karen White always reminds me of salt sea breezes, sitting on a swing on a wide wrap around porch and sipping sweet tea and I always have one handy to read during my long Midwest winters while ice pelts the windows and the furnace works overtime to heat my home. This novel is no different only that I read it during the humid late spring instead.
Set in the aftermath of the storm known as Katrina, Ms. White gives us in this incredible read a story line that will appeal to the mystery lover, the romance lover, the family drama lover and the literary fiction lover all in one with a tale that will entertain and educate us as she takes us deftly on her twists and turns and knots our emotions as she spins her tale. She gives us her narrative with a bit of southern hospitality mixed with New England stubbornness and an all American apple pie goodness. Her characters will endear themselves to us and by making them so believably real she also makes them temporary friends as each person she creates becomes someone we must know better and we do. She will also give us a hint of a romance to come and explore love stories gone by and the secrets, tragedies and milestones they’ve endured.

So come with me on this sentimental journey, learn to love again, learn to hope again and learn to live again with her incredible story and the people who tell it. This is your first must read of the summer, a perfect beach read, a vacation staple and a friend you’ll look for again at another point down your road.
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Jul 29, 2011 Laurel-Rain rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A breathtaking and lyrical tale unfolds as we meet, in turn, two female characters: Julie Holt, a New Yorker and native of Massachusetts and Aimee Guidry, maternal "great-grandmother" of Julie's best friend Monica Guidry.

After Monica's death, Julie takes Monica's son Beau back to Biloxi, to the beachfront property left to them in Monica's will. What Julie finds, however, is a storm-ravaged home (Katrina) and dead beach trees. Her journey next leads her to the home of Ray Von Williams, who gives...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Brittany rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very excellent read. I was not expecting this. I love how it intertwined both romance, suspense, mystery, and loss. It was interestng having it placed where hurricane Katrina hit and hear a little piece of history. The book shed light on things people go through in life, as well as, what life was like for some people affected by the storm. Julie's best friend Monica died of heart problems, leaving her 5yr old son Beau, in her care. Julie takes him back to Monica's hometown in NEw Orleans to see...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Julie's younger sister disappeared without a trace when Julie was twelve. Her mother never gave up hope that she would be found, and when she died, Julie continued to search.

While working at an auction house in New York City, Julie meets Monica Guidry, a single mom and struggling artist who reminds her of her sister. Monica has secrets, her family in New Orleans, why she left them, and most of all, a heart condition. The heart condition takes her life and she leaves her son and half a beach hous...more

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Mar 31, 2011 Hayley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: review

The Beach Trees by Karen White

About The Book:
The moving new novel from bestselling author Karen White. From the time she was twelve, Julie Holt knew what a random tragedy can do to a family. At that tender age, her little sister disappeared - never to be found. It was a loss that slowly eroded the family bonds she once relied on. As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friend...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Lyndi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 27, 2011 Judy Iliff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Karen White has done it again with The Beach Trees!

Julie Holt has experienced grief and tragedy in her life. As an adult, she is a works for an art auction house in New York. She meets Monica Guidry who becomes her best friend, but who dies of congestive heart failure and makes Julie the guardian of her son as well as ownership of a beach house in Biloxi, LA. Julie quits her job and takes Beau with her to New Orleans to claim the house and hopefully meet Monica's grandmother and brother.

While...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Kristy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I would recommend this novel to anyone going on vacation! Its the perfect beach read. It has drama, tragedy, romance, and mystery all rolled into 400 pages. It didn't take long at all to read once you got into the story. Julie Holt receives guardianship of her best friend's son and ownership of a beach front property in Biloxi when she dies. Throughout the novel, with the help of her best friend Monica's relatives; including her grandmother and brother they uncover the awful truth about the Guid...more

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May 13, 2011 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the Beach Trees, Julie has been handed a very unexpected inheritance: five year old Beau, the son of her close yet mysterious friend Monica. With no friends or family to provide support, she moves from NYC to the Gulf Coast beach home also willed to her. Her despair and fear overwhelm her when she discovers this beach home in utter ruin after Hurricane Katrina. She is left with no home and only one clue to as to how to find any of Beau’s relations, a portrait painted by Julie’s famous grandfa...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Julie's best friend, Monica tragically dies from a heart problem at an early age. During the time that they have been friends, Monica has told stories and drawn pictures from her life in New Orleans and Biloxi. It was so detailed that it brought life to the stories of when Monica grew up and yet she never told Julie why she left the family that she loved dearly to live on her own with her son in NYC. When Monica died, however, Julie discovered that she was now the guardian of Monica's son and th...more

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May 16, 2012 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed-do-not-own, book-club-selection

I really, really liked this book. I'd give it 4.5 stars. I think those who've really experienced loss can perhaps more appreciate the beauty of this book than those who haven't.

Things that struck me:

The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over. -Aesop

When you lose your sails, row. - Roman proverb

Live so that you tempt not the sea relentless
Neither press too close on the shore forbidding...
Thus in stormy days be of heart courageous
And...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I like the idea of this book--the setting, and characters, and the mystery--but something about it just seemed inauthentic to me. After a while I started highlighting sentences that looked like they were thrown in just to add length and didn't really fit. For instance at one point, the heroine, who is 30 years old, is shocked to learn that people flash to get beads at Marti Gras. Really? And it mentions that the little boy doesn't have any photographs of his mother. Neat idea to add some drama,...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another "who-done-it" by Karen White. Like her "House on Tradd Street" series, this is story set in the South. Gulf Coast post Katrina and the oil spill- I enjoyed the story , but was not crazy about the style- she uses 2 narrators and they switch about every other chapter. A few surprises, but mostly predictable. Focuses on family ties, family secrets, and most of all family tragedies. The Premise is that a "friend" dies, and leaves her small son with the heroine appointed as his guardian- I fo...more

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May 25, 2011 Molly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Molly by: TLC

Shelves: book-review

I absolutely LOVED this novel! It's not your everyday novel...it's BETTER than that! If you are looking for a well written, mostly serious yet at times funny, beach read, look no further than Karen White's THE BEACH TREES. Her style is unique and gripping and will keep you hooked to the very end.

The characters found amongst these pages are both complex and real. Julie and Trey both experience the tragedy and stress of loosing someone they love. But, when both are faced with decisions and huge r...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you think solving one mystery in a novel is kind of a challenge, what about 2, 3, or 4? The Beach Trees is a compilation of many unanswered questions beginning with why some one would give custody of her only son, and half ownership in a beach front home hundreds of miles away in Biloxi, Mississippi. While living in New York, Julia meets and befriends a young lady from the south. Finding they have a love of art, especially the artist Abe Holt, they draw close enough that Monica leaves her son...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chick-lit, mystery

The cover of this book says that White "leaves her readers hungry for more while helping them to feel totally satisfied." I think that about sums it up. This is a murder mystery with a bit of romance added in. It is narrated from two perspectives one from the 1950's and the other from the current day. The plot revolves around the rebuilding of life after several devastating events and uses the symbolism in the rebuilding of New Orleans and Biloxi after hurricane Katrina to deliver the message. I...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery-thriller

3.5 stars. There's quite a bit going on in this book that takes place in present day and flashbacks to the 1950's. Julie Holt's best friend Monica has died and left her 5 year old son in her care. She also left her a painting and keys to a beach house. Julie must piece together why her friend disappeared years earlier from her family and why she has a painting of a missing woman who surprisingly was painted by Julie's grandfather. Reaching out to Monica's grandmother, Aimee, gives her the answer...more

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May 23, 2011 Janie Boyd rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 75-books-in-2011

The Beach Trees is an intriguing and engaging read. I couldn't put it down! The family history that Julie investigates is gripping-a very intense whodunit. Miss Aimee's story is compelling and I'm so glad that Karen shared it with us. Her (White's) description of the Gulf Coast is phenomenal! I have lived in the South all my life, but never felt the intensity of hurricane season until reading this book. I have always wondered why people chose to build, and rebuild, in the areas devastated by hur...more

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Womens Fiction > Chick Lit

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American > Southern

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Mystery

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Romance

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Book Club

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Adult Fiction

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Womens Fiction

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Contemporary

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Historical Fiction

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Quotes from The Beach Trees

“I know what it is to hope and pray so hard that you're sure God will answer your prayer just so you'll stop asking.” — 19 people liked it

“The answers we seek aren't always the answers we want, are they? But knowing the truth is what helps us sleep at night.” — 16 people liked it

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