A reunion of four friends becomes a cathartic journey into the past in Cathy Holton’ s luminous new novel.
Mel, Sara, Annie, and Lola ... read full description
Mel, Sara, Annie, and Lola ... read full description
reviews
Mar 31, 2011
Cassi
rated it: 
I wouldn't recommend this book. There are so many things that I found annoying/unreal/frustrating about it. Yet, it could trigger some good feminist discussion, so for that one point, I didn't hate it.
What I don't like:
-The author has a few solid discrepancies that are pretty apparent. Timelines arent always accurate. Before a boat ride, one of the characters says shes never been on a boat in deep water but wait... thats the only way to get the island.
-Every female chara More...
What I don't like:
-The author has a few solid discrepancies that are pretty apparent. Timelines arent always accurate. Before a boat ride, one of the characters says shes never been on a boat in deep water but wait... thats the only way to get the island.
-Every female chara More...
Dec 07, 2009
Sarah
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jun 08, 2009
Lisa
rated it:
This is definitely a beach read in every way except for the fact that it is over 400 pages long. It is the story of 4 women who were college roommates more than 20 years ago and reunite to spend a week together in one woman's beach home. Everyone of them has had their trial and tribulations in the intervening years--of course--but despite the fact that they are supposedly still close enough that they want to spend a week together, they are not in the least forthcoming in sharing these things w
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Aug 28, 2009
Serena
rated it: 
"Writing wasn't about telling the truth at all; it was about rearranging truth, stretching it, and warping it to fit some safe and less-chaotic world of the writer's own making. And Mel has been doing that, in one way or another, all her life." (Page 215)
Cathy Holton's Beach Trip 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, the More...
Cathy Holton's Beach Trip 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, the More...
Feb 10, 2011
Kathy
rated it:
This book intrigued me because it was set on "Whale Head Island" - why bother with the pseudonym when EVERYTHING else about it is specific to Bald Head Island, NC -- my favorite place in the world!! Anyway, that small detail bothered me the WHOLE time. The story of 4 college girlfriends who have grown apart and are taking a week's vacation together 20+ years later--resonated with me. I read this book in two days, super easy read. As I was reading it on the Kindle, I kept thinking - ok,
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Jul 27, 2009
Cheryl
rated it: 
Looking for a great summer read? Look no further than "Beach Trip: A Novel" by Cathy Holton.
Mel, Sara, Annie and Lola were roommates and best friends at Bedford University in Mount Clemmons, North Carolina. After graduation, however, their lives took very different paths and the women grew apart.
Now in their forties, Lola invites her former college buddies to her lavish North Carolina beach house for a week, hoping to renew their friendship. As the story unfol More...
Mel, Sara, Annie and Lola were roommates and best friends at Bedford University in Mount Clemmons, North Carolina. After graduation, however, their lives took very different paths and the women grew apart.
Now in their forties, Lola invites her former college buddies to her lavish North Carolina beach house for a week, hoping to renew their friendship. As the story unfol More...
Jun 21, 2009
Kristi (Books and Needlepoint)
rated it:
After almost 25 years, four college friends plan a trip to the beach to try to rekindle their friendships and put the past behind them once and for all.
Lola is the trip planner and it is to her house on Whale Head Island, off the banks of North Carolina, that the four friends are headed. For one week they will get to enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other's company. Lola was always sort of the scatter-brained one in college and generally needed looking after. Captain Mike and April More...
Lola is the trip planner and it is to her house on Whale Head Island, off the banks of North Carolina, that the four friends are headed. For one week they will get to enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other's company. Lola was always sort of the scatter-brained one in college and generally needed looking after. Captain Mike and April More...
Sep 28, 2010
Kim
rated it:
Good beach book about four college friends, now with mostly grown children, reminiscing over their secret pasts.
A bit confusing at times to follow all the flashbacks to old relationships. And Holton could use some work on developing characters, for example:
In her character Mel, Holton does a great job portraying the classic inappropriate boundaries that are often displayed by alcoholics or children of alcoholics. She's so accurate that I found it difficult to like Mel ev More...
A bit confusing at times to follow all the flashbacks to old relationships. And Holton could use some work on developing characters, for example:
In her character Mel, Holton does a great job portraying the classic inappropriate boundaries that are often displayed by alcoholics or children of alcoholics. She's so accurate that I found it difficult to like Mel ev More...
Jun 08, 2011
Mary Anne
rated it:
This was an okay read - never really held my attention for too long at one sitting. For a light beach read, it was sort of long. The premise of four college roommates meeting up again after 20 years at a beach house in Whalehead, NC seemed promising. The first thing that bothered me about this book was that I have been to Whalehead, NC and even though it is on a remote section of the Outerbanks, it is not cut off, nor is it accessible only by boat. I am all for poetic license so to speak, bu
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Jun 15, 2009
Laura
rated it:
Thank you to Lisa at BooksOnTheBrain for sending my this book for her Summer Reading Series at http://lisamm.wordpress.com/.
The first thing I want to say is that I enjoyed the book.
The second was that it never called me back to read it further.
It is my favorite kind of book-- one that is primarily about the characters.
I liked the way the story flowed between the present and the past. It felt like as I got to know the women, they shared more parts More...
The first thing I want to say is that I enjoyed the book.
The second was that it never called me back to read it further.
It is my favorite kind of book-- one that is primarily about the characters.
I liked the way the story flowed between the present and the past. It felt like as I got to know the women, they shared more parts More...
Jun 04, 2009
Lisa
rated it:
After 23 years of little contact, four former college roommates reunite for a week-long tropical getaway on a small island off the coast of North Carolina. Mel, Lola, Annie and Sara were so much a part of each others lives while attending Bedford University in the early 80's. Mel and Sara's friendship went even further back to their elementary school days. They knew each other the way sisters know sisters. Their home lives were very different but that only deepened their understanding of ea
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Jun 08, 2009
Alea
rated it:
I loved this book! I expected to like it but hadn't realized how much I would love it! Wow! Being able to relate age-wise to someone in college easier than a 40something, I loved all the flashbacks to college probably more than anything. I hadn't realized the book would literally take us back to when these 4 girls lived together, figured we would just hear about it in passing, so I was very happy we got to be there for some of the important times that shaped their lives in college.
Fo More...
Fo More...
Sep 08, 2010
Laura
rated it:
This book was a good quick read and a relatively interesting story. It centers on 4 college roommates who met in college then go on to lead different lives with some less in contact than others. The story bounces between present day and when they met in the 80's. We learn about each of the personalities and what has transpired in their lives since leaving college and when they reunite on this beach trip. I liked the characters but must warn the reader that though there are some intriguing tw
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Apr 23, 2009
Carolyn
rated it:
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
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Aug 31, 2011
Jodi
rated it:
I really wanted to like this book but just didn't feel any connection to any of the characters. There were a lot of obscure references to the early 80s that I am just a couple years too young to get and a lot of references to obscure literature that the women read in college that wasn't familiar to me. I liked the idea of the 4 women getting back together 20+ years after college and spending the week at the beach together to reconnect and eventually share the deep secrets no one knew about the
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Jul 06, 2009
Nancy (Hrdcovers)
rated it:
NOT A GOOD TRIP
I am always, always in search of another great women bonding book similar to Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney or Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik. When I came upon Beach Trip, I thought it had potential. Certainly the cover was beautiful, the premise of four college roommates meeting up again some 20 years later was a good one and the author seemed to have a huge fan base. I was getting ready to leave for a Las Vegas vacation and decided this would be More...
I am always, always in search of another great women bonding book similar to Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney or Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik. When I came upon Beach Trip, I thought it had potential. Certainly the cover was beautiful, the premise of four college roommates meeting up again some 20 years later was a good one and the author seemed to have a huge fan base. I was getting ready to leave for a Las Vegas vacation and decided this would be More...
Sep 13, 2009
Vionna
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Aug 02, 2010
Debbie
rated it:
This was a summer bookclub selection about 4 college roommates reuniting 23 years later at the beach house belonging to one of them. It was enjoyable albeit tedious; told in present day and flashbacks to college days with most of the secret revelations coming more than 350 pages into this 400 page "beach" book. I admit I had trouble remembering which drama belonged to which girl but in the end what did it matter? The last 50 pages delivered a better than most climax. Like many summer e
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Aug 04, 2009
Kay
rated it:
I picked this up because I liked the cover photo and am going to the beach next week. Seemed like a good match. Not so much. The writing is ok but the plot creaks along and I could see the big surprise coming by the time I was on page 50. None of the characters felt real and it was so clear that the author was modeling the strongest character after herself with extensive enhancements. The cardboard characters made the book too shallow for my taste. I can, and do, read genuine crap if the char
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Aug 21, 2010
Colleen
rated it:
I received this book as a first-reads from Goodreads.com
This was the perfect end-of-summer read! A smart, fun reunion saga, Cathy Holton did the perfect job of highlighting how four friends can be so close and still hide so much from each other. While I found some key points to be slightly predictable (what the real conflict between Mel and Sara is; the secret Annie has been hiding since college; Lola's current secrets) I enjoyed watching these "sisters" emotionally bond a More...
This was the perfect end-of-summer read! A smart, fun reunion saga, Cathy Holton did the perfect job of highlighting how four friends can be so close and still hide so much from each other. While I found some key points to be slightly predictable (what the real conflict between Mel and Sara is; the secret Annie has been hiding since college; Lola's current secrets) I enjoyed watching these "sisters" emotionally bond a More...
Sep 04, 2010
Amanda
rated it:
I LOVED this book. All of the characters are great and I like the way the story is told.
One funny thing, that whoever edited didn't catch: on pages 82-83 when Mel and Sara's childhood is brought up and Sara's mom is mentioned, her name is spelled Lynnette 3 times and Lynette 4 times. Oops!
One sentence that really stood out to me was about Sara in describing learning her son had autism. "No matter what they said, she couldn't let go of the guilt, the feeling that his More...
One funny thing, that whoever edited didn't catch: on pages 82-83 when Mel and Sara's childhood is brought up and Sara's mom is mentioned, her name is spelled Lynnette 3 times and Lynette 4 times. Oops!
One sentence that really stood out to me was about Sara in describing learning her son had autism. "No matter what they said, she couldn't let go of the guilt, the feeling that his More...
Jun 05, 2010
Courtney
rated it:
I received this book for Christmas. My mom actually bought a different book, but the seller shipped this one by mistake. I put it aside, thinking I might read it if I didn't have anything else. I picked it up a few days ago and plowed through it pretty quickly. I'm not normally a fan of flashbacks and shifts back and forth in both time and character perspective in general, but in this book, it's very well done and isn't jarring at all. The author did a really good job with it.
Th More...
Th More...
Jun 30, 2009
Kathy (Bermudaonion)
rated it:
Four young women are assigned as suitemates when they're freshmen at Bedford University, a small Episcopalian women's college in western North Carolina. Even though they come from different backgrounds, the four become fast friends and remain roommates throughout college. The women haven't see each other in over twenty years when Lola calls and invites them to join her at her new beach cottage for a week. The four women are:
* Lola, the daughter of a former governor of Alabama - she's More...
* Lola, the daughter of a former governor of Alabama - she's More...
Jul 28, 2009
Farrah
rated it:
Loved these girls! Reminded me a bit of me in each and a bit of some of my own old gal pals. As an alumnae of an all girl’s liberal arts school myself in the south (North Carolina even… ;-) ) I understood the camaraderie between the different personalities that you might not typically place together. Holton had a way of creating that. She gave each their own personality, their own struggles, and of course their life-long friendship. I was glued when we went through the college flashbacks and
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Aug 26, 2009
Sheri
rated it:
Something always draws me to a book that has women on the beach on the cover on a vacation, seemingly. And the books are usually fun uncomplicated reads that I always truly enjoy as a break from heavy drama or murder mysteries. This one was such a book. It delivered just what I expected it to.
Former college friends get together to remember and reunite with what is happening in their present lives. Just to have fun and party. I liked the book. It's not heavy drama, just a nice escape.
Former college friends get together to remember and reunite with what is happening in their present lives. Just to have fun and party. I liked the book. It's not heavy drama, just a nice escape.
Oct 09, 2009
Vicky
rated it:
I thought this would be a fluff book, but I was wrong (AGAIN!!). It is about four college roommates who get together one summer and go for a week to Lola's beach house in North Carolina. But it's much more than that. They become close again, and start to confide old secrets. The ending was something so unexpected, it makes me want to read Cathy Holton's other books!! This hit home for me because for the last two years, I've gotten together with 2 of the 3 college roommates that I lived with.
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May 21, 2011
Tiffany
rated it:
Book was o.k. It took me until nearly half way before it wasn't completely easy to put it down, but I guess that is part of what would make it a good beach read.
I felt like some of the plot lines were incosistent with the characters otherwise. It felt at times like the author was just throwing bits in just to have something to reveal later (like Mel's big reveal at end of book). I also felt like the author diverted several times from character development to insert her own politic More...
I felt like some of the plot lines were incosistent with the characters otherwise. It felt at times like the author was just throwing bits in just to have something to reveal later (like Mel's big reveal at end of book). I also felt like the author diverted several times from character development to insert her own politic More...
Jul 30, 2011
Tina
rated it:
Just finished reading "Beach Trip" by Cathy Holton. I'd give it 3.5/5 stars. The characters were well developed and the plot quite intricate, but the pace was a bit slow and I found myself skipping paragraphs at times without missing anything important. The book definitely captured my attention though, and I had a hard time putting it down. A good read, especially if you're on a beach trip.
Jul 08, 2011
Alena
rated it: 
Picked it up as a "light summer read" but it was too light. Predictable plot lines, stereotype characters. When I realized after 175 pages that I still didn't care about any of these women, I threw in the towel. In fact I set it aside and started another book, hoping my curiosity about their "secrets" would draw me back, but not so much. I can live the rest of my life not knowing about their buried pasts.
I have too many good books sitting on my to-read shelf to spend any
I have too many good books sitting on my to-read shelf to spend any
Oct 08, 2009
Cindy
rated it:
A story of four college roommates who gather in North Carolina 20 years after graduating from a small Southern liberal arts college during the early 1980's. Each one has faced their own disappointments and challenges. I felt the book moved too slowly during the first 300 pages. The last 100 pages finally pick up the pace as the four friends share what is really going on in their lives.
