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Beach Trip

by Cathy Holton (Goodreads Author)

3.57 of 5 stars 3.57 · rating details · 1,442 ratings · 203 reviews

A reunion of four friends becomes a cathartic journey into the past in Cathy Holton’ s luminous new novel.

Mel, Sara, Annie, and Lola have traveled distinct and diverse paths since their years together at a small Southern liberal arts college during the early 1980s. Mel, a mystery writer living in New York, is grappling with the aftermath of two failed marriages and a stall...more

Hardcover, 406 pages

Published May 12th 2009 by Ballantine Books (first published April 25th 2009)

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Mar 31, 2011 Cassi rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 character is pathetic in pret...more

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Dec 07, 2009 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Jun 08, 2009 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 wit...more

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Aug 28, 2009 Serena rated it 3 of 5 stars

"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, their relationships are w...more "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, 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.

"'Twenty years from now,' Annie said, looking thin and melancholy. 'I don't want to be sitting around regretting the past. I don't want to be sitting around thinking about what I should have done.'

Mel gave her a heavy look. 'Twenty years from now, none of us will remember any of this.'" (Page 5)

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.

"'I'm so glad you're here,' Sara said, smiling at Annie. 'We need someone to keep us in line.'

Mel swung her arm around her head like she was twirling a lasso. 'Crack that whip,' she said.

'Crack it yourself,' Annie said. 'I'm on vacation.'" (Page 25)

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 examines the complicated relationships of women with a flare of wit, humor, and sarcasm.(less)

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Feb 10, 2011 Kathy Ginocchio rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: total-chick-lit

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, I am 50%...more

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Jul 27, 2009 Cheryl C. rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 unfolds, a past filled with secrets thr...more 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 unfolds, a past filled with secrets threatens to be revealed, and their lives may never be the same.

Cathy Holton knows women's fiction and she writes it well. "Beach Trip" opens in the Spring of 1982 with an event that will have a long lasting impact on Lola and her three friends. The reader quickly moves to the present day in 2005, where Mel, Annie and Sara are deciding if they will accept Lola's invitation, each coming up with reasons why they shouldn't. This is the format for most of the book and it works well, allowing the backstory to easily be woven into the current events.

Holton's strength is definitely character development. In Mel, Annie, Sara and Lola she has created four complex, multi-faceted women whose past is closely woven into their present. I found the backstory in this novel to be more engrossing than the present-day happenings, though admittedly, from the moment I picked this book up I couldn't put it down.

Through dialogue and well-drawn descriptions, the author paints an excellent picture of the setting and culture of the area. While I have never been as far south as Wilmington, after numerous trips to the Northern Outer Banks region, I felt very at home in Lola's world.

There are moments when you might not care too much for these women, especially Mel, who is really tough to understand and appreciate. But in the end, I truly believe that most readers will see a little of themselves somewhere within this book's pages.

A cathartic journey that comes to a surprising and superbly written conclusion, "Beach Trip" by Cathy Holton should be on your summer reading list!
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Jun 21, 2009 Kristi (Books and Needlepoint) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arcs

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 are Lola's h...more 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 are Lola's hired help and they do a good job of taking care of her - because even after all these years - she still seems to be the fragile one. After college she had married her mother's pick of men - and left the man she loved behind. For the last 20 years he has kept her medicated so she would remain 'happy'. She has successfully raised one son who is soon to be engaged.

Annie was the housekeeper of the bunch. She always appeared to walk the straight and narrow. Her friends refer to her lovingly as being anal-retentive or as having OCD tendencies. She raised two sons who have left the nest and she has been at loose ends.

Sara and Mel had been best friends, as close as sisters - and just as competitive, before college. All this even though they came from vastly different backgrounds. Mel was the only daughter of a self-made millionaire who tried to make up for with money what he lacked in parenting skills. Sara came from what she deemed a normal household - middle-income, hard-working parents. She loved the time she spent at Mel's with their many arguments and the unending wealth. Mel went on to become a novelist after college and has been unlucky in love. Sara went on to become a lawyer and married the love of her life.

What secrets have these four women been keeping from each other since college? How will these secrets be revealed - and will they tear them apart - or make their bonds stronger?

I loved this book. It sort of helped me to evaluate my own life as I just recently went back to my 25 year high school reunion. It is set in the present time, telling the years since they were college seniors up to the beach trip in flashbacks throughout the book. Little by little the women's lives unfold and their secrets are slowly revealed. You are left holding your breath until the very end for confirmation of what the true secrets are and how they have effected each woman over her lifetime - and how it will affect their friendship now.

Beach Trip would be a great beach/vacation read. It is full of heartaches, true loves, loyalty lost and found and the deep bonds of girlfriends!
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Sep 28, 2010 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 even when the author event...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Mary Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars

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, but wh...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Joy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good book. I would recommend reading it from the library or if someone gave it to you. The problem with this book is that one would think that it would be a "light" read, but it isnt. There is tension between some of the characters that just stressed me out. Sometimes, tension is good I guess and I have read and liked books with it, but for some reason, this was just a stressful tension in the book. Also, all of the ladies in the book had their own demons that they were dealing with and their ow...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Laura de Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit

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 of their history with me, bringing me closer to t...more

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Jun 04, 2009 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 each ot...more 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 each other even though they didn't always see eye to eye. Mel was the outgoing one and Sara could see through Mel's shenanigans.

Mel came from a very wealthy family with a controlling, bullying father and a mother who was completely intimidated by her husband. Adding to the dysfunction was Mel's older, drug addicted step-brother, Junior. Sara always liked visiting Mel's house to escape the rules that were expected to be followed at her family home. Mel on the other hand, was so infatuated with Sara's family, especially her mother, who Mel was completely enamored with. She loved the order and obvious care that Sara's mom put into everything she did.

Annie was always the reliable one. She always did 'the right thing' and she knew what was expected of her. But in her senior year of college, Annie had a secret that she shared with no one. That secret defined her life and it wasn't until this trip that she began to appreciate the choices and life she'd made.

Lola was always the dreamer of the group. Being the daughter of the former governor of Alabama, there were certain expectations put on her. Her domineering mother had more of a say as to what Lola's life would become than anyone.

Now in their forty's, each of these women have their own reasons for feeling apprehensive about this beach trip. Mel and Sara's friendship had suffered since their sophomore year of college when they met J.T. Radford at a party. Sara was instantly attracted to him, but being the shy one, she watched as Mel swooped in and with her beauty and outgoing personality stole his heart before Sara even had a chance. Sara, more than anyone, knew that Mel would eventually break his heart but she kept her feelings for him buried.

Annie didn't know what to expect from this trip, but with her two sons now in college, she was feeling a bit out of sorts and being with the other girls from her college days was bound to bring up old memories and feelings that she has tried to put behind her. Was she ready for this trip? Or would she regret it?

Lola was the hostess for this reunion. The beach house they would stay in belonged to her husband, Briggs, her boyfriend from college. The marriage was more of a deal her mother made rather than a union of love and respect. Lola tried once right before college graduation to get out of the marriage, but that met with terrible consequences that Lola was still living with. And one of the other girls had played a big part in it as well. She was still the dreamer, but behind her breezy, little girl manner, was a woman who longed for something she may never have.

BEACH TRIP by Cathy Holton is the perfect book for this summer. Reading it made me want to pack a bag, hit the sand and be with my gal pals while drinking fruity, frozen concoctions. The binds of these friendships are flawlessly explored and secrets are revealed in a way that makes you say, I knew it! Cathy Holton doesn't show all her cards at once. She does it beautifully, keeping the curiosity going while telling the stories of each of these unique women.

Most of the story takes place in 2005, the year of the reunion, with flashbacks to their college years, revealing important events that shape their lives. Each of the characters has a likable personality and I found them easy to relate to. Sara and Lola were my favorites - Sara for her devotion to her family and Lola for her vulnerability.

As someone who lives in the South and loves Southern Fiction, I appreciated Ms. Holton's style of writing. This is her third novel published by Ballantine/Random House Books and I'll be checking out the other two as well. If you'd like to learn more about Cathy and her books, you can visit her website, cathyholton.com. If you'd like to read an excerpt from BEACH TRIP, simply click here.

With summer knocking on our doors, kids being out of school and summer activities crowding our schedules, having a book like BEACH TRIP to read is the perfect way to relax and enjoy the season.

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Aug 01, 2012 Keely rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Jun 08, 2009 Alea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-for-review

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.

For some reaso...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 twists...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Marti rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: zzz-2012-summer-list, zzz-books-2012, time-limit-library, oceans-and-seacoasts

The book, Beach Trip by Cathy Holton was a story about a reunion of four roommates who were in college together. The four were all in different places in life, yet they all met at Lola's beach house for a reunion. Mel is a blocked writer from New York. Anne is a lawyer who feels guilt about her children. Annie runs a successful business with her husband, who can't let the past go. Lola who is married to a difficult controlling and lives on pills. Each brings something to hide from one another. T...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Lynn Harris added it

My book club read this, or I wouldn't have chosen it to read. It contains some good writing, some beautiful description, but it's not really my kind of book. I read the first 140 pages, and then I got tired of waiting for the payoff, so I read the last 50 or so pages. I don't feel like I missed anything. I didn't rate it because that's not fair when I didn't read the whole thing. Still, it didn't compel me to keep reading once I hit 140 pages. I didn't much like Mel, and I couldn't understand wh...more

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Apr 23, 2009 Carolyn Jourdan rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 clu...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Jodi rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

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 them....more

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Jul 06, 2009 Nancy (Hrdcovers) rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 the book I...more 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 the book I would take with me. Reading on the plane, reading at the pool....I could picture it all as I was packing my bag.

So I started it en route to Las Vegas leaving from Philadelphia and probably put it down by the time we reached Ohio and opted instead for a magazine. That was not a good sign as Ohio connects to Pennsylvania. So I tried again at the pool. After about 10 pages, I put it down thinking perhaps it was too hot outside to read. Each time I picked it up, I had a different reason for putting it down. The book jumped back and forth between the years the girls were living together in college in 1980 and their week's vacation on Whale Head Island, North Carolina twenty-three years later. As the story was jumping back and forth, I was doing the same thing in picking it up and putting it down.

At this point, I'd like to make a statement about women bonding books. If you are an author and you want the reader to bond with these women, the reader has to like them. Why would a reader bond with characters they don't like? I didn't like any of these characters. And, here's another tidbit...if you have your characters drinking from the minute they wake up in the morning until they close their eyes at night, I like them even less. I'm not saying that a reader has to like every character in every book they read. But in a "bonding" book, such as this, it would help.

I can't figure out if I liked them less as college students or less as the women they became. In college, we will meet Lola....beautiful and from a wealthy political family where the world will be her oyster. When we meet her again, she has married the man her mother has chosen, seems very ditsy and definitely is not in love. Then there's Mel....very outgoing in college and getting every guy she wants. We meet her again and she is twice divorced, very outspoken and definitely can't commit to one man. In college, Sara stood in the background and didn't go after what she wanted. Later she is a married attorney with an autistic son but definitely able to go after what she wants. Annie is the OCD college student spending more time cleaning than enjoying her college days (or so her friends think). Now she is married and experiencing empty nest syndrome while still cleaning her house with every waking hour she has.

Now I ask you, do these sound like women you would want to be friends with? During the vacation week, when they aren't drinking, they are eating and fighting and shopping and lounging and trying to pick up younger men and drinking some more. It's here that many of the secrets, that were supposedly hidden from the reader and each other, will be exposed. I can't imagine that there are too many readers out there that didn't figure out these secrets long before the author chose to spell them out.

You're probably wondering how I ended up finishing this book after putting it down so many times. It all happened in the Las Vegas airport when my flight home was delayed three separate times because of bad weather in Philadelphia. At one point, we had already gotten on the plane only to be told to get off again. So in a way, the book ended up giving me a respite from all the aggravation I was feeling with my situation. I just wish the book I had chosen for this trip had been a better one. (less)

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Sep 13, 2009 Vionna rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Sep 14, 2012 Lee Coleman rated it 2 of 5 stars

i'm being generous, giving this book two stars. the book was gifted to me by a friend, as my three girlfriends and i went away for the weekend to block island. she thought the book was cute and appropriate, i thought it was a thoughtful gift, and i wanted to finish the book to show my appreciation.
what i (barely) liked: i was begrudgingly intrigued enough to read to the end to see how the book concluded. although, my parting thought was relief it was over, more than satisfaction of having read...more i'm being generous, giving this book two stars. the book was gifted to me by a friend, as my three girlfriends and i went away for the weekend to block island. she thought the book was cute and appropriate, i thought it was a thoughtful gift, and i wanted to finish the book to show my appreciation.
what i (barely) liked: i was begrudgingly intrigued enough to read to the end to see how the book concluded. although, my parting thought was relief it was over, more than satisfaction of having read a well told story. the four friends were okay (believable, likeable) but at the same time flat and unremarkable.
what i disliked: 1. the writing constantly flipped between the present and past of four different characters....so the story felt choppy and hard to get into. 2. i think the book was meant to build to a very revealing climax, but it wasn't sucessful or well done. the author left the (not so) deep, revealing conversations to the VERY end of a 400 page book. annoying. 3. i hate when an author sticks a ridiculous word (thaumaturgy) and its definition, in a book. and not just once, but multiple times. and it isn't relevent to the story. maybe she thought it was, but it was forced and distracting. same goes for an alcoholic drink and its recipe (margaronas). mildly interesting to maybe recreate the drink if it seemed intruiging, but felt like the author was dared or paid to put it in the novel. actual dialogue: "title IX ensures that there'll be more female college grads in the future than male ones". again, it feels more awkwardly informative and unecessary than genuine or realistic. 4. WAY too many cliche turns of phrase, many used more than once. she references "the elephant in the room" repeatedly. the reader should just "know" there is an unspoken tension....spelling it out just shows the author was not confident she got that across. the author also went overboard with the "moonlight shining", the "cicadas chirping", the "pachelbel playing" (or references to jimmy buffet playing in the background), or literary disagreements about "the madwoman in the attic" or "middlemarch". i'm sure the author is trying to set the mood or describe the setting, but it feels so sophmoric and trite.
overall: slow, choppy, no REALLY big secrets revealed or confidences shared. just okay. disappointing.(less)

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Aug 02, 2010 Debbie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 endeavors i...more

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Aug 04, 2009 Kay Wright rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 charact...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Colleen Turner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-read

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 and separate as they pla...more

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Sep 04, 2010 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 affliction was somehow a puni...more

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Jun 05, 2010 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit

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.

The story is one of...more

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Jun 30, 2009 Kathy (Bermudaonion) rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 led a privi...more

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Jul 28, 2009 Farrah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-reviews, my-books

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 lau...more

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Aug 26, 2009 Sheri rated it 3 of 5 stars

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.

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About Cathy Holton

Cathy Holton continues to entertain readers with her stories of strong, intelligent women trying to survive in an often hostile world. The Boston Globe says “Holton has a lively, fluid style that shifts easily among the viewpoints’ of several characters and goes down as easily as sweet tea,” while Entertainment Weekly calls her prose “Sharp, witty, and warm.”

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Books by Cathy Holton

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6325827-beach-trip?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320508938l/6325827.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6325827-beach-trip?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Beach Trip by Cathy Holton[/url]

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