Review and Blog Tour: Beach Trip by Cathy Holton

For the first time in twenty years, four college friends get together for a week long beach vacation, to relax, reconnect and enjoy some time together. They all went their separate ways after being roommates at North Carolina's Bedford University in the eighties. Now in their forties, they couldn't be more different, but the bonds of friendship remain strong despite the years, and the secrets, that have passed by.

Mel is the wild child of the bunch. Married and divorced twice, she never had, never wanted, any children. She lives in Manhattan and is a fairly successful mystery writer. She's a tough cookie, very independent, she has learned to take care of herself. She had to, with the difficult and overbearing father and largely absent mother she had to deal with in her childhood.

Sara is happily married with two beautiful children and is a lawyer. She and Mel have been friends since they were very small children. While Sara enjoyed the luxury and chaos of visiting Mel's home, Mel loved the simple homeliness of Sara's normal parents and family life. These two girls were as different as it is possible to be, but were friends for almost two decades, until after college. Now they barely speak and haven't seen each other in years.

Anne Louise, or Annie, married her childhood sweetheart and has two boys in college. Her hair has gone prematurely white and she lives a perfectly ordinary life. A creature of habit, she obsessively cleans and schedules, carving order out of her little corner of the world, striving to forget the one mistake that haunts her still.

Lola, sweet, pliable and beautiful, is the daughter of a wealthy politician and her mother never let her forget it. All her life has been lived for appearance's sake. Lola is aware of her own limitations, she is not strong enough to stand up to her controlling husband, Briggs or her indomitable mother. She can count on her mother to always team up with Briggs and she has no chance against the two of them. She is weary of being manipulated.

The trip will change all of them in some way. As they reminisce about their years together and talk about their lives apart, old wounds are opened up and old grievances aired. Sometimes the best medicine is friendship.

This novel is about the powerful bonds that draw us together and the value of those relationships that not only support us but help us to see ourselves more clearly. The characters come to life, they are complex and beautifully drawn and the story is very well written. It resonated with me, these women are at roughly my age and stage of life and their issues struck a chord with me and I found myself longing for a group of friends like this. There is something special about the female bond of friendship and Cathy Holton has captured that in this excellent novel.

Please visit the author's website for more information about all of her books.

I received this book as part of a blog tour for TLC Book Tours and I would like to thank TLC for sending me this book for review. Here's the schedule for the tour:

Tuesday, June 2nd: S. Krishna’s Books
Thursday, June 4th: Books & Cooks – Lisa
Tuesday, June 9th: Pop Culture Junkie
Wednesday, June 10th: Books and Needlepoint
Thursday, June 11th: Educating Petunia
Friday, June 12th: Bookworm with a View
Monday, June 15th: Caribousmom
Tuesday, June 16th: Books on the Brain - Summer Reading Series Discussion
Thursday, June 18th: Books on the Brain
Tuesday, June 23rd: The Book Faery Reviews
Wednesday, June 24th: Thoughts of Joy
Thursday, June 25th: Books and Cooks-Tara
Friday, June 26th: Peeking Between the Pages
Monday, June 29th: It’s All About Books
Tuesday, June 30th: Bermuda Onion



Beach Trip is published by Ballantine. ISBN 978-0-345-50599-6