Beach Trip

Beach Trip by Cathy Holton

As you might assume, Beach Trip is a good book to read while on a beach trip. It follows the lives of four girlfriends, who being their friendship in college and maintain the bond throughout their lives. But this friendship doesn't always come easily. And when they reunite for a vacation on the beach, there is hesitation and some doubt as to whether the trip will be a success. Although light with stereotypical stories of friendship and the constant accompaniment of booze, there are some deeper portions of the novel that make you ache with -- and maybe even relate to -- the characters.

From Publishers Weekly on Amazon.com:

Break out the tissues, sunblock and margarita mix as four old friends reunite after 23 years for a beach party in Holton's feast of Southern friendship (after The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes). Mel, Sara, Annie and Lola head out to Wild Dunes, a beachfront palace owned by Lola's super-rich husband on exclusive Whale Head Island in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Spacy Lola is miserably married and leans heavily on medication to deal with her husband's manipulations. Obsessive-compulsive Annie still broods over a college fling with a married professor even though she's got a great husband. Social worker Sara still envies glamorous Mel, a witty crime novelist (I'll Sleep When You're Dead is her latest) living in New York who's unlucky in marriage. At 45, each stands at a familiar crossroads covered by many novels of the midlife-empowerment genre, but Holton refreshes the action with winning humor, especially with Mel, whose take-no-prisoners attitude inspires everyone to embrace their present and let the past go. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.