TLC Book Tours Book Review: Same Beach, Next Year

About Same Beach, Next Year

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (May 16, 2017)

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank returns to her magical Lowcountry of South Carolina in this bewitching story of marriage, love, family, and friendship that is infused with her warm and engaging earthy humor and generous heart.

One enchanted summer, two couples begin a friendship that will last more than twenty years and transform their lives.

A chance meeting on the Isle of Palms, one of Charleston’s most stunning barrier islands, brings former sweethearts, Adam Stanley and Eve Landers together again. Their respective spouses, Eliza and Carl, fight sparks of jealousy flaring from their imagined rekindling of old flames. As Adam and Eve get caught up on their lives, their partners strike up a deep friendship—and flirt with an unexpected attraction—of their own.

Year after year, Adam, Eliza, Eve, and Carl eagerly await their reunion at Wild Dunes, a condominium complex at the island’s tip end, where they grow closer with each passing day, building a friendship that will withstand financial catastrophe, family tragedy, and devastating heartbreak. The devotion and love they share will help them weather the vagaries of time and enrich their lives as circumstances change, their children grow up and leave home, and their twilight years approach.

Bursting with the intoxicating richness of Dorothea Benton Frank’s beloved Lowcountry—the sultry sunshine, cool ocean breezes, icy cocktails, and starry velvet skies—Same Beach, Next Year is a dazzling celebration of the infrangible power of friendship, the enduring promise of summer, and the indelible bonds of love.

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Review: Dorothea Benton Frank brought her "A" game with "Same Beach, Next Year." Every summer I look forward to reading her latest book. They go hand and hand with the warm months.

The last few summer reads were what my high school creative writing teacher called potboilers.

"Same Beach, Next Year" has the usual formula of all Dorothea's Lowcountry books; a beautiful home at the beach, a husband that has done his wife wrong, and some quirky characters. Oh and don't forget all the characters are in that upper middle class category, where the wife works for the husband, but not really because she has to.

For some reason I just really fell in love with Eliza, Adam, Eve and Carl. It was very kitschy that Adam and Eve were high school sweethearts that still kind of have feelings for each other.

The way Adam reacted to seeing Eve again was a bit over the top, but without that connection the friendship that grew between the two families wouldn't come to pass and for all of each character's faults and flaws these were two families that really were one.

I loved Eliza more than I have any of Dorothea's heroine's thus far. She was real. She was gutsy. She was a woman I'd want to be. Her reactions to things that happened as the story progressed were very much the way I'd see myself reacting.

I love how she finally started to care about her dreams. Eliza needed to be more than a wife and mother.

The family members in this story are all fabulous. I adored Adam's dad Ted and his lady friend turned wife Clarabeth and then there was Eve's mother. OMG Eve's mother, Cookie, she is just the world's biggest troublemaker. She lives to cause trouble, and you will see her in action so many times in this book. (Cookie seriously needs her own book, so we can see how she got this way)

This is a family saga of the best kind. You have the ups and downs and some serious troubles, but in the end...its all family.

This is one for the keeper shelf.

Rating: 5 flowers

About Dorothea Benton Frank

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank was born and raised on Sullivans Island, South Carolina. She resides in the New York area with her husband.

Find her on the web at www.dotfrank.com, or like her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.