Spring is the Perfect Season for Southern Fiction

by Susan Roberts

I recently spent a week in the South Carolina low country, and while I was there, I re-read some of the books that I’ve enjoyed that take place in that beautiful area.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

4 Christmas Novellas For Joyful Reading

by Susan Roberts

Life can get pretty hectic around the holidays.  Even though you might want to read, there just isn't time to read an entire novel.  Here's a list of a few Christmas novellas that you can read in one sitting. 

Need more recommendations? Check out all of our 25 Days of Christmas Reading posts.

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Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank @DorotheaFrank ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

I have been a fan of Dorothea Benton Frank since I read her first book twenty years. When you start her books you know that you'll be back in the Lowcountry of South Carolina with a bunch of quirky characters and a great plot that will make you want to pack your bags and head to the beach.

By Invitation Only by Dorothea Benton Frank ~ A Review #MondayBlogs

by Susan Roberts

Dorothea Benton Frank has been publishing books since 1999 and I am happy to say that I've read every one of them. Her books are Southern Fiction at its best and are the first indication every year that summer is just around the corner. This book is a bit different for her because the South Carolina beach is not a 'character' in the book but it still has her signature style and is a fantastic read that will have you laughing out loud during parts of it.

Same Beach, Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank

by Susan Roberts

a lovely novel about love and friendship and keeping marriages happy

Amazon affiliate links are used in this post. An ARC was provided for an honest review.

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

May 2017; William Morrow; 9780062390783
ebook, audio, print (384 pages); women's fiction

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.

My Review:  I am a real fan of Dot Frank and know that when her new book comes out every spring, it's time for summer and the beach! I have enjoyed all of her books but this is one of my favorites -- but I think that I say that every time I read one of her books.

Eliza and Adam had been happily married for several years and were spending their vacation on the Isle of Palms with their toddler twin sons when Adam sees Eve - his first love from high school. Eve is at the same vacation complex with her husband Carl and their young daughter. They make plans for the two families to meet for drinks and even though they both tell their spouses that they were friends from high school, neither goes into detail about how deep their love for each other was. Sparks fly between Adam and Eve, even though they are both happily married, and it's apparent to Eliza and Carl that they were more than friends years ago. They manage to build a friendship between the four of them and they meet at the same complex at Isle of Palms every year until something happens years later to ruin the friendship and possibly the marriages. Will they be able to overcome the transgression that appeared to happen and become friends again?

This is a lovely novel about love and friendship and keeping marriages happy as people head into their later years. I enjoyed all four of the characters but thought that Eliza was the most real and the best of the four. She grew more as a character and was able to learn to be herself and love who she was as a person and not just as a wife and mother. I also, as always, loved the setting. I love books about the SC Lowcountry - the beach and the sand and the feeling of being there with the characters always makes me enjoy a book even more.

Buy Same Beach, Next Year at Amazon


About the Author:
Dorothea Benton Frank was born and raised on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the Lowcountry Tales Series which includes the books Sullivan's Island and Plantation. Her title's Porch Lights, The Last Original Wife, The Hurricane Sisters, All the Single Ladies, and All Summer Long made the New York Times bestseller lists in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling.  She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends.  She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook.

Get even more book news in your inbox by signing up for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/mHTVL. Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.

Upcoming Beach Reads

by Susan Roberts

May is my favorite time of the year to go the beach in South Carolina.  The weather is warm and the beaches aren't crowded yet.  You can walk on the beach and enjoy the sun and the surf and think about the beauty that surrounds you.  Several of my favorite Southern authors have books releasing soon that take place at the beach - usually in the SC Lowcountry - and they always help to remind me of how much I enjoy my time at the beach.  How about you....do you have a beach that you enjoy somewhere in the world?  I'd love to hear about your favorite beach in the comments below.  I'm always ready to take a road trip so I need some good suggestions.

Amazon affiliate links are used in this post. Advance Readers Copies were provided for honest reviews.

April 2017; Gallery Books; 9781501158056
ebook & print (400 pages); women's fiction

Slightly South of Simple by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Kristy Woodson Harvey has done it again!! She has written a book that has fantastic characters, wonderful setting and an engaging plot. This is book one of a new trilogy and I can't wait to read the rest of the story.

Three very different type of sisters end up living with their mom at her home in Peachtree Bluff, Georgia for various reasons: Caroline lives in NYC and her husband is having a very public affair, Emerson, an actress, has a new role that is shooting in Georgia and Sloane's husband has been deployed to the Middle East. Ansley, their mom, has spent a lot of years living on her own and having all of her daughters plus three grandchildren (with one on the way) at her home, wrecks havoc with her quiet life. I really don't want to tell you much about the story, I just want to say that this book is Caroline's story and focuses most on her life. What I do want to write about are the best parts of this book:

SETTING - as with Kristy's other books, this one is at the ocean. You can smell the salt air and feel the ocean breezes as you read the book. The setting is practically one of the characters.

PLOT - there is a lot going on in this book but it is well told and so much fun to read. Yes, I will admit that there were several laugh out loud moments as well as a few tears.

CHARACTERS - to me this is the strongest part of this novel. I loved these characters. I feel like they are people that I know and that I could sit down at the table and have a cup of coffee with them. The sisters are so different from each other but the bond between them is unbreakable.

SUMMARY - READ THIS BOOK! It's a wonderful story about growing up and overcoming adversity. It's a story about love and family - the sisters are wonderful and that bond between them and their mother, though tenuous at times, continues to grow. It's a wonderful book about love and family and isn't that what life is all about?

Buy Slightly South of Simple at Amazon

May 2017; William Morrow; 9780062390783
ebook, audio, print (384 pages)
women's fiction

Same Beach, Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank

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 power of friendship, the enduring promise of summer, and the indelible bonds of love.

Available May 16
Buy Same Beach, Next Year at Amazon 

June 2017; Gallery Books; 9781501125461
ebook, audio, print (416 pages)
women's fiction

Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe

When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Fordham for the entire summer, it’s a win-win by any standard: Cara’s generating income necessary to keep husband Brett’s ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, a young artist who’s been given a commission to paint birds on postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted.

It isn’t long, however, before both women’s idyllic summers are altered irrevocably: the alluring shorebirds—and the man who rescues them—begin to draw Heather out of the shell she’s cultivated toward a world of adventure, and maybe even love; at the same time, Cara’s life reels with sudden tragedy, and she wishes only to return to the beach house that had once been her port amidst life’s storms. When Heather refuses to budge from her newfound sanctuary, so begins the unlikeliest of rooming situations. While they start out as strangers, as everything around the women falls apart they learn that the only thing they can really rely on is each other.

And, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island for the summer, these two women of different generations must rediscover their unique strengths so by summer’s end they, too, can take flight in ways they never imagined possible.

Available June 20
Buy Beach House for Rent at Amazon

July 2017; Berkley; 978-0399583117
ebook & print (352 pages)
women's fiction

The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry

Bonny Blankenship's most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Amid the sand dunes and oak trees draped with Spanish moss, they swam and wished for happy-ever-afters, then escaped to the local bookshop to read and whisper in the glorious cool silence. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey's mother disappeared.

Now, in her early fifties, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. During lazy summer days and magical nights, they reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long ago loves return like the tide.

Available July 11
Buy The Bookshop at Water's End at Amazon

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling.  She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their grandson.  Susan reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook.

Get even more book news in your inbox by signing up for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/mHTVL. Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.

4 Books to Read Before Summer Ends #MondayBlogs

by Susan Roberts

Ahh...the long lovely days of summer when you can sit and relax at the beach or the pool and read a good book.  Here are some of my favorite beach reads so far this summer.

All Summer Long by Dorothea Benton Frank

Olivia is an interior designer in New York City. As a long time resident, this is the life that she knows and loves. When she married her husband Nicholas, a professor and historian, she promised that when he retired, they would relocate to Sullivan's Island near Charleston SC. That time has come and Olivia needs to make the move but the problem is that she has severe cash flow problems due to a down turn in her work and she hasn't shared that information with her husband. Add in some very rich and very crass people that they go on a yacht trip and you have an interesting look into the life of the rich and famous - and that life didn't look too great! The book is about the move and whether Olivia can make the transition and still keep her business and her husband happy.

I am a long time fan of Dorothea Benton Frank and have read all of her books. She writes lovingly of the South Carolina low country and you feel that you are sitting on the beach when you read her descriptions. The only thing that I didn't like about her new book All Summer Long is that more of it took place in NYC and on a yacht than in SC so there was little time to spend in SC. As a long time reader, I would have preferred more time in SC and lots less in NYC. Despite that, I enjoyed this book and thank the author for my first glimpse of the beach (though a short glimpse) this reading season.

Buy All Summer Long at Amazon

A free book was provided by LibraryThing for this review

Flight Patterns by Karen White

“That we need to ask for forgiveness even when we believe we’ve done nothing wrong.” She paused, as if wondering whether she should continue. “And to forgive ourselves. That’s usually the hardest kind of forgiveness.”
― Karen White, Flight Patterns

I have read all of Karen White's books and each time I read a new one, it becomes my favorite of all but Flight Patterns may just remain my favorite. I absolutely loved this book from page 1 until the end.

Georgia moved to New Orleans from her family home in the Florida panhandle ten years ago. A client at the auction house where she works needed information about a set of Limoges china that his grandmother had left him. When Georgia realized that she had seen a piece of China in the same pattern at her home, she was forced to go home and confront the reasons that she had vowed that she would never return. At home, she had to deal with her estranged sister, niece, grandfather and her mother who hadn't spoken in 10 years.

The characters are very well written and the plot has enough mystery to keep you rapidly turning the pages. Not only is it a good story but I also learned a lot about Limoges china and enjoyed all of the information about bee keeping. My husband has several bee hives so that made it even more interesting and I learned some facts that I wasn't aware of.

This is a fantastic book about family and love and most importantly about forgiving those that we love.

Buy Flight Patterns at Amazon

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

You can always depend on Jenny Colgan to write a book that's fun to read and very interesting. This is a book about books, so you just know that you're going to like it. Nina is a librarian who loses her job in Birmingham due to modernization. After trying to decide what she wants to do next, she realizes that her main love is books so she decides to open a book store. Realizing that she can't really pay for a building, she comes up with a plan to buy a big van and own a bookstore on wheels. The only van that she can find that fits her needs is in the highlands of Scotland. After buying the van and not being able to get permits in her home town, she decides to stay in Scotland. While there, she meets a variety of fun characters and several potential boyfriends.

I thought that this was a fun book to read -- I loved the main character and enjoyed all the problems that she had to solve to get books to the people who wanted to read. This would be a great book for the beach - I highly recommend it.

Buy The Bookshop on the Corner at Amazon

Family Tree by Susan Wiggs

Annie Rush is the producer of a very successful cooking show starring her husband. They are in love and deliriously happy. When she rushes to the set, to tell him that she's just found out she's pregnant, she finds out that their happy marriage was a sham. An accident on the set, puts her in a coma for over a year. When she wakes up, she has no idea of where she is or how she got back to Vermont. She doesn't remember her husband or her successful cooking show. As she begins to recover, she finds her life completely changed. Will the town she grew up in, her family and her high school boyfriend be able to help her heal? Or will she want to return to the life that she knew in California?

I have always enjoyed Susan Wiggs books and I thought that this was one of her best. This was a wonderful romance and a fantastic story of recovery from the physical and mental blows that life can deal. . I highly recommend this novel - it was a great story with real characters that the reader can really identify with. I really liked Annie but she was surrounded by some great secondary characters that made the book even better. If you're enjoyed Susan Wiggs in the past, you definitely need to read this book. If you haven't read her books, now is the time to start and this is the book to start with.

Buy Family Tree at Amazon

Susan Roberts, reviewer. Susan grew up in the Detroit area but after deciding that city life wasn't for her she moved to North Carolina after college. She and her husband have several acres of land and they enjoy gardening and canning vegetables in the summer. They travel extensively. Susan reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook or Twitter.

Get even more book news in your inbox by signing up for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/mHTVL. Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.