Beach Trip: A Novel by Cathy Holton

Beach Trip: A Novel by Cathy Holton

Women's Fiction

True friendships, ones that grow with you and strengthen over time, are hard to find. Especially when everyone involved ultimately has to go their separate ways. Sometimes it's something you do or don't do; other times it's just the path that life takes you down. Whatever the cause, more often than not we, as a people, make our way through life with only a handful of timeless friends. Most others come in to our life for a season, and then silently slip away never to be heard from again.

For Annie, Lola, Mel, and Sara the journey hasn't always been easy. When they all met in college life was at an all time high. Studying, partying, and just goofing off together was the name of the game. It was a life they could all enjoy and it was what brought them together. But as often times happens, life eventually got in the way. The ties that bound the friends together began to stretch and even fray; leaving each girl alone to follow her own road in life.

Undeterred by the twenty plus years that have passed since all four women have been together, the friends decide it's time for a reuinion. It's a long overdue homecoming, and one that's sure to be a time of fun and excitement. Except before everyone can truly begin to enjoy everyone else's company they must each take a trip down memory lane and learn to let go. With years worth of experiences, both good and bad, under their belts each of the women must learn to move forward and live in the moment. They must all learn to forgive and forget, to live and to let live. It's a process that is difficult, but soothing like a cool salve to a fresh wound. And it's a process that is absolutely necessary if this beach trip is going to be a success.

Some novels reach out and grab you at the very first word, igniting a fire within you that renders you completely unable to put the book down. For me, this was not one of those books. Don't get me wrong, the story was good. However, try as I might, I did not feel any connection to the story or any of the characters. I had such great expectations for this book, considering it is about such a wonderful thing- timeless female friendship, which is why I found it incredibly odd that I could not get in to the storyline.

I love a book that grabs ahold of me in such a way that it enraptures me, but I found nothing here that did it for me. If I'm being perfectly honest, I actually struggled to get through it. The plot and characters were well developed and written, and each definitely had their shining moments. As a whole though, for me, none of it was exciting enough to hold my attention. Reading it actually became a chore because I was continually getting bored and easily distracted, which is very unlike me when it comes to a book that I think sounds as good as I thought this one did. So, I'm really not sure what to say. I know lots of other people who read this book had nothing but great things to say about it. That's wonderful, and I'm so glad to hear it. I'm just sorry I wasn't able to give it such positive marks myself.

~Bookish Mom, aka RebekahC