Beach Trip: A Novel by Cathy Holton (Hardcover - May 12, 2009)

Beach Trip: A Novel by Cathy Holton (Hardcover - May 12, 2009)
When we first meet Lola, Mel, Sara and Annie in the first chapter, it is the very early 80’s in a small prestigious Southern College in North Carolina, but we aren’t going to stay there…oh my no! We have a long and winding road to go on and the author, Cathy Holton, takes pleasure in leading the way.
In the next chapter it’s 23 years later and we meet up with the ‘girls’ now women at the peak of their lives and they are going to meet up at the beach for a week long reunion of sorts. We learn how each of the woman have grown and how some have changed and that, well, some really have not changed all that much. The week becomes very cathartic, as past secrets that they all have been holding for these two decades are finally revealed. In addition, this is the crux of this novel…how we all have secrets. Secrets that even our very best friends do not know about, secrets that we don’t even want to admit to ourselves. Secrets that finally come out and bite us on the butt.
We have some very hilarious moments (Mel’s revenge on Mr. A Lincoln at the club and free dinner during Casino night for one) as well as some very emotionally scarring ones.
Ms Holton deftly swings from decade to decade, without getting the reader confused or pulling them out of the story, as so many authors have the habit of doing. She weaves the traditional tale of ‘best friends against the world’ with unique and strong characters.
I am not going to spoil anything for you, but let me say that this book does have several big revelations at the end. This is a book that you read the first time straight through with no stopping because you just know something important is going to happen. You want to read it again almost immediately, so you can fit the pieces of their lives together and see why they all chose the actions they did as well as have a clearer picture of the consequences of those actions.
A great, fast paced, well plotted read, with realistic characters and great secondary characters. It is a great story and Ms Holton is a great storyteller. Beach Trip is well worth your hard-earned book-buying dollar.