Beach Trip

By: Cathy Holton

Narrated by: Linda Stephens

In Cathy Holton’s winning novels, the popular author sketches insightful portraits of women even as she displays a rare talent for balancing humor and heartache. Beach Trip finds four middle-aged friends convening at a beautifully appointed beach house - and reexamining their lives.

©2009 Cathy Holton (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Break out the tissues, sunblock, and margarita mix as four friends reunite after twenty-three years for a beach party in Holton’s feast of Southern friendship.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Recording detracts from book!

The space between chapters and sections was so long I thought the book turned off everytime! It is distracting.

The narrator is tough to believe and you often hear mouth sounds.

I liked the story but not the recording. Poor performance!

I’m a sucker for a good friendship book

I especially like groups of 4 or more friends. Beach Trip not only hit that mark, but it is written from multiple perspectives (each character) and from a present timeframe, when the group is mid-40s as well as back when they were in college and had just met.

Beach Trip follows Mel, Sarah, Lola, and Annie, four unlikely friends brought together as college roommates, through the next few decades of their lives. Each of the women has their own secrets kept and needing to confess. The women meet for a long-time coming reunion on a secluded island where Lola has a house, a yacht, and what seems to be all the things a person could ever want. Mel, snarky as ever, has written ten mediocre novels by now, but couldn’t keep a relationship if she were paid. Sarah has family troubles that she has hidden from her friends, and Annie has a secret kept since college. During this week of over-indulgence, confessions come, fences are mended, and hearts are broken.

Beach Trip takes a sudden, unexpected turn at the very end (which I sort of saw coming, but not in the way it played out), and leaves the reader with a lot to think about. But don’t worry, it has a HEA.

This book was published in the early 2000s and when I researched other books by this author, I was saddened to learn she passed away of a terminal illness in 2013. Her family, however, has completed her other unpublished manuscripts. Bravo!

If you like a solid, clean, yet complicated friendship novel, this one is lengthy, but worth the time it takes. Thanks for writing, Beach Trip. Rest in peace, Cathy Holton, I will be reading your other work.

the narrator reading was not a good choice

The narrator did not do a good job with inflections at the right timing, and her overall reading ability was more than a bit frustrating at times when I knew it was to be read/taken in a different tone or manner.
Good story line though, so I forced myself to listen to the bad reader.

Great book

great book , was hard at first but once I met each of the ladies. It was great

Couldn't finish it!

Couldn't even finish it. The narration was horrible. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the story, but couldn't get past the narrator's voice.

Couldn’t finish. Lost interest

The story was all over the place. I count finish it. The story between each character was to long to much on the past and not in the present.

Narrator is really BAD!

Would you try another book from Cathy Holton and/or Linda Stephens?

The story was good, I liked the characters but the narration was so bad it took away from the book.
Narrator was horrible. She sounded like she was 100 years old and might not make it to the end of the book. As a southern girl myself, no one here in the south sounds like this....even if they were 100 years old.

Would you recommend Beach Trip to your friends? Why or why not?

NOT in this format, i am sure the book was a fine read.

How could the performance have been better?

It was beyond repair. I have not listen to this narrator before so I am not sure if she was trying to fake a southern accent or her voice was just that

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

disappointment