Beach House Memories by Mary Alice Monroe


My 2 cents:

I didn't expect to get hooked so completely. When I recently re-read Mary Alice Monroe's bestselling novel, Beach House Memories, I didn't know I'd get so immersed in the characters of Lovie Rutledge, Lovie's daughter, Cara, and best friend, Florence Prescott, and of course, the other main characters of the books, the turtles and the Isle of Palms itself. But, of course, I did.

Beach House Memories takes place in South Carolina's barrier islands, both in present-day and the summer of 1974. Read it for the love story. Between Lovie and Russell Bennett, a marine biologist, university professor and pilot. Read it for the 70's flashbacks. Joy perfume, Watergate, Carole King, bell-bottom jeans, the resignation of Richard Nixon, 10 cent newspapers, the Smothers Brothers and “Cherish” on the radio.

Read it for the turtles. Cara's first “hatching” is mesmerizing.

“She arrived just as there was a cave-in, and seconds later, the sand seemed to boil over with the hatchlings, one after the other scrambling out from the hole, flippers waving comically, rushing down the dune's slope to the sea. The light of the moon brightened the beach so that from the dune Lovie could see the hatchlings as tiny dark shadows, dozens of them, fanning out across the beach ...” (p.288).

And, lucky you! If you haven't read Monroe's first two books in this trilogy, The Beach House and Swimming Lessons, they're all there waiting for you. Just dive on in.


Length: 597 pages (Large Print)

Worth Your Time? Yes. Especially if you love the beach, turtles, family and tradition. Which is just about everybody.

Bonus: For readers in the North Carolina area, Mary Alice Monroe will be a featured guest at the “Book 'Em” event in Lumberton, NC on Saturday, February, 23, 2013. For details and more, go to www.bookemnc.org/ or www.maryalicemonroe.com/. 


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