Review: Same Beach, Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank

Same Beach, Next Year

by Dorothea Benton Frank

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 384

Format: book

Buy the Book: Harper

Goodreads:  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.

Kritters Thoughts:  Dorothea Benton Frank is one of those authors when pitched their book by anyone I don't read the synopsis, I just say YES!  I picked this book up and by the first few chapters I was nervous this was going down a road I wouldn't enjoy - cheating couples and such, without spoiling TOO much there may be a little of it, but it by no means was as much as I thought it could be.  

So let me back up a little.  There are two couples and a man and woman from each couple have a little bit in their past, their high school days, but happen at the same vacation spot with kids in tow and from there their lives take a turn.  I love how they come and go out of each other's lives but clearly make an impact.  

The epilogue just sealed the book with a great bow, not a nice and pretty bow and there is room for another book to follow (please!), but a great bow that made me really end the book with a smile on my face knowing where these two couples were headed next.

I love her writing.  I love her setting.  I love her characters.  Dorothea Benton Frank can just do a great book.  I will still continue to say yes to reviewing her books without a synopsis in hand.

A special shout out that is semi unrelated to my thoughts on the book, the daughter of one of the couples headed to Elon for her college education and it was just fun to see my alma mater show up in a book!


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.