Return to Sullivan's Island

warm family drama

Having just graduated from college in Boston, wannabe writer Beth Hayes returns to her family home on Sullivan Island, South Carolina while her mother spends time in Paris; mom had asked her daughter to house-sit while she is in France. Beth looks forward to the quiet time at her family home Island Gamble to contemplate her future and hopefully begin her writing career though she lacks confidence in her skills.
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She also looks forward to seeing the extended family, the successful twins Sophie and Allison, Susan, and Uncle Henry; she also plans to hug her Miss Manners-reincarnation Aunt Maggie, her Uncle Timmy and her stepfather Simon before the trio travel to California. Beth soon enjoys her trysts with total opposites Max Mitchell and Woody Morrison, but that will darken her RETURN TO SULLIVAN ISLAND.
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Dorothea Benton Frank returns to the Lowcountry with a warm family drama that is filled with humor, compassion, and sadness. The extended cast is solid, but this is clearly Beth's tale as she struggles with a lack of confidence when faced several times with difficult choices. Readers who appreciate deep complicated relationships will enjoy the RETURN TO SULLIVAN ISLAND.
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Harriet Klausner

4 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

This was simply NOT Dorothea's best work.

I am usually an avid fan of Dorotheas, but the main character was simply not believable. She was just too silly for my notion. I love anything about the S. Carolina coast so I read all of the book, but I was surely disappointed.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A Very Disappointing Read

A very disappointing read from an author who usually writes excellent novels. No empathy developed for the main character, who acted less responsibly than I would have expected from a high schooler. In fact, I was so impatient with the novel that I kept putting it down and reading other books - surprised I finished it.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Disappointing

I cannot recommend this book. Do read Sullivan's Island. I would also recommend Bulls Island, Isle of Palms, and Shem Creek.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Forgot about it . . .

This was the worst book I read from Ms. Frank and I read all of her books. I don't think I will be waiting for her next one. I was so bored that I had to skip a page or two to get through it. Perhaps this was written for the new generation in their 20's. Good luck selling books to them.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

I Know it's Bad When I Start Skipping Pages.

Having just finished Sullivan's Island I was thrilled to see Return to Sullivan's Island available and ordered it right away. I had been asking all of my friends and family to read the original as I enjoyed it so much. I can't say how disappointed I was about 100 pages into Return. It was so sophomoric and predictable I could barely finish it and was continuously skipping pages just to get to the end. Don't even bother with this one unless you are a vapid 23 year old.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Disappointing to say the least

I have read all of Ms. Frank's books-loved the original Sullivan's Island and Plantation. This book was insipid-from the irritating jargon from the daughter to the easily guessed-plot. I felt ripped off- like she threw together a book to make a few more million from the people who were eagerly awaiting a real book. I hope she has not done the same thing to Plantation-I think I'll check out her books from the library from now on.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

not so great

I usually love her books. This one fell way short, the characters were just not real enough and the house ghosts too silly. If this was the first book of hers I read, I probably would not read her again. But I know her previous books were more plausible, more enjoyable, better character development and great summer reads.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

What happened?

I have read all of Dorothea Benton Frank's novels and eagerly looked forward to this new one.

As with her other novels Frank's focuses on life in the low country and this novel is no different in that respect. The overall theme is an aspiring writer, Beth Hayes, returns to Sullivan's Island to housesit for a year while her mother is off to France and her aunt is somewhere else.

What unfolds next sounds like something from a Nancy Drew novel with ghosts creaking in the night and upsetting bed linen and a sophomoric crush on a bad boy while ignoring the good boy. I thought I had left high school behind. Frank's books have always had such rich characters and they always left you wishing to be in her books, but not this time.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Return to Sullivans Island

It was slow to start. I couldn't get into the ghost thing. It seemed
written for someone much younger than me.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

You can't go home again

I found this book to be a complete waste of reading time. The characters were not close to being real, and by the 2nd chapter you want to kill them. Also, anyone who lives in the low country knows everyone has air condioning in their homes....it's too hot and humid even in the evenings with an ocean breeze. The plot itself was far fetched, and the twin aunts was pulled out of the air. I was very disapointed in her book, and I don't think I will purchase another.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Another good read from Dorothea Benton Frank!

For anyone who enjoyed her previous book, "Sullivans Island", this book is a chance to get reacquainted with some of those wonderful characters and to meet some interesting new ones. I enjoyed Ms. Frank's descriptions of beautiful Sullivans Island and the low country, and I always enjoy her wit. Great summer read!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recommended

1st book I read of Dorothea's & do plan on buying others. While reading the book, I was wishing I could visit Sullivan's Island and stay in a home as described. (But with a/c of course.)

Entertaining, even if not her best

As I sit here on the Isle of Palms (the sister island to Sullivans) getting ready to head back reluctantly to Manhattan, I felt like re-reading a couple of my reviews and others, and realized I hadn't commented on Return to Sullivans Island. Like most of those who've posted here, I don't think this is Ms. Frank's best work, but it is an entertaining read if you're already familiar with the Hamiltons and, of course, the leading lady in all of Ms. Frank's novels - the Lowcountry herself. Catching up with Susan Hamilton Hayes Rifkin and her daughter Beth Hayes, plus their extended family and those dear departed loved ones in the mirror, is well worth an afternoon or two. Still, I'm not sure Ms. Frank's voice resonates quite so authentically through a twenty-one-year-old heroine just out of college as it has from more grown-up protagonists in their thirties and beyond. Also, this book is written in third person, whereas her others are all (if I'm not mistaken) in first person, sometimes with the literary device of switching from one character as narrator to another. So Beth's story isn't as immediate - you feel more like an older sister, aunt, mom or grandmother looking over her shoulder and knowing she is going to make some bad decisions before everything works out all right in the end. Perhaps that's intentional on Ms. Frank's part - if so, it works. I do wish, as a general comment on all her novels, that Ms. Frank would not have her characters consistently use bad grammar - something most well-brought-up Southerners occasionally do in fun, but certainly not all the time. And I must say that I've never heard any of the men in my circle of friends and family call another guy 'bubba' (which Ms. Frank constantly employs as a synonym for 'man' or 'dude'). As I've mentioned elsewhere, I think this is something Ms. Frank's Yankee editors encourage to make us Southerners more palatable to a wider population that wants to believe we are all - the doctors, lawyers and investment bankers in this book included - moonshine-swilling rednecks. The story has many charming elements - the Hamilton siblings are warm and funny, and remind me of my own mother's large family - and Beth, whatever her errors in judgment, is a sweet and likeable girl. The explanation for her infatuation with Max, though - presumably sufficient to explain her committing fraud with her trust fund - rings a little hollow and perhaps comes too late in the plot (there's nary a hint earlier). But Woody is a great guy, and I very much hope that Ms. Frank will return to tell their story. 'Wedding on Sullivans Island,' anyone? Let's hope we are all invited!

Disappointed...

I always look for new books from this author. This book was a big disappointment. The writing is sketchy, the characters shallow, the dialog trite. I'm very sorry she has fallen to this low level. It reads as if she lost interest and was counting on her former books to sell this one. It worked: however I won't be hoodwinked again.

Amazing

This a fast easy fun read. There were moments that were somewhat predictable but the book all together was great and the ending was amazing I read this one over and over again. I want to read others by the same author!!

Definitely not her best work

I was so disappointed in this book, at least until I reached the last quarter of the book. I have loved Ms. Benton's work, have read all of them but this one was not thought out or put together anywhere near as well as her others. I felt like it was either ghost written or phoned in ..until the last part. Not very interesting characters and the ending was a total surprise, nothing led up to it in any way. I did not like most of the characters, and everything was telegraphed way in advance with one exception....and that was not resolved. Please Ms. Benton, go back to your old style and continue on in that genre.

So disappointing

I've read this author's books in the past and enjoyed them, but this one was an extreme disappointment. I have to wonder who actually wrote the book because it had none of the depth and maturity Ms. Franks other books carried. I found myself skipping large chunks of the book just to get through it; the only reason I didn't toss it was because I was still hoping the book would improve. It didn't.
The dialogue was childish, the thoughts the author felt compelled to explain were immature and illogical. The plot was annoying, reading about a stupid selfish child is rarely compelling or pleasant - this book didn't change that. It almost felt like the immature, self-centered, foolish main character wrote this, instead of an author with the maturity and credentials of Ms. Frank.

Too weird for me

The characters were easy to understand and the story easy to follow; however, the female lead falling for the older man didn't sit well with me and to be taken for granted (and her money) just makes me sick b/c it showed her as a WEAK WOMAN, no thanks!

And the chapter beginnings were and oddity.

Wasn't a bad audio book but I won't listen to it again.

Warm, fast, easy read

As always, dependable story line with comfortable characters. Good uplifting plots and a "feel good" book.