Beach House Memories
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author of the Lowcountry Summer trilogy, returns to her beloved South with this sequel to The Beach House!
Autumn brings haunting beauty to the sun-soaked dunes on Isle of Palms, where Olivia “Lovie” Rutledge lives in her beloved Primrose Cottage. As the seasons change, Lovie remembers one special summer…
In 1974, America is changing, but Charleston remains eternally the same. When Lovie married aristocratic, well-connected businessman Stratton Rutledge, she turned over her fortune and fate to his control. But she refused to relinquish one thing: her family’s old seaside cottage. Precious summers with her children on the barrier island are Lovie’s refuge from social expectations and her overbearing husband’s philandering. Here, she is the “Turtle Lady,” tending the loggerhead turtles that lay their eggs in the warm night sand and then slip back into the sea.
Then, in the summer of ‘74, biologist Russell Bennett visits to research the loggerheads. Their shared interest brings them together, and soon it blooms into a passionate, profound love—forcing Lovie to face an agonizing decision. Stratton’s influence is far-reaching, and if she dares to dream beyond a summer affair, she risks losing her reputation, her wealth, even her children.
This emotional tale of a strong woman torn between duty and desire, between tradition and change, is an empowering journey through the seasons of self-discovery. Until this autumn, this time of winds and tides, of holding on and letting go…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sequel to 2002's The Beach House, Southern writer Monroe revisits South Carolina Lowcountry with another domestic tale built around the protection of sea turtles. At the end of her life, Olivia "Lovie" Rutledge looks back on the woman she was in 1974, revisiting her troubled marriage and her beloved Isle of Palms summer home, where a fascination with loggerhead turtles becomes the catalyst for changing her life. While Monroe adeptly captures the lives of women raised in the conservative South before the impact of the woman's movement and the sexual revolution, sentimentality and predictability dilute this potentially powerful story of love and redemption. Lovie and her abusive husband, Stratton, both come from strong Southern families with names reaching back into American history, but Stratton's cruelty maroons Lovie in an unhappy marriage with two beloved young children. Enter handsome Russell Bennett, hired to evaluate the environmental impact of pending real estate developments on local sea turtle conservation efforts, and the proverbial sparks fly. Lovie soon blossoms into a respected turtle expert, as well as the strong, intelligent, sexual woman she was meant to be, and their ensuing affair is no surprise. Monroe's personal experience as a board member of the Leatherback Trust and involvement with the Isle of Palms/Sullivan Island Turtle Team brings authenticity and a sense of wonder to the plight of the endangered sea turtles and their miraculous capacity for survival.
