SUMMER IN THE SOUTH: REVIEW AND BONUS ENTRIES

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SUMMER IN THE SOUTH

BY CATHY HOLTON

MORE ABOUT THE BOOK:

Cathy Holton, author of the popular Beach Trip, returns with an intriguing and mysterious tale of dark deeds and family secrets in a small Southern town.

After a personal tragedy, Chicago writer Ava Dabrowski quits her job to spend the summer in Woodburn, Tennessee, at the invitation of her old college friend Will Fraser and his two great-aunts, Josephine and Fanny Woodburn. Her charming hosts offer Ava a chance to relax at their idyllic ancestral estate, Woodburn Hall, while working on her first novel. 

But Woodburn is anything but quiet: Ancient feuds lurk just beneath its placid surface, and modern-day rivalries emerge as Ava finds herself caught between the competing attentions of Will and his black-sheep cousin Jake. Fascinated by the family’s impressive history—their imposing house filled with treasures, and their mingling with literary lions Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner—Ava stumbles onto rumors about the darker side of the Woodburns’ legacy. Putting aside her planned novel, she turns her creative attentions to the eccentric and tragic clan, a family with more skeletons (and ghosts) in their closets than anyone could possibly imagine. As Ava struggles to write the true story of the Woodburns, she finds herself tangled in the tragic history of a mysterious Southern family whose secrets mirror her own.  

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cathy Holton is the author of Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes and The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

AN EXCERPT FROM SUMMER IN THE SOUTH:

The Traveler

When Ava was small, Clotilde told her stories of ghosts and ruined castles and lonely moonlit roads. Most children would have been afraid of such tales but Ava welcomed the shivers of fear and trembling possibility they sent up her narrow spine. She preferred the gnomes and changelings and lonely, misshapen creatures because they seemed more familiar to her than the beautiful princesses and handsome princes that wove themselves in and out of Clotilde’s rambling tales.

“Tell me a story,” Ava would say, climbing sleepily onto Clotilde’s lap, and Clotilde’s girlish face would go still and then brighten as the words came to her.

They owned few books in those days, not because they were poor but because Clotilde liked to travel light. She preferred rented rooms furnished with the cast-offs of other people’s dismal lives to possessions of her own. To finish reading this excerpt, visit the RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHERS' Website HERE where it is found.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
Cathy Holton’s SUMMER IN THE SOUTH should not be confused with a typical “beach read”. The book is certainly entertaining, but SUMMER IN THE SOUTH is also a well written novel with wonderfully fleshed out characters and a storyline filled with a little of everything. A little romance, a little mystery, and even some paranormal interaction, all go into making this is a fun read complete with enchanting characters. The book opens in 1931 with the body of Charles Woodburn being identified at a funeral home by one Josephine, that readers will meet again later in the story. The details surrounding this beginning will come into play as the story goes on and the power of the deceased’s family name is revealed.

Move ahead to 1998 and Holton introduces the main character, Ava Dabrowski, a would-be author. She has recently lost her fairly unconventional mother as well as parted ways with her current love interest, bringing Ava to also leave her job. Luckily, Ava is offered the chance to spend the summer in Tennessee by her old college pal, Will Woodburn. Ava thinks this will be a perfect chance to not only visit her old friend but also find time to really work on becoming a novelist. With Ava traveling to Woodburn, Tennessee, Holton introduces all of the colorful southern cast living there. Besides Will (yes, the town is named after his well-to-do family), there is the gang who are living in the family’s town home. These are his colorful aunts who include Fanny who is married to Maitland, and unmarried Aunt Josephine, as well as Maitland’s sister and his nephew, Alice and Fraser. Of course, there has to be one “bad boy” in this group and that is Jake. He is the grandson of Charles Woodburn, who was married to Fanny during prohibition. Clara also lives on the property in a small cottage behind the main house. Clara’s family worked for the Woodburn family for years, long ago. The addition of Darlene, the former beauty pageant gal, who has her eyes set on Will as the prize, rounds out this motley crew.

Cathy Holton uses wonderful descriptions of the setting to make you feel like you are there learning about Toddy Time in the late afternoon and seeing this world through Ava’s eyes. This is a much different world than Ava’s. When she tries to learn more about this fabled Woodburn family, there aren’t any contributors except for Jake, who just wants to catch her eye. The things she does learn lead Ava to see the possibilities for a really juicy novel. She digs up more than she really probably wanted to uncover but hey, a ghost here or there is expected when messing with the skeletons in a family’s closet.

Cathy Holton has skillfully constructed a narrative in which the present and the past come together so that readers walk away with a marvelous story. From the dialogue to the description, from the mystery to the myth, readers will keep the sand off this “beach read” so they can keep turning pages to find out just what it is really like to spend SUMMER IN THE SOUTH.

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO CATHY HOLTON, I HAVE 

THREE HARDBACK COPIES OF THIS

WONDERFUL BOOK JUST IN TIME

FOR YOUR SUMMER READING!

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