TLC Book Tours Review: Same Beach, Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank

Title: Same Beach, Next Year
Author: Dorothea Benton Frank
Format: Paperback
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publish Date: April 24, 2018
Source: TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "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."

My Two Cents:

 "Same Beach, Next Year" is about two couples: Adam and Eliza and Carl and Eve. Once upon a time, Adam and Eve were an item so when Adam suggests that the two families start vacationing together, Eliza is not a fan. But as they spend more time together, she begins to see that the two couples enjoy each other's company and it becomes an annual event until everything is shattered. I have enjoyed Frank's book in the past and was looking forward to diving into this one!

We only see the two couples and their families a few times each year over a series of years so it was sometimes hard to follow how things were changing between the two families and within the two families. It's up to the reader to put together what happens to the families in the interim. All of this made the pacing a little hard to follow even though I liked the story. I wanted to understand more about the motives of the different characters.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the descriptions of the characters. They are great! Frank also has such a gift for writing dialogue. It's fun and insightful at different turns. Some of the descriptions made me laugh, others made me want to cry. I love when books can make you feel so much in a short period of time!