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Beach house memories  Cover Image Book Book

Beach house memories / Mary Alice Monroe.

Monroe, Mary Alice, (author.).

Summary:

In this tale that explores the themes of class, women's rights and domestic abuse in the 1970s American South, the author returns to her classic Southern setting in the Isle of Palms with the sequel to her novel The Beach House. She weaves together issues of class, women's rights, and domestic abuse set in the tumultuous South during the 1970s as she tells the story of Olivia, "Lovie" Rutledge, the mother from The Beach House. As Lovie sits on the porch of her charming beach house and looks out over the ocean, the old woman reflects on the difficult choices she made in many years earlier, during the summer that changed her life. In 1974, at thirty-nine years old, Lovie hosts a formal dinner party for her unappreciative husband in their lovely home in a neighborhood of privilege in Charleston. The following morning she takes her two children to a nearby barrier island where her family has a modest beach cottage. Behind closed doors, and exhausted from keeping up appearances, her husband's infidelity and his withering, disdainful looks, she can only find solace and happiness at the beach. But when a handsome biologist arrives to research the status of nesting turtles, a project that is Lovie's passion, she finds herself falling in love over the course of the summer, with devastating consequences. This novel is a tale of marriage, resilience, and one woman's private strength.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781439170663
  • ISBN: 1439170665
  • Physical Description: x, 385 pages ; 24 cm
  • Publisher: New York : Gallery Books, 2012.

Content descriptions

General Note:
Publisher, publishing date and paging may vary.
Subject: Reminiscing in old age > Fiction.
Self-realization in women > Fiction.
Marriage > Fiction.
Abused wives > Fiction.
Man-woman relationships > Fiction.
Loggerhead turtle > Fiction.
Mothers and daughters > Fiction.
Marital conflict > Fiction.
Adultery > Fiction.
Summer > Fiction.
Biologists > Fiction.
Social classes > Fiction.
South Carolina > Fiction.
Isle of Palms (S.C.) > Fiction.
Genre: Romance fiction.
Domestic fiction.

Available copies

  • 30 of 30 copies available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at De Soto.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 30 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
De Soto Public Library F MONROE Mary Alice (Text) 33858000092628 Adult Fiction Available -

Syndetic Solutions - Summary for ISBN Number 9781439170663
Beach House Memories
Beach House Memories
by Monroe, Mary Alice
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Summary

Beach House Memories


New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe's Southern-set classic Beach House Memories , the sequel to The Beach House , now a Hallmark Channel movie starring Andie MacDowell! She felt it now. She was slipping into the insistent undertow of the past. There was no use fighting it. It was so easy to simply close her eyes. And relinquish. Autumn brings its own haunting beauty to the sun-soaked beaches and dunes on Isle of Palms, where Olivia "Lovie" Rutledge lives in her beloved Primrose Cottage with her daughter, Cara. Looking back as summer fades, Lovie can remember many island summers, but especially one. . . . In 1974, America was changing, but Charleston remained eternally the same. Lovie had always done what was expected--marrying the son of a historic Charleston family, Stratton Rutledge, and turning over her fortune and fate to his control. But one thing she steadfastly refuses to relinquish: her family's old seaside cottage. The precious summers spent on the barrier island are Lovie's refuge. Here, she can escape with her children from the social expectations of her traditional Southern mother, and her overbearing husband's ambition and philandering. Here, she indulges her lifelong vocation as a "Turtle Lady," tending the loggerhead sea turtles that lay their eggs in the warm night sand and then slip back into the sea. This summer, however, is different. Visiting biologist Russell Bennett arrives on the island to research the loggerheads. What begins as a shared passion for the turtles changes to a love far more passionate and profound than Lovie has ever known--but one that forces her to face the most agonizing decision of her life. For Charleston's elite, divorce is an unforgivable scandal, and Stratton's influence is far-reaching. If Lovie dares to dream beyond a summer affair, she risks losing everything: her reputation, her wealth, even her precious children. Beach House Memories --a poignant and emotional tale of a strong, passionate woman torn between duty and desire, between the traditions of the old South and the social changes sweeping America--will capture your heart. For Lovie, it is an empowering journey of seasons of self-discovery. Until this autumn, this time of changing tides, of holding on and letting go. . . .

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