Return to Sullivan's Island...

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Since I’ve finished my beloved Twilight series, I’ve been trying to keep reading. I’m not really a big reader but those books jumped me back onto the reading wagon and I haven’t stopped since.

The latest book I’ve read has nothing to do with Twilight or Vampires. It’s a book about love and self discovery. Return to Sullivans Island by Dorothea Benton Frank is the sequel to the first book Sullivan's Island which tells a story of love, loss, family and history as it follows the life of Susan Hamilton Hayes. The book follows life in the present (1999) as well as during her childhood in 1963. The location, Sullivans Island, the real-life setting of the book and also the author’s hometown, becomes a character in the story itself. Located seven miles off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, it comes alive though the pages of the novel.

Return to Sullivans Island takes you back to the magical landscape of South Carolina to tell the next generation's story:

"Newly graduated from college and an aspiring writer, Beth Hayes, the protagonist's daughter from the first novel, craves independence and wants to conquer the world. But her notions of travel, graduate study, and writing the great American novel will have to be postponed. With her family leaving town, Beth is elected to house sit. Buoyed by sentimental memories of growing up on this tiny sandbar that seems to be untouched by time, Beth decides to give herself over to the island's force and discover the wisdom it holds. She will rest, rejuvenate, and then reenter the outside world. Yet she comes to realize there is so much about life and her family's past that she does not know. Her ignorance and naiveté nearly cost her both her inheritance and her family's respect, but Beth finds unexpected friends to help her through the disaster she faces. If everything happens for a reason, then Beth's return to Sullivan's Island teaches her that betrayal and tragedy are most easily handled when you surround yourself with loyal people in a magical place that loves you so much that it wants to claim you as its own."

I’m a little backwards reading the sequel first, but I’ll be sure to check out the first book Sullivan's Island so I can wrap them together. It was a great relaxing read and I'm sure the first story will be just the same.

You can purchase both Sullivan's Island and Return to Sullivans Island on Amazon.com

Thanks to MotherTalk