Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Read
Review: I read novels to relax my mind and occassionally, one touches my soul and this one did. Being 50 something, Catholic, living in the Carolina's, all this allowed me to really crawl in and identify with the characters. Dorothea Frank has a gift of storytelling that anyone who reads for pleasure will enjoy. This was a book I didn't want to end. Looking forward to her next book, "Plantation"!
Rating: 
Summary: disappointed
Review: Being from the South, I find the writer's portrayal of Southern women to be offensive. Although the main female character was portrayed as clever and wise, she accomplished this by contrasting other Southern women (and men) as dysfunctional.....
Rating:
Summary: A satisfying read
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this. I hated to say goodbye to Susan, Beth and the rest of the family and inhabitants of Sullivan's Island. This is family.......dysfunctional members, true and distorted memories, pleasures, resentments, grudges and love in spite of everything. As a Westerner all of my life, I am enamoured of stories about the East Coast of our country and especially about the Low Country.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: This book was recommended by a friend and the reviews online were so enthusiastically in favor, I read it. Ho-hum--just another book about a disfunctional southern family with the requisite mother who spends her life in bed while her children raise themselves. Her children did an excellent job of raising themselves, however, and maybe that is the lesson to be learned. Not everyone needs a "soccer mom" and a "corporate dad" to amount to something. The book is a nice light read, but I didn't find much humor in it and I wish someone would write a book about the South that didn't portray the women as spineless, psychopaths. Scarlett O'Hara remains the only heroine who wasn't a doormat for every man she came in contact with!
Rating:
Summary: Laughter, tears and clean feet
Review: I have won new friends in Susan and her family. And in Dorothea Benton Frank. Though I should have been packing my belonging to move to a new house I stole every minute possible to read a few lines in between. And laughted out loud so many times, also cried a bit. The best, yes, the best, is the szene of clean feet. Where ever you come from, where ever you might live, get acquainted with the life style, the views and the speech of the Geechee's. Don't know what that word means? Grab the book and a few handkerchiefs. You will need them to wipe the tears of merriment!
Rating:
Summary: Funny, Funky, Fabulous!
Review: I'd bypassed this book at the library for months before I finally got around to picking it up this past week. It must've been karma that I decided to read it during the heat wave of 2000 we're having here in Louisiana. I could feel the cool ocean breezes of Sullivan's Island as I read of the escapades of Susan and her siblings. I don't know when I've enjoyed a book more. It's the perfect summer read as it has it all: romance, intrigue, beaches, tragedy and humor galore. I howled when Susan walks in unexpectedly one day to her home and catches her 50ish lawyer husband in bed with with a 23 year old blonde bimbo who runs a new age shop in town. It was one of THE funniest sex scenes I've ever read. (But it's not the funniest one in the book---there' one even funnier further along!) Then when she helps him pack his shaving kit and takes his toothbrush and scrubs it under the rim of the toilet before putting it in his shaving kit, I thought I would lose it! And she does something EVEN funnier, but I won't give it all away. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to escape the heat of the summer. A fabulous story and memorable characters make it a five-star in my book!
Rating:
Summary: A DEEPLY SATISFYING READ
Review: This was a wonderful and completely believable story. One which made me laugh, feel sad, angry and actually made me cry. I loved getting to know these characters and did not want to say goodbye at the end. Each time i put the book down i thought "This is a great book". There have only been a few books that actually make me say that. This is one of the best. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a story that reels you in and makes you feel the characters are people you know and care about. The only thing that bothered me about this book was the twins never were mentioned in the present. So we dont know what happened to them.
Rating:
Summary: Lost in the lowcountry...
Review: Sullivan's Island is one of those books that made me sad to complete. I hated for the story to end! I wanted more! With a style that sometimes reminded me of Conroy and at other times Wells and the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, DBF weaves a wonderful tale in her own way. I only hope I don't have to wait too long for another book from this author!
Rating:
Summary: Great reading!
Review: I found this book to be a great read! I could not put it down! A moving story. I liked the author's style...her going back to 1963 and returning to the present. Somehow that seemed to give the story strength....in 1963, the family overcame their personal tragedies...death, poverty etc. and Susan drew strength from that to help her and her family deal with the present problems. I would've liked to know more about what happened to the twins though. It was a wonderful story....i felt Livvie's warmth and smelt her cooking.....golly what an experience! Brought back memories of my childhood!
Rating:
Summary: A Classic in the Making
Review: This is one of the most profound and moving books I have ever read about Southern women. I have not laughed, or cried, so intensely, in a long time. I believe women the world over will recognize these characters as women who exist in their own lives. Thank you Ms. Frank, for portraying Southern women the way we were meant to be seen... as survivors.
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