Other editions of book Beach House Memories

Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author of the Lowcountry Summer trilogy, returns to her beloved South with Beach House Memories, the sequel to The Beach House.Autumn brings haunting beauty to the sun-soaked dunes on Isle of Palms, where Olivia “Lovie” Rutledge lives in her beloved Primrose Cottage. As the seasons change, Lovie remembers one special summer.…In 1974, America is changing, but Charleston remains eternally the same. When Lovie married aristocratic, well-connected businessman Stratton Rutledge, she turned over her fortune and fate to his control. But she refused to relinquish one thing: her family’s old seaside cottage. Precious summers with her children on the barrier island are Lovie’s refuge from social expectations and her overbearing husband’s philandering. Here, she is the “Turtle Lady,” tending the loggerhead turtles that lay their eggs in the warm night sand and then slip back into the sea.Then, in the summer of ’74, biologist Russell Bennett visits to research the loggerheads. Their shared interest brings them together, and soon it blooms into a passionate, profound love―forcing Lovie to face an agonizing decision. Stratton’s influence is far-reaching, and if she dares to dream beyond a summer affair, she risks losing her reputation, her wealth, even her children.This emotional tale of a strong woman torn between duty and desire, between tradition and change, is an empowering journey through the seasons of self-discovery. Until this autumn, this time of winds and tides, of holding on and letting go…

Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author of the Lowcountry Summer trilogy, returns to her beloved South with Beach House Memories, the sequel to The Beach House.Autumn brings haunting beauty to the sun-soaked dunes on Isle of Palms, where Olivia “Lovie” Rutledge lives in her beloved Primrose Cottage. As the seasons change, Lovie remembers one special summer.…In 1974, America is changing, but Charleston remains eternally the same. When Lovie married aristocratic, well-connected businessman Stratton Rutledge, she turned over her fortune and fate to his control. But she refused to relinquish one thing: her family’s old seaside cottage. Precious summers with her children on the barrier island are Lovie’s refuge from social expectations and her overbearing husband’s philandering. Here, she is the “Turtle Lady,” tending the loggerhead turtles that lay their eggs in the warm night sand and then slip back into the sea.Then, in the summer of ’74, biologist Russell Bennett visits to research the loggerheads. Their shared interest brings them together, and soon it blooms into a passionate, profound love―forcing Lovie to face an agonizing decision. Stratton’s influence is far-reaching, and if she dares to dream beyond a summer affair, she risks losing her reputation, her wealth, even her children.This emotional tale of a strong woman torn between duty and desire, between tradition and change, is an empowering journey through the seasons of self-discovery. Until this autumn, this time of winds and tides, of holding on and letting go…

In the bestselling tradition of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, Mary Alice Monroe skillfully 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. Beautifully wrought and rich with keen insight, this is an unforgettable tale of marriage, resilience, and one woman's private strength.