Summer in the South

Written by Cathy Holton

Narrated by Julia Gibson

Cathy Holton's Summer in the South is the follow-up to her best-selling Beach Trip. Following a grave tragedy, Ava Dabrowski hopes to recover by traveling with a friend to a sleepy Tennessee town. Once there, she meets a vibrant collection of aging Southern belles and discovers a gripping mystery involving a local family's legacy. "Ava's struggles with her own past make her a wonderfully grounded narrator for a snapshot of the South as it is today: a region deeply tangled in its own history."-Publishers Weekly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781464029622

Reviews for Summer in the South

[bookconcierge · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ava Dabrowski is in a bad relationship, and has a job she doesn’t enjoy. After her mother’s death she’s feeling particularly alone in her Chicago apartment. So when an old college friend offers her a chance to get away and spend the summer in Tennessee she quits her job and heads south. Will Fraser’s two great aunts live in the family’s large antebellum home in Woodburn, and offer Ava the kind of Southern hospitality that will give her a chance to relax and begin working on that novel she’s always wanted to write. But she will soon discover that the serene calm of this small town is only on the surface. There are secrets no one wants to come to light and some feuds that she is bound to get in the middle of.

This was a pretty enjoyable novel. The story drew me in and kept me reading. Holton uses flashbacks to great effect. There are two “historical” stories that have to be told in addition to the contemporary plot. Holton gives us glimpses of Ava’s childhood as Ava looks for answers to her own background. She also has occasional chapters that take us back to the great aunt’s childhood and youth, counterpoint to the questions Ava raises as she gets to know the Woodburns and other citizens of the town.

However, I think Holton’s characters are somewhat sketchily drawn and stereotypical. Ava is the confused young woman whose mother kept secrets from her. Will is the handsome, quiet, Southern gentleman. Jake plays the handsome, strong, “bad boy” and black sheep. The aunts and other townsfolk are out of central casting. And Holton’s plot got away from her with just one too many secrets / mysteries to be solved. Don’t get me wrong … it’s still an enjoyable read and a good beach book. I would read more of her work.

[alphawoman_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Too many characters to keep track of. Sometimes puzzled at the relationships. I found it disconcerting and distracting. It was an OK book but the theme was a little on the thin side. Two cousins fall out over a girl and the "offending" cousin terribly contrite about being ostracized from the family who gave him everything! Yet, when the chance presents himself, he does it again! A lot of rich stuff in the story line that was never expanded! Like Zelda Fitzgerald being a distant relative. Ernest Hemingway a family friend. Ghosts in the house. I will try some other books she has written because it was not all bad.

[judithdcollins · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"I have always enjoyed all Cathy's other books; however, this one was quite different. I liked the historical parts, and the mystery, but did not like the ending..left you hanging....was hoping for an epilogue...left you wanting another chapter....possibly a sequel forthcoming?"

[writestuff_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ava Dabrowski finds herself reeling from a failed romance and the death of her mother when she decides to accept an invitation to spend the summer in Woodburn, Tennessee at the home of an old college acquaintance, Will Fraser. Ava has a dream to write a novel, but she finds it hard to get started once she arrives in Tennessee. Woodburn is a classic small Southern town and Will and his family take center stage. Ava moves into Will's aunts' home - a rambling, historic house that is haunted by the ghosts of the past. When she unearths a family mystery - that of the death of Charlie Woodburn - the story consumes her and her novel comes to life. But things are not always as they first appear, and the mystery of Charlie and his untimely death have been kept secret for a long, long time. As Ava becomes embroiled in the lives of the Woodburns, she discovers that truth may be more compelling than fiction.Cathy Holton's Summer in the South is a well-written novel about a young woman caught in a dark mystery from the past. It explores the Southern culture, family loyalty and the difficulty of untangling fact from gossip and community lore. Ava Dabrowski is a strong, "Yankee" woman who finds herself unsettled when she moves to a small Southern town where the rules of society are anything but clear. When she begins to dig into the history of the Woodburn family, she finds herself confronting shadows and ghosts and the tricky maze of high class Southern etiquette.There is a bit of romance mixed into the mystery in Holton's novel, but it doesn't overwhelm the plot. I found this book highly readable, and the ending took me a little by surprise as the reader finally uncovers the truth behind Charlie's death.Readers who love novels set in the South, and for those who like women's literature and a bit of mystery in their reading, will find much to enjoy in Summer in the South.

[anansilaw · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ava (nee Summer) accepts the invitation of a friend from college to spend the summer with his family writing her first novel. A fish out of water element with Ava trying to figure out Southern ways. Intrigued by Will's family history, she probes family secrets and her novel becomes a thinly veiled tale of a past scandal and murder. In a second storyline, Ava begins to uncover her own personal history after the sudden death of her mother. The Woodburn family story is largely resolved. The second thread, Ava's personal story, is never connected or resolved, just dropped. In that respect, the story feels incomplete. It's a good summer read, but it could have been better. Really like the twist at the end when what really happened to Charlie is revealed to the reader, but still speculation for the main characters

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Holton presents many of the Southern clichés in this story: the language, the sweet tea, the class distinction, the eccentric characters, and the lifestyle. Many times these props are too time worn and not innovative. The story centers on a young woman from Chicago spending the summer in Tennessee to write a novel. The language and fluency of the novel flow easily and compel the reader. I feel that Holton does not tie up all the threads of the story. Many stories are started and then left hanging.

[kherbrand_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ava and Will have been friends for many years. He has been inviting her to visit his home since they got out of college. One day he catches her during a crisis and she accepts his invitation to come South and stay with his aunts to work on her novel. She arrives in Woodburn and it is like entering another world. People are friendly and unhurried. Everybody knows everybody's history, and you have to read between the lines of what they say to get to what they really mean. Ava is definitely different. She doesn't dress like the women in the South. She is very direct with what she says. But the biggest difference is that she really doesn't know anything about her family outside of her mother. They traveled a lot when Ava was a child and never really settled down. Her mother told her that her father died when she was ten. I think this is the reason that she becomes so enthralled with the Woodburn family. Their history goes back for generations and the aunts, Josephine and Fanny have kept a lot of it right in the house where she is staying. There are journals and photographs, and they just ignite the writer in her. Somewhere along the way she meets Jake. He is from the "bad" side of the Woodburn family. He looks a lot like Will, but with dark hair and dark eyes. Where she has never really felt an attraction to Will, she feels an attraction to Jake. Jake is also more willing to talk about some of the tragedies in the family's past than Will and his aunts. All of the talk about the family and the mysteries gave this book a very Gothic feel to me. I kept expecting some dark magic to surface to make Ava become posessed with one of the spirits/souls of the older generation. I know, nothing like this happens! There are just times when the spirits seem to come alive in the story. You learn about what really happened in the past through flashbacks. Meanwhile, as Ava is trying to discover what really happened in the past, she finds herself in between Will and Jake and the bad history that they share - which neither is very forthcoming about. I enjoyed this book except for one thing. Ava had sleep paralysis throughout - something she had had as a child. I am not quite sure what to make of those scenes or what we were supposed to take away from them. I do see the possibility for completely new books based on some of the characters from this one though.

[myoldkyhome · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoy books about the South and this one was certainly no disappointment. This was one of those books that you just can't put down. The mystery kept me turning the pages. Following the heritage of the families in the book was another interesting aspect that I enjoyed. The ending was great!!

[wcath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Summer in the South is a great read and would, in my opinion, make an outstanding beach book. The story reminds me of a good gothic romance like Jane Eyre. It has lots of interesting characters with mysterious backgrounds and motivations. It is practically alive with atmosphere and a kind of underlying suspense that keeps a kind of background tension. I kept waiting for something really scary to happen. I won't tell, of course, if it ever did. That's for you to find out when you read it. I especially liked the way that the past was woven into the present, as well as all of the secrets and lies. Very satisfying read.

[pupylov · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I truly enjoyed this book. I liked how it played out and the trips to teh past were great. Who wouldn't want to go and stay in a home that belonged to the same family for over 100 years and they never got rid of anything! Fun time with a mystery that keeps you guessing untll the end.

[rainbowsoup · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Cathy Holton’s Summer in the South is a steamy one. Imagine a summer in Tennessee, green, lush, damp, hot, humid and steamy, filled with cicadas and mosquitoes. Holton does a beautiful thing with descriptive words, they flow from her 'pen'. One feels like they hear a droning fan while drinking a sweetened iced tea. Ava, the main character in this novel has been invited to the family home of one of her college classmates, Will Fraser and his family, in order to write her first novel. From this point we find Ava confronting problem after problem. There are scenarios with Will, Will’s family, Ava’s relatives, deceased relatives, narcolepsy, friends and so much more. As the book broadens, so do the plots. The novel sweeps back in time, from the present to the 1930’s and 1940’s, filling in the gaps of the mystery. I started this book three different times, each time forcing myself to read further. I’m still shaking my head. I did finish and found that Holton’s novel had too many plots and a ho-hum mystery. It definitely wasn’t what I thought it would be.

[quirkylibrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A bit stilted in its pacing and revelations, it's as if Holton wanted to match the drowsy heat-induced lassitude of the south but never captured it completely. A good foundation for a story but she should have decided on the ghosts-or not- once and for all. Overall a so so read.

[momgee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ava Dabrowski is still mourning the death of her mother, reeling from the breakup with her married lover and disenchanted with her job. So when Will Fraser, an old college acquaintance, asked her one more time to visit him in Woodburn, Tennessee, she quits her job in Chicago and accepts even though she has some not too flattering preconceived notions of "The South". He lures her with the idea that she can stay with his two great-aunts, Josephine and Fanny Woodburn, in the family home for the entire summer and finally work on that novel she keeps wanting to write.Unfortunately, Ava seems to have a bad case of writer's block and she doesn't make too much progress on her book but she is fascinated by the Woodburn's family history as her own family history is sketchy at best and staying in one location was not one of her free-spirited mother's strengths. She is amazed that one family could live in a town named after them for so long and in the same house. To the Woodburns living in the South means no one is "crazy" just eccentric, manners are an ingrained way of life and knowledge of one's family tree is almost de riguer.What seems like genteel family living turns out to have some deep buried secrets and dark undertones. After Ava starts hearing snippets of Will's Aunt Fanny and her first husband Charlies' past, the mystery of his death begins to intrigue her and her writer's block is at an end. It's almost as if the story writes itself; she spends night after night penning Charlie and Fanny's story at a frenzied pace even though she knows the Woodburns will be livid at any hint of exposure. They sure aren't too willing to say too much about this time in their lives. I don't want to give away too much more of the story. This book has it all; southern setting with a gothic atmosphere, love, hate, jealousy, passion, family dynamics, black sheep and skeletons, estrangement, revenge, repentence, surprise twists, history, murder, self-discovery and even a little paranormal thrown in. Phew! I think I got it all. Cathy Holton grabbed me from the beginning with her tale, her fantastic characters, the sense of place and never let me go until the last word. I Loved it. Loved! It !! All of it; beginning, middle, end. There wasn't a lag anywhere in the book. This is the first 5* book I've read in months. A perfect beach read or any other place for that matter! Just read it. Disclosure: a review copy of the book was received from Ballantine through the early review program at LT.

[booksnyc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Summer in the South: A Novel by Cathy Holton is a simmering summer read filled with romance and intrigue about long-buried pasts. Following the death of her mother, Ava joins a college friend, Will, at his ancestral home in Tennessee where he lives with two elderly aunts. In addition to coming to terms with her tumultuous relationship with her mother, Ava is looking for some time away to work on a novel. She did not, however, expect to find such rich content for her novel right in the home in which she spends the summer.Will is part of an upstanding, well-to-do Southern family but although they maintain traditions like evening cocktails (Toddy Time) and host parties which require engraved invitations, there are secrets hidden in their past. This hint of scandal casts a shadow over the family but in typical Southern tradition no one discusses the less than perfect past. Although polite, everyone seems emotionally shut down while they try to keep everything under wraps.Ava, however, does not bow to these traditions and is gradually unearthing parts of the family's past. As she learns more about the family's past, it inspires her to write and her novel begins to take shape. With Will's obvious romantic interest in her and the kindness offered by the aunts, Ava knows writing this novel will be viewed as a betrayal because it exposes what the family has worked so hard to keep buried. She can't, however, stem her need to get to the bottom of a mystery in the family's past.This novel offers a peek into life in the South as it might have been 50 years ago. Although it takes place in the present, everyone lives as you might expect them to in the 1950's - no one seems to have a job and they retire to bed during the heat of midday. Toddy Time anchors their days and they certainly stand on ceremony. By moving at the slow pace of days gone by, the novel makes for a lovely summer respite and I found myself languishing in the charm of the South. It is interesting to watch the Northerner, Ava, adjust as she is dropped into this world of tradition, formality and a slower pace. The author tosses in some romantic tension between Will and Ava and the competing interests of another man in town to round out this summer read. For a quick trip back to the charm of South during the time of plantations and debuts, pick of Summer in the South: A Novel by Cathy Holton!

[indygo88 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This read was really a pleasant surprise. Not being familiar with the author, & having read both good & bad novels set in "the south", I wasn't sure going into this one if it was going to be my cup of tea. The description intrigued me, though. It had all the right elements to catch my attention: family secrets, a mysterious death in the past, some literary references, a quaint setting, a budding novelist as the main character, & a bit of a love triangle, both present & past. I thought the blending of past & present was pulled off really quite well in this story. My interest was maintained throughout & I was kept guessing almost right up until the end. My only real complaint: the title of the book. It didn't really fit. It makes it sound like a coming of age novel, or maybe a romance, and it really wasn't either of those. I think a more appealing title would be likely to draw in more readers.

[journeygirl_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received Summer in the South through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program and couldn't wait to get started. Having grown up in the south, I have a special affinity for books dealing with the region. Summer in the South seems to take all the cliches about the south and stuck every one of them into the book - southern idioms, explained in conversations in the book, debutantes, an old moneyed family trying to hang onto their way of life, even a descendant of a slave and the family patriarch living in the backyard house and now a best friend of the family. And most of all, the classic, Southern Gothic mystery. I didn't know whether to be horrified, offended, or just relax and enjoy the story. I also never took to the main character, Ava, and had no desire to root for her. Yet, despite my distaste for the constant cliche, there is truth in the portrayal of southern families, and as the story progressed, I found similarities in my own family and families of friends. I did want to finish the book, see the whodunit to it's conclusion, and find out just how self-destructive Ava would be. I read the book quickly, which is the hallmark for me of a book that keeps my attention, so while I'm not giving Summer in the South a rave review, I did find it lightly enjoyable and will read other books by this author.

[ethel55_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The title really sets the stage for the basic premise of this story. Ava leaves behind a failed relationship and stale job at the invite of an old college friend to stay with his aunts for the summer to work on the novel she has always wanted to write. She hasn't seen Will Fraser for years, and remembers teasing him about the small southern town he hailed from while in college. Aunts Fanny and Josephine greet Ava with true southern hospitality while Uncle Maitland mans the bar at Toddy Time everyday before dinner. Will and his family have all manner of dark secrets which the hot summer and mason jars of cool sweet tea set off perfectly. Great read to kick off summer.

[kikoa_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was set not to like this book. I thought "Oh know another book in the south, yuk." But Cathy Holton's writing caught me right away. I am enjoying this book very much. I will be back to let you know the final opinion.

[msnick_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cathy Holton's Summer in the South is a tale woven around Ava, a copy writer who longs for a more fulfilling career as as a novelist. Having just lost her eccentric, reckless mother as well as breaking up with her lover, Ava jumps at the chance to leave her Chicago home for the Tennessee childhood home of an old college friend, Will, in order to write her novel. Will and his extended family are an interesting and hospitable bunch, but Ava soon learns that every family has skeletons in their closets, and in the South, families try to hide the parts of their past that they would rather forget. The parallels between Ava's discovering the truth behind her past while learning of the darker history of Will's family held my attention, and there was even a touch of the supernatural mixed in as well. I consider Summer in the South to be an entertaining and easy summer read - perfect for the beach.