Outer Banks

By Anne Rivers Siddons

“Captures the richness and complication of female friendships in a way few writers have done. . . incredibly rich characterizations and a profound sense of place.”  — Cosmopolitan

In her magnificent classic Outer Banks, acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Anne Rivers Siddons brilliantly recalls a lost time of hope and dreams—of comradeship, love, secrets, and betrayal—and creates characters brimming with life who will live in the heart forever.

In the uncertain ‘60s, four young women came together as sorority sisters on a Southern campus: elegant Kate; sensitive, sensible Cecie; sexy, vibrant and richer-than-sin Ginger; and poor, hopeless, brilliant Fig. At Nag’s Head, North Carolina, over the course of two idyllic spring breaks, their bonds of friendship were strengthened into something rare and powerfully binding. Now, thirty years later, they are returning to the isolated strip of barrier islands, hoping to recapture what has been lost—the love, the enthusiasm, the passion—and to finally understand what pulled them apart and cast them adrift.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061748776

Anne Rivers Siddons

Anne Rivers Siddons is the New York Times bestselling author of 19 novels that include Nora, Nora, Sweetwater Creek, Islands, Peachtree Road, and Outer Banks. She is also the author of the nonfiction work John Chancellor Makes Me Cry.

Reviews for Outer Banks

[sunnydrk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great lead in, back story, going back and forth in the novel and then it made no sense and took a turn A saga that starts in the 60's to "today", about sorority sisters and their future lives.

[jedisluzer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I just really like the characters in this one. But I'm also a sucker for a good college story.

[moonshineandrosefire · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Elegant Kate, walking a tightrope over an abyss of lies; Cecie, self-contained, sensitive and sensible; Ginger, the sexy, vibrant, richer-than-sin heiress and poor, hopeless, brilliant Georgina, nicknamed Fig - came together as sorority sisters on a Southern campus in the 1960s. Four women bound by rare, blinding and early friendship. They spend two idyllic spring breaks at Nag's Head, North Carolina, the isolated strip of barrier islands where grand old weather beaten houses perch defiantly on the edge of rugged cliffs overlooking a storm tossed sea. Now, thirty years later, they are coming back - back to recapture the magical memories of those early years, to experience again the love, the enthusiasm, the passion, pain and cruel betrayal that shaped these four young girls into vibrant young women and set them off on the courses of their lives.I really enjoyed this book. I think that Anne Rivers Siddons is perhaps one of my favorite authors and I give this book an A+! A definite 5 and a half actually! :)

[dablackwood · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book was so predictable and almost boring in parts. I hate to admit to dear friends that I just didn't like it at all. Many people I know love this author and look forward to her latest book. I had somehow missed reading anything by her and now I know that I won't read anything else.Her characters, particularly Fig, Kate and Paul are stereotypes and seemed way too sure of themselves when they were in college. I never knew anyone who was so positive they knew the answers at that age. It's almost as if the author put her mature adult perceptions into her young characters and it just didn't work for me.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to read this book back when it first came out and purchased the book in paperback at some point, intending to read it. I got rid of the unread paperback in a move, but when a Kindle deal came up years ago, I purchased it. It sat unread on my Kindle for years until I made a trip to the Outer Banks this week. I expected most of the book to be set on the Outer Banks, but little of it was. The story focuses on four sorority sisters. One girl is quite creepy; another stole the narrator's boyfriend and married him. The narrator suspects cancer returned. She prefers to deny it as the "pacmen" eat her. That references dates the novel's relevance for today's readers. When the one owning an Outer Banks home invites her, she does not want to go. However, her husband talks her into going. By this point, it is well past the 50% mark of the novel. I did not like the turns the novel took from this point forward. Determination to finally finish the novel kept me reading although I wanted to abandon it before the narrator finally arrived in the Outer Banks from New York. This was not the "happy beach read" I expected.

[zmagic69 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book took awhile to really get going but the last quarter of the book was excellent.
4 friends from college who have nothing in common lose track of each other and reunite 30 years later an analyze what went wrong and how it all fell apart.
Definitely chick lit, and a bit dated, it starts in the 60’s and ends in the early 1990’s. Still it was a good story.