The Hurricane Sisters: A Novel Hardcover – June 3, 2014

I have a love hate relationship with author Dorothea Benton Frank; I love her books, all of them, ever since a friend handed me “Sullivan’s Island” in 2007 I have collected every book she has written. The reason I say hate, is once I get the book/s I read till it’s finished than I am disappointed because it’s ended and I have to wait for a new book to be written.With Hurricane Sisters, we are taken back to the Low country of South Carolina, to a beautiful city called Charleston. The book is written well, each character has a chapter, and you gain great insight into the character.When you first meet the characters; matriarch Maisie Pringle is celebrating her 80th birthday; right away you see the dysfunctional family emerge. It appears like no one likes each other.As the book proceeds you get to know the most intimate thoughts of Maisie, her daughter Liz a middle-aged individual, who has taken on a demanding career that none of her family support. Liz’s husband Clayton who takes Liz for granted and most of the time not even listening to what she is saying; spending the majority of the book flying back and forth to New York.Enter Clayton IV (son) called Ivy who comes in with his Asian partner James on a long flight from San Francisco; the family of course is having a very difficult time accepting this, except Maisie and his sister Ashley, who dreams of being the First Lady and dressing like Jackie Kennedy all the while aspiring to be an artist. Skipper is Maisie’s 69 year old boyfriend who was originally hired to be her driver and now is her live in boyfriend. Mary Beth Ashely’s roommate who meet Ashley at College of Charleston and lives with Ashley in Liz and Clayton’s beach home on Sullivan Island. Porter Galloway, the Senator who is ambitious and too old for Ashley.This family needs a wakeup call which only occurs when Skipper suffers a stroke and is hospitalized; you really begin to see the characters emerge; you find yourself laughing and crying while the story develops and ending with you wanting more.Ending i just do not understand why other's didn't like this book

I don't know what to say...But I'll try. Let's start with the Good.No matter what, Dorothea Benton Frank's love for the Low Country, which I have never seen in person but feel I know so well from her books alone, shines through each and every book, and this one too. So, too, does the fact that she is a nice person. Nothing in her books is ever snarky or mean, and this one is no exception.How about the plot? To me, it made very little sense: Eighty-year-old Maisie has a 65-year-old live-in boyfriend. Possible? Yes...but could I believe it for one second? No. Absolutely not, for so many reasons, and not because I have any prejudice against 80-year-old women, believe me; I hope to become one! Her daughter, fifty-something Liz, is the quintessential put-upon Southern housewife--and yet she is also a high-powered fund raiser for battered women. I couldn't buy it, and every time the author went on a diatribe about battered women, a cause I FULLY SUPPORT, mind you--it made me impatient and more than a little bored. Liz as a mouthpiece took some suspension of belief! Then there is Ashley, portrayed as a strong, modern woman--who blindly falls in love with an almost cartoonishly abusive man because she has a fantasy of becoming the next Jackie Kennedy.Whew.Here's the thing...The reality and heartbreak of battered women is real, frightening, and horrible, and I applaud Ms. Frank's desire to champion their cause, just NOT in the middle of what is a beach read, plain and simple. Her plan backfired. My reaction was to become more and more impatient and negative about the cause in general. I'm sure she did not intend that reaction!And, how could I forget this: Liz and her husband Clayton kept reminding me of Les and Wes, the identical couple in "The Last Original Wife." I kept forgetting which book was which!OK, all that having been said, I have loved Ms. Frank all these years, and cannot imagine giving her up. I feel guilty even giving her a "meh" review. As others have said, and I agree, authors these days are expected, and I expect it's in their contracts, to produce a book a year, whether they are ready or not. And the quality goes down exponentially with each book. "The Hurricane Sisters" is no exception.

A light read very enjoyable for this time of year

A great story of family love.well drawn characters

Love Dorthea's books; the characters, the wonderful setting.I plan to read her entire collection.