Summer in the South

February 7, 2011
Holton's (Beach Trip) fourth novel is a carefully fitted nesting doll containing the secrets of one Southern family. Throughout Ava Drabrowski's growing up, her mother constantly kept her on the move, so the adult Ava enjoys her steady paycheck and a place to call home. But when her mother dies, Ava accepts an offer from Will, a college friend, to spend the summer in Tennessee with his elderly aunts, Josephine and Fanny Woodburn. It will be a chance to mourn, but also an opportunity to begin the novel Ava wants to write. The South feels like a different world to her, with its meticulous manners, taboo topics, and five o'clock "Toddy Time," and Ava's favorite taboo topic is the aristocratic Woodburns themselves—but nobody wants to talk about the past. No one, that is, except Jake, Will's estranged cousin, to whom Ava is immediately drawn. What she learns gives her the makings of a great novel, but she also learns that some secrets are better left buried. 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.

April 15, 2011

Holton (Beach Trip, 2009) takes a trip to a small Tennessee town and finds a colorful cast with a long-hidden secret among the azalea bushes and magnolia trees.

Ava's mother, the fanciful Clotilde, has died, her love affair has gone bad and her dreams of writing a novel are unrealized. When Will, an old friend from college days, invites her to come South for the summer, live with his elderly but well-to-do aunts and write her novel, Ava accepts. Soon she's chucked the boyfriend and her job back in Chicago and headed for Woodburn, Tenn. Named after her friend Will's family, Woodburn is a typical Southern town, peopled by colorful Southerners: There are Will's aunts, the sweet, cat-loving Fanny, married to her childhood sweetheart, Maitland, and Josephine, the spinster with an iron will; Clara, the African-American who lives in the cottage behind the Woodburn's grand home; Alice, whose gay son, Fraser, channels Edgar Allan Poe; and Darlene, the failed blond beauty queen who has her sights set on Will. And then, of course, there is Jake, who is also a Woodburn, but from the other branch of the family. Jake's father was the son of Charlie Woodburn, a ne'er-do-well who married Fanny back during Prohibition. Charlie's death from drowning decades ago fascinates Ava, who is convinced his demise was not the accident everyone seems to think it was. Holton skillfully weaves the stories of Ava and her vagabond early life with that of irrepressible but equally irresponsible Clotilde, together with those of Charlie and the Woodburn girls. The fun, witty dialogue strikes the right note, as does the attention to detail, from the iced sweet tea to the casual conversations of Woodburn's residents.

From the spry octogenarians who compose the town's old guard to the scheming Darlene who has her hat set for Will, Holton's novel is brimming with unforgettable characters, smart conversations and an engaging mystery that makes spending a summer in the South a tantalizing proposition.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2011

Hidden family secrets threaten to mar aspiring writer Ava's summer retreat. When her mother dies, Ava realizes it's time for a change, so she quits her job in Chicago and moves to Tennessee to stay with an old friend's relatives. While the eccentric family provides rich fodder for her novel, Ava quickly learns that some secrets are better left hidden. Fans of Southern fiction will lap up Holton's (Beach Trip) setting and characters.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2011
Holton's latest solidly engages the reader through its layered plot and accurate details of southern life underscored by sinister yet dreamy noir elements. When Ava Dabrowski takes a leap out of her unraveling daily routine and accepts an invitation from her college friend Will Fraser to visit him in his small hometown of Woodburn, Tennessee, for the summer, her reporter's curiosity about the shadowy history of Will's prominent family mires her in the confusing social intricacies and deeply hidden agendas of southern life. Woodburn's people are portrayed by Holton (Beach Trip, 2010) in a manner that entrances with its unerring attention to the universal human longings and fears that make characters leap off the page and into the imagination. Dark secrets, suffocating class boundaries that persist despite the contemporary era, and Ava's own mysterious background weave seamlessly together in this pitch-perfect tale about gracious southern exteriors concealing unsavory yet never forgotten truths. This title is sure to appeal to fans of Kristin Hannah, Nancy Thayer, and Fannie Flagg.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)