Charleston

May 26, 2014
In this fiction debut, Thornton isn't successful in an account of a woman's return home and attempt to recapture a lost love. Set in 1990, Eliza Poinsett, a London art historian, starts the book off by musing about the chance occurrences that brought her old flame Henry Heyward back into her life after years apart, causing her to wonder what to do about her current boyfriend and to wonder whether Fate "had its arms wrapped so tightly around her that it would never let her go." Eliza meets Henry again at a wedding in England after 10 years apart, but the plot follows a predictable arc; Eliza returns home to Charleston, SC, where she finds that while "she had lost part of herself⦠now it was coming back to her." She and Henry, a newspaper publisher, reconnect, as she finds herself more and more drawn to the one who got away, despite the presence of another man. Readers putting a premium on subtlety and originality will be disappointed.

September 15, 2014

Thornton, editor of Tennessee Williams's Notebooks, and a Charleston, SC, native, makes her fiction debut with this title. The novel conveys a strong sense of place as it describes the city's landmarks, local eccentrics, and high society through the story of Eliza Poinsett, a white woman returning to the town she grew up in after a decade away. After working in London on an art history fellowship and becoming seriously involved with an English boyfriend, Eliza runs into her old flame Henry at a wedding in England and spontaneously visits Charleston to see him. Their love is easily rekindled but complicated by the presence of Henry's nine-year-old son. Upon returning to the world of debutante parties, cotillions, and old money, Eliza discovers that her hometown seems the same but wonders whether she's changed too much to stay. VERDICT Too tame for fans of the bawdy reality TV show Southern Charm, this is a bittersweet love story with well-mannered Charlestonians who discuss art, ignore race and politics, dance at society parties, take romantic walks, eat excellent food, drink moderately, and don't have sex in front of the reader.--Laurie Cavanaugh, Holmes P.L., Halifax, MA

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