Anna Lutz Abbot, divorced mother, hair stylist, and sassy as all get out, grew up at the mercy of her distant father and her hellacious, fire-and-brimstone-spouting grandmother. Her mother died when Anna was 10 years old, scandalously in bed with another man. After becoming pregnant at 17 (the result of a date-rape by a boy her horrible grandmother considered a highly suitable date), Anna married her gay best friend, Jim Abbot, who joyously accepted Anna's daughter Emily as his own. Long divorced but still best friends with Jim, Anna's ambition is to move back to her childhood home of Isle of Palms, SC and open her own beauty salon. She has finally saved up enough money to live her dreams, but she worries that her pediatrician father, with whom she has lived for years, will be upset. Who will get his meals and do his laundry? Now that daughter Emily is in college, can she really provide a home for her that is truly theirs alone?
Isle of Palms is one of those novels that leaves you feeling as if you've been through a whirlwind. The quickly evolving friendships, the sometimes riotous antics, and the deep, loyal relationships can leave the reader a little breathless. This didn't start out to be one of my favorite Dorothea Benton Frank novels. In fact, I wasn't really sure I was going to like it at first. It definitely grows on you, though, once you get used to the folksy tone, and I ended up liking it immensely. Ms. Frank never lets her readers down!
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