On Folly Beach by Karen White

Title: On Folly Beach
Author: Karen White
Read by:  Lyssa Brown
Publisher: Listen & Live Audio

Length: 14 hours and 13 minutes
Source:  MP3 Audio through Wisconsin Public Library Consortium – Overdrive on my Droid

On Folly Beach is an intriguing novel that combines mystery, historical fiction, and contemporary fiction.  It is overall a novel of accepting what life has dealt you and learning how to move on.  I listened to it as an audiobook and vastly enjoyed it.  The story bounces back and forth between 2009 and 1943.

In 2009 Emmy Hamilton is a widow who has lost her husband to the war in Afghanistan.  Stuck in Indiana mourning her husband, her mother helps her to get interested in books from a store in North Carolina that has mysterious inscriptions in them.  Emmy buys the book store from a woman named Abigail and moves to Folly Beach.  Once there, she meets Abigail and her handsome architect son Heath.  She also meets Abigail mysterious aunt-in-aw, Lulu who happens to come with the store purchase.

In 1943, Lulu is a young girl that is being raised by her older sister Maggie after her parent’s death.  Their beautiful cousin Cat lives with them.  While Maggie always believes in the good in Cat, Lulu soon realizes that Cat is playing Maggie after she steals her love, Jim, and marries him herself.  Maggie meets someone new that she loves, Peter, but he has secrets of his own that could destroy them all.

Overall, I highly enjoyed this book.  Lyssa Brown was a wonderful narrator.  The characters and plot were excellent and made me want to keep listening and learn more.  This is especially a great summer read!