"Pawleys Island" by Dorothea Benton Frank

I picked up a copy of this book (among others) at a used book outlet on my return trip from Georgia this past weekend.

I'm so glad I only paid 99 cents for it, because that's about all it was worth. Maybe, less.

What a disappointment!

I didn't expect it to be a literary masterpiece or anything like that, but I was hoping it would make a good, quick summer read . . . you know the kind that will allow you to be transported to a beachy scenario even when you can't make a trip to the coast yourself.

But, in this case, pulp fiction writer Dorothea Benton Frank dishes up a contrived story line and shallow characters.

I think I stopped caring about them when Frank tried to illustrate the age difference between protagonist Rebecca and her attorney Abigail. She would have us believe that a 30-something mom wouldn't know who Yul Brynner was or what a Cabbage Patch doll is?!

Please.

The snooty side of me also took personal offense to the innumerable misspellings, particularly of Hurricane Charley. (Roberts spelled it "Charlie" throughout.)

If you come across this book, and it's going to cost you a dollar or more, don't bother. This kind of tripe will eventually end up as a Lifetime Network production anyway. And, in this case, the movie will HAVE to be better than the book!

Fa and piffle!