What do readers think of Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank? Write your own review.

Newly widowed Cate Cooper returns to her childhood home in the South Carolina low country to put the pieces of her life back together. She moves into Porgy House, a small cottage in which Dorothy and DuBose Heyward long ago lived and wrote the libretto for Porgy and Bess. In alternating chapters Cate's story unfolds, as does the tale of the Heywards. Fiction is thus intertwined with non-fiction and combines to make a charming story. This is Dorothea Benton Frank at her best. I enjoyed it thoroughly as will, I am sure, all her many fans. This is a lovely, light summer read.

A light romance, featuring Cate, a widow returning from New Jersey to her Low Country roots hoping to start her life over. Enjoyed the setting, atmospheric specifics, and the Porgy & Bess story, but was frustrated by the fairy tale ending. Found her initial set of dire circumstances more interesting and would have liked her new life to be less predictable.

That line sums up this wonderful novel. Dorothea Benton Frank's writing is filled with well developed and likeable characters, charm and humor. The chapters alternate between two periods of time, acts in a play that date back to the historic days of the Charleston Renaissance and to current life in Carolina Lowcountry. The coincidences in the past and present eventually come together and as a reader, I was fully satisfied with the result. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Frank's books.

Dorothea Benton Frank has written a light hearted romance in Folly Beach that is a love letter to the Carolina low country and a historical look at a 1920s-1930s artistic renaissance in that area. The story is centered around DuBose Heyward, the author of Porgy and his wife Dorothy who might have been more instrumental than history would indicate in bringing George Gershwin’s opera to life. Scenes from the play about their life together alternate with the modern story of the woman who comes to live in their former house when her life collapses around her and is swept up in the magic that is the Carolina low country.