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    The Beach Trees
    The Beach Trees
    The Beach Trees
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Beach Trees

    Written by Karen White

    Narrated by Gin Hammond and Ki Gottberg

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When struggling artist Morgan Guidry dies of a heart defect, she leaves custody of her young son, Beau, to her friend Ellie Holt, along with half of her Biloxi house and a portrait of a woman. In Biloxi, Ellie makes contact with the Guidrys, who are interested in knowing how she came to own the portrait, as Morgan stole it from her grandmother, Aimee. The woman in the painting is Carolyn Guidry, Aimee’s mother-in-law, and as Aimee tells her story, starting when she met the Guidrys in 1950, Ellie’s questions to Morgan’s past are slowly answered.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherListen & Live Audio
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9781593165888
    The Beach Trees
    Author

    Karen White

    Karen White is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-five novels, including Dreams of Falling and The Night the Lights Went Out. She has two grown children and currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and two spoiled Havanese dogs.

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    Reviews for The Beach Trees

    4.5/5

    114 ratings21 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Julie Holt knows better than most that “death and loss plague you”, she’s had a lot in her life and now as she starts on this new and frightening adventure she feels it all again. Being named as guardian to her friend’s small son after her death leaves more questions than answers for Julie so she loads herself and her small ward and goes to the other thing left to her by her friend, a home in Biloxi Mississippi named River Song. When she arrives it’s to see only empty landscape where once a house stood and so she takes her next step in this journey to the family that her friend left behind. Maybe she’ll find answers, maybe she’ll find solutions or maybe she’ll just find more questions.Reading a novel by Karen White always reminds me of salt sea breezes, sitting on a swing on a wide wrap around porch and sipping sweet tea and I always have one handy to read during my long Midwest winters while ice pelts the windows and the furnace works overtime to heat my home. This novel is no different only that I read it during the humid late spring instead. Set in the aftermath of the storm known as Katrina, Ms. White gives us in this incredible read a story line that will appeal to the mystery lover, the romance lover, the family drama lover and the literary fiction lover all in one with a tale that will entertain and educate us as she takes us deftly on her twists and turns and knots our emotions as she spins her tale. She gives us her narrative with a bit of southern hospitality mixed with New England stubbornness and an all American apple pie goodness. Her characters will endear themselves to us and by making them so believably real she also makes them temporary friends as each person she creates becomes someone we must know better and we do. She will also give us a hint of a romance to come and explore love stories gone by and the secrets, tragedies and milestones they’ve endured.So come with me on this sentimental journey, learn to love again, learn to hope again and learn to live again with her incredible story and the people who tell it. This is your first must read of the summer, a perfect beach read, a vacation staple and a friend you’ll look for again at another point down your road.
    • 4/5
      The blurb on the back says that Julie lost her sister when she was 12 and she kept on searching...That is so not what the book is about. It is also about travelling to the beautiful but ravaged coast of Biloxi, Mississippi, is a journey into a secret past, and a life she never expected...... It also introduced me to the artists that sculptured the dead trees into amazing animals and birds reaching for the sky. These trees appear to have been an encouragement to the people rebuilding...I found this and enjoyable read.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! I've read almost every book written up on Katrina and her damage, fiction and nonfiction, and Karen White did such a good job explaining why the people come back and rebuild... can't wait to get to visit NO myself, some day. Until then books like this will be on my shelf to read and enjoy.
    • 2/5
      This book doesn’t completely make sense. I have a graduate degree in literature, so it’s not like I don’t have the skills to figure this out. Also, the narration was horrible; the accents were so fake and the dialogue was delivered so unnaturally that - in all honesty - the characters just seemed kind of vapid and child like.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely LOVED this novel! It's not your everyday novel...it's BETTER than that! If you are looking for a well written, mostly serious yet at times funny, beach read, look no further than Karen White's THE BEACH TREES. Her style is unique and gripping and will keep you hooked to the very end. The characters found amongst these pages are both complex and real. Julie and Trey both experience the tragedy and stress of loosing someone they love. But, when both are faced with decisions and huge responsibility, the story comes to life and the reader is taken on a wave of emotions. Julie and Trey learn the true meaning of family and redemption through out this moving novel. I felt myself completely drawn to Julie...for a time, I could imagine myself in her shoes, caring for sweet little Beau and dealing with Trey. I could picture my self in New Orleans along side the coast and watching the waves crashing and seeing the houses that were destroyed during Katrina.....an amazing experience! Honestly, though, this is not a book that I would have bought from a book store. I tend to stick with mysteries and historical ones from there. But, after reading this now, I can say that I would have been missing out on a wonderfully written story by a truly fantastic author! This is 5 star worthy and I highly recommend it. You'll quickly be taken away to the deep south in the town of New Orleans, hear the southern drawl of the natives and make amazing new friends. Karen White will mesmerize you with her incredible talent and if you're new to her work (like me) you'll be dying to read more works of fiction by this great author!
    • 5/5
      The Beach Trees by Karen White is one of the best books I've ever read. I absolutely devoured this story of friendship, caring and family relationships. And there is a mystery to the story that is not told until almost the end of the book. The story of Julie, Monica, Trey, Aimee, Gary, Wes and others is well written to hold the readers interest from the first page to the very last. The significance of the trees and the part hurricane Katrina plays in the story are very important. I highly recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      A beautifully written story of love, life, loss, and redemption. Set in post-Katrina New Orleans and Biloxi, this novel tells the story of several families -- and the secrets behind them all. But it's also a story about rebuilding -- both literally and figuratively -- after disaster strikes... of resilience and hope.
    • 4/5
      A love letter to the Coastal South. Engaging. Atmospheric. Old family secrets and mysteries. So close to being five stars, except I didn't care for the way one of the plot points wrapped up.
    • 5/5
      This book was about how tragedy in the past hold on to us and can prevent us from living in today. The lesson being that living your life and finding happiness does not mean that you forget that loss. A useful reminder. The story is told in two voices - Aimee who encounters many losses in the her life yet manages to move on and still find happiness. Julie who is so traumatized by a tragic loss in her childhood that she is unable to move on. That loss dominates the majority of her life and prevents her for a long time from allowing herself to find happiness.The book also unexpectedly turned out to be a mystery. One tragedy in the past that remained unresolved and slowly emerges throughout the book.I would have given the book 5 stars except for a couple of twists and turns at the end which I felt were unnecessary.
    • 4/5
      The Beach Tree. Karen White. 2011. Janet handed me this book and told me to drop everything, and read it. When I said it wasn’t “Catholic;” she said, “It has Catholic stuff, art stuff, and southern stuff!” This was the nudge I needed to close A Canticle for Leibowitz. Julie’s friend the young artist, Monica Guidry dies and leaves Julie a beach house in Biloxi, a mysterious portrait, and custody of her young son. Julie heads south. Julie has put her own life on hold, and spent her life trying to locate her sister who disappeared when she was 12. However, now she is responsible for a young boy and a house that was destroyed by Katrina. Monica’s grandmother and brother gradually accept Julie and tell her family secrets that allow her to make her peace with her own life. They also unravel the reason behind Monica’s flight from New Orleans to New York and the story of the portrait. Accounts of the rebuilding of Biloxi and New Orleans after the destruction of Katrina add fascinating details to this readable family saga. The Southern family was Catholic and there was occasional mention of attending a mass.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. For me it was a quick read and kept my interest and the wanting to find out....all.
    • 4/5
      Interesting story. I liked the way the author wove together the narratives of main characters. The imagery of New Orleans and the Gulf coast at the times of two major hurricanes was well done. Unfortunately, I never could fell very connected to the characters. There was not enough development of them to make me really care.
    • 3/5
      Captivating, beautifully written and sad family story. I really enjoyed listening to this story.
    • 4/5
      YA good book that keeps wondering what happen. Just long and drawled out.

    • 5/5
      This was the "Book of the Month" back in November at my local library. It's a very intriguing book. Full of mystery and questions about the past. The what's, where's, when's, who's, how's and why's. Its effects on the present day can be felt very strongly. Very strong characters, very descriptive, and very insightful.

      Not everyone chooses to rebuild their lives in an area that was just wreaked with havoc by a natural disaster. You have to be strong and willful to endure the damage and let it go. It takes a special strength to see the beauty in the midst of all that wreckage. In a place so full of debris, people still see treasures: their memories, their past, and dreams for the future. Aimee, Trey, Julie, and Xavier show us that life still goes on, whether or not we're ready for it.
    • 4/5
      Love this author! From the time she was twelve, Julie Holt knew what a random tragedy can do to a family. At that tender age, her little sister disappeared-never to be found. It was a loss that slowly eroded the family bonds she once relied on. As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.
    • 3/5
      So far...I enjoy the book. It's less of mystery than I thought. I'm not a mystery person, and I don't read it often.
    • 4/5
      Very good book about a young girl finding herself, the setting is in New Orleans which is always intriguing to me, I find most books written in that area are very good. Another book about a young women learning about her family and building a new life, very good.
    • 5/5
      I love this book , the story, the back story . It is just wonderful!! Good read !!
    • 5/5
      The Beach Trees is an intriguing and engaging read. I couldn't put it down! The family history that Julie investigates is gripping-a very intense whodunit. Miss Aimee's story is compelling and I'm so glad that Karen shared it with us. Her (White's) description of the Gulf Coast is phenomenal! I have lived in the South all my life, but never felt the intensity of hurricane season until reading this book. I have always wondered why people chose to build, and rebuild, in the areas devastated by hurricane forces-and now I understand. Karen White does a magnificent job in detailing the sights, sounds, and emotions of Gulf Coast life. I highly recommend this book for beach bags and library shelves. Don't miss this one....it's a great story!!
    • 5/5
      The Beach Trees is written with emotion, polished with amazing descriptive scenes, and takes the reader into a world of survival. Julie struggles with her guilt over her sister's disappearance, but continues her search while starting a new life as guardian of, Beau, a child belonging to her dead best friend, Monica. Julie packs up her life, straps little Beau into his car seat and moves to Monica's hometown of New Orleans. The descriptive landscape of life after hurricane Katrina is so vivid, I could nearly smell the earthy smell of the town. The characters throughout the story are well developed. I love the way this story carries the reader onward, always rooting for Julie to discover her inner demons, and finally settle down. The way the author delves into two different people's past-- Beau's newly discovered great-grandmother, Aimee Guidry and the main character Julie--the transitions are seamless. Though the story goes from present day to the past several times, I was able to travel with the characters. This talented author tied all the lives together in imaginative ways. Secrets unfold throughout the story, but only enough to peak my interest and pull me deeper into the plot. I was a bit sad at the last page. I found myself missing the characters when I closed the book. I highly recommend The Beach Trees. If I could rate it with ten stars, I would.