Dorothea Benton Frank
Dorothea Benton Frank is an American New York Times best selling author.
Now her great novels are also available online as downloadable audio books:
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Dorothea Benton Frank Biography - Dorthea Benton Frank Bio
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Dorothea Benton Frank has served as a trustee of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, NY, Music Theater Group NY, The Mental Health Association of Essex County, New Jersey and The Community Foundation of New Jersey. In addition, she served on the Board of Trustees of the Drumthwacket Foundation, the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey, for seven years. In 1991, she was appointed to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She has been a public speaker on fundraising and ADA compliance locally and nationally for the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work on ADA compliance and the Arts Access Task Force was filmed by NJ Network, a PBS affiliate and nominated for a regional Emmy in 1995.
Past board service includes The New Jersey Chamber Music Society, Whole Theater, Dance NJ, American Stage Company, and Senior Care of Montclair. As a volunteer fund raiser, she has planned events for Bloomfield College, The Montclair Kimberley Academy, Unity Concerts, Papermill Playhouse, Overseas Neighbors, Young President's Organization and The National Governor's Association. Dorothea Benton Frank is a 1991 graduate of the Leadership America Program.
Dorothea Benton Frank, who was born and raised on Sullivan's Island in South Carolina, currently divides her time between South Carolina and New Jersey, where she and her husband are raising their two teenagers.
(from her website)
Dorothea Benton Frank Audio Books
Dorothea Benton Frank AudioBooks - Audio Book Download
- Christmas Pearl - Dorothea Benton Frank - MP3 Audio Book - Fiction Audio Books
- Theodora is the matriarch of a family that, in her opinion, has grown into a bunch of truculent knuckleheads. - Dorothea Benton Frank - Narrator: Celia Weston - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
- Pawleys Island - Dorothea Benton Frank - MP3 Audio Book - Fiction Audio Books / General Fiction
- With characteristic humor and a full cast of eccentric and wonderfully lovable characters, Dorothea Benton Frank brings us her most honest and entertaining story to date. - Dorothea Benton Frank - Narrator: Dorothea Benton Frank - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorne
- Plantation - A Lowcountry Tale - Dorothea Benton Frank - MP3 Audio Book - Fiction Audio Books / General Fiction
- This colorful contemporary romance effortlessly evokes the lush beauty of the South Carolina Lowcountry while exploring the complexities of family relationships. - Dorothea Benton Frank - Narrator: Susie Breck - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
- Shem Creek - Dorothea Benton Frank - MP3 Audio Book - Fiction Audio Books
- Dorothea Benton Frank takes us back to the Lowcountry to introduce a whole new cast of characters whose lives will surely move your heart. - Dorothea Benton Frank - Narrator: Various - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
- Sullivan's Island - A Lowcountry Tale - Dorothea Benton Frank - MP3 Audio Book - Fiction Audio Books / General Fiction
- Download this MP3 Audio Book: An unforgettable story of one woman's courageous journey toward truth. - Dorothea Benton Frank - Narrator: Joyce Bean - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
Dorothea Benton Frank Books - Dorothea Benton Frank Novels
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Bulls Island
Will romance triumph over the feud between the aristocratic Langleys and the slightly lower-in-social-pecking-order McGees in Frank's latest Southern charm-filled romp? Though the answer is obvious from the get-go, the author fills this spirited tale with well-drawn characters, not the least of whom is formidable Charleston doyenne Louisa Langley. Betts McGee and J.D. Langley are uneasily headed to the altar-Louisa has a hard time with her son dating down. When Betts's mother dies in a car wreck, a generations-old grudge-abetted by Louisa-flares up, and Betts flees to Manhattan. There, she raises her son (J.D. didn't know she was pregnant when she left) solo and thrives in the distressed property turn-around business for a good 20 years until an assignment sends her back to Charleston to help develop a former wildlife refuge. The local partner in the venture is none other than J.D., who is now unhappily married and childless. Frank steers through several terrains with great aplomb as the story unfolds from both Betts's and J.D.'s points of view. Frank shines as Betts finds out if there's really no place like home. - Publishers Weekly
The Case of the Incomplete Heroine
Just when you thought you couldn't go another minute without a Dot Frank novel, she gifts her readers with the perfect beach book. The charm of the Carolina low country is facing a crisis, and our native-born heroine, now residing in New York City, returns home to deal with the new venture, estranged family, and the former fiancé she never forgot.
Betts McGee hasn't been home in twenty years. A tragic event and a dark secret sent her away, but when her successful career sets her on the path home, Betts must face a past she not only longs for but also fears to face.
Told in the intimate first-person style by Betts and occasionally by former fiancé J.D. Langley, the story moves toward the expected conclusion with a few tiny twists along the way. The problem is that Betts is not an entirely sympathetic character mainly because we see her as a highly successful career woman dining at New York's finest (Per Se, Grammercy Tavern, etc.) and living in a posh condo with numerous amenities. We don't see but rather hear in retrospect, the way those lost twenty years played out, the struggles she must have had and the torments that must have plagued her guilty conscience. So, Betts is not an easy person to sympathize with, though I'm sure a fuller picture of her would have corrected this if only the author had given us a more intimate look at her immediately after the events that threw her world into chaos. By skipping ahead twenty years, we get a successful woman who once upon a time had a problem. Of course, the "problem" reappears and must be dealt with. Again, Betts gets off rather lightly and the negative feelings towards her are pretty much skipped over until all is calm and she is reassured she is forgiven for her youthful errors in judgement.
That aside, the book is still well worth reading, as are all books by Dot Frank. However, I guess I was expecting a more tear-jerking saga about this particular problem that has been the source of so many heart-wrenching movies from the 40's and 50's. Dot Frank chose to keep it light and not make you cry in your pina colada while chilling on the beach....and maybe she had the right idea. -- Antoinette Klein, Hoover, Alabama, USA
Amazon Price: $17.96 (as of 11/11/2009) 
The Land of Mango Sunsets
Miriam Elizabeth Swanson's life is one big pity party. Her husband of 20-plus years has traded her in for a newer model, her grown sons avoid her like the plague, and, likewise, her so-called society friends treat her like she's the poster girl for the Ebola virus. If all that weren't bad enough, her once-deluxe Manhattan town house has been carved up into apartments because she needs the rent to make ends meet, and her mother has morphed into a pot-smoking, aging hippie down at the family homestead in the Carolina Low Country. But when a new young tenant is brutally attacked by her lover, who happens to be married to one of Miriam's erstwhile friends, Miriam experiences an epiphany that transforms her from a dour, nay-saying shrew into an upbeat, understanding confidant. Shedding her emotional baggage along with, let's face it, a few pounds, Miriam learns the redemptive power of forgiveness and turns her life into a joyous celebration of family and friends. -- Carol Haggas
Dot Frank Is Better Than Ever With Characters, Setting, and Plot to Warm Your Heart
This is the best book by Dorothea Benton Frank since she penned the original SULLIVAN'S ISLAND and the follow-up PLANTATION. Why? Because with her deft skill and tremendous talent for creating local color, she has given us not only the charm and peacefulness of the Carolina Low Country but the frenetic, struggling- for- survival pace of New York City which adds even more humor and pathos than ever before.
Miriam Elizabeth Swanson is a whimpering divorcee still ruffled by the fact her no-good husband dumped her for his younger, thinner girlfriend, a lingerie model to boot. Forced to rent the upper floors of her townhouse in order to make ends meet and still desperate to be a part of the society that rejects her at the same time her husband does, Miriam is none too likeable. In fact, I'm thinking why should I care about this woman? She has broken ties with her sons, rejected one's wife and children and has nothing good to say about the other's live-in lover. She is so wrapped up in herself and her desire to be a society queen bee that I was almost pulling against her. But then a coffee urn and a totally despicable director of volunteers changed my mind and Miriam's life forever. Sullivan's Island, as only Dot Frank can describe it, morphed uptight Miriam into the laid-back and totally sympathetic Mellie.
Miriam/Mellie makes coming home a journey to remember and comes to understand "...all that predictability in coming home, that there was a time when you could depend on the fact that you were wanted, missed, welcomed, and really loved by someone who knew you and loved you despite your flaws."
Loved she is by her quirky mother, Miss Josie, and the stunning man Mellie assumes is her mother's beau, the too-good-to-be-true-so-grab-him-fast Harrison Ford (not the actor.) Mellie splits her time between Sullivan's Island and New York and we are charmed by her friends in both places. In New York there is the irrepressible Harry, a parrot with a vocabulary to die for, and Kevin, a successful window dresser and the dearest friend a woman could ever have, plus Liz, the tenant that Miriam/Mellie unwittingly sets up for a traumatic experience. In the Low Country, the aforementioned Miss Josie and Harrison as well as Manny Sinkler help Miriam/Mellie realize the life she deserves and wants can be hers. She only has to get her priorities straight, and when she does, her cup runneth over with love given and love returned.
Frank has woven a great story of mending fences and reconnecting with the important parts of your past while letting go of the hurtful parts. She has given us the unbeatable combination of great characters, charming settings, and an uplifting story. That's why her work is always a favorite of mine. -- Antoinette Klein, Hoover, Alabama, USA
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 11/11/2009)
Full of Grace
The move from New Jersey to Hilton Head, South Carolina, wasn't easy for the Russo family-difficult enough for Big Al and Connie, but even harder for their daughter Maria Graziella, who insists on being called Grace. At thirty-one and still, shockingly, unmarried, Grace has scandalized her staunchly traditional Italian family by moving in with her boyfriend Michael-who, though a truly great guy, is agnostic, commitment-phobic, a scientist, and (horror of horrors) Irish!
Grace adores her parents even though they drive her crazy-and she knows they'd love Michael if they got to know him, but Big Al won't let him into their house. And so the stage is set for a major showdown-which, along with a devastating, unexpected crisis and, perhaps, a miracle or two, just might change Grace's outlook on love, family, and her new life in the new South.
Full of Grace
We have Grace, who's family is Italian and devoted Catholics. Grace is living in a place that is paid for by her parents. However, she is living with a man, and they are not married. Michael let's just say has issues with church and believing. However when Michael is diagnosed with brain cancer everything changes.
Are miracles real? Should we have to give up science in order to follow what the church says? This book was an outstanding book. I loved the family life and I loved all the food descriptions and traveling.
This was my first book by Ms. Frank, but it won't be my last. It caught my attention and I couldn't put it down until I found out how Michael was if they were going to ever marry! -- Tonya Russo, Goldendale WA, USA
Amazon Price: $11.65 (as of 11/11/2009)
Pawleys Island (A Low Country Tale)
Frank's fifth book in her Lowcountry series (following Shem Creek, 2004) focuses on the tight-knit community of Pawleys Island, an "arrogantly shabby" oasis off the coast of South Carolina. Shifting first-person narratives invite you into this charming southern isle that, behind its decorum, is the kind of place that you don't go unless you want your life shaken and stirred. Rebecca Simms naively seeks retreat there, but she soon realizes just how tangled and involved island life can be. Her new employer, his feisty mother, and their ex-lawyer friend all drag out Rebecca's painful past. Through these newfound friends' curiosity and genuine concern, Rebecca soon finds that she cannot hide from her recently shattered marriage. This compulsively readable novel tackles the weighty topics of marital infidelity and self-transformation, but its warm conversational tone will give it appeal to fans of both Fannie Flagg and Larry McMurtry's Terms of Endearment. A true southern comfort. -- Misha Stone
The Divine Miss Dottie Strikes Again!
Dotttie Benton Frank's Lowcountry Tales are so much fun to read, so perfectly charming, that I snapped this new one up the minute it was available. I was not disappointed.
This fifth entry in Frank's wonderful Lowcountry series takes place on South Carolina's barrier island, Pawleys Island (I have learned so much about South Carolina's low country since reading these books and I want to visit so much!). Here we find the quirky, one-of-a-kind Huey Valentine, owner of an art gallery, and a throwback to the fine gentlemen of the Old South--with a very modern twist (I'll let readers find out for themselves). He lives on an impossibly elegant and beautiful plantation with his grand dame mother, Miss Olivia, and his houseman, Julian.
Best friend and former high-powered family law attorney Abigail Thurmond is there too, having retired from her practice in Columbia and come home to her family's shabby but much-loved cottage. Abigail is nursing deep wounds and is in danger of sinking into a depression when newly single mother Rebecca stumbles upon the scene.
Immediately, Huey, Abigail and Miss Olivia take this wronged wife under their collective wings...worming the story out of her as only genteel gossips can--and then opening up their homes and hearts to help her. The process of undoing the wrongs Rebecca's vile ex husband has heaped on her bring Abigail back to life, helping her, Rebecca, Rebecca's wronged children and everybody else in the process.
As always, the story is told with enough humor to make the reader guffaw, and enough truth and sensitivity to sooth any heart. An absolutey PERFECT summer read; snap it up! -- W. Kaplan, Wynnewood, PA, United States
Amazon Price: $11.16 (as of 11/11/2009)
Isle of Palms
Honey, you think you've got a dysfunctional family. Anna Lutz Abbot wants you to sit yourself down with a glass of sweet tea and hear all about why her family takes the pound cake. Momma dies in bed (amyl nitrate) with the wrong man when Anna is 10. Daddy is a tightwad who does a better job of looking after other people's kids (he's a pediatrician) than his own. Paternal grandmother Violet is a German martinet who blames Anna when Everett Fairchild drugs, beats, rapes and impregnates her after the prom. Jim Abbot, who gallantly insists on marrying her, is gay, which is fine with Anna except that he's gorgeous as well as perfect and she craves more from him. Toss in Jim's harridan mother and Anna's daughter, Emily, who makes her first appearance in full goth regalia. Frank's brilliant stroke is to give her narrator a voice like nobody else. Oh, Anna's Dixie as all get out, madly in love with the South Carolina Lowcountry, especially the islands off Charleston, but she's no steel magnolia. A perpetually pissed-off curmudgeon is more like it; she actively prays for her grandmother's death and takes a hammer to Everett's Mercedes when he shows up to meet Emily. "You're my birth father, aren't you?" Emily says, in one of the few scenes to lack high drama. (Frank writes at a fever pitch, even when describing the decor of Anna's new hair salon.) The third Lowcountry novel (Sullivan's Island; Plantation) is sure to delight Frank's fans and win new admirers, although the story occasionally staggers under the weight of its mammoth cast. -- Rublishers Weekly
A Low Country Pleasure
Hello-she's baaaaaaaack- that low country lovin, livin, writin, Dorothea Benton Frank.
As with her previous 2 releases, ISLE OF PALMS, is also set in the author's beloved birthplace region and is a tribute to everything from it's salty marshes to it's eccentric inhabitants.
IOP is the author's best book yet.Frank provides equal parts drama, southern heritage and razor sharp one liners(reminiscent of Jersey girl, Evanovich).
The character of Anna Lutz Abbot is richly layered and supported by an ensemble cast that is flawed,but,loving and loyal.Anna's narrative is truly southern as well as sassy!
After reading all 3 of Frank's books, I have added a much needed, soul feeding, low country visit to my 'things to do before I die list.'
The 2 days spent reading this book was a long over due treat and well worth the wait since PLANTATION. My only regret is I didn't have my feet and backside firmly planted in the sandy beaches of South Carolina while reading it! -- Book Exchange, Marietta, GA, USA
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 11/11/2009)
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