Review: Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

Title:  Lost Lake

Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press (Jan. 21, 2014)

ISBN-10: 1444787098

Pages: 304 Kindle Edition
How I Read It: ebook

Genre: Magical Realism, Southern Fiction

Synopsis:

It happens one morning - Kate finally wakes up from the slumber she's been in since her husband's death a year ago. Feeling a fresh sense of desire to take control of her and her young daughter's life, she decides to visit Suley, Georgia - home to Lost Lake. It's where Kate spent one of the happiest summers of her life as a child. She's not sure what she expects to find there, but it's not a rundown place full of ghosts and other curious oddities. Kate's Aunt Eby, Lost Lake's owner, wants to sell the old place and move on. Lost Lake's magic is gone. As Kate discovers that time has a way of standing still at Lost Lake, can she bring the cottages - as well as her heart and the hearts of all the guests - back to life? Because sometimes lost loves aren't really lost. They're just waiting for you to find them again. 

Our thoughts:

What a delight to read a new book from Sarah Addison Allen!

In her first release in 3 years, she has once again written an utterly charming tale with a full cast of interesting characters and an enchanting location. As grieving Kate and her daughter Devin return to a favourite retreat from Kate’s childhood hoping to experience a “last best summer,” Kate and the inhabitants they encounter there find strengths they didn’t realize they possessed and learn heart-warming lessons about what really matters most in life. Each, in their own way, discovers “You can’t change where you came from, but you can change where you go from here. Just like a book. If you don’t like the ending, you make up a new one,” and indeed they do!

The author deftly incorporates magical realism within the story in a subtle and believable way, and her quirky but loveable characters manage to overcome their personal flaws to find redemption in the end. Even though you may predict the eventual outcomes before the story actually ends, the prose is so lovely and the tale so whimsical and captivating, that you simply don’t mind as you drink it in and enjoy the ride to reach your final destination.

Reading Lost Lake is like taking a mini-vacation all bound up within the pages of a book. We cannot recommend this title highly enough, so come away to Lost Lake!

Our Rating