Suley, Georgia, is home to Lost Lake Cottages and not much else. Which is why it's the perfect place for newly-widowed Kate and her eccentric eight-year-old daughter Devin to heal.
Kate spent one memorable childhood summer at Lost Lake, had her first almost-kiss at Lost Lake, and met a boy named Wes at Lost Lake. It was a place for dreaming. But Kate doesn't believe in dreams anymore, and her Aunt Eby, Lost Lake's owner, wants to sell the 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—and her heart—back to life? Because sometimes the things you love have a funny way of turning up again. And sometimes you never even know they were lost . . . until they are found.
_________________________________________________________________________
Sarah Addison Allen writes the kind of books you want to keep in your mind and your heart long after they're done, just because sometimes it's painful to let beautiful things slip away. She caught my attention with two of her earlier books, Garden Spells and The Peach Keeper, but I fell completely head over heels for The Girl Who Chase the Moon. Allen's novels are strong but tender stories of women who refuse to abandon the pursuit of magic in their lives.
Lost Lake follows Kate, a recently widowed mother who wakes up after a year of living beneath the haze of grief. Kate is the youngest in a long line of Morris women who fall apart after losing their husbands, but she refuses to let her future be defined by her past. Kate's "awakening" is utterly relatable. Who hasn't experienced the desire to be better, the craving to be more. The sudden realization that the person you have been is no longer the person you want to be.
The pages of Allen's novels are museums of wonder. You think you're reading a book when a word or phrase sneaks up on you and changes your life.
I have to admit, I looked forward to Lost Lake for a long time and some of the plot lines just weren't what I was hoping for. Allen explores the back stories of at least a handful of characters, both major and minor, and while all are carefully crafted portraits of multifaceted people, the plot sometimes gets lost in all the voices. But if you're willing to be patient, Allen is a pro at tying together seemingly unrelated story lines into something cohesive and profound.
I'd recommend Lost Lake and Sarah Addison Allen in general to anyone who turns to books for comfort. Lost Lake is like a hug, hot and sticky in the Florida heat, that you don't want to let go of when it ends.
No comments:
Post a Comment