Lost Lake

by Sarah Addison Allen

The first time she saw Lost Lake, it was just a picture on a postcard, but she knew she was seeing her future.
That was half a lifetime ago. Now all that's left is a once-charming collection of lakeside cabins succumbing to the Southern Georgia heat and damp, and an assortment of faithful misfits drawn back to Lost Lake year after year by their own secret dreams and desires.
It's not quite enough to keep Eby Pim from selling up and calling this her final summer at the lake. Until one last chance at family knocks on her door.
Kate spent her best summer at Lost Lake, at the age of twelve, before she learned of loneliness, and heartbreak, and loss. Perhaps, if she returns, her young daughter can cling to her own childhood for just a little longer... and maybe Kate herself can rediscover something that slipped through her fingers so long ago.
One by one, people find their way to Lost Lake, looking for something: a second chance, a mystery solved, a heart mended. Can they find what they need before it's too late?
In this atmospheric and enchanting novel, Sarah Addison Allen illuminates the secret longings and the everyday magic that wait to be discovered in the unlikeliest of places.

• ISBN10: 125001980X
• ISBN13: 9781250019806
• Publish Date: 21 January 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 30 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St. Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 296
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

I'd heard through the book vine that Lost Lake was one of Allen's weaker offerings, but its synopsis pulled me in more than The Peach Keeper's and it was the only one my library had.     

Reading it, I can understand the meh reactions; emotionally, the book doesn't have much of a build-up of tension.  But I read First Frost and compared to that one, this was (sorry Ms. Allen) stellar.  I really liked Eby and Kate... I pretty much liked all the characters.  Even Selma, and I think that went a long way towards offsetting the lack of dramatic arc. Lisette did get on my nerves a tiny bit, but wasn't so bad that she overshadowed the rest.  I loved Billy.  Like the apple tree in Garden Spells, Billy was my favourite of this book.   

The climax of the story line between Kate and her mother-in-law Cricket ended weirdly: very much with a whimper instead of the bang I was expecting, although Cricket's disappearance for the second half of the book didn't feel odd except in hindsight.  I thought it was refreshing to have two main characters that were not emotionally damaged or needed fixing; bad things happened to them but they pulled themselves up instead of running to someone else.   

Overall, I just enjoyed the book.  I didn't love it like The Girl Who Chased the Moon or Garden Spells but I did like it enough to lose myself in the story.  

[Kait ✨]

I had heard of Sarah Addison Allen when her novel The Peach Keeper came out, but I never managed to pick up anything by her. A while back, I read a review of Lost Lake on a blog (can’t remember which one!) and was immediately intrigued. There is something so magical about summertime and spending it at a “lost” dilapidated lake sounded like something else. I think the cover is absolutely gorgeous – the colours are so mysterious, somehow, and the lights are beautiful – and if I had walked by it in a bookstore or library, I probably would’ve picked it up. It looks like my kind of book.

Looking back on this book the best way I can describe it is like a summer memory. You know those memories of summer that seem tinged by the hot, hazy weather, of days that melt together and nothing much is happening, but at the same time it feels like a magical time of year somehow? That’s what this book reminds me of. This book is a contemporary and it feels true to life but at the same time like a dream, and it’s in this way that the tiny magical elements feel so at home in it.

Continue reading my review on my blog, Bookish Comforts.

[Lianne]

I received a copy of this novel through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/04/15/review-lost-lake/

Lost Lake was a wonderful, quiet and magical read. In some ways it’s much more mature than her previous works; most of the characters are older and all of them have experienced much: lost loves, lost people, growing up, growing old. Despite of all of this, it’s Eby’s getaway that brings all of these disparate characters together, a place that helps people find themselves and the things they thought they lost. There’s a magical nostalgia to Lost Lake and you can see the differnt ways in which the place affects these characters. The book really is about second chances and making a fresh start, which is often difficult after a tragedy or a great upheaval or a traumatic event from the past.

All of the characters in this novel were interesting, charming, each with their own baggage. Kate and her daughter Devin are the main characters who draw the reader into the story, but all of the characters more or less have equal “screen time”, so sometimes it doesn’t feel as though Kate is the main character. Death and loss predominantly affects these characters, the spectre of lost people hovering at the back of their minds. It’s haunting and sad at times but the way they interact and come together is happy and hopeful so the emotions balance out nicely. I just wish there were more scenes/time spent with the characters because I felt it was a little too short, lol.

Overall I really enjoyed Lost Lake, it was mysterious at times but also inviting. I was initially surprised because it felt as though the magical realism was toned down a lot in the novel but over the course of the novel it does surface in interesting ways. Fans of magical realism and Sarah Addison Allen’s novels will enjoy this title.

[ladygrey]

I adore Sarah Addison Allen. This story is a slower burn than some of her other stories. There's less romance but a lot of great characters. I liked the story and I liked Kate. It wasn't quite as immersive as I'd have preferred. But at the same time, Allen can wrap you up in a particular moment and completely enchant you. It's so elegantly written, so poignant. I like the world the Allen's eyes and I liked this very colorful cast of characters.

[Leah]

Sarah Addison Allen is one of my favourite Chick Lit authors. Her books always have this mystical ability about them, that hook me in from the first page and it continually surprises me that I love her books every single time I read a new one of hers. She ALWAYS seems to surprise me with how she suckers me in each and every time, so I was inordinately pleased to see that after a couple of years without a new release (as she was dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis, and is now in remission, yay) I nearly died of surprise and excitement when I saw she was releasing a new book called Lost Lake. The cover is stunning – green, with a lake in the middle and Chinese lanterns floating overhead, and I couldn’t wait to read it. There’s a map on the inside cover, there are postcards separating all three parts of the novel and the pages have that bizarre effect, where some are longer than others. It’s a visual pleasure as well as a reading pleasure.

Is it wrong that after finishing Lost Lake I now want to board a plane to Georgia immediately to find myself my very own lost lake? It sounds SUBLIME. It sounds like my idea of heaven – with beautiful cabins nesting on the lake edge, the peace and quiet of no, or very little, people around, the lake in the middle, the trees and forest surrounding… It all sounds magical and absolutely somewhere I would die to live. I tell you something, Sarah Addison Allen knows the most perfect places to set her books and Lost Lake is the best set yet. Only a place as magical as Lost Lake can make you believe in all the goings-on that occur, it’s the kind of place where it doesn’t matter if alligators are suddenly talking to you, because that is AMAZING, and of course, it happens. Sarah Addison Allen’s novels make me believe in magic like nothing else could. Anything is possible when you dive into a Sarah Addison Allen novel and it all makes complete and utter perfect sense.

I don’t feel like I can rhapsodize enough about how much I adored Lost Lake. I loved the story behind Lost Lake, I loved that Eby and George ran such a wonderful place that people would come back year, after year, so much so that when Eby decides to finally sell the place, years after George’s death, it doesn’t just effect Eby. It effects everybody. All the visitors over the years, especially the regulars, and even the townsfolk themselves, who could be guilty of not being around enough to help Eby out. I loved that Kate and her daughter Devin decided on a whim to head down to Lost Lake to try and recreate the best summer Kate ever had (there is nothing I love more than a spontaneous road trip) and I just loved the whole community feel of the book. How Buhladeen and Selma, two regulars to Lost Lake returned once more for one finally hurrah before it was all over. Novels like this really make me believe in people once again, that if times are hard, there are people who will come around to help you out, if you need it. They were such a wonderful, ramshackle bunch of characters, whom you’d never expect to be all in one place at the same time, but it all just worked. That’s the magical of Sarah Addison Allen. She makes it work, and she makes you fall in love.

Lost Lake is amazing. It flew by for me in a matter of hours, and I could barely put the book down. Sarah Addison Allen is such a special writer, you just get so caught up in her characters that it’s very hard to wrench yourself away once you’ve completed the novel. I keep being surprised every time Sarah Addison Allen writes another book, because I keep finding them to be better and better. More magical. More whimsy. More filled to the brim with characters you love. One of my favourite characters (I loved them all, really) was Lisette, a girl without a voice, who scribbles down notes to interact, and I felt she was so beautifully written, and I loved how she had followed Eby and George from Paris, to Amsterdam, to America. I had so much hype for Lost Lake, and it filled everything I wanted and more. I adored getting to know the characters, I adored the setting, and I’ve never felt a place feel more alive than Lost Lake. I truly do want to go and live there, and I’m sorely disappointed that I can’t. It was sublime. It was everything I wanted and more, and I will be waiting eagerly for the next Sarah Addison Allen (although I’m quite lucky, I’ve got two earlier Sarah Addison Allen’s novels to devour and devour I will). Lost Lake is her best book yet, and it just made me so happy.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Lost Lake provides an array of characters some we adore instantly and others slowly capture our hearts. Allen also gives us characters to loath like Uncle. I pictured him as Boss Hogg from Dukes of Hazzard. *grins* Kate has been through a lot, and I loved watching the lake heal her and help her find her center. Eby, Kate’s great-aunt is such a free spirit and Lisette with her quirky mannerisms and ghostly memories immediately captured my attention. Devin is a delightful from her free spirit to her tutus. Bulahdeen and Selma regular summer customers have come to spend one last summer. They were fascinating and helped create the small-town feel I love while adding a little mystery and suspense. Townsfolk like Wes a childhood friend from Kate’s past added to the tale keeping me enthralled.

Allen has a way of weaving memorable tales with strong characters. Lost Lake is character driven but Allen brings the magic of Lost Lake to us from the pitted gravel roads to the trees roots and their secrets. I could almost smell the musty cabins and see the fireflies dancing in the grass. The magical elements are subtle and yet powerful. I believed and they had me enthralled. Allen’s characters are all unique and like them, or love them; you connect. She shares their past and present with you slowly showing you their quirks, humor and souls. Eby’s decision to sell the resort creates a stir, brings back memories and forcing decisions. We witness a few romances some new and some old. I found myself caught up and searching for their HEA. The pacing is wonderfully done, from the flash-backs to the slow romance. The ending sees resolution to key threads and leaves some open with hope. I love this type of ending because it allows me to imagine my own.

Lost Lake is a wonderful character driven tale with characters that stick with you. Fans of small-town stories, second chances and a little magical realism will enjoy Sarah Addison Allen’s writings.

Copy received from publisher in exchange for unbiased review that originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[Kim Deister]

Lost Lake is the first book the author has written since her bout with cancer, a fight she lived very publicly through her social media. It was much anticipated and, I think, that much more wonderful to read. This book was as beautifully written as anything and everything Sarah Addison Allen has written! The stories that she creates are not light, not about perfect lives. There are real issues of sadness and despair and confusion and uncertainty. They are about real life. They are also incredibly heartwarming and touching, with just enough magical realism to add a touch of whimsy.

This book is more than the story of Kate, or of Devin, or of Eby, or of Wes, or of any of the other characters. It is their story, separately and collectively. Each of them has their own story, their own hurts, their own problems. They are so wonderfully ecccentric: the free-spirited child, the mute French cook, the aging, seductress, the older widow, the younger widow, the podiatrist, the handyman, the former professor. Their age range is unusually vast, from Kate's young daughter to Buhladeen in her eighties. But it is at Lost Lake that they all come together as their own sort of family to heal and to help each other.

There were moments of sadness, moments of hope, moments of happiness, and moments of frustration. There were characters you loved, characters you hated, and characters you just wanted to slap. Like all of her books, much of the book involves rather unhappy situations and issues. But the book is, at its core, inspiring and hopeful, without any of the sappiness that can come with that. Truly a wonderful read!

Things to love about Lost Lake...

--The magical realism. No matter the issue, there is always the theme of magical realism that is subtle, but important.
--The characters. They are all extremely different, from age to personalities, and that makes for an amazing story with a ton of depth.

My recommendation: If you love chick lit and contemporary romance, than this is a read for you!