Summer at the Lake

by Erica James

[Leah]

Erica James has become an author I very much enjoy, ever since I sampled her novel The Real Katie Lavender. If I’m honest, I’d always thought her books were a bit older than the usual novels I read, but I was very happy to be proven wrong, and so she has made it onto my must-read list, and I was very pleased to receive a proof copy of her new novel Summer at the Lake. It’s a massive read, coming in at just over 600 pages, and I was quite excited to read it. I quite enjoy novels set in Italy, it’s a country I really want to visit one day, it always sounds so magical, and Summer at the Lake very much encouraged me even more to visit Italy at some point soon.

When Floriana Day gets knocked over one day, whilst walking home, the last things she expects to happen is to become friends with her rescuers, Adam and Esme, but that’s what happens. Floriana was quite distracted at the time she was run over, having received a wedding invitation that same day from her long-lost best friend, Seb, whom she hasn’t seen for two years. It was the last thing she expected, and it knocked her for six, but with Adam and Esme’s help, she comes to the decision that she must attend, especially when Esme reveals she herself has history with Lake Como, where Seb’s wedding is taking place. Esme fell in love for the first time at the lake, and it changed her life forever. Both Esme and Floriana have past hurts to heal, but will visiting the lake be everything they want it to be?

I really, really enjoyed Summer at the Lake, Erica James is such a wonderful storyteller, managing to weave such wonderful stories and give us such lovely characters. I was immediately enchanted by Floriana, Adam and Esme. I liked that their lives only connected because Floriana was run over, that’s the sort of fate I love to come across in books and it’s the sort of fate I wish would happen in real life (to me? Hopefully). Esme has the most fascinating and wonderful back story, mostly set in Italy, and I enjoyed wandering around Italy with Esme and her father, and I especially enjoyed the bits set at Hotel Margherita, learning about her relationship with Marco, the nephew of Hotel Margherita. It was so fascinating and at first it was told in bits and pieces here and there, interspersed with the present day, but eventually we got a whole chunk in one go and it was fantastic to dive into 1950s Italy.

The present day story was also amazing, and I loved the friendship that blossomed between Floriana, Adam and Esme, not the three people you might expect to become friends, but it sort of worked and I loved how they all came to care for each other. I also thought the Oxford setting was wonderful. I know nothing of Oxford I have to admit, but it sounds like such a beautiful, peaceful sort of place to live and I desperately wanted to move into the house Adam bought next door to Esme! I really enjoyed the book so much, I really enjoy Erica James’ writing and I spent a happy two days ensconced in the novel. Summer at the Lake was such a fascinating, interesting, warm read and I can see why it’s being touted as the novel for Mother’s Day 2014, it is a delight, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.