Seeking solace in a Georgia lakeside cottage with her eccentric eight-year-old daughter, recently widowed Kate wonders if the area's almost-magical ability for sparking romances has only been imagined. But that's before she experiences a poignant renewal.
"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"--
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.
