Lost Lake (Lost Lake, #1) in The Sarah Addison Allen Fan Group

Jul 08, 2013 Carolyn Hill rated it really liked it

I love being immersed in a Sarah Addison Allen book - the feeling that the world is indeed a magical place and that everything, despite the hardships along the way, is going to be okay. Signs and wonders are there for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Yet it is still our everyday world, peopled with characters who struggle with their pasts and uncertain futures, fragile and precarious in the face of their obstacles, their own paths to love. Her writing is lush with sensual metaphors evoki I love being immersed in a Sarah Addison Allen book - the feeling that the world is indeed a magical place and that everything, despite the hardships along the way, is going to be okay. Signs and wonders are there for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Yet it is still our everyday world, peopled with characters who struggle with their pasts and uncertain futures, fragile and precarious in the face of their obstacles, their own paths to love. Her writing is lush with sensual metaphors evoking tastes, smells, and sights, and wisps of personal memories. Yet she doesn't overdo it, sprinkling her luscious analogies through crisp text like sugar crystals on a blueberry scone.

For a moment, staring into the distance, her hand holding her hair back, she had that look people often have on the beach, looking out into the expanse of the ocean. Like she couldn't believe there was just so much in front of her. She seemed a little lost.

Kate Pheris was a little lost when she woke up to her life from the numbness that had swallowed her for a year since she had lost her husband. Her eight-year-old daughter Devin is the first to recognize it. Kate had been sleepwalking through her daily responsibilities of raising a daughter and helping run a business that had been her husband's dream. Not really there, not really alive, and allowing her micro-managing wealthy and ambitious mother-in-law Cricket run her and Devin's lives. But as she is preparing to move out of the house that had been her mother's and grandmother's into Cricket's spacious prestigious home, Devin discovers, stuck in an old trunk, a postcard addressed to Kate from Lost Lake. It was dated fifteen years ago, just after the time of Kate's best summer memories, the time she and her mother spent at Lost Lake. Kate had never seen the postcard before. And its message beckoned with an escape to a happier past, and a last rebellion before Cricket took over her life. On a whim Kate abandons the moving to Cricket's management and movers, and takes off with Devin to Lost Lake, an old-fashioned vacation spot of cabins in piney woods surrounding a hidden lake.

It is at Lost Lake that Kate reconnects with her great-aunt Eby, who owns the place, and with Wes, the now grown-up boy who had been her best friend and fellow adventurer that special summer. Lost Lake has attracted its share of misfits through the years, and a few of the old regulars have come for their last summer vacation since Eby has decided, somewhat reluctantly, to sell. There are shared memories, old friendships, and hidden pasts. The misfits are all intriguing characters, some who come to escape and some to find what they are missing, all welcomed by the generous and loving Eby who has a knack for adopting strays. Eby's decision to sell has thrown all their lives into uncertainty, just as Kate and Devin come upon the scene.

The magical realism, so prevalent in Sarah Addison Allen's other books, is more muted here. Other than flying sparks, swirling mist, evocative scents, and a ghost in the kitchen, it mainly centers on an alligator and an older woman's charms, and it is a child who is the main vehicle for the magic. Not surprisingly, sprightly elfin Devin with her fairy wings and zebra-striped glasses is the intuitive open channel. The place of Kate's childhood magic has enchanted Devin as well.

This is a book about loss and recovery from grief. Since it is a Sarah Addison Allen book, it is full of hope as well. It has come out of Allen's survival of stage four cancer, so it is not surprising that there is a bit of melancholy and the knowledge that at some time we all face the shock of loss, whether of our innocence, our health, our livelihoods, or a loved one. Some never recover. As Sarah said at her booksigning, why shouldn't we choose to be happy?

As wonderful as this book is, I wish it could have been more. More conflict, more development of relationships, more surprises. The ending could be seen a mile off, but that's okay, rather like a romance where you know they'll live happily ever after. The mystery about the Alligator Box didn't quite work. In magical realism there's the acceptance of things that don't operate according to the known laws of the physical world, but they must follow rules of their own. So, how did the box get there?

The parts that rang even less true to me were about Eby's relatives, especially her sister Marilee. Their selfishness, greediness, and envy of their own family and the expectation that they were somehow owed, and their willingness to blame Eby were way over the top. That made them one dimensional and Eby, the exact opposite, a total fluke. It really wasn't believable that a family could be so uniformly awful, with the exceptions of Eby and Kate. A little more subtlety, a mix of some good in with the bad, would have helped. Also, the case where nearly every woman was widowed, many at a young age, seemed stretched: Marilee, Quinn, Eby, Kate, even Cricket. In fact, all the women, even the married ones, were alone; Buhladeen's husband had Alzheimer's and was in a nursing home. There are men in this story, and good ones - George, Wes, and Jack - but there also seems to be a preponderance of the nasty skirt-chasing kind, thanks to the Selma storyline, and the requisite child abuser. It seems the good ones got less air time, or perhaps, I'd just prefer more.

Despite these flaws, Lost Lake is a wonderful read. I always enjoy spending time in Sarah Addison Allen's world. ...more

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Oct 14, 2013 Brianne rated it really liked it

Shelves: first-reads

I think this is one of my favorites from Sarah Addison Allen. There were a few areas that I thought needed some more fleshing out, but on the whole this was magical and wonderful. There seemed to be more emotion in this book, which only added to its depth. The magical realism (compared to others) seemed to make some of the imagery pop a little more. I continue to love Allen's writing.

I got this as an ARC through goodreads.com. ...more

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Sep 24, 2013 Susan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: by-authors-i-like, favorites

Lovely, rich & sentimental in the best possible way. To say I loved it is an understatement. It is full of magical whimsy, of that feeling of freedom you get at the beginning of summer long beyond the time in life when school holidays are your reality. SAA writes settings that are characters by their own merits.

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Oct 01, 2013 Gregandemy rated it really liked it

Love her books!! Such a fun mix of romance, strong and likable characters, and always a little magic. This did not disappoint. Thanks again to heather for getting me my own copy so I could read it so soon!!

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