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The Lake House

Kate Morton

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2016 Challenge prompts

A book with a protagonist who has your occupation...
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last updated Jan 27, 2017 08:22AM

The first book you see in a bookstore
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last updated Dec 29, 2016 04:24PM

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What Members Thought

May 16, 2016 Krissy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, cover-color-blue, 5-motherfucking-stars, audible-library, pgs-600-or-more, cover-eye

This book is wordy, lengthy, time jumpy, POV switchy.... so many things that I usually do not enjoy. In fact there have been numerous books that have been ruined for me in the past due to any one of those mentioned. BUT it all worked in this book. Possibly because I was so engrossed in the story I just didn't care. Despite the million characters and all the different POVs and the time jumps all over the place I was never once lost and I was 1000% in it.

The audiobook was fantastic. Caroline Lee ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 19, 2018 Graceann rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

I've read all of Kate Morton's books, and will continue to do so. There's that special something that she has as a writer that makes me remember that everything will come together in the end. So, why three stars?

The plot was so complex, with so many balls in the air at any one time, that I felt I should put up a whiteboard and run strings between the characters to help me keep them straight. There's at least one character who had no reason to be there at all, in my opinion, except perhaps to mak I've read all of Kate Morton's books, and will continue to do so. There's that special something that she has as a writer that makes me remember that everything will come together in the end. So, why three stars?

The plot was so complex, with so many balls in the air at any one time, that I felt I should put up a whiteboard and run strings between the characters to help me keep them straight. There's at least one character who had no reason to be there at all, in my opinion, except perhaps to make us think that it's part of another character's motivation (I believed they had plenty of motivation without the addition). There were a few balls that could have been allowed to drop, making a tighter, more pacey story.

Then there's the denouement. The lead, Sadie, says many times that she hates the word "coincidence" when it comes to explaining situations that arise in a mystery. There are so many here, however, that it's hard to take that stance seriously. Characters just pluck answers out of the air, without evidential bases. It may be the right answer, but my arithmetic teacher told me to show my work, not just my answers. I always bristled at that, but in a few instances in The Lake House, I understood the importance of that rule.

The hallmarks of Kate Morton's style are all here: the past and present storytelling; the person in the present investigating a mystery of the past; the great house and the secrets within it; the contemporary person having secrets of their own. It rings all my Kate Morton bells, and I appreciate having finished it, but getting there was, I feel, more arduous than I would have preferred, and than I experienced in previous Morton novels. I started it on April 3rd, and only just completed it a few minutes ago, on July 19. In between, I took breaks from it and read several other books, because it just wasn't holding me. I hope the next one will take me fewer than 3.5 months to read, not because it's short, but because I just won't be able to put it down. ...more

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Jan 11, 2017 Mandy rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle, 2017, popsugar-challenge-2017

I need to think about this one a bit more before I write a full review but I enjoyed it overall. It's very typical of Morton's style, with alterating timelines culminating in a reveal which ties everything together nicely and she does it well as a whole. I think the reveal in this one is a bit TOO tidy though - I won't spoil it - and it's a bit out of left field. It felt a little as if she needed to tidy things up and suddenly realised that she didn't have a reveal so made it fit.

But it's well-w ...more

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