SheReads Blog Network: Review: Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

I am part of the amazing SheReads Blog Network! Which means that I am fortunate enough to partner with some of the most savvy, talented, and intelligent book bloggers in the business. Every month we wonderful women read our selections and review them on our personal sites. We are kind and witty and love books more than air. We would love for you to visit each of us online and follow us on our blogs, Facebook and Twitter. You don’t want to miss all the book goodness we have to offer! 

THIS MONTH'S SELECTION:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Garden Spellscomes a novel about heartbroken people finding hope at a magical place in Georgia called Lost Lake.

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.

There is so much going on in Lost Lake. It is a story about finding happiness after overcoming what seems like insurmountable loss. It is about how you can be awakened after sleepwalking through your days. It is about looking back in order to move forward. With an original and engaging story, Lost Lake brings together very different characters, from very different backgrounds. Each character has a defined voice and interesting story. It is this diversity of characters that helps save what is really important and to find things you may have never even known you lost. 4 stars. Favorite Quotes from LOST LAKE: ~"She knew him in a way you can only know a person you remember as a child, like if you cracked away the adult shell, you'd find that child happily sitting inside smiling at you." page 110 ~"But relying on one person for your every need is so dangerous.  One set of hands isn't enough to keep you from falling." page 132 ~"She understood that the hardest times in life to go through were when you were transitioning from one version of yourself to another."  page 136 ~"Eby knew all too well that there was a fine line when it came to grief.  If you ignore it, it goes away, but then always comes back when you least expect it.  If you let it stay, if you make a place for it in your life, it gets too comfortanble and it never leaves.  It was best to treat grief like a guest.  You acknowledge it, you cater to it, then you send it on its way."  page 154 ~"When your cup is empty, you do not mourn what is gone.  Because if you do, you will miss the opportunity to fill it again." page 284   ************************************************************

New York Times Bestselling novelist Sarah Addison Allen brings the full flavor of her southern upbringing to bear on her fiction -- a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town sensibility.

Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Allen grew up with a love of books and an appreciation of good food (she credits her journalist father for the former and her mother, a fabulous cook, for the latter). In college, she majored in literature -- because, as she puts it, "I thought it was amazing that I could get a diploma just for reading fiction. It was like being able to major in eating chocolate." 

After graduation, Allen began writing seriously. Her big break occurred in 2007 with the publication of her first mainstream novel, Garden Spells, a modern-day fairy tale about an enchanted apple tree and the family of North Carolina women who tend it. Booklist called Allen's accomplished debut "spellbindingly charming." The novel became a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection, and then a New York Times Bestseller.

Allen continues to serve heaping helpings of the fantastic and the familiar in fiction she describes as "Southern-fried magic realism." Clearly, it's a recipe readers are happy to eat up as fast as she can dish it out.

Her published books to date are: Garden Spells (2007), The Sugar Queen (2008), The Girl Who Chased the Moon (2010), The Peach Keeper (2011) and the upcoming Lost Lake, to be published January 21, 2014.

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