The Lake of Dreams

I read this book for the BlogHer Book Club and I was in loooovvveee!!!!
I cannot say enough good things about this book. Truly.

“The Lake of Dreams” is about a girl, Lucy, who goes back to her hometown after her mother gets in a car crash. While she’s staying in the house she grew up in, she finds old letters from a great-great aunt that she has never heard about before. Her curiosity gets the best of her and she spends the rest of her stay trying to find out who this woman was. And *spoiler alert* she’s a pretty amazing woman!

I loved the whole family history mystery going on in the book. It made me want to look up my own family stories and get to know my ancestors better.
What lessons can I learn from my family’s history?
What ancestor can I relate to the most?

I thought the story was written well and was very intriguing from the very beginning! It wasn’t so predictable that it made the mystery boring… it had a lot of good twists to keep you on your toes up until the very end.

My only complaint would be the way the first person perspective is written. I always think it’s funny when authors speak in first person and have the character say things like,
“I looked out the window pensively as the papers I was holding softly floated to the ground like a carefully, coordinated dance.”

Yeah…. I’m pretty sure people don’t really think like that. It’s more like,
“I just kept reading the letters and tried not be dramatic about it. The end.”
Much more direct.
I guess unless you are a writer then maybe you think in a very creative & dramatic way. I wouldn’t know. But I’m pretty sure most people don’t say things like that to themselves.

But as long as I pretended it was the narrator, not Lucy herself being super dramatic, then I was good to go.
And I still loved it lots and lots!!

Seriously, I would highly, highly recommend this book!
I think it is a wonderful read and really makes you want to learn about your own family stories :)

 

This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.