I just finished reading "The Lake Of Dreams" by Kim Edwards. The book is about a young woman named Lucy Jarrett, who lives in Japan with her boyfriend, Yoshi. She is uncertain of what the future holds for her. When an email from home mentions her widowed mother has been injured in a fall, Lucy decides to return for a visit. While she's home, she discovers her own family's history isn't all that she thought it to be.
Written in the style of a Victorian novel --- which is one of my favorite genres -- I was at first, enchanted by the story that touched me because I grew up in a big old house next to a lake. But Edwards' book doesn't have the engrossing secondary characters that drew me into AS Byatt's "Possession." And the historical mystery at the heart of the story wasn't dark enough and didn't impact the main character enough to make it as intriguing as "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. These two books hold down a place in my top ten favorite books of all time -- so that shouldn't diminish a future reader's interest in "The Lake Of Dreams." It is a wonderfully written book. The descriptions are delicious and the main character is easy to identify with -- but somehow, the book left me wanting more. Maybe you'll find the something that I didn't in the pages. Despite the fact that I'm not adding it to my top ten list, I'd recommend this book for readers who are looking for a book to read in front of a warm fire over the holidays. And now that I've read "The Lake of Dreams", I'm very curious about "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" and am going to take a peek. I think Kim Edwards is a wonderful writer and a very clever storyteller.
This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club, but the opinions expressed are my own.
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