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Dream Lake (2012)

by Lisa Kleypas(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0749953985 (ISBN13: 9780749953980)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Piatkus Books

series

Friday Harbor

review 1: OMG! More awesome. And yes, I read three books in one day. Being sick and kind of stuck on the couch sucks, but does offer this one perk. Again, characters I cared about, a vivid setting, a heart-tugging love story, a bit of mystery and a bit of magic. This time, magic played an integral role in the story in the form of a ghost. It felt a little strange at first but started working for me as I progressed. There was a bit more in the way of spicy action in this one too. I call it a win! I appreciate the way Kleypas has layered her stories. Having just finished a Nora Roberts trilogy wherein the action is all sequential, I'm finding that this layered approach wherein the stories are occurring simultaneously at points and you revisit certain scenes from a different perspectiv... moree in subsequent books is definitely more interesting and adds to the experience of the series as a whole.Must get next book.
review 2: Let's begin with what this book was not - a fluffy little novel that I could read without thinking too much while on a plane ride.I'll be honest - I judged this book by the cover. I bought it specifically because it seemed as fluffy as one of the Cottonelle kittens, so the actual content was a bit disappointing (and, it turns out, disconcerting).Let's start with the hero. On the back sounds like a guy with a bit of a drinking problem who suddenly is saddled with a ghost. This does not actually convey just how broken he is. When was the last time you read a book where a character had the DTs? Then there's the heroine. She's repeatedly described as a pinup girl, and apparently has the patience of several saints. (See above, re: alcoholic bum/hero.) The problems with the romance weren't enough for the author to overcome during the novel, though, because somewhere around page 40 we discover that Zoe's dealing with a parental figure who is suffering a variant on dementia. Said parent is going downhill and has Alzheimer-like symptoms too. Our heroine deals with this by having a house renovated... so she can become a full-time caregiver until said parent figure dies.The Cottonelle kittens are somewhere off in the distance, I imagine. Frolicking. They are not in this book (though there is a Persian cat, that I suppose provides what fluff the book possesses).Reading through a parent's slow decline (both physical and mental) was not how I wanted to spend that plane ride, kids. I wanted comedic rejoinders from the ghost, chemistry between the leads, and a little mystery to solve. (I admit, the part about Zoe's grandma actually suffering, and what Zoe went through living with that 24 hours a day - it was pretty glossed over. This was definitely the rose-tinted view of elder care, which is appropriate given the kind of book this thinks it is.)There were also hints of the mystical - Zoe professes that her food seems to possess 'magical' properties that somehow make people feel better. My eyebrows shot up into my hairline at that bit, but the only other nod to the mystical was the ending. You'll know what I mean when you get there, because you'll find your eyebrows up in your hairline too.All of that (and it does seem like a lot) is negative, and at least half was based on my incorrect assumptions about the novel. I was expecting something more like Kleypas' historicals, and this isn't it. Trying to ignore my expectations, the book wasn't bad. There's some witty dialogue, and there is chemistry there between the main characters. One scene is a virtual playlist of jazz songs that I intend to acquire, which also helped me enjoy it. The food sounded good, too, so there's some sort of homey/comforting vibe from that.I felt that there was a bit of a hole regarding Zoe's father, who shows up, acts like a jerk, and Clearly Has Some Sort Of Reason except it's never explained. I have guesses, but that's all. The ex is convenient, too - shows up once, resolves that "major" conflict, and then is never mentioned again.I would give the book 3.5 stars if I could - 3 for the book itself, but a bit more given that I went looking for a copy of the previous book in the series. Since I can't, three it is. less

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