The Spencer house is a towering Victorian steeped in history and lore, from its ornate turret to the little cemetery nestled in adjoining woods. It should be an inspiring place for Emma to finish working on her own novel, especially with Alex’s guidance. But when a neighbor is found dead under strange circumstances, the surroundings begin to feel less idyllic and welcoming. Not everyone is happy about Emma’s arrival, either—especially not Alex’s other daughter, Sunny.
There are things Emma keeps to herself about her chaotic childhood and ex-husband, but Cheshire Lake harbors secrets too—some recent, some decades old. What exactly has been going on in this quiet, close-knit community? And how much of it has to do with Emma’s arrival?
As Emma learns of other disappearances and mysterious deaths, what seemed like a fresh start begins to fill her with unease. Emma thought Cheshire Lake held the home and family she’s long been looking for. Now she wonders if she’ll ever be allowed to leave alive . . .
I really wanted to like this one more than I did, and honestly, all the ingredients for an incredible read were there. A gothic-style lake house. A tight-knit community deeply suspicious of outsiders (made even worse when one of their own is murdered). Add in the daughter of one of the town’s most prominent residents (a world-renowned author, no less) trying to navigate her sudden place in this insular world while building a relationship with the father she never knew and dealing with his obnoxious other daughter, and this should have kept me up late turning pages. Unfortunately, it just never got there for me.
A big part of the issue was pacing. The story often took the long way around in saying what needed to be said, which meant the tension the author was clearly aiming for never fully materialized. Then, just when something genuinely important happened, it was rushed through at a speed that didn’t feel natural. One example that really stood out was when Emma waits until Sunny and Alex leave for dinner so she can investigate her father’s room, driven by growing inconsistencies between what her mother told her and what her father has said. She has time to enter his room, make her way up into the attic, and discover a hidden room… but just as she begins connecting the dots, she hears a car pull into the driveway. Sunny and Alex are suddenly back from dinner. After so much dragging elsewhere, this moment felt oddly rushed which lessened its impact.
The characters also didn’t feel as fully realized as they could have been. Sunny, in particular, worships the ground her father walks on and appears to work for him in some professional capacity, keeping his schedule, organizing press events, and managing his book tours, etc. Even accounting for pressure, her reactions were so over the top that they bordered on laughable. At one point, she asks her father’s pregnant wife why she didn’t schedule a C-section to ensure the baby wouldn’t interfere with his book tour. Her treatment of Emma (even after the truth comes out) was equally unbelievable. Emma herself wasn’t without issues, constantly swinging between distrusting everyone and then oversharing deeply personal details with people who were still, essentially, strangers to her had me constantly shaking me head.
There were also a couple of side plots that either made little sense or stretched plausibility beyond its breaking point. The threat of loan sharks tied to Emma’s ex-husband felt unnecessary, existing solely so Alex could swoop in and handle it; something that didn’t ring true, especially given how newly revealed their relationship was. The second side plot, which veered entirely outside the realm of possibility, is something I can’t discuss without major spoilers. What I can say is that when it was revealed, I just sat staring at my Kindle thinking there was absolutely no way events could have unfolded as described. Certain people never would have trusted someone with a secret that significant without keeping them under constant watch.
That said, I’ve seen a lot of readers give high praise to one of this author’s series, so I wouldn’t rule out trying that down the line. This one didn’t work for me, but I’m open to the possibility that this was simply a miss rather than a reflection of their overall work.
DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.
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