By Kelly Bridgewater
After two young women’s deep bond is torn
apart, what will it take to bring them together again? In The Ladies of
the Lake, the beloved author of Saving Amelie and Night
Bird Calling returns with a transformative new historical novel about
the wonder and complexities of friendship, love, and belonging.
When she is forced to leave her beloved Prince Edward Island to attend Lakeside
Ladies Academy after the death of her parents, the last thing Adelaide Rose
MacNeill expects to find is three kindred spirits. The ‘Ladies of the Lake,’
as the four girls call themselves, quickly bond like sisters, vowing that
wherever life takes them, they will always be there for each other. But that
is before: Before love and
jealousy come between Adelaide and Dorothy, the closest of the friends. Before
the dawn of World War I upends their world and casts baseless suspicion onto
the German American man they both love. Before a terrible explosion in Halifax
Harbor rips the sisterhood irrevocably apart.
Seventeen years later, Rosaline Murray receives an unsuspecting telephone call
from Dorothy, now headmistress of Lakeside, inviting her to attend the
graduation of a new generation of girls, including Rosaline’s beloved daughter.
With that call, Rosaline is drawn into a past she’d determined to put
behind her. To memories of a man she once loved . . . of a sisterhood she
abandoned . . . and of the day she stopped being Adelaide MacNeill.
My Thoughts:
Ladies of the Lake
by Cathy Gohlke is a heartwarming story of best friends during pre-World War II
and how life gets in the way. Gohlke does a fabulous job at diving into the
hurts of Dot and Rosaline and making them realistic for the readers. Readers
will enjoy the simpleness of the times, but the turmoil of the looming war that
will tear the world and their friendship apart. Gohlke is one of my favorite
writers at taking deeply hurting characters and allowing the readers to
empathize with their plight. The plot idea with friends and their struggles is
nothing new. While the concept is not original, the story is still told in an
informative and entertaining way that kept me glued to the pages. The writing
style flows nicely, filled with the descriptions of the setting and the
personality of the characters. Overall, Ladies of the Lake by Cathy Gohlke is a
nicely handled coming of age story with heartache flowing from the hearts of
the characters. I recommend this for fans of Gohlke’s other stories and fans of
a good story. Also, Rachel Hauck has a story entitled The Best Summer of Our
Lives released in June 2023.
I received a complimentary copy of Ladies of
the Lake by Cathy Gohlke from Tyndale Publishing, but the opinions stated
are all my own.
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Purchase Ladies of the Lake
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