This one is about a deeply sad and broken woman who retreated into herself after her husband died a year earlier. Her domineering mother-in-law took her and her daughter in and went about redirecting their lives – for their own good, of course. But one day, Kate wakes up. Her daughter found a lost postcard from Kate’s aunt, Eby. Eby and Kate’s mother had a falling out and Kate never knew that Eby had sent the postcard. But Kate remembers that the summer spent at the lake with Aunt Eby had been the happiest she could remember. The day she woke up she realized that she didn’t want what her mother-in-law was preparing her for. She didn’t want that life for her daughter, either. So that day, she and her daughter, Devin, just got in the car and drove to the lake on the postcard. She didn’t even know if it still existed.

At the lake, Eby and her best friend Lisette have spent years running a lakeside resort, after Eby’s husband, George, died. But the property is rundown and only the aging regulars return each year; the young people pass the quiet lakeside retreat by in favor of the new and exciting resort in town. The day that Kate woke up is the same day that Eby decides to sell.

Through the magic of the author’s words, we see into each person to know what it is that is missing from their lives. Everyone comes back to the lake to find what is missing in their hearts. Kate finds peace and solace and the strength to defy her mother-in-law. The two old bickering ladies, Selma and Bulahdeen, discover the true friendship that both and neither thought they’d had all these years. Lisette finds a reason to let the past go. Wes, Kate’s childhood friend, finds answers to the tragic loss he suffered the last summer Kate visited the lake. Devin pulls the answer to everything out of the boggy lake. And the alligator finally got what it needed.

Allen has an enchanting way of coloring her characters; her settings, her dialogue and characterizations are full and wonderful. Her dialogue pulls the reader into the story. The plot is gentle and the conflict is held off at arm’s length. Which doesn’t mean it isn’t significant or less important for the characters; their self-realizations are profound. This may not be for everyone; those with a penchant for action and drama will find this too gentle a pace, I fear. But I like adventure and drama, too. I just find it wonderful that this kind of story is also in my life. ~~ Catherine Book

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