Book Review: Lake Season

By Denise Hunter
Thomas Nelson, 2019
352 pages

Amazon Description:

When their parents die in a tragic accident, Molly Bennett and her siblings pull together to fulfill their parents’ dream of turning their historic Bluebell, North Carolina, home back into an inn. Staying in town would be temporary—three years at most—then they plan to sell the inn, and Molly can get back to chasing her own dreams.

Adam Bradford (aka bestselling author Nathaniel Quinn) is a reclusive novelist with a bad case of writer’s block. Desperate for inspiration as his deadline approaches, he travels to the setting of his next book, a North Carolina lake town. There, he meets his muse, a young innkeeper who fancies herself in love with his alter ego.

Molly and Adam strike up an instant friendship. When Molly finds a long-lost letter in the walls of her inn, she and Adam embark on a mission to find the star-crossed lovers and bring them the closure they deserve. But Adam has secrets he isn’t ready to share. Past and present collide as truths surface, and Molly and Adam will have to decide if love is worth trusting.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I might make some extra coffee money at no extra expense to you if you buy something through one of my links. Read more about that here.

Thanks to TLC Boo Tours for sending me a copy of Lake Season to enjoy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

You want to know how I know this is a good book? Because I finished it in less than 24 hours, that’s how!

Lake Season is a delightfully sweet southern romance with endearing characters and an intriguing storyline. While most of the action happens in the present day with Adam and Molly, it also periodically jumps back just for a few pages into Lizzie and Ben’s story in the early 60’s. The two couples stories weave together seamlessly as Molly and Adam try to get to figure out what happened to Lizzie and Ben after finding a lost letter in the wall of the inn Molly’s family is remodeling.

Book lovers will want to know that while it isn’t exactly what I would call a book about books, Lake Season is heavy on the book talk since the main dude Adam is an author. And since Molly is an avid reader, literary topics abound in their conversations. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at writing and publishing, this book has some of that as well. I also kept wondering if the descriptions of Adam’s struggle with writer’s block were inspired by the author’s own experiences with writing life.

At the core of this story are themes of trust and self-esteem. In light of a bad break-up and regrets about her relationship with her parents, Molly struggles to trust Adam. And Adam’s relationship with his father has caused him doubt his adequacy as person, but especially as a man. Both of them have to reconcile these issues with their faith and identity in Christ. I really liked that the author was able to write such a light, entertaining book but still delve deep with the characters and their struggles.

I super enjoyed Lake Season and can’t wait to recommend it to other readers! I’m also excited that this is the first in a series, so there will be more Bluebell Inn goodness in the future.