Review: The Lake season by Hannah McKinnon

The lake season by Hannah McKinnon

Release date: June 2, 2015

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler books

buy or borrow: buy

Pre-order here:  Amazon Barnes&Noble

Synopsis:    Set in the weeks leading up to an idyllic New England wedding, this “enticing and refreshing” (Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author) novel sparkles with wry wit, sweet romance, and long-kept family secrets.

Iris Standish has always been the responsible older sibling: the one with the steady marriage, loving family, and sensible job. But all of a sudden, as her carefully-constructed life spins out of her control, a cryptic postcard from her estranged sister Leah arrives at the perfect time: Please Come. Iris seizes her chance to escape to her childhood lakeside home, where Leah is planning her summer wedding to a man their New Hampshire clan has never met.

Against a backdrop of dress fittings, floral arrangements, and rehearsal dinners, Leah hides secrets of her own. And while her sister faces a past that has finally caught up to her, Iris prepares to say good-bye to a future that is suddenly far from certain. As new love beckons and Hampstead Lake shimmers in the background, Iris must decide when to wade in cautiously and when to dive—and, ultimately, how to ferry herself to safe harbors in this enticing novel of second chances and the ties that bind.

My thoughts:  This book was a little slow to me at the beginning, but by the end I was turning the pages at a rapid pace. Iris is a mom of 3 children living in Boston when her husband Paul asks for a separation because he had an affair. She decides to leave Boston and head to her parents house on the lake. Iris first seemed a little weak to me at the beginning. She never stood up for herself. Being at the lake house Iris connects with her high school crush, Cooper. Cooper is restoring her parents barn and smokehouse. While Iris may start out a little meek, by the end of the summer she was the confident woman who believed in herself and believed in her worth. While at her parents house she discoveries that her parents and sister, Leah, have been hiding a secret from her. One that changes her opinion of her sister.
Leah is the popular younger sister. She was the one who never settled down and did what she wanted to whenever the mood struck. Iris has always been envious of the fact that Leah was free and Leah has always been jealous of Iris, thinking Iris had it all.  This books deals with losing yourself and then coming home to yourself. It's about reconnecting with family and realizing that at the end of the day, your family is all you have. It does deal with a few sensitive subjects, but all-in-all I'm really glad I read this book. It's one that everyone should go buy or download with a glass of wine.

Recommendations:  The lake house by Marci Nault

                                   The guest house by Erika Marks