The Lake House

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The rain was heavy now and the hem of her dress was splattered with mud. She’d have to hide it afterwards; no one could know that she’d been out. Alex’s narcissistic father, respected architect Simon Wyler, is hospitalized and dies. Kate finds a book of photos of Simon’s work which hasn’t been published in Alex’s time that includes a photo of Simon and Alex as a little boy at the lake house. Not wanting him to wait until it is published, she leaves it for him in the mailbox, hoping it will comfort him. The gesture convinces Alex and Kate that they should try to meet. Alex makes a reservation at a restaurant two years in advance for him, but the next day for Kate. Kate arrives, but Alex doesn’t. Heartbroken, Kate ends their relationship and stops visiting the lake house to settle for a future with Morgan. Alex places their letters in a box in the house’s attic, like what Kate described in her first letter, and moves in with his brother Henry, also an architect. He tries to move on with his life, but still thinks about Kate. Ms. Morton had me hooked on her book THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN, and THE LAKE HOUSE is going to be right up there with it as one of my all-time favorites. 5/5 Alice had been sitting that day on the swing beneath the willow, swaying idly and pondering her Significant Problem. Sounds of family life, had she been listening, were all around – Mother and Mr Llewellyn laughing distantly as the boat oars splashed a lazy rhythm; Clemmie muttering beneath her breath while she turned circles in the meadow, arms outstretched like wings; Deborah relaying to Nanny Rose all the scandals of the recent London Season – but Alice was intent only on herself and heard nothing more than the mild burr of summer insects. I always urge people to judge a book for yourself because we all differ on how we react to a story and I am in the minority on this one.

The Lake House Quotes by Kate Morton - Goodreads The Lake House Quotes by Kate Morton - Goodreads

Sadie glanced around, searching for something to prove her wrong. She could hear running water not too far away, and a bird that might have been a raven was watching her from the branch of a nearby willow. She noted great stretches of long rustling grass and the occasional gnarled tree, but nothing human as far as the eye could see. Alice tells her story from when she's young and things that happened at that time, she also tells her story in the present tense. Sun cut between the leaves, and Sadie ran so that her lungs begged her to stop. She didn’t, though; she ran harder, savouring the reassurance of her footfalls. The rhythmic thud, the faint echo caused by damp, mossy earth and dense trampled undergrowth.I love it when a mystery novel is written in a literary prose, and this story certainly has that advantage, but in the beginning the story was sort of disjointed and moved very slowly. The truth is, nothing all that exciting comes to pass until the half way mark, when all that came before begins to take shape. From that point on, the story became so absorbing, I couldn’t stop reading and found myself still awake at one a.m., totally spellbound. No, Kate and Alex do not end up together, even if the final minutes suggest the contrary. While Kate desperately looks for a reply in the mailbox, she finds nothing, breaking into tears. Shortly after, Alex walks through the woods, and the lovers embrace for a picture-perfect ending. However, Alex can’t be alive at the time because he dies on the morning of Valentine’s Day, 2006. Therefore, one can say that they do not end up together. However, Alex leaves several objects and memories in Kate’s life. For instance, Kate finds her lost copy of Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ on the wooden floor of the lake house. Thinking about the stories and histories in The Lake House, what themes were most interesting to you?

THE LAKE HOUSE | Kirkus Reviews THE LAKE HOUSE | Kirkus Reviews

Forgetting the dragonfly, she crossed the path at a clip and made her furtive way around the lake, avoiding the lawn and the band of groundsmen sweeping near the elaborate fireworks contraption, keeping to the shadows until she reached the Sunken Garden. She sat on the sun-warmed steps of the old fountain and set the basket beside her. It was the perfect vantage point, she decided; the nearby hawthorn hedge provided ample cover, while small gaps in its foliage permitted a fine view of the new jetty. One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. He is never found, and the family is torn apart, the house abandoned. However, as the lake house, and especially its adjacent mailbox, stay in a temporal flux, Kate establishes communication with the mysterious Alex ( Keanu Reeves), who claims to live two years in the past. When the timelines mingle, the melancholic story spirals out of control. If you can not quite put your finger around the finale, let us be of assistance. SPOILERS AHEAD. He’d laughed. ‘Cheeky mare.’ And then his tone had softened, turning almost fatherly, which, as far as Sadie could see, was a whole lot worse than if he’d started yelling. ‘Happens to the best of us. Work this job long enough and eventually a case gets under your skin. Means you’re human, but it doesn’t mean you’re right.’ Morton sets her novel over two time periods. The events that led up to, and followed on from, the tragedy in the early to mid-twentieth century are narrated by many of the key players: young Alice, her mother, her father, her grandmother, a gardener, a close family friend and even baby Theo; what occurs in 2003 is told by Sadie, Alice and her assistant, Peter. And while the time periods are clearly indicated at the start of the chapters, the style of prose, the descriptions and dialogue also reflect this.Ms. Morton knows how to keep her readers interested and not want the book to end.? Twists and turns seem to be Ms. Morton's trademark along with marvelous, surprise endings. And what a spectacular ending THE LAKE HOUSE has. You will love it!! Alice Edevane wasn’t shy. She’d known boys before. Not many, it was true – with the exception of their traditional Midsummer party her parents were famously reserved, preferring one another’s company – but she’d managed, on occasion, to exchange surreptitious words with the village boys, or the tenant farmers’ sons who tugged their caps and lowered their eyes and followed their fathers about the estate. This, though – this was . . . Well, it was just different, and she knew how breathless that sounded, how awfully like the sort of thing her big sister Deborah might say, but it happened to be true. As for her spiteful mother, Eleanor has good reason to feel vengeful and finds her chance when the family leaves the lake house after the baby boy disappears. This is not a spoiler, just an excellent example of how Morton winds up even then the smallest storylines. The novel weaves between the two eras, and Morton skilfully leads you into every twist and turn along with her characters.