I'm excited the author is continuing to write in this world - the previous Others books are some of my favourites. This book, however, didn't totally work for me - I found the lead character strangely characterized, the plot a pretty simplistic revenge fantasy, and I don't generally like having one POV in first person and others in third. I want to see what comes next, though, because I think there are lots of stories in this world that could be told.

Vivki DeVine needed a new career and a new home after her divorce. Recovery takes time, and refurbishing a rundown lake property to run as a vacation getaway was supposed to give her time. But when her first lodger, Aggie Crow, finds a body, the time is up. Vicki finds herself in a deadly conspiracy to take everything she has, and her only hope is the predatory Others.

Why I started this book: Bishop has long been one of my favorite authors, so I leapt at the chance to read and review an advance copy.

Why I finished it: I swallowed the story in one gulp, and then returned to re-read it for the next two weeks. And can I say that the ending, just like [book:Etched in Bone|22062213] left me hoping that this is not the last we will see of these characters or this world. (Neither GoodReads or Bishop's website have information on the next book... so I'll just have to reread the whole series again.) Don't worry about a cliffhanger, I just have an absolute desire to read more.

I really enjoy reading Anne Bishop's books, but "The Others" is my favorite series. I've been waiting on book #6 since March of this year (2017), and I was lucky enough to get an ARC copy of this book. I read straight through it in less than 24 hours. If you enjoy fantasy, but the believable kind, the kind that makes you think "What if?", or "Am I alone?" when you're out hiking in the woods, you'll enjoy these books.
Basically the world has been inhabited since creation by a species called the Terre Indigene, or The Others, and they control the earth. They are Elementals (Fire, Water, Air, etc.), Shifters (Crowgard, Beargard, Wolfgard, etc.) and the Elders, who have been around the longest, and stay in the wild until they are called upon to mete out justice in some way.
As the history is explained, "a long time ago Namid gave birth to all kinds of life, including the beings known as humans. She gave the humans fertile pieces of herself, and she gave them good water. Understanding their nature and the nature of her other offspring, she also gave them enough isolation that they would have a chance to survive and grow. And they did. They bred and spread throughout their pieces of the world until they pushed into the wild places. That's when they discovered that Namid's other offspring already claimed the rest of the world. The Others looked at humans and did not see conquerors. They saw a new kind of meat. Wars were fought to possess the wild places. Sometimes the humans won and spread their seed a little farther. More often, pieces of civilization disappeared, and fearful survivors tried not to shiver when a howl went up in the night or a man, wandering too far from the safety of stout doors and light, was found the next morning drained of blood. Centuries passed. Humans were smart. So were the Others. Humans invented electricity and plumbing. The Others controlled all the rivers that could power the generators and all the lakes that supplied fresh drinking water. Humans invented and manufactured products. The Others controlled all the natural resources, thereby deciding what would and wouldn't be made in their part of the world. So it comes to the current age. Small human villages exist within vast tracts of land that belongs to the Others, And in larger human cities, there are fenced parks called Courtyards that are inhabited by the Others who have the task of keeping watch over the city's residents and enforcing the agreements the humans made with the terra indigene.
In "Lake Silence", a battered ex-wife, Vicky Dane, gets a small, very rustic (read primitive) resort property on the banks of Lake Silence, which is a human town, but not human controlled. She follows every rule laid out by the land owners (the Others) in the renovations and repairs to the cabins and main house with her limited resources, while her greedy ex-husband is partnering with unseemly characters from his past to reclaim this property from her, despite her capital improvements. He trusts in his ability to cow and control her to regain this property, despite her legal standing. Unbeknownst to him, she has gained the trust and even friendship of some of the Others living locally, and they prefer her residence to his. When he and his colleagues show up to evict her, it angers not only the Crowgard, Beargard and Panthergard, but some of the Elementals and Elders, and does not turn out well for the hoity-toity Mr. Dane.

Vicki DeVine got The Jumble as her divorce settlement when her emotionally abusive husband Yorick Dane decided he needed to move up from his starter wife. She has spent months updating the very run down resort on the shore of Lake Silence. The Jumble is near Sproing, the only human village near Lake Silence. When her only renter Aggie Crowe is getting ready to heat an eyeball in the wave-cooker and mentions that the rest of the body is on the path between Vicki's place and the neighbor, Vicki contacts the nearest police station.

Since the troubles that happened when the Others cleaned house leaving many humans missing or dead, Sproing doesn't have a police force of their own. Wayne Grimshaw is the highway patrol officer who is sent to Sproing to check out the body. He is used to patrolling the roads and knows very well that there are many dangerous Others out there. One look tells him that the victim was not killed by a human.

Grimshaw begins an investigation which leads right back to Vicki's ex and a club of unscrupulous businessmen. Apparently, they want The Jumble back so that they can turn it into a high class resort. Luckily, Vicki has made friends including her new lawyer Ilya Sanguinati who is the vampire overseer of the humans in Sproing. She is also befriended by many of the Others and Elementals who call Lake Silence home and who want Vicki to succeed in her new business which provides a way for humans and Others to learn about each other. She also makes friends with some of the humans in Sproing too, including Julian Farrow who was an Intuit and former police officer and is currently the owner of Lettuce Read - the local bookstore.

I liked that the story was told from a number of viewpoints with the chapter titles saying who was telling that part of the story. I like that that humans are not the dominant species in this world. I liked that the Others were so very different than humans in the way they thought. Vicki was a great character who had self-deprecating humor despite suffering from crippling anxiety attacks. I liked the way she treated any of the Others she met with caution, courtesy, and respect. I liked the idea that a bookstore was an essential part of the town and that sharing stories was a way for the Others and the humans to begin understanding each other.

I highly recommend this great fantasy story.

I love this world. There is something cathargic about people getting punished for being greedy. Will there be more because the main character, who I did love, didn't grow enough for it to be a conclusion. She grew enough but not enough to think that her journey was over.

Anne Bishop is an author I buy without even a peek at the back of the book. That said, I start looking for hints about six months before a book is released and wondering how I can get my hands on an advance reader copy. I was lucky enough to be selected for an ARC of Lake Silence.
I was very excited to read about a new location. The first five books took place in the Lakeside Courtyard for the most part so going to the Finger Lakes and meeting new characters was a treat. There were elements of mystery, humor and horror.
Vicki was a great and complex character. Her sense of humor had me giggling pretty often. I’m hoping to read more about her in later books.

What a joy to be able to read an advanced reader's copy of the new novel by Anne Bishop set in the world of the Others, one of my favorite series of all time! Once I started reading Lake Silence, I had a hard time stopping and doing the things I should have been doing at work and home. In this book, we are introduced to a new location and new characters, but the rest of the world-building coincides with Bishop's The Others Series. Vickie DeVine is a recently divorced woman who was brow beaten very badly by her ex-husband and his wandering "Vigorous Appendage" (so funny)!! From her divorce she has received some property in a earth native settlement that is recovering from a "great predation" that occurred when the Elder earth natives got really angry with the humans and wiped many of them from the face of the earth. Vickie has a tenant, Aggie, who is a member of the Crowgard, but Vickie doesn't know that until she discovers Aggie heating up a human eyeball in the microwave for a snack. From there, a murder mystery is introduced, as well as really bad villains, interesting interactions between the humans in the settlement and the terre indigine, and some quite humorous situations as well. Overall, lots of fun and enjoyment. I only wish I could have savored it more instead of rushing through to finish it! Thanks for sharing an early review copy with this great fan!

The world that this new series and the blood prophet books takes place in, exhibits superb world-building and word craft. This author has an almost lyrical way of writing about this alternate earth that has a somewhat addictive quality, I finished this book in one sitting. It was satisfying in a lot of ways to also see humans not be in the apex predator role, with all the good, bad, and plain stupid behaviors that this might entail.. While I think this new series has a slightly weaker premise than the previous one, I quite enjoyed the varied characters and plot lines. I think it could be an excellent parallel to the first series, and I like that she is exploring other areas of her world. I just hope there is more interaction between the two and that she further explores other groups.

Damn, I'm happy to be back in this world. At first, like many others, I wasn't going to read this because I was missing my original characters. However, this reminded me why I loved this world. We're working on a mystery- type story, yet it was the small interactions that made me love this book even more... and hate a few of them. Ms. Bishop sure knows how to write despicable, evil characters. My only issue was this book dragged; it felt more like a 500 page book rather than a 400 page book (yes, it makes a difference), but I still loved the story. .Overall, I'm hoping this isn't a standalone, because I need a second book.

So this is not a Meg & Simon book. However, that being said, I really enjoyed these new characters and setting. We meet Vicki who is on her own after a difficult divorce from a man who is a jerk. Her part of the divorce settlement is cabin smack dab in the middle of a wooded area populated by "The Others." I look forward to more with these characters.

Electronic ARC provided by NetGalley.

I always enjoy reading Anne Bishop's books, and I enjoyed this one too. The three star rating is mostly because this book doesn't really say anything new about the world of the Others or about how they relate to humans.

In "Lake Silence" we are introduced to Vicki, who has recently acquired a small town lakefront property as her divorce settlement from an emotionally abusive husband. Like most of Bishop's main female characters, Vicki is dealing with past trauma and trying to forge a new way ahead for herself. I liked the fact that Bishop made it very clear that although Vicki's husband never hit her, she was still horribly damaged by his verbal abuse and manipulation. The property that Vicki is now responsible for is in territory held by the Others, and they have an interest in seeing it restored and maintained properly. The plot begins when Vicki's lodger Aggie (a crow shifter) discovers a dead body on the property, and a new police chief is brought in to investigate.

A lot of the plot here is a small scale retread of what we saw in Meg and Simon's books. There's a community where the Others and some local humans are learning to understand one another and work together. There is also a group of humans who think that they can get away with bullying the locals and trying to cheat the Others (you have to wonder how stupid they are to try this since the big flare up in "Etched in Bone" was less then a year ago in universe). I liked the new characters well enough, and enjoyed reading the book, but it really doesn't add much to this universe, and having seen how the Others previously reacted to human aggression, a lot of the possible tension in this book was removed for me. I would recommend "Lake Silence" to anyone who enjoyed the previous books enough to want more in that universe.

A great addition to the world of The Others!

Can't wait for more!

Overall I’m a fan of Anne Bishop’s new Others book. Vicki is a plain heroine, which is not something we see very often. Despite that, she is kind and generous and people respond to that, and it is lovely to see in a fantasy novel. Vicki, as a heroine, does leave a little to be desired though. She has very realistic anxiety, but that could be frustrating at time because she never appeared to be working on that. Instead of feeling like exploration of mental illness vitally needed in popular culture, it read as an excuse for Vicki to let people do everything for her.

That said. This book has a good hook - I was invested in the story from the first sentence, and it was nice to see more of the Sanguinati, my favorite Others from her previous series. This book has a more clear cut format than many of her previous books, with clear POV shifts between chapters and this delineation was nice. The overall framing was a little strange though - firstly because Vicki says things like “some things to know”, that make it feel like she is talking to another person without providing any further reason to believe that Vicki sees herself as addressing an audience. Secondly, Vicki’s chapters are the only ones in first person, and the switch between first and third person is jarring.

I love Anne's Others' books. To me, they're like cuddly comfort books with violence. Maybe it's because I've been traumatized in the past, but it's easy for me to look past the fact that good guys get damaged because I know Anne will make it right. Something bigger, meaner, and more straight-forward than the bad guys is going to step in and lay waste to (not merely deal with, but destroy) those that need it. One could only wish it happened in real life.

One of the things that makes the Others so fabulous is that appearances don't matter to them. Nothing that is just surface matters to them. Who people are, and what that impels people to do, is their only real benchmark. I would be happy to live in a world with them in it, even though it meant, on some levels, I'd be prey.

The plot: Emotionally abused ex-wife takes "junk" land given to her in the divorce settlement and tries to reopen a defunct hostelry business ; abusive ex gets together with cronies and tries to rob her of the little he gave her; turns out someone else actually owns the land, he just "gave" her the rights to the buildings and certain levels of use - which is all his family had ever had; his bad luck is that the Others are the actual land holders, they like really his ex, and they really don't like him, the cronies, or their underhanded methods. (And who would?) Things get out of hand, for the humans, from there.

The characters: I liked them individually, but worry about the predominance of males and the possibility of triangles, quadrilaterals, or other relationship stupidity in further books.

Vicki (the new "caretaker" of The Jumble) is healing from her abuse and the occasional bursts of backbone and growth are a good thing to see. Her high level of fragility was tiresome now and again; she did struggle to overcome it, so that helped. She hated the men always acting like she'd break and rose up in response to that - however, not stupidly! When they were right, she just grumbled. I liked that. Nothing worse than a "strong heroine" who insists on doing something, even something that makes them too stupid to live, just because they have to insist on their independence and strength.

The men: Wayne Grimshaw (with a name like that he should have been an Other!), police officer, was pretty straightforwardly a good capable man put in a position he didn't ask for but handled well. Julian Farrow, ex-police officer now a bookstore owner with a secret past and Intuit powers, should have been a superhero with a background like that - he's a "friend" of Vicki's. Ilya Sanguinati, vampire and power-lawyer extraordinaire, struck me as being very like Vlad from the earlier novels with a law degree thrown in. Any, and all, of these guys seemed to hint at some time of being capable, if not willing, of developing an interest in Vicki. Which is why I was concerned about relationship stupidity. I guess I'll just have to see in later books - which, cross your fingers, Anne actually plans to right for us because I'd be happy to read them right now!

All of that said, if you've not read any of the Others series, while this would not be a bad place to start, it's not the best. It's set in a new place and has new characters. However, if you really want to grow into the world and understand it on a deeper level, you be happier starting at the beginning. Not to mention, you'd miss out on all the characters from the earlier books! Something you definitely shouldn't do.

Continuing her “Others” series, Anne Bishop introduces us to new characters and a new setting. As part of her divorce settlement Vicki was given a rundown lodge that she it trying to fix up. She even has a lodger, although it turns out Aggie is one of the shape-shifting others, and she has found a body. Watching the twists and turns as Vicki tries to do the right thing and also explain human oddities to the others is fantastic. This series is the best, world building is top notch and I want more! Highly recommended.

Though it's tentatively called the sixth book in The Others series, this thrilling romp through the world of the terra indigene carries minimal references to the previous five books. The setting is semi-familiar, a small town in the same region, but unlike the college town feeling brought by Lakeside and it's inhabitants, everything in Sproing is a bit less... civilized.
Similar to how the series began, Anne Bishop begins this book with a woman attempting to distance herself from her past. This time, Vicki DeVine is a recent divorcee and trying to make due after a contentious separation from her ex-husband. The only thing she appears to have gotten out of that relationship is a rather run-down, lake-front B&B with some rather stringent conditions on renovations and land use. That and an ongoing roulette wheel of anxiety triggers thanks to years of mental and emotional abuse.
Bishop skillfully weaves themes and tropes that she introduced in previous books to tell a new tale, with a new cast and setting. The traumas of Vicki's past are treated seriously and with gravity, by others if not by herself, and trauma and emotional wounds are treated respectfully in how they are carefully explained and handled by multiple characters. In both using the explaining of 'human things' to the terra indigene, as well as the guise of characters being new in town, Bishop is able to provide information without sounding as if she is narrating exposition to readers.
As politically twisted as the previous books, this one too depicts the follies of men and a world attempting to rebuild in a more gentle way - mostly. Much like in Lakeside, the citizens of Sproing are a mixed bag, and newcomers ride a delicate edge of establishing themselves while meeting, some for the first time, the terra indigene. On the other hand, the wild woods are much closer to Sproing and the area surrounding Vicki's cabins at The Jumble, on the edge of Lake Silence, and the terra indigene there are much less used to human interaction.
While this book and this series are generally tagged within a romantic sub-category, if Bishop continues with the adventures of these characters that romance, similar to the first five books, will build slowly. It is only right, with these characters and the things they have been through, and it adds to both the credibility of the characters as people and Bishop's world-building chops. Certainly any future additions to this world will be full of plenty other to keep the characters, and readers, occupied.

Pub date: Mar 2018
3.5 This spin-off is centered around another wounded woman, Vicki, becoming a bridge between humans and the terre indigene. I was happy to see another in this series, even though it didn't have Meg or the Lakeside gang.

So. Freaking. Good!!!!!
It took me a tiny bit to get into it because Vicki is so different from Meg, but Anne Bishop had me sucked into her incredible world very quickly.
It was so cool to see a different point of view and how people were behaving a little after the Great Predation. I loved all the characters and am very much looking forward to seeing them grow and develop. Loved the way the author added to the world she'd built in the first five books and am seriously considering re-reading them...for the third time this year😎.

Overall I’m a fan of Anne Bishop’s new Others book. Vicki is a plain heroine, which is not something we see very often. Despite that, she is kind and generous and people respond to that, and it is lovely to see in a fantasy novel. Vicki, as a heroine, does leave a little to be desired though. She has very realistic anxiety, but that could be frustrating at time because she never appeared to be working on that. Instead of feeling like exploration of mental illness vitally needed in popular culture, it read as an excuse for Vicki to let people do everything for her.

That said. This book has a good hook - I was invested in the story from the first sentence, and it was nice to see more of the Sanguinati, my favorite Others from her previous series. This book has a more clear cut format than many of her previous books, with clear POV shifts between chapters and this delineation was nice. The overall framing was a little strange though - firstly because Vicki says things like “some things to know”, that make it feel like she is talking to another person without providing any further reason to believe that Vicki sees herself as addressing an audience. Secondly, Vicki’s chapters are the only ones in first person, and the switch between first and third person is jarring.