This was not my usual genre and not for me at all.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for my copy to review.

Kate Granger is mourning the loss of her marriage when she returns to her childhood home on the shores of Lake Superior. She has barely had time to get settled when her father finds the body of a young woman and her child that washes up along the shore. Kate is shocked by her overwhelming grief at the loss of this stranger, but then she realizes that it is the woman that she has been dreaming about at night. This woman and her husband have been haunting Kate's dreams. As the police investigate this woman's death, they realize that the clothes she wore were made by a mill that went out of business almost a hundred years ago. And she has no sign of modern dental work. The more Kate investigates on her own, she realizes that the past has slammed into the present and she works hard to find out who killed a woman who died almost a century ago.

The Daughters of the Lake is the perfect kind of novel to read in October full of gothic old dwellings, handsome men, and mysterious things that go bump in the night, you can't help but be sucked into the story. Kate Granger is a likable enough character, she seems sincere and kind. I really liked her cousin and the handsome detective, Nick Adams. I liked their chemistry and the way their story ended. The "big reveal" wasn't anything shocking, but it was still enjoyable. CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS

Bottom Line - Wendy Webb is quickly becoming a "must-read" author for me. The gothic feel to her novels reminds me of an era gone by.

Details:
The Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb
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Pages: 320
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: 11/1/2018
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Thank you to Netgalley for the book in exchange for a review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union publishing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a haunting tale that weaves murder mystery and magic together in such an engaging way that it was extremely hard to put down. The corpses of a young woman and baby wash up on the beach causing local law enforcement into a frenzy to find out who they are and how they died, Kate and her cousin Simon are tied to the mystery somehow, experiencing strange visions and manifestations. The investigator brought in on the case immediately suspects Kate’s involvement because of her intimate knowledge of the victims but is strange,y compelled to believe her when she says they have been buried in the lake for over 100 years, despite the fact that they look like they just died. It’s a creepy and emotional tale. Well worth a read around Halloween.

I recieved an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and will recommend it often to lovers of mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels!

Initial thoughts
I was expecting a story kind of like Cheryl Bradshaw's Addison Lockhart series.

Description
Kate returns to her parent’s home after she finds out her husband cheated on her. She is devastated and determined to start a new life. One morning when her father walks his dog and finds a dead body in the lake. When she sees the woman she recognizes her. From her dreams. But how can that be? And how did she know that there is a baby in the arms of the dead woman? She is determined to find out who the woman is, why she dreams about her.
One hundred years ago, a love story ended in tragedy. That tragedy had serious consequences, consequences that affect Kate’s life.

Main characters
Kate is determined to find out what happened to the mystery woman. I liked her because of this determination.
The other main character is the mystery woman (I’m not saying her name deliberately). We follow her from moment she is born until the moment she dies. She seems naive and innocent but she is a strong woman.

Supporting characters
Nick Stone is the detective in Wharton. He is a nice guy, who likes Kate very much and feels there is more to Kate and her experiences than she says.
Simon is just fun. As Kate’s cousin he he is with her and supports her. He is Mr. Busybody.

Writing style
The story is written from the point of view of Kate and the mystery woman so we get to know both of their sides. While we follow Kate and her investigation, the past comes closer and closer.
The pacing is fast, there aren’t any boring parts and the scenes with the ghosts made my skin crawl.

Ending
Fortunately, the ending is a real ending, the questions are answered. I like happy endings.

All in all I enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my review.

I think others could love Daughters of the Lake, but it sadly didn't work for me. I found myself not caring about the characters and wanting to skim the pages, I DNF at 26%

This book was moderately enjoyable. It was better than the average murder mystery but still fell into too many conventions of genre.

This is a decent piece of historical fiction with a hint of a ghost story. It isn’t a bad book by any stretch, but I have high standards for Wendy Webb (as everything she has written previously has been exceptional), and this book didn’t measure up.

What Webb has always excelled at is that delightful, macabre creep of high gothic eeriness, and this book was completely devoid of that. It is atmospherically well-conceived in other ways, but it is missing the signature Wendy Webb shiver factor.

The plot was decent and does have a small twist in the final chapter, but the link between the modern characters and the group from the early 20th century is tenuous and in the end, meaningless save for its function as a plot device.

Kate’s only real link to the older characters is that she’s related to them. Solving the mystery really changed nothing, and as we learned in the last chapter, she didn’t actually solve it at all. Technically I suppose Kate and Simon did need to banish the spirit plaguing the Harrison House, but given the last chapter, did the really banish the correct person? And why was that particular spirit so angry, not being guilty of what Kate believes this person to be guilty of? The whole thing was sloppy and had too many holes.

I still enjoyed reading the book, but it definitely felt off for Webb, both in terms of approach and subject matter and in terms of quality.

Daughters of the Lake is a fantastic thriller that is well written and has great characters. A new author for me and a will read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love this book. Excellent character building. I highly recommend this book.

**Not super twisty like expected...a decently woven tale that mixes a lot of past and present. It get s little overly descriptive at times and you might want to skim or jump ahead. Sadly, it's ok to do you won't be missing anything.

Good premise, a little predictable. I found the segues into the ghosts’ introductions to read like a cheesy voiceover “they didn’t know the danger around them” . Overall entertaining, but not terribly original or enthralling.

I knew I was in for a treat when I was selected to receive an arc. Wendy Webb did not disappoint. Perfect bland of romance with a gothic touch. Loved it. Thank you net galley and publisher for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

It was a dark and gothic story. The premise was interesting enough and I liked the backstories of the characters. The story has also paranormal elements which gives the story another tone. However, there are some parts I didn't like a lot!The writing was ok and there were unnecessary details that made me skip some parts.

I really, really enjoyed this book. It was a wonderful balance of love story, ghost story and domestic fiction all wrapped up in a book I couldn't put down. The main characters are Kate, who is alive, and Addie, whose body washes up on the beach in front of Kate's parents home. Addie appears to have died very recently and the infant she is holding does as well. Not wanting to spoil this book for anyone because it is so worth reading, I won't go any further. Very well written by Wendy Webb, whose books I will now be looking for and recommending to others. Strongly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for a review based on my honest opinion about this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It has that gothic feel, the scenic towns, the wonderful cast of characters, a beautiful house, a lake, a story based on an actual legend; what more could I ask for. When the body of a woman washes up in front of Kate’s parent’s house, she cannot believe her eyes, it’s the woman who has been haunting her dreams for the last few weeks, the woman who she is in her dreams. The story gets even more interesting when she discovers from when the body has come. As Kate, her cousin Simon and Detective Nick Stone, who is swoon worthy, try to resolve this mystery, I was drawn into the story and the ending was unexpected and shocking. Loved this book.

This was not the first book I have read by this author, I have read two others and really enjoyed those as well; it will definitely won’t be the last. Great story for those cold winter evenings.

DNF 37%!

Sorry, but no matter how much I enjoyed The End of Temperance Dare couldn't I muster interest enough to finish this book. The story is so... saccharine and honestly boring. I have to admit that I was quite taken with the cover and the blurb intrigued me. But, it's just romance all the way. The murder mystery? Zzzz well it's much more important that the MC had a vision of her romancing the cop that takes over the case.

It took me a little while to get into this book. The story jumps from the early 1900’s to the present day. A body is washed up by the lake. When Kate sees it she reacts, somehow knowing that the lady is holding a baby. The policeman, luckily a friend of Kate’s is suspicious, but can’t believe she is capable of murder. At the same time Kate’s husband is having an affair, which Kate discovers and explodes in front of many of their friends. Embarrassed, she quits her job (she works in the same office as her husband) and goes to Wharton to visit her cousin Simon. There the story takes many twists and turns. Kate’s dreams become the focus, as she explores their meaning. A little strange at times, but worth reading. I give it 3.1/2 stars.

3.5 As I've mentioned before, it seems that books follow a trend. Either that or I am just randomly encountering books that make it seem that way. So trend or not, I am enjoying the many books that I have read lately, that contain a folklore or myth of some kind. Just love all those old stories containing people and places, old beliefs and warnings. This book that I enjoyed also contains such a story.

Set on Lake Superior this a a good story, with elements of the paranormal, a talent of reading dreams passed down through generations. The timeline is one hundred years apart, and now an event, needs to be understood and corrected in the present. Of course the lake plays a big part of the story, in fact in this book it is where it begins.

"The Lakeshore was magical was magical then, in those days, and so it remained. But people had grown to noisy, too preoccupied, too sophisticated to listen to its song."

To understand what happened in the past, Kate our main character, must learn more about the past, her own family heritage. The spirits of the past are waiting for her to connect the dots and bring peace and the truth to the forefront. Don't believe in spirits? Maybe were just not listening hard enough in our now too noisy world.

ARC from Netgalley.

Wendy Webb is always at the top of my reading list and her new book Daughters of the Lake did not disappoint. She has such a wonderful gift of weaving the past with the present and in the process adds in just the right amount of paranormal.