the catch line....no secret stays hidden for long....is an excellent summation for the book. As the family's fortunes disappear, they must move back to the mother's childhood home and take the nanny with them. She has been with the family since the children were small so moves with them out of loyalty and affection. But living in this small town in this small house, the family dynamic is not the same. As the history is revealed, the secrets will tell. A very good story built with a creepy atmosphere that will keep you on edge.

Well written and very captivating! This certainly had me guessing and regressing and still was surprised! I loved the ending and how it wrapped up so well! Highly recommended!!!!!!!

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. A good mystery/thriller. Keep you on the edge of your seat.

Louise Douglas transports us to a different time and city like no one else. A small, dark English town with so many secrets. After being spoiled by the Laurent family for years, tragedy turns everyone's world, including the nanny's Amy, upside down. Suddenly no one knows how they are going to make ends meet and keep the only thing the Laurent family has to their name, the cottage in the village safe from the wolves at the door. Amy lost her mother as a child and found herself escaping her own world by accepting a nanny job and helping to raise little miss Vivian. Being dragged back to Julia's hometown and the cottage where she grew up, brings on so many questions. Nothing in the town seems right. Secrets and suspicion are around every corner. Amy can see why Julia chose to escape all those years ago. But something keeps bringing Amy back to the one bedroom that seems to house all the secrets. What happened to Caroline, Julia's sister? Was she really as sinister as everyone seems to believe?
I was very pleasantly surprised by Louise Douglas's The Secret of the Lake. It was a excellent mix of fiction, suspense, with a little bit of mystery and thriller thrown in. I will definitely recommend this to others and will continue to look for other works by Douglas. Special Thanks to NetGalley, Louise Douglas, and Boldwood Books for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 4 stars for me.
#TheSecretbytheLake #NetGalley

Great book. Highly recommend and will most defiantly read more by this author and suggest to others!

I was hooked from the start and by 9% in I was creeped out! I felt the eerie atmosphere and I have to admit it was making me feel desolate . The author did a great job making you feel the isolation and dreariness of this place. I couldn’t put it down! The paranormal aspect was done well & I couldn’t wait to find out the secrets this town held.

This was the first book I have read by this author and I was really impressed by the attention to detail and the grasp on how to create suspense and mood in a book. I felt that the story was very original, yet I struggled a bit with pacing with the story at times. It seemed like pulling teeth for Amy to begin to figure things out although it was really becoming obvious. The ending was a bit frustrating and just ended up feeling a little too cut and dried for me. I would definitely not hesitate to read more from this author and felt that this was a good read. Thanks the ARC, NetGalley.

This was everything I hoped it would be! From the very beginning I was feeling all sorts of chills and knew I was in for a ride.

Amy was such a great character which is a breath of fresh air. She felt so genuine. When Amy had to move with her employers I was begging her not to because of course the good person who loves children and family is going to get the worst of it.

From the sinister house to the family's secrets, this one is worth reading. I'm not usually a fan,of supernatural aspects in books, but it worked here. Another great read from Louise Douglas.

Published in 2015 this story was a little on the dark side for me. I'm sure fans of psychological horror books will eat it up. Amy moves back to her hometown as a nanny to a family she loves. She hasn't been back since her sister Carolyn died under mysterious circumstances. This is my first encounter with Louise Douglas and her story has elements of ghosts and mystery. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

So this book is basically a combination of small town, big secrets and a ghost story. A nanny leaves a family for awhile to care for her grandmother who almost instantly passes away and she goes to work for another place where she can be around lots of children. It's not long after that the mother of the family she worked for becomes a widow and she instantly, eagerly goes back to the family who was so good to her. As they move to the cottage where this woman grew up, the nanny soon realizes that the town treats her differently because of who she works for. She starts getting signs of a ghost haunting them starting with the child Vivi all the sudden having an imaginary friend, one who just happens to have the same name as her dead aunt. As the nanny starts renovating the room that belonged to the dead aunt, there are cryptic messages left underneath the wallpaper. Other than the occassional bump (things such as a mirror breaking), this book did not possess a large amount of horror if that is what you are wanting. I found myself reading this book a little at a time, rather slowly, I had a hard time getting into it. I'm not sure what this book needs, but it just fell flat for me fast. I wish I would have enjoyed it more. Thank you NetGalley. I received this for my honest review.

Amy is a nanny and goes with them to live at the house by the lake/on a remote island. Immediately something feels off to Amy. Sinister and haunting and completely addictive. Highly recommend this!

This story is so addictive. I couldn’t stop reading it. The writing is vivid through out the whole book. I don’t get spooked by reading books like this but this one had the hairs on my arm standing on end. I LOVED IT!!!!!

After being abandoned by her mother and misunderstood by her father her entire childhood, Amy is thrilled to get placement as a nanny with the Laurents in Paris. Her employer, Julia, has an old hip injury that prevents her from being a proper mother to Viviane. Amy practically raises this warm and affectionate girl from birth and becomes very close to the whole family. But when tragedy strikes, Amy finds herself moving back to England to Julia's childhood home to help while they struggle with their grief. Almost from the day Amy moved in, there are strange things going on in the old reservoir cabin. The whole atmosphere of the house is gloomy and foreboding. When Julia admits that Caroline, the sister she never got along with, died in this house, and then Viviane starts talking to a new imaginary friend named Caroline, Amy is determined to find the truth of what happened in this small town.
Oh my gosh was this book spooky. It took me a while to get into it, but once the paranormal incidents started happening I was hooked! I have a few more books by this author that I plan to move to the top of my TBR pile!

First time reading Louise Douglas and enjoyed it. Book took a bit to get into but it was eerie and a great distraction from real life. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

4.5 Stars

I’d seen some quite mixed reviews for this book and wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Being a new Louise Douglas fan, I went with my gut and I’m glad I did. Although it starts out at a slow burn the more you read the better it gets.

Whilst The Secret by the Lake is pure Louise Douglas and the Gothic genre at its finest, it’s still a love story at heart, albeit with a twist that adds to the suspense. There were parts that kept me guessing and I wasn’t quite sure where it was going at times but this kept me racing through the pages.

Overall, I can see why some people didn’t like it, it was a little odd in parts and the female lead is hard to connect with but if you keep at it you will find that it is a gripping read that really amps up the pace with plenty of intrigue, so much so that I read it in a day.

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. This was the first book I've read by Louise Douglas and I can honestly say after reading this I will for sure be reading more of her work. The Secret By The Lake was definitely a thriller and very hard to put down. A great read with an excellent plot that I finished in a day. I thought the writing was well crafted and it didn’t take me long to start to enjoy the company of the main character Amy. Do yourself a favor and read this book - you will not be disappointed.

This book was a pleasant surprise! I was expecting a mystery/thriller, but this was so much more. There was emotional parts, thrilling parts and a ghost story thrown in. It was just a good read!

This haunting read was beautifully written. It will keep you guessing until the last page and then throw you for another loop!

Amy loves her job as a nanny and she knows the couple she works for depend on her. So when an incident occurs that forces the family to flee to a house on a remote island, Amy goes with them. Right away she’s uncomfortable. something about the cottage feels wrong. It is, after all the place where the mother of Amy’s charges sister disappeared. Douglas spins a story akin to a dark, haunted fairytale. Happy ending? Maybe not

This is a fantastic story which kept me engrossed from start to finish. I didn't want it to end, with its mysteries, secrets and mostly likeable characters.
Strange things start to happen and Amy begins to have many questions that need answers. Why are the villagers of Blackwater so hostile towards Julia and Vivi?
This book had an awesome story to it! One I was hooked to and didn't want it to end.