WOW! This was excellent. I could not put this book down. Wonderful!!!!

I'm really pleased to be able to review The Lake and the Lost Girl for myself. This is the first book I have read by Jacquelyn Vincenta, and I was pulled in from the first page. The book was emotionally written with exceptional detail and care so as to create vivid characters and an equally vivid atmosphere. It made me feel for the characters and the attention to detail and engaging plot had me reading late into the night, Many thanks to Jacquelyn Vincenta and her publisher, Sourcebooks Landmark, for my advance review cooy of the book via NetGalley. I'd recommend it if you like a suspensful page turner with a realistic plot and characters you won't forget. The book is a welcome find. I was very pleased to participate in the blog tour for this title, which can becfound on my blog, Katherine's Book Universe (see link below)

A terrific debut! This is an unusual and hard to categorize novel- it switches between the 1930s and 1999, tells the tale from two different perspectives, is focused on obsession, and is essential a thriller set in a literary setting. Lydia is sympathetic and believable as she tried to cope with her husband Frank's fixation on MSW. Vincenta will make you think about how we categorize spousal abuse and the fate of women in destructive relationships. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Try this one for a good read that's more intense than it might appear.

Book blurb...
An intricately plotted debut about love, obsession, and the destruction of a family from the inside out.
When Frank’s single-minded pursuit for Mary’s lost poems puts his family in jeopardy, Lydia throws herself into the mystery, hoping to solve it and bring peace back to her home. But as Lydia begins investigating, her son takes action with a plan of his own…one that will bring the family to a breaking point and change Lydia’s destiny forever.

It’s 1999 in White Hill, Michigan, and Lydia Carroll’s husband is in love with a dead woman. English Professor Frank Carroll has invested years searching for the lost works of local poet Mary Stone Walker, whose mysterious disappearance in 1939 is only rivaled by the beautiful words she left behind.



My thoughts…
This book fascinated me from beginning to end - mysterious, mesmeric, and marvelous storytelling that shows how easily a family can destroy itself once obsession and disrespect enter a relationship.
Told predominantly in current day with glimpses from Mary’s life sixty years earlier. We get an understanding of the how she lived and suffered in her marriage. The story is well plotted and easy to follow.
I look forward to future novels by Jacquelyn Vincent.

What is up with the husband's of women who write for a living in this book. They are both demanding, violent and abusive. I spent most of this book with my fists clenched wanting to use them on Frank. A man who obsessed with finding out more about an elusive poet writer who hasn't been heard from since 1939.

This was a chilling tale filled with domestic abuse by these husbands and how these women dealt with their problem. While the deal with Frank and Lydia and their relationship was a little long in several places, I think the author just wanted you to understand the reality of Frank's obsession and how it changed him.

I stayed up way to late to finish this book because I just HAD to know how it ended! There was absolutely no way I was putting it down, I could sleep tomorrow. Chilling, suspenseful and tragic, I enjoyed this read very much.

Huge thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and Net Galley for allowing me the privilege to read and review this book in exchange for providing an honest, unbiased review.

Thanks SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and netgalley for this ARC.

This novel brings past and present together in a spookley, painfully, and hit me on the forehead-I should have seen that coming way. Exciting, full of danger, love, and obsessions.

Great book! Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommend!