Ladies of the Lake

By: Cathy Gohlke

Narrated by: Stephanie Richardson

When she is forced to leave her beloved Prince Edward Island to attend Lakeside Ladies Academy after the death of her parents, the last thing Adelaide Rose MacNeill expects to find is three kindred spirits. The “Ladies of the Lake,” as the four girls call themselves, quickly bond like sisters, vowing that wherever life takes them, they will always be there for each other. But that is before: Before love and jealousy come between Adelaide and Dorothy, the closest of the friends. Before the dawn of World War I upends their world and casts baseless suspicion onto the German American man they both love. Before a terrible explosion in Halifax Harbor rips the sisterhood irrevocably apart.

Seventeen years later, Rosaline Murray receives an unsuspecting telephone call from Dorothy, now headmistress of Lakeside, inviting her to attend the graduation of a new generation of girls, including Rosaline’s beloved daughter. With that call, Rosaline is drawn into a past she’d determined to put behind her. To memories of a man she once loved...of a sisterhood she abandoned...and of the day she stopped being Adelaide MacNeill.

©2023 Cathy Gohlke (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Starts slow but picks up

I was worried at first that this was a YA book but that changed about a 1/4 ways into the book. Definitely written for women but I enjoyed it. A story of love, deception and redemption. The ending was sad but it helped to explain the relationship of the women. The ladies of the lake. Both my wife and I enjoyed it.

I appreciated the reader’s passion for the story.

I was surprised by the ending as far as the love story went! And I was glad the correct two got together.

A must read book!!

This was an excellent story. Masterfully written. I didn’t know how I wanted it to end and it was perfect. I loved all the Canadian bits and it had an Anne feel to it, which I loved. It would be a good read, but was an excellent listen.

it's Christian fiction!

I bought this as a daily deal unaware religion played such a big role in the story. About three fourths of the way through I was doubting I would be able to finish the novel. I decided to grind forward and was pleased with the ending. Finishing the book left a much better feeling about the story than if I would have stopped reading three quarters of the way through!

Mediocre

Content warning: Death by suicide. Wartime love triangle. The religious language gets heavy-handed towards the end, even more disconcerting because the writing doesn't proceed that way for the first two-thirds of the story. The narrator mispronounced a few words, but was otherwise fine.