The Lake House

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If I could rate a book higher than a five it would be this one! Kate Morton, author of The Lake House, captures so many emotions in this epic mystery of family secrets, betrayal, vivid scenes, and a haunting ending! From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Secret Keeper and The Distant Hours, an intricately plotted, spellbinding new novel of heartstopping suspense and uncovered secrets. Kate Morton was born in South Australia, grew up in the mountains of south-east Queensland, and now lives with her family in London and Australia. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, and harboured dreams of joining the Royal Shakespeare Company until she realised that it was words she loved more than performing. Kate still feels a pang of longing each time she goes to the theatre and the house lights dim. Beneath her gaze he bent, pausing to steady the log’s weight before easing it into place atop the others. He was strong and that was good. Alice wasn’t sure why, only that it mattered to her in a deep and unexplored place. Her cheeks were hot; she was blushing.

The Lake House by Kate Morton - Pan Macmillan

Dylan Walsh as Morgan Price, Kate's boyfriend turned fiancé. He is pushy and persistent, and tends to make decisions for Kate. She eventually breaks up with him.

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But not anymore. Alice smiled as Ben hoisted another log onto what was fast becoming a towering pyre. She might not be charming like Deborah, and she’d certainly never been immortalised, like Mother had, as the subject of a much-loved children’s book, but it didn’t matter. She was something else entirely. ‘You’re a storyteller, Alice Edevane,’ Ben had told her late one afternoon, as the river tripped coolly by and the pigeons came home to roost. ‘I’ve never met a person with such a clever imagination, such good ideas.’ His voice had been gentle and his gaze intense; Alice had seen herself then through his eyes and she’d liked what she saw. Christopher Plummer as Simon Wyler, Alex's estranged, narcissistic father. He is a famous Chicago architect and the original designer of the Lake House. Sun cut between the leaves, and Sadie ran so that her lungs begged her to stop. She didn’t, though; she ran harder, savouring the reassurance of her footfalls. The rhythmic thud, the faint echo caused by damp, mossy earth and dense trampled undergrowth. Would these two women be able to find information about the disappearance 70 years ago of 11-month old Theo ​​if they worked together on this cold case even though the police had not been able to find one clue or to find Theo? June 1933, and the Edevane family’s country house, Loeanneth, is polished and gleaming, ready for the much-anticipated Midsummer Eve party. Alice Edevane, sixteen years old and a budding writer, is especially excited. Not only has she worked out the perfect twist for her novel, she’s also fallen helplessly in love with someone she shouldn’t. But by the time midnight strikes and fireworks light up the night skies, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great that they leave Loeanneth forever.

The Lake House Quotes by Kate Morton - Goodreads The Lake House Quotes by Kate Morton - Goodreads

Of course,’ he said with a nod, ‘and I wouldn’t normally dream of interrupting while you’re so busy helping. But there’s something rather important I need to talk to you about.’ Morton sets her novel over two time periods. The events that led up to, and followed on from, the tragedy in the early to mid-twentieth century are narrated by many of the key players: young Alice, her mother, her father, her grandmother, a gardener, a close family friend and even baby Theo; what occurs in 2003 is told by Sadie, Alice and her assistant, Peter. And while the time periods are clearly indicated at the start of the chapters, the style of prose, the descriptions and dialogue also reflect this. I love it when a mystery novel is written in a literary prose, and this story certainly has that advantage, but in the beginning the story was sort of disjointed and moved very slowly. The truth is, nothing all that exciting comes to pass until the half way mark, when all that came before begins to take shape. From that point on, the story became so absorbing, I couldn’t stop reading and found myself still awake at one a.m., totally spellbound.

Do Kate and Alex End Up Together?

I love how much attention she pays to including even very small details. I appreciate this so much, because it makes everything seem more realistic to me. Keanu Reeves as Alex Wyler, a young architect who designs suburban condominiums. He has a strained relationship with his father Simon, a renowned but egocentric architect. Alex moves into the lake house even though he hates it and its impractical design. The main female characters, Sadie, Alice, and Eleanor are all strong women with flaws. Is this the way you saw them? Did their imperfections allow you to identify or sympathize with one more than another? If so, why do you think that was? She reached the place she’d chosen. The bag, with its box inside, was surprisingly heavy and it was a relief to put it down. On hands and knees, she pulled away the camouflage of ferns and branches. The smell of sodden soil was overwhelming, of wood mouse and mushrooms, of other mouldering things. Her father had told her once that generations had walked these woods and been buried deep beneath the heavy earth. It made him glad, she knew, to think of it that way. He found comfort in the continuity of nature, believing that the stability of the long past had the power to alleviate present troubles. And maybe in some cases it had, but not this time, not these troubles.

The Lake House by Kate Morton | Goodreads

I always urge people to judge a book for yourself because we all differ on how we react to a story and I am in the minority on this one. She shot a glance at the closed door behind her. Pleasant memories of the previous summer, the heady thrill of falling in love, the early days of her relationship with Ben and its intoxicating link to her writing, scattered around her. The bronze doorknob vibrated slightly in response to rapid footsteps in the hallway and Alice held her breath. It had been almost a whole year since she’d first laid eyes on him. He’d arrived at Loeanneth late in the summer of 1932, during that glorious dry stretch when, with all the excitement of Midsummer behind them, there’d been nothing left to do but surrender themselves to the soporific heat. A divine spirit of indolent tranquillity had descended on the estate so that even Mother, eight months pregnant and glowing pink, had taken to unbuttoning her pearl cuffs and rolling her silk sleeves to the elbow. The story focuses on several characters in England mostly during the 1910s to the 1930s, and then current time which is set in the 2000s. In the 1920s, the Edevane family is recuperating from World War 1 where while no one died, the savagery of war has had its toll on relationships. Alice is the focus, the middle sister who never quite fit in the family and became a mystery writer. When her younger brother disappears, and her two other sisters begin to act oddly, something seems off. Throw in a battleaxe for a grandmother, a fun but peculiar uncle-type, and some very attentive or non-attentive nannies, there's got to be something bad that happened to the little boy... but was he kidnapped, killed, or is someone making things up about his childhood? When Alice's book covers some of those true-life situations, people wonder what happened years ago... in modern times, Sadie has been put on leave after she made a mistake during an investigation, so the cop visits her grandfather and gets caught up in the old Edevane case while taking some rest. This is a story about missing children, lost children, and kidnapped children... there are a few cases going on, but they are not connected in any way other than as situations to help readers reflect on the character's emotions and lives.That strange, almost ominous, feeling was there again but Sadie shook it off. She dealt in facts, not feelings, and after recent events it was as well to remind herself of that. She steepled her hands against a glass pane and pressed her face to them, peering through the window. Alex’s narcissistic father, respected architect Simon Wyler, is hospitalized and dies. Kate finds a book of photos of Simon’s work which hasn’t been published in Alex’s time that includes a photo of Simon and Alex as a little boy at the lake house. Not wanting him to wait until it is published, she leaves it for him in the mailbox, hoping it will comfort him. The gesture convinces Alex and Kate that they should try to meet. Alex makes a reservation at a restaurant two years in advance for him, but the next day for Kate. Kate arrives, but Alex doesn’t. Heartbroken, Kate ends their relationship and stops visiting the lake house to settle for a future with Morgan. Alex places their letters in a box in the house’s attic, like what Kate described in her first letter, and moves in with his brother Henry, also an architect. He tries to move on with his life, but still thinks about Kate. Sadie Sparrow, a London detective, is on a month’s forced vacation, visiting her grandfathers Cornwall home when she unintentionally stumbles upon the now, long abandoned Loeanneth

The Lake House Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary The Lake House Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary

Sadie always ran alone. She’d been doing so since long before the Bailey case blew up and her life in London imploded. It was best. There were people who ran for exercise, those who ran for pleasure, and then there was Sadie, who ran like someone trying to escape her own death. A long-ago boyfriend had told her that. He’d said it accusingly, bent over double trying to catch his breath in the middle of Hampstead Heath. Sadie had shrugged, puzzling over why that might be considered a bad thing, and she’d known then, with surprisingly little regret, that it wasn’t going to work out between them. If it weren't for my compulsive need to finish every book I start, I probably would have DNF'd this one. I knew it wasn't my cup of tea and it seemed to drag on forever. Scott, A. O. (June 16, 2006). "The Lake House (2006)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 25, 2014 . Retrieved September 16, 2021.

Is Kate Imaginging/Dreaming of Alex In The End?

The structure of this novel lies in recreating different time periods in Cornwall and London—in the early 1930s and in 2003. Do you feel that the author was successful in moving the reader between the historical and more contemporary times? Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes, it was a lovely day. A rare treat.’ Alice made a point of gathering her basket from the fountain steps, and Mr Llewellyn must have taken the hint, because when she finished he was gone. The Lake House by Kate Morton is a 2015 Atria publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Ben Munro was an itinerant gardener employed by the Edevane family. He was a strong and handsome twenty-six year old who attracted the eye of the teenage Alice.