Summer at Forsaken Lake

Summer at Forsaken Lake

Juvenile fiction
I'm a big fan of Michael D. Beil's Red Blazer Girls series. I
was thrilled to see a book of his with a decidedly different flavor.
Summer at Forsaken Lake is a poignant coming of age story with a male
protagonist discovering his family's past while staying for the first
time with his great uncle at the home where his father once spent
summer vacations.
Nicholas and his obnoxious younger twin sisters are sent from
their New York City home to a rural lake in Ohio to spend summer
vacation with their great uncle. Their mom is a workaholic and their
dad is in Africa serving on Doctors Without Borders. Even though his
friends predict that he'll have the most boring summer of his life,
Nicholas is looking forward to the trip. His father has told him the
old house and the lake are "full of secrets."
At least one secret is quick to reveal itself. A secret
compartment in Nicholas' tower room contains a spiral notebook and a
tin containing an old reel of movie film--evidence of a teen project
of his father, Will.
There's also a cryptic letter to Nicholas' then teenage father
from a girl to whom he gave her first kiss. What was the incident he
took the blame for, requiring him to leave early?
Why did he not finish the movie? Could this girl possibly be the
mother oh Charlie, the girl whose curveball Nicholas finds it
impossible to hit?
Summer at Forsaken Lake combines a page turner of a mystery with
a delightful look at young folks out sailing, bike riding, toasting
marshmellows over a campfire--enjoying the same stuff we did in the
good old days.
On a personal note, Eugene brought home a lovely Christmas tree from
his wood lot. It took a couple of days for it to lose its clumps of
ice and dry off. Now it is lovely with just the colored lights.
Tomorrow I will start adding ornaments. I do so love having a
Christmas tree in our home and putting treasured ornaments on it for
the most magical, mystical time of the year.
A great big shout out goes out to my Eugene for bringing home the tree.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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