The lake is calm. The moonlight shimmies over the water, turning it into acres of gray silk. Katie and Lulu slip down onto the spider-riddled bottom of a canoe and lie in the middle of the lake, bored and not bored, staring up at the sky. Tonight it is crisscrossed with highways of sparkling space debris, and they count the shooting stars aloud, one after another – five, ten, thirty flashes. The very next day they are both going home.
“You know, I’m gonna miss you, Katie Gregory,” Lulu says. When summer is over, Lulu returns to her world, and Katie returns to hers. They talk now and then on the phone, but it’s nothing like when they yare together, breathing the same air, egging each other on. “It’s the pits, living upstate,” Lulu adds, grabbing the bottle of Campari from Katie and sitting up so she can take another swig. A dribble of pink liquid creeps down her chin.
What a difficult topic to turn into popular fiction, without making someone a truly hated character! After learning more about Katie and Lulu, it was hard to imagine their lives turning out any different than they finally did.
Official synopsis:
Now he’s getting out. Yet when Katie returns to the shuttered lakeside cabin, details of that fateful night resurface: the chill of the lake, the heat of first love, the terrible sting of jealousy. And as old memories collide with new realities, they call into question everything she thinks she knows about family, friends, and, ultimately, herself. Now, Katie’s choices will be put to the test with life-altering consequences.
Katie and Lulu were best friends who just spent summers together. Other than their shared summers, their lives and family situations were vastly different. Their friendship ends when Lulu makes accusations against Katie’s father, and their attorneys tell them to have no contact.
The book picks up nearly a decade later, when the trial is long since over, and Katie’s dad has served six years in prison for his crimes. But Katie has lived her life like she and Lulu just lost touch. She’s gone on, finished college, and made a new life for herself, including a new name, while keeping her visits with her dad a secret from her new friends. She’s sure he must be innocent, and Lulu was just making things up.
Most of the book just catalogs Katie’s thoughts about everything. I feel like the book could have gotten to the point and told us the original story in half the time. The chapters alternately took place as recounting the girls’ past together, and the present, but didn’t clearly identify which you were in until you started reading. It wasn’t hard to tell, just annoying to not know right away.
All of the plot lines were neatly tied up (and a bit more interestingly) in the last couple chapters, and in the epilogue. I do like endings that come together nicely.
Overall, I’d give this book 3 out of 5 stars. It was an agreeable enough read to pass the time, but I didn’t like dragging on and on with a generally uncomfortable topic.
Becki Bayley has been blogging at SweetlyBSquared.com since March 2002. She’s generally polite and tries not to offend anyone.
GIVEAWAY:
One of my lucky readers will win a hardcover copy of The Forgotten Hours!
Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Sunday, February 17th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be contacted via email the next day and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.
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1 copy of THE FORGOTTEN HOURS, by Katrin Schumann
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