5 Star Review: One Night at the Lake by Bethany Chase

Less than a month after my last 5 star review, I've got another one for you!  Bethany Chase was already one of my favorite authors of chick lit/contemporary women's fiction after just two novels.  Her first book, "The One That Got Away," was a 5 star book on my 2015 10 favorites list, and her second book, "Results May Vary," was a 4.5 star book that just missed my list for 2016.  Her latest, "One Night at the Lake," comes out on June 18, 2019.  So when I got an early copy from Netgalley, I just couldn't wait to read it!  And I've been waiting a long time - it was originally slated to be published in 2018 under a slightly different title, so it was one my anticipated books of 2018 and then  after being pushed back, again on my list of anticipated books of 2019.  I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint, and only affirms her place as one of my favorite authors.

This book alternates between two different time places and viewpoints.  In one, the narrator is Leah, and is set just before and during a week on a lake in upstate New York with Leah's boyfriend Ollie and Leah's best friend June.  In the other, seven years later, June is now engaged to Ollie and about to go back up to Ollie's parents place at the lake where she hasn't been since 7 years ago, when all we know is that something bad happened, but it takes quite a while to find out what. 

So, it's a bit of a departure from Bethany Chase's first two books, which were more of your standard contemporary women's fiction of the Emily Giffin mold.  I wouldn't call this book a mystery or a thriller, but there is definitely a lot of suspense about what happened to Leah 7 years ago.  Indeed, as the book gets further and further in, the suspense becomes almost unbearable.  What it shares with her previous books is a wonderful knack for creating relatable and sympathetic characters, and bringing them vividly to life.  In fact, with two likeable narrators both in love with the same man (though in different time periods), sometimes it left me feeling almost conflicted as to whose relationship I could really root for.  And of course, I finished the book in tears - not just the end, but cried my way pretty steadily through the last few chapters, which were full of revelations both in terms of plot and emotion.  Indeed, I'd say this was a 4.5 star book most of the way through that for me was taken to the next level by the end.

The only bad news is that if this book sounds interesting to you, unfortunately you're going to have to wait 3 months to read it!  But I highly recommend adding it to your to read list.  And if you haven't already read them, you can go ahead and read Bethany Chase's first two books in the meantime!