Review ~ The Souls of Lost Lake by Jaime Jo Wright

 

About the Book

To save the innocent, they must face an insidious evil.

Wren Blythe has long enjoyed living in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, helping her father with ministry at a youth camp. But when a little girl in the area goes missing, an all-out search ensues, reviving the decades-old campfire story of Ava Coons, the murderess who is believed to still roam the forest. Joining the search, Wren stumbles upon the Coonses' cabin ruins and a sinister mystery she is determined to unearth.

In 1930, Ava Coons has spent the last several years carrying the mantle of mystery since the day she emerged from the woods as a thirteen-year-old girl, spattered with blood, dragging a logger's ax. She has accepted she will never remember what happened to her family, whose bodies were never found, and that the people of Tempter's Creek will always blame her for their violent deaths. And after a member of the town is murdered, and another goes missing, rumors spread that Ava's secret is perhaps more malicious than previously imagined.

Two women, separated by time, must confront a wickedness that not only challenges who they are but also threatens their lives, and the lives of those they love.

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My Review 5 STARS 

“We’re all lost in our own ways. Some of us just hide when we shouldn’t. We hide in our grief, in our minds, in our pain…in the woods…or in a story, like Ava Coons.”

Dual time lines (or time-slip) novels are some of my favorites to read, especially when they are high caliber like The Souls of Lost Lake. The suspense is phenomenal, as always, but there is just something about this tale that grabbed hold of my imagination and will not let go. Maybe because I love “camp fire tales” and my husband and I told so many of them to our children during their growing up years that this book resonated with me as much as it did. I don’t know. I do know that for the last two weeks since I finished the book, Ava Coons still rattles around in my brain almost daily!

Wright turned up the “heebie-jeebies” with this one and provided a feast for the senses. The characters jumped off the paper, cementing themselves in my mind, because they were not going to let me get away. Excellent, excellent summer reading!!! I’d give this book 10 stars if I could!

I was provided a copy by the publisher through Netgalley. No compensation has been received.