The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager (2023)Casey spends her time at her family's lake house by spying on the people living in the house across the water - but when the wife disappears, Casey becomes obsessed with trying to figure out what happened to her. The first half of this book felt very cliche - the drunk, unreliable narrator using binoculars to watch her neighbors, convinced something nefarious is going on. It didn't feel fresh or new, but it wasn't necessarily bad. Then, the second half took a strange, supernatural twist, and that's where Sager lost me. It was a bit surprising but unfortunately didn't work for me at all. 3 stars
After her mother's death, Stella travels to Paris. At first, Stella is careful and cautious, but after impulsively purchasing a beautiful dress, Stella discovers a whole new side to Paris - and herself. Reichl's memoir Save Me the Plums was a favorite of mine a couple years, so I was excited to read a fiction book from her. I love a Paris setting and no one writes about food like Reichl does - and Stella eats a lot of fabulous meals. Stella meets a lot of new people during her time in France, solves an artistic mystery, and opens herself up more than she ever dreamed she could. The story felt a little twee to me, as things just keep working out for Stella in kind of unbelievable ways, and I just never felt as invested in the story as I wanted to be. 3 stars
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I wanted to see what you thought about The Paris Novel because I DNFed. It was so boring, I could not go on.
ReplyDeleteI've been putting off trying this Riley Sager book. Think I read another review similar to yours. I've liked several of his earlier books, but we'll see. Not going to rush to read it. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to try a Riley Sager novel, but from your review I think this one probably wouldn't be my best start - better to start with another book probably :)
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