Book was great my only problem with the story was it followed almost the same story line as the first books.

This is a new book in the Others series but this one is in a new setting with new characters. Lake Silence is in the middle of Others territory and deals with Vicki running a hotel that was part of her divorce settlement. The catch with the hotel is no real expansion can be done to it without the Others approval. When her ex husband tries to take it back from her and ignore the contract that was set in place when the land was first leased from the Others to his family then the problems start.

This book can be a good starting point in the series but it does give away some of the stuff from the previous books but it does stand on its own as a new start to the series. A good read both for newcomers and for the faithful fans of the series.

Meg and Simon’s story has wrapped up in the last book so I was very curious to see what Anne Bishop was going to do with this book. LAKE SILENCE features a new heroine named Vicki DeVine and she was a very nice surprise. I really took a liking to her character. If you enjoy the humorous characters of the first books in the series, then I’m sure you’ll get on with Vicki’s style of humor and personality. I feel like she’s the brighter counterpart to Meg’s narration, which is a nice change and a refreshing breath for the series.

The narrations from the other characters, however, are much more like Meg’s so if you worry about the lighter tone, there’s still plenty of that dark and mysterious vibe from the others. I still believe it stays in tune with the first books in the series, but I possibly enjoy Vicki’s narration better. We’ll see as the series continues.

The world continues to build with this book and it’s probably one of my favorite things about this series. There is a lot going on so I do think it’s best to read the series from the very beginning. You’ll get mentions of the others but this definitely has a different focus.

LAKE SILENCE exceeded my expectations and I can’t wait to get to know Vicki DeVine more!

Anne Bishop is an author I buy without even a peek at the back of the book. Needless to say I was lucky enough to be selected for an ARC of Lake Silence!!! For me moving out of Lakeside and exploring more of the world was really great. More types of creatures were introduced but also not fully explained as is Bishop’s way and I enjoy it. Trying to guess the truth behind some of her creatures is part of the fun and enjoyment I get from her stories. Also some of the aftermath of the previous books was explored in how it hit the smaller towns and started to see the change of culture. Like most of Bishop's main female characters, Vicki is dealing with past trauma and trying to forge a new way ahead for herself. A lot of the plot here is a small scale retread of what we saw in the beginnings of the Other’s Series with Meg and Simon, which I feel is a good set-up to continue in the Other’s world with a new set of characters in another part of the world. I think it could be an excellent parallel to the first series, and I like that she is exploring other areas of her world. I just hope there is more interaction between the two groups and that she further explores this extension of her universe. Ms. Bishop brings back old style mystery with a twist, and I'm very much in love with it. My new favorite beings are the lake Elders and the Lady of the Lake. Imagination went wild with them and they are such a great new addition to the world. I didn't want this book to end and I found myself trying to slow down with every chapter. It was so hard to put down. Highly recommended as usual!!!

I enjoyed the experience of reading Lake Silence. It follows a familiar path if you've read any of The Others books, but it had less of a thriller feel since the stakes weren't as high. It felt like a fun sidequest in the world of The Others - although, I can't help but wish that the first non-Courtyard book in the series would've been focused on one of the other towns or settlements we already knew from the main series. I thought the villains were a little more cartoonish in this one but it's never really about the villains, for me- it's the story and the characters. And I liked these characters enough to stick it out. Still hopeful for the return of Meg's story line, but I'd read a million of The Others before I got tired.

I'm excited the author is continuing to write in this world - the previous Others books are some of my favourites. This book, however, didn't totally work for me - I found the lead character strangely characterized, the plot a pretty simplistic revenge fantasy, and I don't generally like having one POV in first person and others in third. I want to see what comes next, though, because I think there are lots of stories in this world that could be told.

Vivki DeVine needed a new career and a new home after her divorce. Recovery takes time, and refurbishing a rundown lake property to run as a vacation getaway was supposed to give her time. But when her first lodger, Aggie Crow, finds a body, the time is up. Vicki finds herself in a deadly conspiracy to take everything she has, and her only hope is the predatory Others.

Why I started this book: Bishop has long been one of my favorite authors, so I leapt at the chance to read and review an advance copy.

Why I finished it: I swallowed the story in one gulp, and then returned to re-read it for the next two weeks. And can I say that the ending, just like [book:Etched in Bone|22062213] left me hoping that this is not the last we will see of these characters or this world. (Neither GoodReads or Bishop's website have information on the next book... so I'll just have to reread the whole series again.) Don't worry about a cliffhanger, I just have an absolute desire to read more.

I really enjoy reading Anne Bishop's books, but "The Others" is my favorite series. I've been waiting on book #6 since March of this year (2017), and I was lucky enough to get an ARC copy of this book. I read straight through it in less than 24 hours. If you enjoy fantasy, but the believable kind, the kind that makes you think "What if?", or "Am I alone?" when you're out hiking in the woods, you'll enjoy these books.
Basically the world has been inhabited since creation by a species called the Terre Indigene, or The Others, and they control the earth. They are Elementals (Fire, Water, Air, etc.), Shifters (Crowgard, Beargard, Wolfgard, etc.) and the Elders, who have been around the longest, and stay in the wild until they are called upon to mete out justice in some way.
As the history is explained, "a long time ago Namid gave birth to all kinds of life, including the beings known as humans. She gave the humans fertile pieces of herself, and she gave them good water. Understanding their nature and the nature of her other offspring, she also gave them enough isolation that they would have a chance to survive and grow. And they did. They bred and spread throughout their pieces of the world until they pushed into the wild places. That's when they discovered that Namid's other offspring already claimed the rest of the world. The Others looked at humans and did not see conquerors. They saw a new kind of meat. Wars were fought to possess the wild places. Sometimes the humans won and spread their seed a little farther. More often, pieces of civilization disappeared, and fearful survivors tried not to shiver when a howl went up in the night or a man, wandering too far from the safety of stout doors and light, was found the next morning drained of blood. Centuries passed. Humans were smart. So were the Others. Humans invented electricity and plumbing. The Others controlled all the rivers that could power the generators and all the lakes that supplied fresh drinking water. Humans invented and manufactured products. The Others controlled all the natural resources, thereby deciding what would and wouldn't be made in their part of the world. So it comes to the current age. Small human villages exist within vast tracts of land that belongs to the Others, And in larger human cities, there are fenced parks called Courtyards that are inhabited by the Others who have the task of keeping watch over the city's residents and enforcing the agreements the humans made with the terra indigene.
In "Lake Silence", a battered ex-wife, Vicky Dane, gets a small, very rustic (read primitive) resort property on the banks of Lake Silence, which is a human town, but not human controlled. She follows every rule laid out by the land owners (the Others) in the renovations and repairs to the cabins and main house with her limited resources, while her greedy ex-husband is partnering with unseemly characters from his past to reclaim this property from her, despite her capital improvements. He trusts in his ability to cow and control her to regain this property, despite her legal standing. Unbeknownst to him, she has gained the trust and even friendship of some of the Others living locally, and they prefer her residence to his. When he and his colleagues show up to evict her, it angers not only the Crowgard, Beargard and Panthergard, but some of the Elementals and Elders, and does not turn out well for the hoity-toity Mr. Dane.

Vicki DeVine got The Jumble as her divorce settlement when her emotionally abusive husband Yorick Dane decided he needed to move up from his starter wife. She has spent months updating the very run down resort on the shore of Lake Silence. The Jumble is near Sproing, the only human village near Lake Silence. When her only renter Aggie Crowe is getting ready to heat an eyeball in the wave-cooker and mentions that the rest of the body is on the path between Vicki's place and the neighbor, Vicki contacts the nearest police station.

Since the troubles that happened when the Others cleaned house leaving many humans missing or dead, Sproing doesn't have a police force of their own. Wayne Grimshaw is the highway patrol officer who is sent to Sproing to check out the body. He is used to patrolling the roads and knows very well that there are many dangerous Others out there. One look tells him that the victim was not killed by a human.

Grimshaw begins an investigation which leads right back to Vicki's ex and a club of unscrupulous businessmen. Apparently, they want The Jumble back so that they can turn it into a high class resort. Luckily, Vicki has made friends including her new lawyer Ilya Sanguinati who is the vampire overseer of the humans in Sproing. She is also befriended by many of the Others and Elementals who call Lake Silence home and who want Vicki to succeed in her new business which provides a way for humans and Others to learn about each other. She also makes friends with some of the humans in Sproing too, including Julian Farrow who was an Intuit and former police officer and is currently the owner of Lettuce Read - the local bookstore.

I liked that the story was told from a number of viewpoints with the chapter titles saying who was telling that part of the story. I like that that humans are not the dominant species in this world. I liked that the Others were so very different than humans in the way they thought. Vicki was a great character who had self-deprecating humor despite suffering from crippling anxiety attacks. I liked the way she treated any of the Others she met with caution, courtesy, and respect. I liked the idea that a bookstore was an essential part of the town and that sharing stories was a way for the Others and the humans to begin understanding each other.

I highly recommend this great fantasy story.

I love this world. There is something cathargic about people getting punished for being greedy. Will there be more because the main character, who I did love, didn't grow enough for it to be a conclusion. She grew enough but not enough to think that her journey was over.

Anne Bishop is an author I buy without even a peek at the back of the book. That said, I start looking for hints about six months before a book is released and wondering how I can get my hands on an advance reader copy. I was lucky enough to be selected for an ARC of Lake Silence.
I was very excited to read about a new location. The first five books took place in the Lakeside Courtyard for the most part so going to the Finger Lakes and meeting new characters was a treat. There were elements of mystery, humor and horror.
Vicki was a great and complex character. Her sense of humor had me giggling pretty often. I’m hoping to read more about her in later books.

What a joy to be able to read an advanced reader's copy of the new novel by Anne Bishop set in the world of the Others, one of my favorite series of all time! Once I started reading Lake Silence, I had a hard time stopping and doing the things I should have been doing at work and home. In this book, we are introduced to a new location and new characters, but the rest of the world-building coincides with Bishop's The Others Series. Vickie DeVine is a recently divorced woman who was brow beaten very badly by her ex-husband and his wandering "Vigorous Appendage" (so funny)!! From her divorce she has received some property in a earth native settlement that is recovering from a "great predation" that occurred when the Elder earth natives got really angry with the humans and wiped many of them from the face of the earth. Vickie has a tenant, Aggie, who is a member of the Crowgard, but Vickie doesn't know that until she discovers Aggie heating up a human eyeball in the microwave for a snack. From there, a murder mystery is introduced, as well as really bad villains, interesting interactions between the humans in the settlement and the terre indigine, and some quite humorous situations as well. Overall, lots of fun and enjoyment. I only wish I could have savored it more instead of rushing through to finish it! Thanks for sharing an early review copy with this great fan!

The world that this new series and the blood prophet books takes place in, exhibits superb world-building and word craft. This author has an almost lyrical way of writing about this alternate earth that has a somewhat addictive quality, I finished this book in one sitting. It was satisfying in a lot of ways to also see humans not be in the apex predator role, with all the good, bad, and plain stupid behaviors that this might entail.. While I think this new series has a slightly weaker premise than the previous one, I quite enjoyed the varied characters and plot lines. I think it could be an excellent parallel to the first series, and I like that she is exploring other areas of her world. I just hope there is more interaction between the two and that she further explores other groups.

Damn, I'm happy to be back in this world. At first, like many others, I wasn't going to read this because I was missing my original characters. However, this reminded me why I loved this world. We're working on a mystery- type story, yet it was the small interactions that made me love this book even more... and hate a few of them. Ms. Bishop sure knows how to write despicable, evil characters. My only issue was this book dragged; it felt more like a 500 page book rather than a 400 page book (yes, it makes a difference), but I still loved the story. .Overall, I'm hoping this isn't a standalone, because I need a second book.

So this is not a Meg & Simon book. However, that being said, I really enjoyed these new characters and setting. We meet Vicki who is on her own after a difficult divorce from a man who is a jerk. Her part of the divorce settlement is cabin smack dab in the middle of a wooded area populated by "The Others." I look forward to more with these characters.

Electronic ARC provided by NetGalley.

I always enjoy reading Anne Bishop's books, and I enjoyed this one too. The three star rating is mostly because this book doesn't really say anything new about the world of the Others or about how they relate to humans.

In "Lake Silence" we are introduced to Vicki, who has recently acquired a small town lakefront property as her divorce settlement from an emotionally abusive husband. Like most of Bishop's main female characters, Vicki is dealing with past trauma and trying to forge a new way ahead for herself. I liked the fact that Bishop made it very clear that although Vicki's husband never hit her, she was still horribly damaged by his verbal abuse and manipulation. The property that Vicki is now responsible for is in territory held by the Others, and they have an interest in seeing it restored and maintained properly. The plot begins when Vicki's lodger Aggie (a crow shifter) discovers a dead body on the property, and a new police chief is brought in to investigate.

A lot of the plot here is a small scale retread of what we saw in Meg and Simon's books. There's a community where the Others and some local humans are learning to understand one another and work together. There is also a group of humans who think that they can get away with bullying the locals and trying to cheat the Others (you have to wonder how stupid they are to try this since the big flare up in "Etched in Bone" was less then a year ago in universe). I liked the new characters well enough, and enjoyed reading the book, but it really doesn't add much to this universe, and having seen how the Others previously reacted to human aggression, a lot of the possible tension in this book was removed for me. I would recommend "Lake Silence" to anyone who enjoyed the previous books enough to want more in that universe.

A great addition to the world of The Others!

Can't wait for more!

Overall I’m a fan of Anne Bishop’s new Others book. Vicki is a plain heroine, which is not something we see very often. Despite that, she is kind and generous and people respond to that, and it is lovely to see in a fantasy novel. Vicki, as a heroine, does leave a little to be desired though. She has very realistic anxiety, but that could be frustrating at time because she never appeared to be working on that. Instead of feeling like exploration of mental illness vitally needed in popular culture, it read as an excuse for Vicki to let people do everything for her.

That said. This book has a good hook - I was invested in the story from the first sentence, and it was nice to see more of the Sanguinati, my favorite Others from her previous series. This book has a more clear cut format than many of her previous books, with clear POV shifts between chapters and this delineation was nice. The overall framing was a little strange though - firstly because Vicki says things like “some things to know”, that make it feel like she is talking to another person without providing any further reason to believe that Vicki sees herself as addressing an audience. Secondly, Vicki’s chapters are the only ones in first person, and the switch between first and third person is jarring.

I love Anne's Others' books. To me, they're like cuddly comfort books with violence. Maybe it's because I've been traumatized in the past, but it's easy for me to look past the fact that good guys get damaged because I know Anne will make it right. Something bigger, meaner, and more straight-forward than the bad guys is going to step in and lay waste to (not merely deal with, but destroy) those that need it. One could only wish it happened in real life.

One of the things that makes the Others so fabulous is that appearances don't matter to them. Nothing that is just surface matters to them. Who people are, and what that impels people to do, is their only real benchmark. I would be happy to live in a world with them in it, even though it meant, on some levels, I'd be prey.

The plot: Emotionally abused ex-wife takes "junk" land given to her in the divorce settlement and tries to reopen a defunct hostelry business ; abusive ex gets together with cronies and tries to rob her of the little he gave her; turns out someone else actually owns the land, he just "gave" her the rights to the buildings and certain levels of use - which is all his family had ever had; his bad luck is that the Others are the actual land holders, they like really his ex, and they really don't like him, the cronies, or their underhanded methods. (And who would?) Things get out of hand, for the humans, from there.

The characters: I liked them individually, but worry about the predominance of males and the possibility of triangles, quadrilaterals, or other relationship stupidity in further books.

Vicki (the new "caretaker" of The Jumble) is healing from her abuse and the occasional bursts of backbone and growth are a good thing to see. Her high level of fragility was tiresome now and again; she did struggle to overcome it, so that helped. She hated the men always acting like she'd break and rose up in response to that - however, not stupidly! When they were right, she just grumbled. I liked that. Nothing worse than a "strong heroine" who insists on doing something, even something that makes them too stupid to live, just because they have to insist on their independence and strength.

The men: Wayne Grimshaw (with a name like that he should have been an Other!), police officer, was pretty straightforwardly a good capable man put in a position he didn't ask for but handled well. Julian Farrow, ex-police officer now a bookstore owner with a secret past and Intuit powers, should have been a superhero with a background like that - he's a "friend" of Vicki's. Ilya Sanguinati, vampire and power-lawyer extraordinaire, struck me as being very like Vlad from the earlier novels with a law degree thrown in. Any, and all, of these guys seemed to hint at some time of being capable, if not willing, of developing an interest in Vicki. Which is why I was concerned about relationship stupidity. I guess I'll just have to see in later books - which, cross your fingers, Anne actually plans to right for us because I'd be happy to read them right now!

All of that said, if you've not read any of the Others series, while this would not be a bad place to start, it's not the best. It's set in a new place and has new characters. However, if you really want to grow into the world and understand it on a deeper level, you be happier starting at the beginning. Not to mention, you'd miss out on all the characters from the earlier books! Something you definitely shouldn't do.