Daniela Tully brings us an excellent historical novel, taking place in upstate New York and Munich, Germany with a back-and-forth timeline during WWII, in 1990, and in 2017. Ms. Tully keeps us well informed of who is where and when so there is no confusion, and the story is sweet, the mystery well hidden and the people empathetic. This was a fast read - and I sure hope it will not be a long wait for Daniela Tully's second novel.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Daniela Tully, and Thomas Dunne Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

What an intriguing story that pulled me in. I couldn’t stop reading it. I love how the author pieced it together and kept you guessing until the end. Can’t imagine growing up in Nazi Germany...

This was an intriguing debut novel with many elements to the story that are appealing to a wide range of readers. Set in a dual time frame, readers are taken back and forth from the WWII era to the present day.

Maya, the main character, ends up on a mission to learn how and why her grandmother died the way she did and most importantly, why she was in New York when she died. Her grandmother, Martha, was from Munich and had never been to the United States and had never mentioned to Maya that she’d like to go there.

As Maya tries to retrace her grandmother’s last days, readers are led on an adventure that involves mystery, romance, history and espionage. At times, it even seems like a ghost story.

There were a few details left hanging and the story didn’t always flow well, but I thought this was a wonderful debut novel. It held my interest and gradually added the pieces to the puzzle solving the mystery. This novel also included a story within a story. 3.5* rounded up to 4* for keeping me guessing throughout the entire read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

Hotel on Shadow Lake is a compelling mystery set in both current day and in Nazi Germany. It takes a while to figure out the ties to history but once you do, the book becomes riveting and haunting. So much unfolds in the telling of the horrors observed in Nazi Germany coupled with the unbelief of innocent players. Underscoring it all is a romance not meant to be, endearing and sad. As you learns about the connection between Maya, her grandmother, Hans and Ben, you are drawn into a intriguing story never knowing its full implications until the very end.

Echoing some of the other reviewers - too many characters, too much back and forth and I found Maya quite a hollow character.

Well-written debut novel spanning 2 countries and 2 time periods. The author describes the relationship of the grandmother with the protagonist who then must solve the mystery of the grandmother's secret life and death.

Really enjoyed this story! Well written! Looking forward to reading more by this author!

Overall, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. I thought it was an interesting story, and it (mostly) kept me engaged. It is a mystery, but I felt that it wasn't as suspenseful as it could have been because I figured out most of the "mystery" about halfway through the book. It wasn't all that hard to put together to figure out where it was going.

The book opens with Maya's grandmother's body being discovered in New York State, which is very unusual since she disappeared in Germany 20 years prior. The story jumps around a little bit between Maya and Martha's stories, and we see some of what Martha's life was like, as she lived as a spirited young lady in Nazi Germany.

There is a fairy tale that Martha tells Maya as a child that binds things together. I think it is an interesting concept that is woven throughout the story, but the actual fairy tale seemed pretty convoluted, and I found myself not really connecting with a big part of the story.

All that said, the book kept me interested, and I enjoyed reading it.

I love books about someone's grandmother's past. You never know how peoples lives were when you meet them "old". The greatest generation's stories are so incredible, and this fictionalized acct was delicious!

I really enjoyed reading this novel. Told from the voice of Martha in the past and Maya her granddaughter in current time as Maya tries to unravel the mystery of why Martha had traveled from Germany to NY only to be murdered and her remains to be found years later. Clues unfold as Maya uncovers love letters from her grandmother and a mysterious lover named HM. Maya travels also from Germany to the resort in NY where her grandmother's body was found and meets (unbeknownst) to her the grandson of HM. Together they work on solving the mystery.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the historical fiction aspect of this book, but with that said, that is about it. I didn't mind the dual narratives but this book was all over the place. It was just too much with too many plot twists and far too unbelievable in the end.

I wanted to like this book. If the author had stuck with only the WWII story line I might have enjoyed it. For me, the past and present thrown in together and the murder mystery just didn’t do it. None of the characters were even remotely likable. By the end of the book I was hoping that they would all be murdered. The story of how the grandmother came to be murdered in the United States was too unbelievable.

I expected to enjoy this book, combining the years of the Second World War with today’s world, meeting in the Catskills, instead I found it difficult to navigate and the characters confusing and unsatisfying.

Too many names, too many settings with a murder thrown in just added to the confusion. It is the love story of Martha and Siegfried, later Hans who meet in Munich and their struggle coupled with the perfidy of Martha’s twin Wolfgang. Of course the lovers are separated by a lie despite the agonizing efforts Hans made to return to Martha.

Ultimately, the story returns to the Catskills where Maya solves the murder of her grandmother who had returned to find Hans.

All of this was simply too confusing, too unrealistic to have held my interest.

A wonderful read. Told in a dual time period narrative, this is a family saga filled with secrets, mystery, tragedy and love. This is an impressive debut novel. Highly recommended!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

it was very good, a love affair at the wrong time and place of forgiveness.

Set in 1938, 1990 and 2017, this is the story of, Martha, a young German woman who falls in love with the wrong man at the wrong time. While those around her, including her own family, are caught in Hitler’s thrall, Martha knows evil when she sees it. She hopes to find happiness with the Hans, the man she’s fallen in love with, but their relationship is sabotaged by her own brother, Wolfgang. Some fifty years later, the fall of the BErlin Wall brings a surprise, a letter from Wolfgang, whom Anna hasn’t seen since the wall was constructed between east and west Germany. Written decades earlier, Wolfgang offers his deepest regrets to his sister for interfering with her love affair. In 2017, Martha’s granddaughter, Maya learns that her grandmother, missing for years, has been found. At least her body has – and she’s turned up in America. Learning why and how forms the basis for this story. I wanted to like this book more than I did, the premise was wonderful, but I never developed any real feel or sympathy for the characters. I’m not sure if this was translated from German, but that may have been part of the problem