I've heard nothing but great things about Kimberly Belle's books and they have been on my radar for a while now. This makes it easy to explain why I just HAD to jump at the chance to read her newest story Stranger In The Lake early, especially after reading the blurb... And you can definitely consider me a fan now. I literally read this story in less than a day and I can recommend it to anyone who loves psychological thrillers involving dark secrets.

There is lots to love in Stranger In The Lake, and that includes the writing style. There is just something about the writing that managed to draw me straight in and I was literally hooked from the first chapter. The story is mainly told from the POV of Charlotte (Charlie), who gives us a very interesting view on everything in Lake Crosby considering her personal background. To further enrich the plot, we also have flashbacks to 1999 with multiple POVs, designed to slowly let you in on past events that might or might not have influenced the present situation. This made the plot feel a lot more complex and definitely enhanced the reading experience for me!

I really liked the plot as a whole, as it felt multi-dimentional and was filled with secrets, lies and suspense. As a first layer we have Charlotte and her personal situation as a poor girl who married a rich widower and who is now shunned by most people in town. Then we have the layer involving the death of the first wife Katherine and the mysterious circumstances around her death. While it's true that her husband Paul was cleared, you can't stop wondering if he escaped justice or if he was really innocent... Another layer is next with the discovery of the body and the investigation into her death, which leads to yet another layer relating to the victim herself and the whole reason she was in town in the first place. And on top of that we have a flashback layer that will slowly unravel past secrets of what happened back in 1999 and how these events might have influenced the present. That's basically more layers than an onion and a perfect ingredient to prepare that delicious psychological thriller meal with.

As for the characters... Charlotte is the star of the show of course, and she is quite easy to connect to thanks to an excellent and realistic character development. She can be seen as both an outsider and right in the middle of the action at once; she isn't originally from the rich part of town, but now lives there and suddenly finds a body almost in the same spot the body of her husband's first wife was found. Talk about an explosive situation! It's easy to understand why it's so difficult for her, especially with her husband behaving so strangely. I really liked her strength, development and growth over time and she is one of the reasons this story works well in the end. The three friends Paul, Jax and Micah are likewise well developed, but somehow less easy to like as you keep wondering what they are hiding... They all played their role in the story perfectly though, as well as the other characters in play.

Both the secrets, lies and plot twists play a key role in Stranger In The Lake. You are being mislead along with Charlotte, and together with the main character you will find yourself on a quest to discover the truth. Why is Paul so furtive? What is he hiding? What about Jax? And why did he become the way he is? What about the victim? Who is behind her death and what was she doing in town in the first place? What does the past have to do with it all? There are a lot of questions you can't wait finding answers for as you start reading this story, adding a healthy dose of suspense as well as making sure you keep turning those pages. The plot twists are expertly placed for maximum effect and while I saw some coming, other surprised me completely. The secrets and lies definitely took this story to the next level!

In short, Stranger In The Lake is a well written, multi-layered and suspenseful psychological thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Secrets, lies and plot twists are designed to keep you on the wrong track, and fans of darker stories will have an excellent time with Kimberly Belle's newest offer.

I’ve read Kimberley Belle’s Dear Wife and The Marriage Lie, both gripping psychological thrillers and Stranger In the Lake is right up there. A well plotted tale of a wealthy widower, a younger woman who had grown up in a trailer park, with a neglectful crack mother and an imprisoned father, raising her younger brother, and her unlikely marriage. Paul marries Charlotte and moves her into his beautiful lakeside home, where a few years before, his first wife is found dead from drowning and Paul has been a suspect ever since. Charlotte loves her husband but knows he isn’t telling her the truth about many things and has secrets. His two friends Jax and Micah seem to know, but they have an unbreakable bond.
Another beautiful young woman’s body is found, with a head contusion and drowned,in the same spot. The town takes up sides,and again Paul is the suspect. Charlotte is conflicted and isn’t sure what to believe.
This is a dark story of unbreakable bonds, loyalty, trust and disappointment. Secrets that only seem to intensify and dangers that surface, looking to cover up and bury old wrongs. A well scripted story with strong interesting characters and a conclusion that will surprise. A well earned four ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
My thanks to NetGalley and Park Row Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own!

What a fantastic thriller this book is!! Belle has knocked this one out of the park!! Full of twists and turns!! There has not been one book that she has written that has not had me in full suspense!!

Charlotte and Paul married about year ago. Charlotte grew up in a crappy trailer park with a drug addicted mother and and Paul is rich and ten years older than her. When Charlotte married Paul, the small town gossips assumed she was marrying Paul for his money and comfort. Paul had been married before and his wife had passed away four years earlier, found drowned next to their dock, and there is still speculation that he'd murdered his wife for her money.

One morning Charlotte finds a woman drowned next to the dock ... a woman Paul had been speaking with just the day before, though he denies to the police that he knows her. He assumes his former best friend from high school, now known at "Batty Jax" who lives in woods, was involved so takes off immediately to find him. Micah, Paul's other best friend from high school, lives next door and is a great source of support for Charlotte.

I've read other books by this author but I wasn't crazy about this one ... I didn't like the story and didn't think it could really happen the way it did. It is written in first person perspective in Charlotte's voice. It jumps back to 1999 to when Paul, Jax and Micah were in high school (those chapters are labeled) and then it is in third person perspective in Jax's voice. I didn't really like the characters and I found the "whodunnits" and why convoluted and unbelievable. As a head's up, there is swearing.

Stranger in the Lake


A clever and consuming story of Crosby Lake and the many
secrets it holds.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
When Charlotte, who grew up in a trailer park, married older and wealthy widower Paul, it caused a ripple of gossip in their small North Carolina lakeside town.

Despite the whispers their life is good, and with some recent news, maybe even great. Everything starts to unravel when Charlotte discovers a young woman’s body floating in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife, an avid swimmer, drowned. Coincidence?

The stranger in the lake is no stranger. Charlotte had seen Paul talking to her the day before, even though Paul tells the police he’s never met the woman. Why did he lie, and then he disappears, What is Paul hiding? Charlotte doesn’t know what or who to trust. She knows Paul is a good man, but she becomes suspicious that there’s a story he’s desperate to hide.


REVIEW
STRANGER IN THE LAKE is a clever and consuming tension-filled mystery. The story is smartly structured, weaving together the events from twenty years ago and the present day mystery. The writing deftly peels away layer after layer through the wrenching backstory.

The depth and contents of Crosby Lake gives a huge feeling of curiosity and creepiness to the story.. How would you like to live on Skeleton Cove, where bodies seem to pop up regularly?

The North Carolina lake/mountain setting was my favorite thing about the book. Having been to the Highland/Cashiers area several times I appreciated the descriptions and references. I particularly loved the Whiteside Mountain and the famous bear shadow shoutout.

Interestingly, while Paul is a primary part of the story, he is rarely physically present in the present day story. It’s all Charlotte who carries the weight of telling us about Paul. Charlotte’s, aka Charlie character is wholesome and good, she wants the fairytale but not at the risk of selling her soul. I like her strength and her willingness to call on her brother, Chet, when she needs help.

Kimberley Belle is the author of 2019 best seller Dear Wife. Stranger in the Lake is her sixth novel. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College, and divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Thanks to Netgalley and Park Row for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Park Row
Published June 9, 2020
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

This is a really great read. Loved it. I was guessing till the end. Lots of plot twists and turns, I didn't figure it out till the reveal.

Kimberly Belle is one of my favorite authors, I have read all her books, with my favorite being The Marriage Lie. I was beyond excited when @parkrowbooks granted me my request of Stranger in the Lake.

This story centers on Charlotte who has married Paul, a wealthy widower, who has a rumor filled suspicious past. Everything starts to come apart when Charlotte discovers a dead woman’s body floating in the same spot where Paul’s previous wife drowned. To make matters worse the dead woman is the same mysterious woman she saw her husband speaking to the day before.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2020, and it did not disappoint. Kimberly Belle does it again.
This book did an excellent job at keeping my attention, was filled with suspense, and plenty of twists along the way. I loved the setting and atmosphere in this book as well.

I would recommend this to domestic thriller lovers, Kimberly Belle fans, and those looking for an awesome summer read.

I received an ebook Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was very excited to 'win' this book, as I have heard rave reviews of Kimberly Belle's other books. She seems to be one of the go-to authors for suspense and thrillers, and I have enjoyed the other books by her that I've read. This one started off very atmospheric. The author really puts you in the location, includes the sounds and feelings. I thought I was in for a white-knuckle-grip read. But it didn't really work for me. Over the past few years I've read a LOT of this type of book - too many, to be honest - and often feel like I can see what's coming next and predict the ending. I wonder if that was my problem for this book. With the start of the book, I had expected a lot of character development and a rich story, but I don't feel like it really went that way. And some portions of the book got to be rather repetitive. As this was an ARC, I can still hope that there's another edit or two before publishing, and others will get a different feeling.

I won't avoid Kimberly Bell's books, but maybe she's not the right author for me, or at least not when I've just read a lot of the similar genre.

Kimberly Belle simply never ever disappoints! Wow! This is my third book by this incredible author and I absolutely loved it. This book was super atmospheric and I felt like I was right there watching everything unfold.

The story was original and truly captivating! This is her newest moody and simply mesmerizing slow burn thriller that will have you flipping the pages at record speed. Masterfully written to lure you in and keep you there.

I was provided an ARC by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

I was so excited to have been approved on netgalley to read Stranger in the Lake. Kimberly Belle has done it again with an amazing suspense thriller that will keep you up all night until you finish! It slowly builds the anticipation. But in a fantastic I have to know more way, until it explodes with revelation after revelation until the unexpected finale. I love Belles writing style she definitely keeps you engaged until the very end!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Flew through this book in ONE sitting!

I love Kimberlys writing style! She sets the perfect scene, creates great characters and keeps her readers guessing. I enjoyed the creepy vibes and twisty plot. Plus we are served with not just one ... but THREE mysterious deaths! Um, yes please! (No I'm not morbid, ha ha!)

Huge thank you to Park Row and Netgalley for my review copy!

The Stranger In The Lake is a suspenseful tale of a newlywed couple, a dead body in the lake behind their house, and crooked cops. The story is told from Charlotte’s point of view after she finds a woman facedown in the lake behind her house. The same lake Paul’s (Charlotte’s husband) ex-wife was also found dead in. We are also shown flashbacks of Paul and his friends from high school. What do they have to hide? Why did Paul lie about knowing the dead woman? While I did enjoy the story and thought the pacing was great, I found the author’s overuse of the word “shove” to be very annoying. Some examples:
Shoved my feet into my shoes
Shoved his feet into his pants
Shoved my cheeks into a smile
Shoved this tiny bundle in my arms
.......Rusted out trailer shoved into a clearing
And that’s just the ones I can recall off the top of my head. Hopefully the editor will fix that in the final edits. Overall it was a good story and I loved that Charlotte was a strong woman!

Charlotte may have grown up on the wrong side of town but she definitely moved up in the world when she married the widower Paul Keller. Paul's first wife drowned under mysterious circumstances in the lake outside of their home, but he was never charged with any wrongdoing. Now another female has washed up in exactly the same spot and Charlotte is worried she may not know the man she married as well as she thought she did.

I was excited to read this book as I loved the previous books I had read by this author. I was a little disappointed though. The story was good, just not "keep you on the edge of your seat". It is a good quick read for anyone wanting a light whodunit, with a few twists and turns at the the end.

Charlie (Charlotte) awakes one morning to find her husband out running and when she goes to their boat dock to retrieve her cell phone from the boat she sees a woman's dead body floating under the dock.
his is the second dead woman found in the waters by the dock. The first woman was her husband's first wife.

The dead woman was in town the day before talking to Paul (Charlie's husband) when Charlie met her..
When Paul and Charlie are informed of the dead woman's identity Paul leaves in a hurry
in search of his friend Jax who lives in the woods and is considered the town's most peculiar and strange person..

There is also the mystery of a rusted out car found in the river with a skeleton inside of it. The skeleton is that of the town's drug dealer who mysteriously vanished 20 years ago.

The police think Jax killed the woman (Sienna) who was a reporter looking into the story of the skeleton and the necklace that was found with it.
Paul bought up all of the land surrounding the area where the car was found,, but it isn't suitable for development..

The necklace belongs to Jax which places him in the car when it went into the river and he never said anythng about that.

The events leading to the car going into the river and the deaths of the two women are linked and a long held secret unravels which when learned involves a cover up..








r.

Our main character Charlotte, also known as Charlie is from the wrong side of town. Everyone believes she married her older and wealthier husband not for love, but money. Paul is a widower and many people think he killed his first wife Katherine. But Charlotte knows they are soul mates united by their painful pasts. She doesn't ask many questions but when another woman is found dead in the same spot where Katherine died, she wonders if she knows her husband.

The POVs shift from Charlotte to Jax and his childhood best friends Paul and Micah. What happened twenty-one years ago that made Jax abandon the life he knew and firmly tying these three men together. Could this recent murder be related to something that happened in the past, and if so, which one of them did it!

Somehow the overall story just fell flat. I never understood Charlotte. She was largely responsible for raising her younger brother and came across as someone who was streetwise, except when it related to Paul and her current life. I felt the most connected to Charlie when she spoke of or was with her brother Chet, though even part of her present-day storyline with him just seemed unnecessary. I did figure out who the killer was, though, in the end, the author added an interesting twist that I did not see coming.
I put off writing a review for a few days in case my feelings were based more on what I had previously read(Dear Wife, which I loved) versus Stranger in the Lake. I also considered the fact that I read three back to back fast-paced suspenseful mysteries that I loved, and since this was more of a slow burn of a story, maybe my expectations were just too high. 3.5 stars.

This book was good, not great but good enough if you want a mindless read. It's an extremely simplistic whodunit. The characters needed more developing, some relationships need background and the conversations are merely...flippant. It certainly doesn't draw you in.

I am loving these new generation Harlequin mystery/romance novels. We all need escapism these days, and this gives you that and a bit of brain exercise as you weigh the facts to decide if you can figure out the mystery. This might be the book that gets you out of your reading slump. There isn't as much back story as I would have liked, but that makes it a quick and satisfying read—another great one for the backyard lawn chair.

This book was pretty good!!!!!!!!!! I read it in two days!!!!!! I couldn't figure out who did what and what the outcome would be at all!!!!!!!!! Charlotte marries a man that many in the town believe is out of her league. She is from the trailer park and he is worth millions and many of the town believe he killed his first wife. Who drowned on their land by the way. Charlotte and her husband are happily in love until one day everything changes. A 2nd dead woman floats up to their dock. Now Charlotte starts wondering what is going on here, is her husband really as innocent as he says???? Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin/Park Row for my honest review

When Charlotte marries a rich, older widower she becomes the gossip of the town. For two reasons, one she comes from a trailer park past and everyone thinks she married for money. And two, her husband Paul’s first wife died under mysterious circumstances. So just when Charlotte is thinking things are going well and getting better, she finds the body of a dead woman in the lake near their home. To the town the dead woman is a stranger. But to Charlotte’s husband, she is not. As Charlotte digs deeper into what really happened, she finds out all is not what it seems. And just because you have money, it doesn’t always make you happy. I loved the atmosphere of this book as well as the twists. There’s quite a few and the last one, I honestly didn’t see coming. Another hit by Ms Belle! Don’t miss this one!

This was an interesting read, not fabulous, but still good. I liked the story, but the characters all seemed a bit predictable. Younger woman, Charlotte, marries older man, Paul, whose wife has been found drowned in the lake behind their house. A couple years later, another woman found drown. Her death suspiciously resembles the death of Paul’s first wife. Three men, who have been friends since childhood with a secret that must not get out. Could their secret explain both women’s deaths? The story had mystery, suspense, lots of secrets, and a fairly good plot. It just wasn’t as twisted as her other books. If you like a good mystery, suspense, you won’t be disappointed.