I really don’t know how to feel about this book.

The first part of the story felt like that satire except I think it’s supposed to be serious. I just have such a hard to relating to his female protagonists. Truly all that happened was this woman drank all day and watched her neighbors through binoculars. And although I get why it was included I’m not sure Sager needed to focus so much on her alcoholism.

The twist was shocking in true Riley Sager fashion. It was clever but honestly a little outlandish and unbelievable. You will never guess a twist in a Sager novel because they are just so implausible 🤣 But it still got me and the last 30% I flew through.

So although a had a lot of problems with this… I enjoyed reading it 🙃 Read if you are fan of Rear Window.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to this E-ARC.
Riley creates these moments of suspense very well, and I think that’s what makes me pick up anything he writes.
I wasn’t a fan of the man character, and I’m starting to see a pattern of the “weak messy and, in this case, alcoholic woman.”

I've LOVED all of Riley Sager's other books... but this one just didn't do it for me.

I really enjoyed the first part of the book. The main character, Casey, an actress, is grieving the death of her husband and is staying in her cottage to avoid the nosy paparazzi. One night, she saves a woman drowning in the lake. A woman living in the house across the lake. Later on in the book, the woman she saved goes missing and Casey suspects the woman's husband has something to do with it. Casey goes to try to prove that her new friend's husband had to do something with her missing... even her murder.

Early on in the book, we know that Casey is an unreliable character as she spends most of her day drinking so we know that we can't believe everything she notices. I loved the fact that this book had an unreliable character.. it made the suspense even better!!

Things get a little weird after that........and a little unbelievable. The twist was super random.. and then the ending... wow.. the ending. A little disappointed.

This was my second Riley Sager (following Survive the Night, which we won’t talk about) and it was a fun time! If you’re looking for a summer thriller that will keep you guessing definitely give this one a shot.

This book starts like many other thrillers I’ve read - an unreliable narrator becomes fixated on watching her neighbors. As Casey gets to know her new neighbors across the lake, she begins to suspect that all is not right. And when her new friend Katherine goes missing she can only suspect that her husband had something to do with it. Throw in an impending hurricane and local, unsolved murders and you have the perfect storm.

This book definitely kept me guessing and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Just when I became certain of something Sager totally flipped everything upside down. I enjoyed the twist at the 75% mark and while many feel it came out of nowhere, I don’t necessarily agree. This twist is what sets The House Across the Lake apart from many similar books. And I’m not mad about that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for an advance copy.

Thank you @duttonbooks for providing me with an advanced copy of The House Across the Lake! Long story short, the book didn't capture my heart or my mind. The writing skills were there, for sure, but I just couldn't connect with the story or the characters.

Thank you @duttonbooks for an advanced copy of The House Across the Lake. What I really love about Sager is how he writes troubled characters. They have pain, depth, and real emotion in them. I'd like to see more depth to his supporting characters as well. I absolutely love how Sager can write a suspenseful scene as well- like everything is happening in slow motion and you have to hold your breath until it's all over. He does this so well. My complaint about The House Across the Lake is about the supernatural element. Unfortunately I don't feel that Sager sold that very well. It was so ridiculous that it ruined the overall plot for me. So although I've loved all of Sager's other books, this one fell flat.

I am officially on the Riley Sager bandwagon, and have read many of his books. While I wasn't the biggest fan of Survive the Night, I decided to give him another try with The House Across the Lake.

Synopsis:
Casey Fletcher is a famous actress, or at least her mother is. Casey has been forced to follow in her mother's shoes, even though it was not something she always wanted. But, Casey found love in the entertainment industry and formed a happy family with her husband, especially when they were staying at Casey's family's lake house in Vermont. Tragedy stuck Casey and her husband and now she is a widower, a widower who picked up drinking and watching her neighbors across the lake.

One day while Casey is looking out to the river she sees someone drowning, Turns out it is her neighbor Katherine Royce. Casey is able to save her but wonders how Katherine got in the lake in the first place. What is going on in the Royce house? Casey continues to watch Katherine and Tom and suspects Tom is behind Katherine's drowning, because it is always the husband....right?

Thoughts:
-This novel is a slow burn but I was into the characters and their backstory.

-Stick with it because things are about to get interesting.

-Never expected what happened to happen.

-So many twists and turns.

-Kept me guessing the whole time.

While this story kept me wondering what in the world was going on, once I found out I was not too sure how I felt about it. That is all I will say about that because I do not want to give anything away. Four stars for this thriller, because I am still not sure my finally feelings about what went down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was over the moon when I received the ARC of new Riley Sager book.
The best part of his books is once you start them you can't stop till the very last page .

I was on a roll till the time twist was revealed and the twist was way too much for me to digest .It came me from nowhere and left a bitter taste .I am still forming my thoughts about it which are honestly not very pleasant.

Overall I would say that this is not my favourite Riley Sager book but still keeps you gripped for the most part .

I’ve read all of Sager’s books and usually, there’s more than a few things I don’t like however….. this book was a complete knockout!! I was able to make a guess with the wine glass only because it was pointed out in the text but all the other twists and turns were truly shocking. Definitely a must read for any mystery or paranormal lover.

I was really into this book for the first 75%. It fell apart for me after that. I have loved the other books I have read by Riley Sager, but I didn't love the supernatural bent in this one.

Do you know who I love just as much as Riley Sager? Taylor Swift. So when I heard that this book was inspired by No Body, No Crime, I was ecstatic!

This was fun, spooky, binge-worthy, and jam packed with so many unexpected twists. Riley did a great job playing with my head here. It has short chapters and it’s broken up into parts, which makes it so easy to read. The characters were strong and intriguing.

Riley is an auto-buy author for me, and receiving this ARC was a dream come true. I’ve read all of his books but two, and really hoped he could wow me again— he did. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you Riley Sager, Dutton Books, and Net Galley for this ARC 🖤

TW/CW: alcohol abuse, suicide

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

I was a little nervous about this one because I had seen some mixed reviews, but y'all - this was a HIT. If you still haven't gone out and snagged your copy, do it now!

Ok, so what did I love?
• The setting - a lake house in Vermont? Sign me up! (Ya know, minus the murder and stuff 😳)
• The twists! I did not see them coming & they didn't stop the last 20% of the book.
• Our MC, Casey. I know some people will not like her, but I actually really felt for her, and wondered why she was the way she was the entire time, so finding out some things about her really worked for me.
• Overall eeriness & creep factor.
• The ending - thought it was wrapped up perfectly.

4.5 ⭐️

I really enjoy the way Sager writes. I think the characters and setting were amazing. The beginning took some getting into and gave me #TheWomanInTheWindow vibes. However, I definitely could not expect the whirlwind of twists that were coming! I was pleasantly surprised that my suspicions turned out to be wrong and thought the ending was great.

I read Lock Every Door by Riley Sager for The Paper & Glam Book Club back in 2020 and it was such a ride! I had never read anything like it before and it lit an interest in adult thriller novels that had been lacking in my reading life. So when, I saw that The House Across the Lake was available for reviewing I immediately jumped on it!

In true, Riley Sager fashion this book is full of atmosphere and plenty of twists and turns. I loved that it took a very well known storyline and freshened it up for a modern audience. With a heavy handed sense of place, this book turns into the perfect September thriller with it’s creepy lake and isolated location. Unlike other versions of Hitchcock, this book’s unreliable narrator isn’t just a drunkard voyeur passing the time - instead Casey holds her own and isn’t afraid to take matters into her own hands when local authorities seem to be dragging their feet. Home Before Dark kept me guessing from page one and had me turned around each time I thought I had things figured out.

✔️ What I Loved

📖 Rear window vibes that went a whole new direction compared to other retellings.

📖 The location and sense of place, while heavy handed at times, was just perfect. Creepy lake in the middle of Vermont in the fall lends this book to being the perfect September read.

📖 An unreliable narrator who honestly ends up being a totally badass

📖 Riley Sager is an excellent writer and while I have some reservations about a couple stylistic choices, I think this is his best book yet.

📖 The twists in this novel kept me guessing from page one.

📖 The ending! We don’t get endings like that in thrillers usually, so getting them is special.

✖️What Missed the Mark

📖 The main twist honestly felt weird and kind of a cop out. I think it probably should have stayed off the page in order to make the novel stronger. I mean it plays with the question of is it human or paranormal that Sager plays with in most of his novels but still felt like lazy storytelling.

📖 I wanted more interactions between Casey and the rest of the cast. I feel that with the interactions we did get, too much emotion was lacking in order to make the end scene believable.

📖 Okay, I LOVED the serial killer angle, but there was too much information missing in the narrative of the story. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Criminal Minds but I really wanted this angle to be explored more.

📖 Wilma drove me freaking crazy. For a side character, she took up way too much page space

📖 Riley Sager SUCKS at writing women. His novels are still entertaining, there’s no doubt about that, but he can’t write a realistic woman at all.

Casey is mourning the loss of her husband and is looking to alcohol to cope with the trauma. Her mom insists that she leave the city and head out to their secluded lake house. While she's there she becomes close with the woman staying across the lake (Katherine) and sees an unsettling argument between Katherine and her husband. Casey goes searching for the truth and after everything she has been through, she won't rest until she knows what happened to Katherine.

This is a tough one to review because the majority of my issues surround the twist in the book. I can say without a doubt I did not see THAT coming! It was a hard one to wrap my head around ... and tbh it didn't feel completely fleshed out and had me asking more questions.

If you're going to pick this one up, I would go in with low expectations and an open mind. I would also steer clear of some reviews and all book comparisons!

actual rating: 4/5 stars

this book really surprised me because it leaned in a way that riley sager has hinted at in previous books but never fully went into. i don't normally like this type of thriller but riley never disappoints tbh.

in this book we follow casey fletcher who is a semi-famous actress mostly known for smaller roles in tv shows and movies as well as playing the lead in a pretty popular thriller broadway show. there are multiple timelines throughout this book but in the main timeline begins with casey in her familys cabin on lake greene that was built in the 1800s. casey was sent there by her even more famous mother due to a scandal casey got wrapped into. casey tried to perform her broadway show drunk and was thus fired. casey's mother hopes sending her to the cabin will help solve her daughter's alcoholism but throughout the book alcohol is a huge part of the plot which makes casey an unreliable narrator. i wouldn't recommend this book if you'd find that annoying or triggering. casey's drinking started about 14 months prior to the main timeline after the death of her husband because he drowned in the same lake that casey is now forced to reside on by her mother.

while casey is at the lake she ends up saving one of her new neighbors katherine from drowning in lake greene and prevented her from facing a similar fate as her husband. katherine and her husband tom just moved into the house across the lake which is mostly made of glass windows. katherine and casey begin to strike up a friendship after this event over the following couple days after her accident. casey also finds a pair of binoculars her husband left behind and she uses them to spy on her new neighbors thorugh their giant windows. she starts seeing suspicious behavior over the following days between the couple and then suddenly katherine disappears without warning. she begins trying to figure out what exactly happened to katherine and if her husband, tom, had anything to do with it.

while some are definietly going to find casey annoying, i really thought she was just a flawed charatcer who was dealing with real human struggles. sometimes there types of characters can grate on my nerves but this one just didn't. i personally also really enjoy having unriable narrators in thrillers. compared to the main character in riley sager's last release, survive the night, who many people also thought was annoying mostly in part to her unreliableness, i would say casey is less annoying than her for sure. i enjoyed a lot of the side charatcers like boone and eli who are both neighbors of casey—one newer and one a family friend. boone and casey do have a slight romance throughout the story so if you don't like that in your thrillers, i wouldn't necessarily recommend this one but it's not a huge part of the plot. katherine and tome were very interesting to me in the way the really felt like fractions of people since both were celebrities—katherine an ex model and tom a billionaire tech guru who created a new social media app. we also only saw them through casey eyes and what she gathered by spying on them which really helped to create the illusion of not knowing whats's going on.

the writing was the same riley sager, descriptive but not overly distracting, and very digestiable. this book is slightly more lsower paced than osme of his novels but i feel like most of his books tend to be slow until th first 60-70% where the main character is just invesitgating without anything major occuring. then in the last third of the book he generally packs in a lot of action and plot twists and this book was no exception. riley sager's endings always have me shaking in my boots because i absoutly never see them coming but they always click into place perfectly. as stated this one went in a bit of a different route than most of his other books but the vibes were a combination of the last time i lied and home before dark with the unriable narraotr aspect of survive the night. those happened to be my top 3 from him before this book.

overall, while this book was slightly slower paced than some of his others and also went in a different direction, this still had the classic sager intrigue and twists that make his books so consuming and shocking. i don't think this is going to be one that everybody loves but i had an amazing time reading this and i genuinely never wanted to put it down and when i had to, i kept thinking about it all day.

thank you to penguin group dutton, riley sager, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✨𝐑 𝐄 𝐕 𝐈 𝐄 𝐖✨

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐑𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫

Wow. This one really surprised me!! This mystery/thriller had some of my favorite Riley Sager elements that I can’t share about without giving away a major plot twist 😂 but the story definitely took me on a wild ride!

👍🏼: The imagery of this remote lake house by Sager transported me there right away. It was so peaceful but eery at the same time! I have a love/hate relationship with the unreliable narrator but in this case it did make perfect sense with the storyline 🤯 I did not see the twist in this one coming at all & definitely needed some time to process all that unraveled.

👎🏼: There was an extra element added at the very end that I wasn’t impressed with 🤷🏼‍♀️ message me if you’ve read this one!

Overall- I was pleasantly surprised by this one & it definitely moved to the top of my rankings list for @riley.sager books 🙌🏼 The “elements” in this read may not be for everyone, but I really liked the story overall✨

Thanks to @netgalley & @duttonbooks for the e-ARC! Out now!! 📖💚

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks, NetGalley for the ARC. If I hadn't read other books by this author I would have put it down immediately. It was like I was reading a slightly different version of The Woman in the Window/Girl on a Train. Sager throws some curve balls into the plot that I don't usually see coming so I decided to continue on. I still liked it but yet it felt too similar to that stereotypical unreliable drunk female protagonist. That is the only negative thing that I can say is that that role is played out and can we please move on. Back to The House Across the Lake. I liked the ending and the mystery of the final plot twist. I would recommend this to others but give them a heads up it feels very been there, done that.

I loooove Riley Sager, but I don't think The House Across the Lake was for me. It started too slow & the ending seemed rushed. I don't think I really got into it until the halfway mark and at that point, the paranormal elements really threw me off. I loved the non-linear timeline and the twists & revelations in the "Now" chapters.

Packed with sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy plot twists, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake is the ultimate escapist read . . . no lake house required.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to read and review an advanced readers copy of this book. This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own.

This book started off with all of the typical aspects of your basic thriller novel - including an unreliable narrator, an ominous setting with a storm approaching, and mysterious characters with some obvious not-so-secret secrets. Cliché as it is, I do love classic thrillers like this. They're predictable, but if you love the genre you're still going to have fun reading them. And for the first half of this book, I didn't want to put it down. I was enjoying myself even if I saw some of the more obvious clues and twists coming, but then...

We get to the BIG twist. And I hated it. So much. I thought it would make more sense towards the end and we would be finding out this huge revelation from the narrator, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The ending was a little too clean cut for me when leading up to that point we had twists and turns that weren't wrapped up well. I still enjoyed reading this overall, but it definitely wasn't my favorite from Sager.