I struggled with the star rating on this one, but that's only because I am so picky in how and why I star a book. This one is a solid 3 which, to me, means I read it happily, would likely tell others about it, but wouldn't read it again. So why the 4? Because Last Summer at the Lake House affected me. It was a family drama, with the death of the patriarch and I felt the feels. I am at the age where I can relate to the daughter role and recall vividly the pain of becoming an adult orphan, but, I'm also the spouse role with a husband nearing 70 and I feel that upcoming pain wholeheartedly. Hence, why this book is a one time only read for me.

Centered around the death of a parent, and the coming together of sisters, along with discovering things they didn't know, this was too emotional for me, a reader of domestic thrillers and horror where we don't have to process our own pain with the main characters.

I've never read Heather Dixon before, but she felt like Anne Rivers Siddon or Lauren K. Denton to me. If you have space in your heart for some pain, and are prepared to drop a tear or two, I can easily recommend this one when it releases on 10/26/23.

This was a GREAT story to listen to! AWESOME narration! Great main characters. The plot was easy to find. The story was engaging and easy to follow. Will be purchasing this book. Shout out to Netgalley and publishing for allowing me to listen and review this story.

4 STARS!

After the death of their father, three sisters return to their family’s lake home to discover that their father had kept some pretty big secrets. Told primarily by Alex, the sister who finds the stash of hidden love letters, this story shows the shock, turmoil and sense of betrayal felt by one family after their father’s secret life comes to light.

I did have a hard time keeping everyone separate in this book. It may have been better had each character had a different narrator. The gist of the book is three sisters return once their father died. They discover some secrets, while also dealing with their own dramas. It was ok. Maybe a little slow for me.

2.5

I was excited to read this family drama, about three sisters returning to their summer lakeside cottage after the death of their father. But I didn't love it. They ignored each other for half of the book. And worse, the plot is so unbelievable that I could not become invested. <spoiler>The author somewhat addresses how a man can have a thirty year affair- he told the other woman that his family died- but it still doesn't make sense. For a few months a year, his family lived in the same small town. Worse, at the memorial, Alex notes his Facebook profile picture on the memory board- there is no way the other woman thought his family was dead if she was friends with him on social media. Maybe that whole thing would have worked pre-internet, but not now. No way. The whole thing is just so inconceivable. </spoiler>

The book also started out really rough for me, as there was a scene with Alex and her family. I think this may have been more on the audiobook narrator than the author, but the kids came off years younger than they were supposed to be. The written dialogue wasn't perfect, but I probably could have ignored it if not for the way the narrator read it. The kids came off year younger than they were.

Patricia Rodriguez narrates the audiobook. Other than the kids' dialogue, I have no complaints about her performance. But since this is written in three POVs, I feel it would have been a much better experience if each sister had their own narrator.

I received an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

'Last Summer at the Lake House' is a sometimes sad but overall sweet story of a family's response to discovering a father's infidelity after his death.

This wasn't much of a mystery, but it was a great family story with complex storylines for all of the three stories (the mother wasn't as engaging to me as the daughters, surprisingly). I did not like the mistress, especially at the end, even though I believe she was intended to be a gray character. She was not sufficiently understanding of what the children went through (which, to me, was worse than what the wife did).

Sam in particular was a compelling character and I found myself most interested by her story. I was so happy with how it turned out!

Hunter was definitely a very one-dimensional character and didn't read like a real person, but his storyline with Sam was so heartwarming (and such a radical departure from the much darker direction I thought her story would go) that I didn't mind at all. It made me happy and this is entertainment, so that's good enough!

Thanks, NetGalley and Storm, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.