Loved Jamie Day's latest, The Lake Escape! Her books are always a fast read, full of twists and turns and hook the reader right from the start. This one has now become my new very favorite of hers. The story is told through 2 narratives and the way everything comes together at the end is so good. Highly recommend for a book you won't be able to put down.

Thank you to net galley for the arc in exchange of an honest review.

Wow, wow, wow!!!! Jamie Day hit it out of the ballpark with her latest, The Lake Escape. I loved her other books, but this one was absolutely my favorite!!!

Childhood friends and lake neighbors, Julia, Erika, and David keep up the tradition of vacationing each summer at Lake Timmeny in Vermont at each of their family's homes. The fact that the lake is the subject of two women disappearing thirty years apart doesn't hamper their yearly vacation. This particular summer, however, is different. When Julia and her family arrive and see the monstrosity of a house David has constructed during his renovation, Julia is beside herself with outrage and knows Erika will be too. However, when Erika arrives and has little to no reaction, Julia is truly perplexed. When David arrives with his two children and their Nanny, Izzy, she lays into him. Next to arrive is Fiona, David's young, beautiful new girlfriend. When a third woman soon goes missing, the depth of the lies, secrets and deception is quickly unleashed. Every single one of them has at least one secret that will soon come spilling out.

The story is told through two narratives, Julia told in third person, and Izzy told in first person. The setting is a peaceful, idyllic lake setting perfect for a great summer read. I loved how in depth the characters were and how real their problems were. This is a fast paced suspense novel that is packed with action. I highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy

Three families return to Lake Timmeny to get away and enjoy peaceful relaxation from their crazy lives. But this year, relaxation doesn’t come. Julia comes with her husband and teenage daughter, her close friend Erika brings her husband and son, and their third old friend David arrives with his young girlfriend, his twin children, and their nanny. And there’s just as much drama as you would expect. Without giving anything away, they are all thrown into chaos when David’s girlfriend Fiona disappears the morning after they arrive. She’s not the first to vanish – two other women disappeared from the lake, one sixty years ago and one thirty years ago. Exactly to the day that Fiona is gone. Coincidence? Of course not!

You’ll start out thinking this is just your typical dysfunctional family drama with some mystery thrown in, but boy is it not. As I read, I thought that it was veering into ridiculous territory. But then I reconsidered. Because sure, it may be a little too much of a stretch, but then, that’s what makes it not your typical drama at the lake story. It brings depth to the plot and keeps the book from being a light and breezy read. It’s a fun story that gets a bit dark.

Julia is a bit dense, especially about that playroom, but it’s ok. I also loved how Izzy (the nanny) makes a tough decision towards the end that will probably surprise some readers but reflects her ethics perfectly. Too often lately, characters in stories like these create their own versions of justice and it’s hypocritical. The resolution was perfect and ended yet another great story by this author.

I loved this book! Although it was a slow start, this book turned out to be wonderful. So many twists and turns that I never saw coming, I had to keep reading!! The names of the characters at the beginning initially led to confusion (both older adult females with names ending in the letter a), but once I got further into the book, it didn't bother me anymore. I would recommend this book! Even though I started a new book, I'm still thinking about this one! So Good!!

The Lake Escape by Jamie Day is the story of childhood friends who come together every summer with their families to enjoy the Lake and vacation together. This time, however, one of the women disappears - just like two other women did, each thirty years apart.

With dual points-of-view, the author gives us an intriguing and easy to read story - despite their being a LOT of characters involved. When David's girlfriend disappears, a frantic search ensues and old secrets start to surface.

I enjoyed all of the characters, particularly Izzy and the differing narrators gave a great multi-viewpoint that made me think about how much individual perspective can play out while trying to figure out a mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this in lieu of an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Lake Escape is an upcoming novel by Jamie Day, available in July for your cabin/beach reading needs. This is a dual-POV, whodunnit mystery following three childhood friends now grown up with their own kids. Between them lies generations of local lore and well kept secrets 👀

The location for their annual summer meet up is Lake Timmeny in Vermont — which luckily is not a real place otherwise I’d suggest Mike White film the next season of The White Lotus there…

I loved every detail Day wrote into this book and found myself taking time to read every word of every sentence, making sure I didn’t miss a single clue along the way.

Another aspect I found very clever was the dual POV from one of the childhood friends and the nanny for one of the others. This gave two perspectives, two motivations, and two plots to follow in tandem.

I’m being purposefully vague because I don’t want to spoil anything for you! The Lake Escape kept me guessing until the very end and left me satisfied with the conclusion and epilogue.

This is a great read for anyone, like myself, who wants to dip their toe in the mystery genre without jumping all in on something too grisly or complicated. Easy to follow, no plot holes, and lots of twists and turns to keep you flipping the page.

#netgalley #bookreview #jamieday #mystery #vermont #lakelife #beachread

I loved the serene lake setting with summer vacation vibes... To just turn it on it's head! Three lifelong friends, David, Julia and Erika, come together for a couple weeks every summer to vacation in their lake houses. We see this crazy story of twists and turns through the views of Izzy Greene (Nanny for David's twins) and Julia Crawford. Thirty years apart, two women have gone missing at the lake without a trace. It's thirty years after the last disappearance... No big deal, right..? Highly recommend this book!

This is my second read by Jamie Day and I liked it as much as the first! A fresh setting for a suspense novel, and characters with depth in their back story make this a read rich with dimension! Guessing throughout the book as to who, what, where and why! Highly recommend this book and will be suggesting it to my book club for the month of May and start of summer! Thank you for the advance read!

I love books with twists and turns- The Lake Escape did not disappoint.

When Izzy fakes her way into being a nanny, she finds that she isn’t doing too bad of a job. One night, the girlfriend of the kids she nannying for disappears and the reoccurring 30 year old lake mystery seems to be back. Izzy loves crime podcasts and decides to investigate some on her own, but little do you know she has some motivation for wanting to be there all on her own…

ARC Review 📖

PUB Date : July 14th 2025

Pages ; 368

👎 Not For me

After reading one of this authors books last year and I liked it , I thought I’d try another from Jaime , sadly this was not for me , I almost DNF’d this one and I’ll share why.

The Lake Escape was slow to start , it wasn’t until about 35% things kind of got interesting but not really .

The story has multiple characters that used to be friends as teenagers and now they meet every summer and bring their children for some Lake Escape drinks & bonfires .

There was zero character building or development and very unforgettable characters in my opinion and lots of ick !

We had one character that her husband cheated on her and lost all their money and she still stayed with him . Then we have an older guy who has a young hot 30 year old girlfriend who is spotted kissing an 18 year old boy and then she goes missing .

There was no flow or rhythm to this story and it was quite obvious who the killer was , the story just was messy to me and made no sense .

Don’t get me wrong I love a good twisty thriller , with unhinged , diabolical nonsensical twists ,but there was no crazy character or story line , so for that reason this one just fell flat for me and was missing the thrill I love and expect .

Sorry this just was not my cup of tea .

Respectfully Another Read by Angie

Thank you NetGalley , St. Martins Press and Jamie Day for the gifted ARC in return for my honest review .

Jamie Day is one of my favorite authors and I will read anything she writes. The Lake Escape was fantastic and I can’t wait for other readers to get to read it. Told from multiple POV, I loved how there was more than one storyline and how they all came together to tell the whole story.

This book was an easy read and it kept me engaged from start to finish. If you like Jamie Day’s other works, you will be guaranteed to like this book as well. Give it a try!

Jamie day does it again!!! She knows just how to make
You wanna stay up all night to finish the book!! The twists are great!

This one was phenomenal! I had recently read The Block Party but Jamie Day and loved it- but this one stole the show! I was more and more invested as I read.
I did not want to put it down!

Think childhood friends still coming together years later… and add a whole lot of secrets and drama.

Thank you for this ARC! It is a must read.

I wanted to like this book. The premise is interesting and the synopsis caught my attention and got me excited to start. Unfortunately, I did not finish. I couldn’t get past the writing. It was not my style at all. I appreciate the advanced copy and the idea was great, but the writing was lacking for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance readers copy!

Three families who own neighboring lake houses meet for their annual vacation, which they have done for decades. While they are there, one of the women disappears without a trace. She makes the third woman to go missing from this very spot, each disappearance exactly 30 years apart. As a search ensures, many secrets among these lifelong friends are revealed, and they find that they do not know each other as well as they thought they did.

This was an interesting book and kept my attention from the start. The character development was excellent and in-depth, and I liked that the chapters were written in first-person perspective, switching between two of the female characters. The plot kept my attention, even though it was a bit far-fetched at times, but had a nice resolution at the end. If you like thrillers that aren't scary, check this one out when it releases this summer!

I give this a 3.5/5.

Thank you to St Martin’s press and Jamie Day for allowing me to read this ARC.
The Lake Escape is a well written suspense thriller by Jamie Day. This books is written in multiple POVs and follows friends and family through their annual lake vacation, only this lake community is filled with unsolved mysteries!
Each character follows their own path and uncovers the truth in their own lives. You never know what is going on in someone else’s life, even those who you are close to. This story keeps you guessing until the final pages. Another fantastic read by Jamie!!

3.5 stars

This is my third Jamie Day book, and I have had similar experiences with each one so far. I love thrillers/mysteries, so I'm always keen to read these. The books keep me engaged and I find them enjoyable overall, but they just don't take me into that WOW place of intense thrills, mysteries, or surprises for a variety of reasons. This recent read has kept up with the aforementioned trend.

One characteristic of this book is that there are a lot of characters. While they come together, at times, there are just too many directions and too much suspension of disbelief required. Day maintains an ongoing, creepy tone, but then some new detail comes up, and it feels a little too easy to get sidetracked in these moments. Additionally, this makes it tough to get too connected to any of the characters, and that, of course, is a detail that really supports a more compelling thriller.

I think this will be a solid beach read for many, and I'm excited to listen to the audio when it's released as well as consume more from this author.

Julia, David, and Erika grew up spending summers at their families' lake houses at a lake in Vermont. Now adults with families of their own, the three friends still keep up the summer tradition of spending two weeks together every summer. When Julia arrives at the lake for the latest adventure, she is dismayed to see that David has upgraded his house. Rather than the same small houses that have always been there, David has renovated his house into a multi-story, glass monstrosity. Not only does it stand out painfully and not fit in with the rest of the houses, it blocks the lake views from the other houses. Since David's new house is made mostly of glass, everyone else can look in and see what's going on at his place. When he arrives, Julia lets her feelings of anger and dismay be known, but she's surprised that Erika is calmly accepting of the situation. Erika's teenage son and Julia's teen daughter have an odd relationship going on, while David has brought a new nanny, Izzy, to look after his 5-year-old twins while he lavishes attention on his new girlfriend Fiona. That is the setup for the story that then goes off into many tangents. Thirty years apart, two girls have gone missing from the area. Soon another woman is missing. Is it the same killer back again? Everyone has secrets that will be exposed as the hunt for the elusive killer or killers gets underway.

I thought the book was trying to do too much and going off in strange directions. It was as if everything was thrown in there: grooming, revenge porn, "the mob," the FBI, improbable coincidences, teen pregnancy, mysterious disappearances, podcasting, financial crimes, etc. One of the explanations for a death was ridiculous and another not well explained. I kept expecting aliens to put in an appearance! I suppose the loose ends were mostly tied up by the end of the book, but there were just too many outlandish things happening at every turn.

A summertime gathering of girlfriends at a lake house goes tragically awry, when one of the women goes missing. Secrets from the past surface, old resentments rear, their ugly heads and readers are left wondering whether this woman’s disappearance is linked to the disappearance of other women in the area. A fun and suspenseful read.