Eight at the Lake: A Book Review

. . . with a little help from the cats:

GROVER: Wake up, Rufus! You have to help Mommy review a book!

RUFUS: Can't I sleep a little longer, Grover?
GROVER: No! Here's the book. Now get busy reading it!

When my husband saw me reading Lin Stepp's latest novel, he thought the cover picture was Smith Mountain Lake, which is only a couple of miles from us. But it wasn't. Eight at the Lake, Stepp's latest Mountain Home novel, takes place in Dandridge, Tennessee—which is a real place. 

As she does in her other Mountain Home or Smoky Mountain novels, Stepp provides a map—a feature I find useful. Since her novels have a strong sense of place, it's nice to see where important locations are.

In Eight at the Lake, the two main characters—Samantha King and Ford McDaniel—are both in their late 30s, both have challenging careers, and both have known loss. And they're both attracted to each other, though they resist the attraction. The book's back cover introduces them and the complications in their lives:  

Like many of Stepp's novels, Eight at the Lake conveys a strong sense of family. Ford—with help from his parents and his housekeeper Juanita—raises his own four childen as well as Samantha's late sister's four children. Samantha, in town for the summer while she recuperates from serious injuries she received while covering Hurricane Andrew the previous October, wants to get to know her nieces and nephews better before she returns to her job in the fall. 

RUFUS: From what Mommy wrote about it so far, it sounds interesting.

When Ford's housekeeper won't let Samantha see her nieces and nephews, Samantha charges into Ford's office to protest. Eventually she is allowed to see the children if she follows Ford's rules, and all eight really like her. When the housekeeper has to take time off to attend to her mother's health problems, Samantha steps in to take care of the kids. With her experiece as a former camp counselor and her current job as a meteorologist, Samatha knows how to keep kids active and involved. Before long, the kids really like her and don't ant her to leave. Ford himself becomes attracted to her her, but he resists getting involved. Samantha is also attracted to him, but she'll be leaving in the fall and there's no way a long distance relationship could work. . . .

If you're a fan of small town fiction that features a strong sense of family, connections to the land, and two interesting and complex main characters, you'll enjoy Eight at the Lake.

RUFUS: I didn't think I'd like a book with a veterinarian in it,
but this veterinarian was really nice. It was a good book!

I've reviewed several of Lin Stepp's Smoky Mountain novels on this blog, and Eight at the Lake has now become my favorite. I really like Samantha—a strong, complex, and take-charge woman who is her own person, who enjoys her job, and who doesn't let setbacks get her down. Eight at the Lake will release April 1, but it can be preordered from Amazon.

OTIS: Dibs on reading this book next! Orville, you'll have to wait.

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