Review - - The Cottage on Glass Lake

The Cottage on Glass Lake

by Amy Pine

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: June 27, 2023

Reviewed by PJ

 

Dr. Becca Weiland had the perfect life—or so she thought, until she learned her husband cheated on her after a decade of marriage. With divorce papers signed, Becca throws her trademark caution to the wind and agrees to an impromptu monthlong vacation at a beach house with Sadie, a woman she's known all her life but really doesn't know at all.

Free-spirit Sadie Bloom is Becca’s opposite in every way, living in the moment and wasting zero energy on what comes next. But the pastry chef’s nothing-bothers-me exterior hides a fear she’s not ready to face—one that may jeopardize a future she never realized she wanted.

At first, Sadie’s go-big-or-go-home style bumps up against Becca’s perfectionism, but soon they’re bonding over too much Schnapps, a leaky roof, a bikini wax gone awry, and awkward meet-cutes with two of the hottest men in town. Best of all, in getting to know each other, they’ve gotten to know themselves, and together they find the courage to discover what it really means to live.

PJ's Thoughts:

Amy Pine is a new to me author but The Cottage on Glass Lake has ensured that I'll be reading a lot more of her. Brimming with laugh-out-loud humor, poignant emotion, complicated relationships, self discovery, friendship, and starting over, it drew me in and flooded me with all the feels I want in a good summer read.

I love stories about friendship. Make that a "we've known each other our whole lives and used to be in-laws but our siblings divorced but now they're back together and we're sort of in-laws again but we've never really known each other but now we're forced to spend a month together in a lake cabin and we're total opposites" friendship and, oh yeah, I am so there. Add in two hot - but estranged - brothers, a hilariously precocious little girl, lively townies, too much wine, and, well, let's just say that prim and proper inhibitions may be tossed to the side. Skinny dipping, anyone?

The intriguing layers of both of these women kept them interesting and me invested in them from start to finish. I love how the author slowly peels away those layers to reveal the fears and vulnerabilities beneath, then slowly rebuilds them into stronger women with clearer vision of what is most important to them and what they're willing to fight for. And I love what each of the women teaches and learns from the other. I love the community they build within the beach town, the Friday night dinners that reflect their Jewish traditions. It's like watching a new tapestry slowly being woven together, stitch by stitch. And it's one that's woven with laughter, with heart, with newly-won confidence, and with love. 

The focus of this book is most definitely on the journeys of Becca and Sadie but romance is not given short shrift. Both women embark upon unexpected relationships over the course of their vacation, relationships that surprise them, expand their horizons, open their hearts to new possibilities, and bring laughter, joy, and new love into their lives. And, yes, there are happy endings. 

Also, if you're as intrigued by the off-again, on-again siblings' story as I am, it's told, along with their adult daughter's story, in The Bloom Girls, a book that's described as "Gilmore Girls meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding." I've already downloaded it and am eager to dive in!