Dream Lake - Keeper Shelf Review

Dream Lake (Friday Harbor #3) by Lisa Kleypas

Rating: Loved it!

Source: Library

Description:  They say that opposites attract. But what happens when one has been devastated by betrayal and the other is so jaded that his heart is made of stone? Enter the world of Friday Harbor, an enchanting town in the Pacific Northwest where things are not quite as they seem and where true love might just have a ghost of a chance….

Alex Nolan is as bitter and cynical as they come. One of the three Nolan brothers who call Friday harbor home, he's nothing like Sam or Mark. They actually believe in love; they think the risk of pain is worth the chance of happiness. But Alex battles his demons with the help of a whiskey bottle, and he lives in his own private hell. And then a ghost shows up. Only Alex can see him, Has Alex finally crossed over the threshold to insanity?

Zoë Hoffman is as gentle and romantic as they come. When she meets the startling gorgeous Alex Nolan, all her instincts tell her to run. Even Alex tells her to run. But something in him calls to Zoë, and she forces him to take a look at his life with a clear eye and to open his mind to the possibility that love isn’t for the foolish.

The ghost has been existing in the half-light of this world for decades. He doesn’t know who he is, or why he is stuck in the Nolans’ Victorian house. All he knows is that he loved a girl once. And Alex and Zoë hold the key to unlocking a mystery that keeps him trapped here.

Zoë and Alex are oil and water, fire and ice, sunshine and shadow. But sometimes it takes only a glimmer of light to chase away the dark, and sometimes love can reach beyond time, space, and reason to take hold of hearts that yearn for it…

Genre: Romance - Contemporary

Why I Picked This Book:  

My Impression:  *happy sigh*  This book just makes me happy anytime I read it.  It also tends to make me stay up far too late and then I wake up with puffy eyes due to the lack of sleep and happy tears cried at the end.  I love Zoe and her magic baking and I love the fact that she's aware of it but doesn't want to think too much about it.  Alex is the definition of a tortured hero but it's so lovely to see the sweetness and thoughtfulness that Zoe brings out in him.  I loved how much he encouraged her not to change and to just be herself and that that was enough.   I also loved his relationship with the ghost and how they drove each other crazy at times.  Zoe's relationship with her grandmother was so bittersweet there were more than a few times it brought tears to my eyes.

The book isn't perfect.  The end has a very contrived feel - kind of like it was time to end but she just wasn't quite sure how to do it.  The ghost (while I very much enjoyed him) does seem a little too wise and aware of modern slang and ways of thinking.  But this was one of those books that just clicked with me.  I identified very strongly with Zoe's desire to do the best she could for her grandmother and I love a romance with a bit of a ghost element as well as when a character (Alex in this case) just really wants to do better for someone else as well as for himself.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?  I would!  Kleypas is one of my go to romance authors in both contemporary and historical romance.

Would I Recommend this Book? If you enjoy a touch of ghost story mixed in with your romance I think you'd enjoy this one as well.  You don't need to read the previous books in the series to feel connected to the characters.