Retreat to the Lakeside Cottage: Escape with this perfect feel-good and uplifting story of love, life and laughter! Paperback – 15 August 2024

While not a writer, I guess having been on similar retreats (actually travel agent fam trips), this story doesn't surprise me. There are always a few flakes in the mix, and they were definitely in this story. I guess at the beginning, I didn't understand why Bronte wanted to go to a retreat instead of going to a writing course. Yet this retreat sure helped her in ways a writing course would not. The characters on this retreat were without a doubt a mixed bag, and I suppose Eve was the one who surprised me the most in the end.

Another brilliant visit to Lakeside Cottage. Lots of fabulous characters to get to know with the added details about authors and writing.Lots of laugh out loud moments aswell as eyebrow raising twists and turns. Never fails to make me smile.Can't wait to visit Lakeside Cottage again soon. Thanks Erin

I really struggled with getting through this book. I was constantly on the verge of DNFing. The setting was lovely. The premise was fun, but the execution was very lacking.At the halfway mark, I realized I couldn't really describe a plot if asked. The plot of the book is basically, five women go on a writer's retreat. The first half of the book describes their day to day at the retreat. Scene transitions are very abrupt and the emotional reaction of the characters just doesn't flow logically.Without being spoilery, there is an unexpected guest who is extremely upsetting to one of the women on the retreat. She goes between being dramatically upset and not seeming to care at all. Same with the other guests. They ping pong back and forth between being worried or just being mundane.There are many scenes that don't amount to anything. I found myself wondering, 'what was the point of any of that?' An answer never came.Much of the character's internal thoughts are repetitive and banal. Some of the characters aren't really explored at all. Alice and Daphne are not characters we get into the heads of. They don't do much to set off the other characters either.Cora's character was absolutely bizarre, matched in weirdness only by how Rula, Eve, and Bronte reacted to her. None of them behaved naturally, so that impacted my enjoyment of the story. It was too difficult to identify with any of the characters because they read like an abrupt collection of actions to add words to the page.Overall, I kept reading to see if anything really interesting would develop, so for that, I can give it a couple stars. I think this book could have used a few more rounds of editing and attention to an actual plot to make it shine.

I loved this book, Erin Green books are always lovely page turners, but this one was something else. A really interesting story with a few snippets of the real Erin amongst the pages! I hope there will be a follow up one day to find out what happens to everyone next.

Romped through this read. Assorted characters on a writing retreat. Having been on several I was hooked but Ben if you haven’t you’ll love the comedy of it.Plus there is a dog to steal some scenes.Must have summer read. Go buy and enjoy!