So, I did not like the first book in this series at all. I was frankly…horrified by the reveal and even the ending. Maybe because I thought the character of Charlie was treated like the bad guy, but I honestly felt like he was the only one who saw Percy for who she was and what she could offer. Do not get me started on Sam’s mess. Now in book #2, it’s a few years after Sam and Percy have married, and this is finally Charlie’s book, via Alice. I really enjoyed both characters, but thought the whole twist/reveal was not well done and just rolled my eyes.
Alice is in a rut inspiration wise as a photographer. Her long-term relationship that was supposed to end with a wedding, ended up with her being broken up and left lost. When her beloved grandmother gets in an accident and needs to heal, Alice suggests going to the cabin by the lake that the family went to years ago when Alice was a teen. Her grandmother agrees and when they arrive, the man that Alice has been dealing with that she believes is a handyman, she finds to be her next door neighbor and his name is Charlie Florek. Alice has a list she is focused on finishing, she doesn’t have time for Charlie who seems determined to befriend her and get her out on the water and to enjoy the summer. The book follows the two of them as they develop a great friendship with both of them saying they don’t want anything more and both agree to it.
I thought that Alice was well written and was the anti-Percy (thank God) in my view. Her family is messy, but they are hers and I did like how we did get to see those dynamics throughout the book. We get insight into Charlie in this one and I thought his vulnerability about the loss of his family, and his still lingering guilty about Sam and Percy was weaved together seamlessly with Alice’s overall story.
The setting of the lake again though worked for me this time. It’s not a place of betrayal like it was in the first book in the series, instead it’s a happy place, but full of ghosts not just for Alice’s grandmother but for her. You find out a pretty cool connection she has to Percy, Sam, and Charlie and I really liked that reveal.
The ending though…I don’t know if Fortune just had to throw in some thing to twist things up or what, but wish it had been left out. It just didn’t serve the story very well and I didn’t buy it.