Review: The Woman in the Lake by Nicola Cornick

Print Length: 320 pages

Publisher: Graydon House (February 26, 2019)

From Goodreads.com: London, 1765

Lady Isabella Gerard, a respectable member of Georgian society, orders her maid to take her new golden gown and destroy it, its shimmering beauty tainted by the actions of her brutal husband the night before.

Three months later, Lord Gerard stands at the shoreline of the lake, looking down at a woman wearing the golden gown. As the body slowly rolls over to reveal her face, it’s clear this was not his intended victim…

250 Years Later…

When a gown she stole from a historic home as a child is mysteriously returned to Fenella Brightwell, it begins to possess her in exactly the same way that it did as a girl. Soon the fragile new life Fen has created for herself away from her abusive ex-husband is threatened at its foundations by the gown’s power over her until she can't tell what is real and what is imaginary.

As Fen uncovers more about the gown and Isabella’s story, she begins to see the parallels with her own life. When each piece of history is revealed, the gown—and its past—seems to possess her more and more, culminating in a dramatic revelation set to destroy her sanity. 

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My Rating: 1 star out of 5

Despite the promise of the synopsis, this book just did not deliver. I found the characters to be lacking, merely one dimensional shadows of what I had expected. There was nothing likable about any of them, and I found myself leaving this book in favor of reading another one and then coming back numerous times hoping that "this time" would be "the time". 

There was just something off about the flow of this story, that I didn't care what happened to the characters (either then or now). Even though I forced myself to finish it, I didn't feel as though it was "finished". There were too many things that I was left questioning. 

Overall, this story will appeal to some people, it was just not for me.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                        The Woman in the Lake is available from Amazon.com