Lake Season (2019) — A Celebrate Lit Tour: An Excerpt + My Thoughts

About the Book

Book: Lake Season

Series: Bluebell Inn Romance #1

Author: Denise Hunter

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Release Date: November 12, 2019

A lost letter, a new love, and old secrets beckon this summer at the Bluebell Inn.

When their parents die in a tragic accident, Molly Bennett and her siblings pull together to fulfill their parents’ dream: turning their historic Bluebell, North Carolina home back into an inn. The situation would just be temporary—three years at the most—then they would sell the inn and Molly could get back to chasing her own dreams.

Adam Bradford (aka bestselling author Nathanial Grey) is a reclusive novelist with a bad case of writer’s block. Desperate for inspiration as his deadline approaches, he travels to the setting of his next book, a North Carolina lake town. There he immediately meets his muse, a young innkeeper who fancies herself in love with his alter ego.

Molly and Adam strike up an instant friendship. When Molly finds a long-lost letter in the walls of her inn she embarks on a mission with Adam to find the star-crossed lovers and bring them the closure they deserve. But Adam has secrets of his own. Past and present collide as truths are revealed, and Molly and Adam will have to decide if love is worth trusting.

Click HERE to purchase your copy!

About the Author

Denise Hunter is the internationally published bestselling author of more than 25 books, including A December Bride and The Convenient Groom, which have been adapted into original Hallmark Channel movies. She has won The Holt Medallion Award, The Reader’s Choice Award, The Carol Award, The Foreword Book of the Year Award, and is a RITA finalist. When Denise isn’t orchestrating love lives on the written page, she enjoys traveling with her family, drinking green tea, and playing drums. Denise makes her home in Indiana where she and her husband are rapidly approaching an empty nest.

To learn more about Denise, visit her at:

Website  ♥   Facebook  ♥   Twitter  ♥   Instagram

Read a Premium Excerpt

You can read a premium excerpt from Denise Hunter’s Lake Season HERE.

My Thoughts

Disclaimer: This novel was an exceptionally cathartic read for me. My review today is highly personal, but my point is not to be highly personal. My point is to express how deeply I agree with one of Ms. Hunter’s themes discussed in this novel. The best way to get this point across is to tell you my deeply personal story. If you are not in the mood to read my story I am 100% not offended. Let me just say, before you leave my blog, Lake Season is an absolute gem of a novel. I highly recommend it!!!

Ten months ago, I lost my stepdad, Mike. He was killed in a car accident. When one loses a loved one so violently and unexpectedly a pain unlike anything ever experienced is born. Immediately, the first thing that sprung to my mind was the last words I ever spoke to my stepdad. The last day I saw Mike was two weeks before he died. My mom and I made plans to have dinner at a local Mexican restaurant we liked to frequent. My daughter and I met my mom at the agreed-upon time, and much to my surprise Mike was with her. I was so happy to see him! You see, Mike was a fire captain. With all the fires happening in Southern California we didn’t get to see him as much so for him to be at this impromptu dinner was a big deal. We had an amazing time! We told funny stories, we laughed a lot, and we ate great food. It was awesome. When we were saying goodbye, my stepdad gave me a big hug and kiss, and I told him that I loved him. He told me, “I love you too, kid!” We got in our cars, and he smiled at me and gave me a wink. He and my mom went their way, and Bella and I went ours. That was the last time I would ever see or speak to my stepdad.

In Lake Season, the heroine, Molly, has also recently lost her parents to a car accident. Unfortunately, Molly’s last encounter with her parents wasn’t like mine. Molly blew her parents off never thinking she wouldn’t get to see or speak to them ever again this side of Heaven. Her final phone call with her parents leaves Molly with such guilt it becomes a heavy burden she carries daily, and she becomes a bit obsessed with making sure she never leaves a conversation unfinished. Of the characters in Lake Season, I heavily relate to Molly and her pain. Losing someone dear to you unexpectedly is like a repeated blow to your heart. It’s crushing, and painful isn’t a good enough word to describe what you are experiencing. The only thing that separates me from Molly (aside from the fact that I’m not fictional) is the magical, fantastic final dinner God orchestrated for me — I know with every fiber of my being that that last meal was truly God’s doing. I would have felt Molly’s guilt too if it weren’t for this one meal. God gave me a gift, and I will be forever grateful.

Lake Season is an excellent novel for so many reasons — the highly engaging plotline, the superb characters (especially Adam!!!), and the resonating themes. But Lake Season is one of my most favorite stories this year because it reinforces how important it is to tell our loved ones how much they mean to us in the here and now. Dear reader, do not leave your love under a bushel for you may not get a tomorrow. With everything that’s happened since my stepdad’s death, I cannot stress enough how important it is to tell your loved ones how you feel. Not a single one of us is promised a tomorrow. Read this novel because it is a great read, but read it also because it is a great reminder to not take those we love and care about for granted.

I received a review copy of this novel in eBook form from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, via Celebrate Lit. In no way has this influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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