Happy Friday! For today’s First Line Friday linkup, I’m featuring a brand new book by Jaime Jo Wright. The Souls of Lost Lake just came out this week – if you’re looking for a new book to read this weekend, this would be a great choice!

“Campfires were meant to be places of shadows.”

The Souls of Lost Lake by Jaime Jo Wright

The Basics

Title: The Souls of Lost Lake

Author: Jaime Jo Wright

Publication Date: April 5, 2022

Genre: Split-Time Suspense

My Rating: 5 Stars

From the Back Cover:

To save the innocent, they must face an insidious evil.

Wren Blythe has long enjoyed living in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, helping her father with ministry at a youth camp. But when a little girl in the area goes missing, an all-out search ensues, reviving the decades-old campfire story of Ava Coons, the murderess who is believed to still roam the forest. Joining the search, Wren stumbles upon the Coonses’ cabin ruins and a sinister mystery she is determined to unearth.

In 1930, Ava Coons has spent the last several years carrying the mantle of mystery since the day she emerged from the woods as a thirteen-year-old girl, spattered with blood, dragging a logger’s ax. She has accepted she will never remember what happened to her family, whose bodies were never found, and that the people of Tempter’s Creek will always blame her for their violent deaths. And after a member of the town is murdered, and another goes missing, rumors spread that Ava’s secret is perhaps more malicious than previously imagined.

Two women, separated by time, must confront a wickedness that not only challenges who they are but also threatens their lives, and the lives of those they love.

My Review

I think The Souls of Lost Lake is my favorite of Jaime Jo Wright’s books (so far)! From the gorgeous cover to the captivating story inside, this book was almost impossible to put down. Spanning almost a hundred years, Ava and Wren’s stories are woven together in an unexpected but satisfying way. Ms. Wright does an amazing job of developing the characters in both timelines into relatable, engaging characters who will immediately find their way into readers’ hearts.

The suspense in both storylines kept me reading late into the night, complemented by just the right amount of creepiness as well as romance. I love a story that can keep me guessing, and all the twists and turns in this book caught me off guard! The spiritual truths about good and evil, life and death, forgiveness and redemption, give the book a richness and depth that will stick with you long after the final page.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.