Official Review: Lovers by the Lake by Bruce Spohn

[DDunstock]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Lovers by the Lake" by Bruce Spohn.]

---

2 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Lovers by the Lake: More Than a Romance by Bruce Spohn is a short story that combines elements of romance and historical fiction. The story centers on Amy and Paul, two baby boomers that have met late in their lives and have slowly fallen in love with each other. Both characters are at a crossroads, equally dealing with the fall-out of their previous relationships, as well as their inability to find answers to their life-long questions. The book is setup as a story within a story as we not only delve into Amy and Paul’s current relationship, but their past stories, too. Amy and Paul take a camping trip and divulge their life stories to one another per Amy’s request that they get to know each other better. Most of the book centers on each character sharing their story, starting from their childhood to their present-day when they are with each other.

I liked how the author contributed a lot of history and pop culture into the story, clearly very knowledgeable about American history in the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties. Amy and Paul’s stories from these times were incredibly interesting, detailing events like the Vietnam War, Kennedy’s assassination, race riots, the beginning of the Internet, gender roles and how they changed throughout the decades, and the differences between growing up in a small town versus a big city. Spohn even delves into the lasting effects of the Vietnam War and how the war not only effected the country, but the returning soldiers who often suffered from PTSD. The character development is very good since the author simply focuses on Amy and Paul. I certainly felt as if I knew these character very well by the end of the story, which made me feel more connected to the book.

Unfortunately, I found a lot of things that I did not enjoy about this story. I noted several typos within the pages as well as grammatical errors which greatly reduced the readability of the story. In addition, Spohn used italics to indicate when the characters were telling their past stories, but there were several occurrences of characters switching back to their present time and Spohn would forget to un-italicize the text. Towards the end of the book, this occurred more frequently. Spohn also organized each chapter as belonging to a certain character which helped the reader know whose point of view was being written; but at the end of the book, the point of view changed mid-chapter without transition, and this was confusing. In addition, transitions were choppy and abrupt. The characters continually said the same things to each other before resuming their stories, and it was repetitive and monotonous to read.

In addition, I did not enjoy the ending to this book. Without spoiling the story, I can only state that the end made absolutely no sense to the overarching plot of the novel. Details were added to the characters in the last two chapters that were not known throughout the entire book, and these details were story-changing and important. It seemed to me that the ending came out of nowhere and details being added early in the story would have made the ending seem less abrupt and bizarre.

Overall, Lovers by the Lake: More Than a Romance has a lot of potential to be a great story. The characters are likable and the author is knowledgeable about his subject. I would award this book 2 out of 4 stars. I believe that with better editing, this book could be rated higher.

******
Lovers by the Lake
View: on Bookshelves

Like DDunstock's review? Post a comment saying so!