Meet Me at the Lake

Author: Carley Fortune

Who Picked the Book: All of us

One-sentence summary: Love interests meet and spend one blissful day together, make plans to meet up in a year, and then one doesn't show up until years later. 

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7 (unanimous)

Our favorite thing about it: We liked the Dirty Dancing Vibes. 

Our least favorite thing about it: Will. Seriously, he was so dumb. 

Main Topics of Discussion: Friendship, Parent/Child Relationships, Dad Issues, Communicating in Relationships

Our favorite quote: “One great thing about meeting someone you’ll likely never see again is that you can tell them anything about yourself without any consequence.”

Notes: We liked this story and we liked the writing style and many of the characters. We all pictured the resort featured in Dirty Dancing while reading this book. The main topic of discussion was Will and how he unbelievably kept making dumb decisions. Yes, he had anxiety and other issues that have to be taken into account. But also, his final moment of stupidity at the end when he left without saying anything was almost a bridge too far for us. A text, a note, SOMETHING...would have been better than just leaving with no word. We all felt unusually frustrated by that. And more annoying was his sister telling Fern that she shouldn't have yelled at him on the phone. We did not love that. 

We talked a little bit about the issues that Will and Fern had with their fathers - or absent fathers as the case may be for Fern. And how that impacted their lives and decisions. Also, we talked about how Fern's mom was kind of terrible. She made major assumptions about the future of Fern's life without ever discussing it with her. And then completely gave her the cold shoulder when Fern spoke up for herself, saying what she wanted. Not cool. 

So some things were annoying, but overall this was a very enjoyable book to read with a real sense of place at the resort and we all liked it!

Memorable Meeting Moments: We were at the Lake House, so this meeting was full of memorable moments! We touched Prickly Pear fruit for one. Tastes good, doesn't feel good! 

What We Ate: Our usual Lake House food