title: Summers at Blue Lake: A Novel
author:  Jill Althouse-Wood 
description: Barbara Jean Ellington, BJ, is at a crossroads. Recently separated from her cheating husband, Bryce, BJ and five-year-old son Sam depart Michigan for her late grandmother Nonna's home in Pennsylvania. While sorting out her life, BJ comes across Nonna's private notebooks, and she uncovers family secretsincluding how Nonna and her lesbian partner, Grandma Lena, came to spend their lives together. As BJ learns more about her family history, she is haunted by memories of her childhood and her first true love (and Lena's nephew), Travis. Things begin to look up when he appears one day, recently divorced, on her lawn, but a late reappearance by Bryce could muck things up. This is Althouse-Wood's first novel, and though she begins with an interesting premise, the novel falls victim to prose leaden with preciousness (I spoke the name, Sam, holding the <i>m</i> in my mouth like the taste of a Life Saver I was trying to commit to memory) and banal plotting. <i>(Aug.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  > This is a sequel novella to
  
  [Christmas at Edgewood Park](http://amzn.com/B076526QG6)
  
  ![](images/00003.jpg)
  
  While it is not necessary, you may enjoy the story more if you read Christmas
  at Edgewood Park before reading this story. You can purchase that title [right
  here](http://amzn.com/B076526QG6).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
  Published by Blue Water Books
  
  Richland, WA
  
  Cover photo © JuliaSha/Depositphotos.com
  
  © 2018 Shaela Kay Odd
  
  Visit the author at [www.shaelakay.com](http://www.shaelakay.com/)
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
  any means without express written consent from the publisher.
  
  This book is a work of fiction. While great care has been taken to ensure
  historical accuracy of dates and locations, characters and events in this book
  are products of the author’s imagination and are represented fict