YA Review: Lakeside by Amanda Linehan

Lakeside
by Amanda Linehan

Description:
Badminton, Trivia, Evil Spirits. Welcome to Lakeside...

Seventeen-year-old Jemi is the new girl in town. Again.

After moving with her mother to the town of Lakeside, Jemi finds herself thrown into a busy life with new friends. Amid an array of new activities, she volunteers to clean up the town lake and its surrounding park, which is rumored by superstitious locals to be controlled by evil spirits.

When her project is sabotaged by a jealous classmate, Jemi is ready to throw in the towel. But with the help of her friends, an eccentric millionaire, and an array of memorable townspeople, Jemi takes back her project and learns that sometimes the way to success is to hang on and let go.

Because in Lakeside, there’s always more than what meets the eye.


My Review:
Jemi just wants to get in enough community service hours to graduate. Instead she finds herself heading up an impossible project to bring to life Lakeside’s embarrassing namesake.

The story is all about finding strength in yourself and following your vision, even when you feel inadequate to the task. Jemi feels real in how she, as a teenager, handles a challenge that quickly becomes more than she expected. Even so, there is a glimmer of the paranormal and a small hint of romantic interest, just enough to up the complexity and interest in the story.

Besides that, I’d have liked to know if there were some background behind the spiders. They seem to be linked to the spirits Jemi learns about, but why?

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. I think folks who like reading about teens who overcome obstacles would like this book, while readers who expect more than a glimmer of the paranormal may be disappointed.

I received the review copy of this book from the author.


About the Author:

Amanda Linehan is a fiction writer, indie publisher and INFP. She has published three novels and a couple handfuls of short stories. Her short fiction has been featured on Every Day Fiction.

She lives in Maryland, likes to be outside and writes with her cat sleeping on the floor beside her desk.

Links:
Amazon
Goodreads
Twitter @amandalinehan
Author Site: http://amandalinehan.com/


Other books I've read by this author: