Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen (FIC All)

Newly returned from an extended honeymoon (which you can do when you marry someone with money), Eby and her husband George buy Lost Lake, a resort with cabins deep in southern Georgia.  Now, fifty years later, George is gone and Eby decides to sell the resort to a developer.

In the last summer of its existence a group of people who have gathered annually at Lost Lake come together once more to see if their long-held dreams can be fulfilled.  There's Bulahdeen, a retired professor of literature who believes that people are able to write their own endings; Selma, a woman with seven husbands on the prowl for number eight; Jack, who has long been in love with Lisette, the cook at Lost Lake; and Lisette whose life was once saved by Eby but who can't leave behind the memory of the young man she spurned fifty years ago.  

Into their company comes Kate, Eby's great-niece, and her young daughter, Devin.  They are still dealing with the loss of their husband and father and have arrived at Lost Lake to re-connect with Eby.

Sarah Addison Allen's books always carry a hint of mysticism and magic and this one is no different.  From Selma and her eight magic "charms" which give her the power to win any man she desires to the mysterious alligator who resides in Lost Lake and who communicates regularly with Devin the book is filled with situations that defy logic and force you to suspend your disbelief.  Also present is Allen's ability to see into human nature and describe people and situations believably.

I enjoy the author's books because of the way she describes people and situations.  If the outcome is fairly obvious from the beginning that doesn't really matter.  It is the way she gets to the ending that I enjoyed.  I read this book in the entirety of a snowy day - and wished it had lasted just a little bit longer.