Daniela Tully has an amazing first novel that includes everything that I love in a suspense novel such as this! HOTEL ON SHADOW LAKE is not what I had expected when I decided to read it. Instead, it turned out to be so much more. Her writing is beautifully done and the inspiration came from a letter written to her own Grandmother during WWII from her twin brother. Tully used this letter as her foundation to what has turned out to be a breathtaking novel that covers suspense, romance, and even tragedy.

Raised in Germany by her father and her grandmother, Maya grew up listening to her Grandmother Martha's fairy stories, which became a special tradition between them. When Maya turns sixteen and goes away to school in the States, she receives word months later that her grandmother has disappeared. Then twenty-seven years later her grandmother's remains are found and Maya has more questions than answers. Leaving her life in Germany, Maya travels to New York near the Montgomery Hotel, which is close to where her grandmother's remains were found. As she tries to get to the bottom of things, she learns things about her grandmother's past that she never knew. Maya uncovers secrets that Martha had kept in her heart since 1938.

A story that starts out in 1990 and then travels back to 1938 a few times throughout the whole novel, you will find it easy to follow, as well as intriguing. If you love stories that take places in Germany during WWII, then you love this thriller that has just enough romance to satisfy as well. This novel shows a side of love and not just hate from this time period when everything can be difficult in Germany. HOTEL ON SHADOW LAKE by Daniela Tully is one of those novels that you will find it hard not to think about days later.

Book Summary

When Maya was a girl in Germany, her grandmother was everything to her: teller of magical fairy tales, surrogate mother, best friend. Then, shortly after Maya’s sixteenth birthday, her grandmother disappeared without a trace, leaving Maya with only questions to fill the void.

Twenty-seven years later, her grandmother’s body is found in a place she had no connection to: the Montgomery Resort in upstate New York. How did she get there? Why had she come? Desperate for answers, Maya leaves her life in Germany behind and travels to America, where she is drawn to the powerful family that owns the hotel and seemingly the rest of the town.

Soon Maya is unraveling secrets that go back decades, from 1910s New York to 1930s Germany and beyond. But when she begins to find herself spinning her own lies in order to uncover the circumstances surrounding her grandmother’s death, she must decide whether her life and a chance at true love are worth risking for the truth.