Your Oasis on Lake Flame

Author: Lorna Landvik
320 Pages
Genre: Fiction, Women's fiction

First Published: June 1997
Book Description (from Good Reads): Best friends fast approaching forty in the small Minnesota town of Flame Lake, Devera and BiDi were recently voted "Least Changed" at their twentieth high school reunion- a label neither one finds very appealing. For each craves a change in her life: Devera desires a break from her humdrum marital routine; BiDi longs to reconnect with her distant fourteen-year-old daughter (the only girl on the high school hockey team), not to mention jump-start a sex drive stuck in neutral. So when Devera's husband decides to fulfill his longtime dream of opening a nightclub in his basement, Your Oasis on Flame Lake arrives not a moment too soon. Nothing fancy, it is just a BYOB joint where you can hang out, sing, dance, tell jokes, and be yourself. But then an unexpected crisis throws both families into chaos, forcing them all to take stock of their lives and learn the power of forgiveness.

Points to consider

1. Plot: 7.5
1. It gives the vibe of a regular family dynamics. The regular high school sweethearts that people see as the perfect marriage. The successful second marriage, accepting daughters, men really being friends for their wife's sake at the beginning. The typical chick-lit kind of thing.
2. There really is nothing surprising or unexpected happening so, don't go hoping to get a huge plot twist. It simply has drama issued from the character's own actions nothing more.
3. It does give you a resolution, it, in fact, does not give you a very in depth talk things through between the couples or parent-children and the fixture of the huge issues in both families doesn't really please me. What do I mean? For example, being obsessed with yourself and pushing your daughter away, diminishing her, not caring about scaring her and completely obliterating her self-esteem and yet it was not actually fixed, you can't one day simply  say ok that's done lets move on. Something needs to be addressed and at least apologies should come forward... The couple's issues also can't be simply brushed over, ok they did kind of talk things through but it felt that it was instantly fixed, oh well it gave enough for the ending to be set up.
2. Character: 7.5
1. Some decisions characters make made my blood boil,  makes me angry.  But I guess that's just my personal opinion. If you don't want to accept even to yourself then make a change don't go around making bad decisions and then blame it in a discontent of your current life. Even or maybe especially adults who have lived decades make extremely bad decisions...  I hate cheaters don't care about excuses they might make.  
2. Another thing I don't like is when people,  by people I mean men,  can't take a woman's success, be it in a game or in anything else that they prove to be better.  Woman and men should be considered equals if you're better or no in whatever be it a sport .... It simply should mean someone is a good player or whatever, it does not matter if it's a woman or men.  
3. A lot of issues could have been solved with talking to each other but instead, they made drama. 
4. Another drama thing that annoyed me but at least it came from teens, in them, it makes more sense. When something happens to one of the girls, she does not speak up soon enough because of fear, it affected me that the reason she was unable to seek help was because of her insecurity. IT was a very bad choice taken by the wrong reasons but I can see why she would reason the way she did, the poor girl thought herself the most undeserving girl in the planet and maybe she did deserve it.
3. Logic: 7.5 
1. I do not agree with a lot of the decisions taken by the characters obviously but following the storyline, it can happen. 
2. It was a very realistic portrayal of a family for the most part. My main issue was towards the end, it seemed that after all the drama it was over too quickly and with too many things brushed over. It could have given a lot more, the potential was there. 
4. Intrigue: 7.0
1. As I mentioned before it was not surprising, you could tell where the story was headed, I mean the details were nice to discover but there was nothing that kept pulling you towards finishing the book. It might simply be the type of story or simply the theme of it. It is very family-centered and couples struggles. 
5. Intention: 8.0
1. The characters face issues and struggle a lot of people can relate to and their lives and the decisions they make are meant for you to reflect on them.
2. You can't compete with your daughter (children) for attention and can't expect her to be just like you. If they are not similar and you keep using those differences as weapons and insults you don't only push them (your children) away; the trust between parent-child is going to be missing. But it is very damaging to their emotional essence. If the parents who are supposed to love them see them as failures or inferiors what can they expect from others?
3. When facing an attack, it is easy to be frightened but you can't really simply stay quiet to protect someone or because you think the consequences will end up worse than the initial strike. It is better to seek help and protection because afterward you will simply have to accept the lies and own up to them once the truth is revealed. If that happens it is easier for people to doubt the veracity of your words, you have been caught lying before. 
4. The couples struggles and the way spouses face them, it is not right. Cheating is not the answer no matter the excuse.
6. Writing style: 8.0
1. Very simple writing style, it makes for a fast read. Not bad really.
7. Enjoyment: 7.5
1. I liked the story for the most part and understand why it developed the way it did, but it takes a direction that is very bothersome for me personally, therefore, my enjoyment was not as much as it might have bee for other people. 

Total score: 53.0

Average: 7.5

Star rating: 3.0

This book was picked at random, I was on my way to work and had to listen to something on the way and I had just finished the book I was currently reading so I wanted to pick up Flame in the Mist, it is the next one if I want to try to accomplished the readathons on time, well I couldn't find it and it was hard to remember what other challenge and book was available to complete in the current time frame. So I simply looked in Scribd for flame in audio and picked one from the list. I had no idea of what it was about or anything. If I had read the book description I might have not picked it up, it did not sound like the type of book I was feeling like at the moment. But I needed to pick up my pace, I must move on with the books in the challenges I am falling behind.

Used this book to replace Flame in the Mist in the challenges: 

1. Doudecathon Read a book with multiple POV
2. Magical Readathon Incendio- Word Fire or Flame in the book or series title or that it has the picture of fire in the cover.