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Jun 03, 2003GingerKaren rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Once there was a school for young girls called Heart Lake. It was built as a mansion on the banks of the lake and every girl who came there always felt welcome and secure. Their days were filled with lessons, skating parties, and bonfires. The ghost stories they told were based upon the legend of the three sisters that died mysteriously in the lake. Until one year three deaths occurred that seemed to mirror the legend. Jane was the lucky one, she escaped into a scholarship to Vassar. Only now years later, her life is becoming unraveled and she feels the only way to make a living is to return to Heart Lake and her past. This first novel reminds me of Donna Tartt''s The Secret History and Christina Schwarz''s Drowning Ruth. The story weaves the past and present into a dreamy snow covered landscape that is evocative of the heroine''s mindset. The motto of the school sums it up quite nicely, cor te reduit, the heart leads you back. And that is the refrain running through to the stunning but satisfying conclusion.