LAKE BARCROFT

In this novel, a teenage girl’s unplanned pregnancy forces her into a life of dark secrets.

Rebecca “Beck” Penelope Lyons lives in Lake Barcroft, Virginia, the daughter of powerful United States Sen. and Majority Leader Richard Lyons, often peculiarly referred to within the family as “The Leader.” Shy and unsure of herself, Beck is haunted by an inconsolable guilt—when she was 6 years old, her brother, Colin, and her mother drowned, an accident for which she holds herself responsible. She becomes close to Randall Malloy, Colin’s best friend, and since the age of 8, she’s been deeply in love with him. While he resists a relationship with her, he promises to marry her one day when they’re both older and wiser. When they finally give in to their desire for each other, Beck becomes pregnant, and her grandmother Panda sends her away to a Roman Catholic school in New York City in order to bury the disgraced girl’s indiscretion and protect her father. Beck is saddled with a terrible secret she conceals from Randall and an ardent wish to see the child she is being compelled to give up. Oshins’ tale is an emotionally sensitive one that delicately captures the volatile combination of angst and lust that characterizes adolescence. In addition, the author presents a sympathetic protagonist. But in this second edition of his novel, he leans toward sentimentality, a proclivity sometimes expressed in histrionic prose: Beck “lay face down on her bed in the meager shelter of her room and pressed her face into arms. Her sadness drained all hope. Her life was falling apart, leaving her exposed and vulnerable. She didn’t deserve this. She wasn’t bad. Who would speak for her? Who knew her for who she was? She barely knew herself.” Furthermore, readers will find the story’s pace a bit slow at times.

An intriguing but uneven family tale.