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Layla Weston was supposed to be planning her wedding, not waiting for her fiancé’s father to die.

As Luke prepares to defend Holly for the shooting of Gregory Meyer, Layla and her family weigh the possibility of being able to return home to North Carolina. Only Layla isn't quite sure that's what she wants.

Will and Layla are faced with a new set of challenges for their future - including the status of their upcoming wedding. And when new revelations about his father come to light, Will finds himself questioning his own destiny as a man. With Layla's help, he must learn that his identity is not determined by his DNA.

Now that they are on the brink of their happily-ever-after, will Layla and Will get everything they dreamed of? Or will their happiness continue to be just out of reach?

329 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 14, 2013

344 people are currently reading
887 people want to read

About the author

AnnaLisa Grant

21 books238 followers
AnnaLisa is the youngest of four children and the only daughter, born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After graduating high school, she moved to Charlotte, NC with her parents. This turned out to be a blessing since it was just a few short years later that she met her husband in the Film Actor's Studio of Charlotte. As she studied acting at the Studio, AnnaLisa was in several films and made-for-TV movies, as well as performed in local theater in both dramatic and musical roles. At one time, it was AnnaLisa's dream to be a professional singer.

AnnaLisa completed her undergraduate degree in Human Services at Wingate University and her Master's degree in Counseling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. During her thirteen years in the Human Services field, AnnaLisa worked with children in group homes and foster care, and spent two years in private practice counseling individuals, families, and couples.

When her father was in a near fatal car accident in 2010, AnnaLisa's best coping skill turned out to be writing. Five months after the accident, when all the what ifs would not go away, AnnaLisa started writing Layla Weston's story in The Lake. She had no idea what she was going to do with the story. In fact, she wrote sixty-four pages before she told her husband what she was doing. By then it was clear that Layla had a long story to tell and there were multiple books on the horizon.

In 2013, after all three YA novels in The Lake Trilogy were written and she had let them sit long enough, AnnaLisa took matters into her own hands and self-published the titles within just a few months of each other. Received well by readers young and not-so-young alike, The Lake Trilogy has enjoyed breakout success, selling close to half-million copies the first year.

AnnaLisa's publicist is Rick Miles of Red Coat PR, and she is represented by Italia Gandolfo of GH Literary. AnnaLisa has been married to her super awesome husband Donavan since 2001 and lives in Matthews, NC with their two ridiculously beautiful children.

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5 stars
2,068 (42%)
4 stars
1,466 (30%)
3 stars
951 (19%)
2 stars
290 (5%)
1 star
98 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 211 reviews
Profile Image for Angelnet.
572 reviews18 followers
February 14, 2014
Taking the three books as a set I enjoyed the story but thought that with a bit of judicious editing it could have been one very good book rather than three slightly repetitive rambling books.

When I'm paying for a book it also annoys me when there are glaring errors in spelling and/or punctuation. Little things like "site" when it should be "sight" and "bare" when it should be "bear". The third book seems to suffer more than the other two and there are a lot of grammatical and punctuation errors that any half decent beta reader (let alone paid editor) should have taken care of. Over all it distracts from the story and lost it a whole star point.

Profile Image for Abby Kavalow.
5 reviews
August 20, 2014
I really struggled to finish this book. The first two in the series were good and got me invested in Layla and Will's story, but this last book was pretty boring. Focused way too much on the lovey dovey of their story. Wish there would've been more to Holly's trial and other parts of the story. This trilogy could easily be condensed into a Lifetime movie and it could include almost nothing from this book. One last thing, there are TONS of typos. Almost seemed like they were rushing to meet the publishing deadline.
Profile Image for Alejandrina Ley.
3 reviews1 follower
January 10, 2015
Very repetitive

The book dragged had to skip a few pages I just wanted to be done with it to know how it ends.
Profile Image for Pauline Hughes.
1 review
January 19, 2015
Like crying

Layla was such a cry baby. It was so hard to finish this book. . The samethings were explained over and over
Profile Image for Lynn Cheryl.
724 reviews35 followers
January 19, 2014
Enjoyed the whole of The Lake Trilogy, even though not my usual genre. The only thing I found unbelievable appeared towards the end of the story....The honeymoon NYC, Ireland and Bali in just 2 weeks? 3 days must have been taken up with sitting on a plane ;-)
8 reviews1 follower
January 25, 2014
Great story

I really enjoyed this story. Unfortunately there were several errors throughout the book. It was frustrating to get into the plot and be thrown off by the wrong word choice or the omission of a word. It appeared that no one emitted these books.
Profile Image for Michelle LeKander.
439 reviews2 followers
January 20, 2016
Same old, same old

After reading the first two in the series, my expectations of this book were pretty rigid in my mind and unfortunately I was not mistaken. The author continued with book 3 in the same fashion as 1 and 2. The same dialogue; "I don't deserve to be happy". " I do deserve to be happy". The same back story over and over about Layla's grandma, death of her parents. The same back and forth conflicts between Will and Layla. One minute they are the super couple ready to handle everything together and the next minute, one of them runs away from the other because they are scared of who they are or who they may become. I will say that in this book, the never ending conflicts and villains showing up was much lessened and didn't play out so much like a soap opera. But the conflicts and the characters for me were unbelievable and the resolutions to easy. I would have loved to have fallen in love with Will and Layla but instead found myself at the end of this trilogy more annoyed with them then anything. Was it worth the three reads? I guess so if you had the time to spare and didn't mind a mediocre storyline Lastly, the author does need to get a new editor When "dear" is used to describe a 4 legged animal with antlers, among other mistakes that were blatantly obvious, time to get someone who doesn't just use autocorrect
Profile Image for Paige.
8 reviews
June 22, 2015
Trilogy of events

This book has definitely kept my attention. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Will and Layla. Their story was intriguing to say the least. I am always a sucker for high school romance novels, and this one was no exception. I did notice some odd spelling errors. But other than that the linguistics of the book met my expectations and I was pleased to see... err read, how the story lines would turn out. I'm glad the epilogue was included at the end. Sometimes you have to imagine the ending, but this as exactly what was needed. If you're interested in a trilogy on romance and exciting events, this is a great read!
Profile Image for JoAnn.
214 reviews
June 26, 2013
I enjoyed the final book "Safe Harbor" of The Lake Trilogy, but not as much as the first two. Layla's inner dialogue droned on a bit much after awhile. More discoveries were made of how awful Will's dad was, but with nice surprises for Will. As a whole, it was an enjoyable series from AnnaLisa Grant.
Profile Image for Allie.
76 reviews
November 8, 2013
Perfect ending to an amazing trilogy of books!
Profile Image for Krista Fee.
58 reviews8 followers
April 10, 2014
I absolutely love this author, and would love to get some ARC's. -hint hint- lol but no really I have adored this trilogy from the start, I love that will and Layla's story is incorporated with strong family values. You do not see that in many books anymore. This book took me a little longer to read soley because it was a detail oriented book. The beginning started off strong and the ending left me on the edge of my seat and yelling NO NO NO what are you doing! The middle was all mushy details about the wedding and such leaving me in tears. And lastly, I really enjoyed the epilogue, nothing is more irritating than an author who writes this amazing book and doesn't tie up the loose ends for you, letting the characters wonder carelessly in your head. Annalisa did a wonderful job with the epilogue. Over all- Bravo. I will be recommending this book to the rest of my club. Sorry for the huge paragraph good reads is not formatting my spacing for some reason and jacking up the format! Thank you for a great story.
Profile Image for LeAnn.
127 reviews
February 14, 2014
This series was decent. The plot was engaging and the characters were likable (except for Layla on a few occasions) but I felt like the story could've been condensed to two books. It was very repetitive and some parts dragged and were unnecessary.

Then the dialogue felt stiff and not realistic at times. Also the mushy factor was a bit much. There was so much love and family bonding going on that sometimes it felt like I was reading the script for a cheesy sitcom.

There was also some spelling and grammatical errors throughout the books that should've easily been fixed with an editor or simply by proof reading.

Overall, this series kept me interested and engaged enough to where I had to know how Layla and Will's story would end and I'm pretty satisfied with how everything was resolved.
46 reviews
July 24, 2015
I NEVER read books like these!

BUT after reading The Lake I decided to read the series. And I decided not to review until I had read all three. It's a great story, very refreshing and with enough twists turns and supprises to keep me interested and turning the pages.. I hope this story appeals to young people, gives them hope, that even a rough start in life isn't a precursor of what will always be, and that personal ethics aren't old fashioned or a waste of time. Because when you get older, It's really important to be able to look in the mirror and be proud of the person looking back at you. That's probably the most important Gift you can give to yourself and to those you love.
Profile Image for Kiana Carle.
28 reviews
February 6, 2016
I started the first book by accident, I thought I had bought another book, but i started reading it and thought it was quick and easy.
But honestly 3 BOOKS!!! Plus i think there is another one, ANCHORED. I will have to read it, only because I need to finish things and because there is pages and pages of dribble I am sure i can polish it off in half a day. This book was the same. I noticed the comments saying that there was so many grammatical and spelling errors, I didn't even notice, but that may be due to the fact that I skimmed and skipped so many pages of the same repetitive story of her GRAM, or her parents, or how much love she has for her Uncle and Aunty and how Will makes her happy, or that Will is thinking ... ARGHHHHHH!!! I have a headache now.. signing off.
Profile Image for Tara.
79 reviews5 followers
June 15, 2013
I was so excited when I found out I'd won an eARC of SAFE HARBOR! And I so enjoyed reading it!

AnnaLisa did it again!

I was drawn right back into Layla and Will's story, right from the 1st page.

As with THE LAKE and TROUBLED WATERS before it, SAFE HARBOR was full of sweet romance, mystery, twists and turns, laughs, heart stoppers and tear jerkers.

"Her parents do.".... I sobbed like a baby!

I am so pleased with the outcome of Layla and Will's story.

The epilogue was just awesome. I smiled big the whole way through.
Perfect ending!

SAFE HARBOR was definitely a 5* read for me.
I smiled, I laughed, I cried.
A fabulous ending, to a fabulous trilogy!
Profile Image for Jolene Starring.
2 reviews
January 3, 2016
Too predictable and grammatically distracting.

By the time you get to the third book Will and Layla along with their string of horrible circumstances have become extremely predictable. It was a struggle for me to finish. I think the editor must have felt the same way because the grammatical errors became more and more distracting as the book wore on. I did enjoy the first two books in this series and thought they made a nice feel-good read but that is where the saga of Will and Kayla should have ended.
1 review
August 5, 2016
Meh....don't waste your time

The Lake trilogy books as a whole were extremely repetitive and dragged out. I felt like the whole story line just went in boring circles, it was annoying. At times the story just seemed far fetched and I struggled not being able to relate to the characters. I wouldn't recommend.

Also, the editing was horrible! I almost stopped reading the books for this reason alone.

Profile Image for Liz.
8 reviews
March 20, 2014
So. Good.
I absolutely fell in love with this series... Layla and Will overcame so much to be together. I especially love that they remained true to their promise to wait until marriage before having sex (yet I love how the author in no way condemned those who haven't... she just showed the beauty and joy they felt in waiting). This was refreshingly clean and in good taste. I already downloaded AnnaLisa Grant 's other book, and will start reading it tomorrow!!
Profile Image for Loz.
39 reviews1 follower
November 15, 2018
I struggled to finish this book. It just went over the same old moans again and again. Layla was so whiny. The teenage characters were kind of a joke with their "mammoth games of Monopoly" and "waiting until they are married". Book 1 was Ok. It should have ended there as the story-lines just got more and more stupid as time went on. The only reason the whole "Waiting" thing worked in Twilight was because Edward was from another era!
2 reviews
February 14, 2014
Just amazing

Just amazing

I would highly recommend this series, it had me laughing, crying, and cheering. I finished this series in 2 days I just couldn't put it down. I'm not much for writing reviews on books I've finished, but this one in bad to. I was sad it came to an end I really wanted to know more of what Layla and Will were up to. must read!!
Profile Image for Clara Ray.
Author 9 books3 followers
January 22, 2016
This part of Layla & Will's journey was a pleasant continuation of their previous story. I enjoyed reading it very much, and liked how the author tied up loose ends. I think the entire Lake Series is five star reading, but, I deducted one star because of the typographical and grammatical errors. At times, it was distracting from what was otherwise a moving, well-written story.
7 reviews10 followers
January 28, 2014
I loved this trilogy but too much redundancies and dragging... I found myself skipping pages, too much back and forth from Layla's past..I wished the author concentrate more on the story of Will and Layla after the wedding and to see much more of their HEA.
Profile Image for Amanda Hagemeier.
51 reviews2 followers
February 19, 2014
I love will and Layla's story but there were definitely some missing details of information that I waited most if the series to find out in the last book. I feel like the author rushed it to meet a deadline, however, it is still a remarkable story and I'd recommend it to anyone!
Profile Image for JoAnn Wyatt.
1 review1 follower
October 3, 2014
Story outstanding! I love the way you can get a chance to see the whole thing.

I loved this trilogy of books as it held my interest throughout the whole time I was reading it. JoAnn Wyatt
Profile Image for Crystal Sullens.
21 reviews
June 19, 2013
Amazing ending to a great story about true love and how you fight to protect those you love!
4 reviews1 follower
January 21, 2014
Sad to see Kayla and Will go!

what a great book an other read that took me two days to finish. I'm going to miss Kayla, Will and the rest of the family.....
27 reviews2 followers
January 21, 2014
The end!!!!

This is the way a true love story should end. Love always wins in the end. What hopes and dreams are made of.

Profile Image for Theresa.
340 reviews9 followers
February 5, 2014
Book three

The best of the three Lake trilogy books.I will miss reading this series of books.I really enjoyed them.Very well written.
Profile Image for Melinda.
59 reviews
February 8, 2014
Again, a terribly written story that was marred even more by horrific editing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 211 reviews

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