Rambling About.. Secrets of Hallstead House by Amy M Reade

I wasn't able to really devote time to this gem until Sunday morning and once I really started I found that I couldn't/wouldn't put it down willingly! Secrets of Hallstead House is a beautiful tale set in one of the most beautiful places there is -- the Thousand Islands. I was born at the eastern end of the Thousand Islands region and while we moved from the area before I was old enough to really know anything of it, it's still near and dear to my heart.

Credit: New York Times

It's the story of Macy Stoddard who has accepted a job as the personal nurse to an elderly woman recovering from hip surgery. It's a bit of a dreary place and several of the inhabitants and frequest visitors make it known that they don't want Macy there, but she has a job to do and intends to do it. She does bond with her patient, though, as well as with the keeper of the boathouse and falls in love with the locale (as well she should!). 

Before long everything Macy thought that she had known about everything gets turned upside-down. It's part gothic, part cozy mystery, and all wonderful. Well, almost all. 

The only nit-picky thing I had with it was Macy's age. She's supposed to be 20 years old but seems older and that boathouse guy? She figured him to be in his mid-30s (I can't recall if we ever did get an exact age on him). Call me horribly old-fashioned, but she isn't even able to legally drink unless she crosses the border! If she had been, say, 25 and him mid-thirties I likely wouldn't have been as skeeved about it. Much. Maybe. Still, it's only a mild irritant in an otherwise wonderful book full of secrets and mystery and twists that I totally didn't see coming.