The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor by Amy M Reade (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea [who's on vacation, it seems ... which I discovered after putting together this post]. "Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

When I first started The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor I thought that I would be getting spooky gothic ghost story. Nope. 

Then I thought that maybe I was in store for a cozy mystery with the main character, a home restoration specialist, playing amateur sleuth. Nope again. 

I thought that I was going to be horribly disappointed with neither of these scenarios being true. Yet again, a big nope.

What I had was a compelling story of Carleigh Warner not only restoring her friend Evie's family home, Peppernell Manor, but also her own life and, in a lot of ways, the lives of the Peppernell family (at least, those who survive the telling of the tale). 

Carleigh and her young daughter left Chicago for Peppernell Manor, located in South Carolina just outside of Charlotte. Carleigh and Evie had been friends since college and when Evie's grandmother decided that she wanted the home revived to its original splendor, Evie knew that Carleigh would be the perfect one for the job. Recently divorced after her husband left her for a stripper named Jilly (or "Jiggly," as Carleigh calls her), it was a perfect opportunity for Carleigh and three-year-old Lucy to get away from the stressors of life for a bit. Of course, the Peppernell household has its own share of stress going on housing three generations of Peppernells. Evie is there while her boyfriend is off traveling for business, her brother Heath lives in the carriage house on the property, his twin brother Harlan is nearby in Charlotte, and then their parents, aunt and grandmother all reside in the house full-time. There's also Phyllis, the house manager who happens to be descended from the slaves who built the house for the original Peppernell owners generations before. (One of her ancestors, her great-great-great-great-great grandmother, Sarah, is still present .... according to Phyllis, anyway.) 

Evie's grandmother wants the house restored and then intends to bequeath it to the state when she dies. Her mother and brother Harlan want to turn it over to an investment group to turn it into a tourist destination. Her aunt doesn't say much of anything, nor does her father who spends most of his time working on his latest novel, and Phyllis is constantly warning people that Sarah isn't happy about what's going on. The family dynamics are a bit whack and become even more so after Evie's grandmother dies. Plus we have romance, another death, crazy ex's, a freaking hurricane, a potentially cursed dog, vandalism, and an alligator attack. It's so much more than a ghost story or cozy mystery would have been. 

It was a fast read for me thanks to my unwillingness to put it down for long once I had started. A great part of that might be thanks to me being a bit of a history nerd. I absolutely loved the details involved in the restoration -- especially after ..... oh, just read it for yourself. 

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.