Grange House by Sarah Blake

"There are two kinds of stories to tell.  One of love and one of ghosts."  

Grange House by Sarah Blake is both.  Maisie Thomas is on the verge of womanhood in 1896 when her family returns to Maine and Grange House for the summer.  It is there that the ghosts of the past begin to emerge:  first, with Nell Grange, the last owner of Grange House, and the secrets that she shares with Maisie; then, with a tragic death that affects Maisie's entire family.
     Maisie soon finds herself torn between two suitors, as well as caught in the tangled lies of the past and her own wordless longings for the future.  For "what was longed for and did not come to pass, that is the stuff of haunting..."

     Grange House is a beautifully written novel.  I just wish there had been a few more actual ghosts in it; I guess the search for the perfect ghost story continues!