Fiona

Gr 7 Up—Fiona "Fee" Smith is ready to leave the past behind. Fee is the only child of a wannabe rock star who took off before she was born and Moira Cavendish, a Scottish heiress who left behind her privileged life to follow the would-be star to Texas. After her mother's suicide when she was only 12, Fee has been counting the days until she is free to leave her uninterested aunt's home. When an email from Lady Lily Moffat, an old friend of her mother's, arrives, she is immediately drawn to this opportunity for a new beginning in Scotland as the au pair of Lady Moffat's young daughter. Tragedy strikes the Moffat family shortly before she arrives, and now Fee is needed there more than ever. A chance meeting in the local pub brings Fee face to face with her new employer, young Lord Charles Moffat. But life in the manor is not entirely what she expected. Soon nightly whispers and strange noises that seem to come from outside her window have Fiona worried that she has inherited her mother's mental illness. Romance and suspense fill this breezy YA offering. Characters are not particularly unique or well developed, but the plot moves the story along nicely. The Scottish Highlands setting helps add to the overall gothic mood of the novel.