BITTERSWEET SUMMER Rachel Wilson Jove Haunting Hearts Romance June 1999 ISBN # 0-515-12523-7 {Click here to buy this book} "For Sale: One American Castle. Ghost included" the sale ad reads in Rachel Wilson's latest, "Bittersweet Summer". Set in

Genevieve Crowfoot felt lucky to unload the aging family castle. Abandoned years ago it was left to decay because there simply wasn't enough money to keep the house repaired. Tobias Rakes will put the house back into the grand state the house was once in though. Forget the family feud. What's important today is that she and her aunt can now afford to support themselves on not only the money generated from the sale of the house but also from the salary that Tobias pays her as head housekeeper. To do this she moves into Crowfoot Castle, regardless of what her aunt says about her living under the same roof with a Rakes! Living in the house will enable her to hire the needed staff to put the house back to rights, because she really does love the place, but also so that she will have more time to look for the hidden treasure. Tobias Rakes is too close though, and so good-looking, and she can barely keep her mind on her reason for being in the house to begin with. She's not prepared for the outpouring of love from Tobias when she accidentally poisoned. It's then that they realize just how much they care for each other, and that there's a far worse threat in the house than Granny Crowfoot's ghost. Someone is trying to kill Tobias!

Tobias Crowfoot is forced home after many years because of a nearly fatal injury suffered when an Indian arrow pierced an artery in his leg. Left nearly crippled he was sent home to Bittersweet and into an unknown world. He'd left years ago when he was all but disowned by his father for cavorting with a married woman, who eventually scorned him in the end. Now, back in Bittersweet, he must begin again. And purchasing Crowfoot Castle is just the thing he needs to get the last word in where his father is concerned. Owning a piece of Crowfoot property will infuriate the man to no end, and Tobias gets great joy from that thought. But when Genevieve Crowfoot becomes his housekeeper in order to help him get repairs done on the house he finds his attentions diverted away from his aching leg over to Genevieve's swaying hips and lively laugh. It's not long before the two find themselves head over heels in love, much to the consternation of Genevieve's aunt! But all is not right in the house. Someone is trying to kill Tobias. A dead cat and Tobias's near miss with a bullet, stones flying off the house at him and his fall down the stairs, and other assorted "accidents", and fingers start to point at Genevieve herself as the culprit . . . until she accidentally takes a poisoned drink meant for Tobias. Together Tobias and Genevieve must work together to solve this mystery, while at the same time trying to locate the Crowfoot family treasure.

While I enjoyed reading "Bittersweet Summer" I kept wondering what the purpose of the ghost of Granny Crowfoot was. She's temperamental and volatile with a definite dislike of a Rakes living in her ancestral home, throwing expletives around like birdseed. But aside from reminding the reader repeatedly, and unnecessarily, of the family feud her character serves no other purpose. She's lived in the house for nearly one hundred years yet offers Genevieve no assistance in finding the family treasure nor has any clue to the many hidden and secret rooms and passages in the house. Instead she chooses to filch many of Tobias's personal items, such as his pocket watch, cufflinks and such, and swirls around insulting people at the drop of a hat.