Reviewing: My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island

Now and then I read a book that just says summer is here! I recently finished reading My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island Maude's Mooring: by Carrie Fancett Pagels and this is just such a book.

Maude Welling is a lovely young woman, considered by fellow islanders to be the best sort of girl.  She is unspoiled by the things most girls visiting the island long for.  Her desire is to marry Greyson, her long time intended, and run the family inn.  Fate, however unkind, intervenes and Maude is left at the pier to watch in horror as Greyson introduces Maude to Ann, his new wife.

Enter Mr. Frederic Konig, a handsome young man who is a very wealthy industrialist, witnessing the entire scene between Maude, Greyson and Ann.  He was taken in by her hurt manner, but even more so by  her beauty and grace.

Mr. Konig will be staying at the very smart Grand Hotel, the very best place on the island to find wealthy young women. Frederic, though, is an imposter. He is not who he says he is. He is actually Ben Steffan, a young reporter for the Detroit Post.  He was furnished in the finest men's fashions, schooled in the proper etiquette of wealth and, more specifically, on special assignment to expose handsome young dandies who prey on lovely young women of fortune. He can fool the many but in his heart he knows who he is.   A man of compassion, he feels like he is playing a game of the Prince and the Pauper.  His dress and actions speak the part but his good nature continues to shine through.  Mark Twain himself appears at the Grand, a nice touch of poetic license that adds just the right spice for Ben when he needed it.

Maude lives with her widowed father and lively brother Jack.  She should be learning to take over the family inn, The Winds of Mackinac, but her father's wishes are adamant: she will not run the inn without the help of a husband.  With her wedding plans down the pipe she is determined to prove to her father that she is capable of running the inn.  She assumes the role of maid at the Grand Hotel, fooling her father but risking termination by  her lack of skills.

Frederic takes an interest in Jack, an incorrigible lad who seems to be everywhere at once with many plans up his sleeve.  He and his games are incorrigible.  Jack is running so much it is hard to realize that if he slowed down he'd have to deal that old pain that keeps rising to the surface named grief. The Wellings lost their mother the year before and the grief is still hanging around the house like an unsung song.

Maude, her father and uncle Robert all have to come to an understanding of the future of the inn.  Wills are meant to make things easier for loved ones left behind but once in a great while, a codicil can change the expectations of everyone.  There is more riding on the fate of this will than just a family legacy on the island.
I liked the story.  The setting on Mackinac Island lent itself well to the summer people who likely found respite from the city during the heat of the summer.  Young women of marriageable age would have enjoyed being pampered at the Grand Hotel.  The idea that a paper would set a handsome young reporter on unsuspecting gold diggers was a nice twist.  It lured me in like a fisherman with a tall tale.  I recommend you add My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island to your summer reading list!