My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island: Maude's Mooring by Carrie Fancett Pagels {Review}

My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island: Maude's Mooring by Carrie Fancett Pagels

Paperback, 256 pages

Published July 1st 2017 by Barbour Books

    

Moor your heart on Mackinac Island along with resident sweetheart Maude Welling, an heiress trying to prove her worth by working incognito as a maid at the Grand Hotel. Meet Ben Steffans, a journalist posing as a wealthy industrialist who has come to the island to uncover a story about impoverished men pursuing heiresses at the famed hotel. Will a growing love between Maude and Ben be scuttled when truths are revealed in this Gilded Age romance?

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My Review: 4 Stars

From what I've read, this book is a part of a series. I haven't read any of the other stories in the set, so I would say this can stand alone.

Do I dare admit that I hadn't ever heard of Mackinac Island before hearing about this book? I thought maybe it was a fictional place, but have since discovered that it's anything but made up and now, it's taken a place on my bucket list of places to visit. Pagels does a great job of bringing this island to life.

The story starts out with an immediate heartbreak, which bonded me to the island's sweetheart, Maude, from the get-go. A slight mystery blankets the plot, while a growing romance starts to blossom, but it's the characters that truly won me over. The unique situations they each found themselves in and the scrapes they work themselves out of really caught my interest, especially with Maude's younger brother, Jack. I loved the way the relationships were all inner-connected and the way the characters worked through issues to arrive at the ending. 

This is a great read for those who enjoy Historical Fiction with a dash of mystery and romance. I felt like I was sitting in the island breeze and savoring a phosphate, and really enjoyed my stay within the pages of this book.

Content: mild romance; mild+ religious elements.

*I received a copy through Netgalley, which didn't influence my opinion in any way.*

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