The Wish House by Celia Rees

I must apologize for posting so sporadically recently -- the last two weeks have been absolutely crazy with work stuff and personal stuff (interviewing for a promotion*, taking the GRE**, trying to get DSL installed and actually working***), and fighting a cold on top of all of that. So I was afraid that anything I posted would be absolute gibberish. But things are beginning to calm down now, so I'm going to try to get caught up on reviews.

The year is 1976, and Richard is spending the summer camping in Wales with his family when he and his best friend stumble upon the Wish House, a cottage now inhabited by a family of Bohemians. J.A. Dalton (an artist) and his wife (Lucia) and his daughter Clio welcome Richard into their lives. But everything is not as it seems -- and Richard stumbles into a web of corruption.

I actually really enjoyed this one -- maybe I was just a weird kid who liked that kind of stuff -- but it reminded me a lot of Kathryn Reiss's books, which were some of my favorites when I was in middle school (and arguably, too young to be reading them). The corruption theme may be too much for some readers. But I think it might actually be good for teens to see that even in a world where adults are corrupt, that they themselves don't have to be.

I liked the mood and the setting and I really felt like I was there in the English countryside with them. In this case, the setting was really more important than the time period (so while it takes place in the 70s, I'm not sure if it's really historical fiction)

*and I got the job :D

**and apparently, I have completely forgotten math since high school -- but my vocabulary isn't too bad.

***It took 3 calls to Verizon, but it is finally up and running. So I can now post to this blog from home.