CLEMENTINA

Thirteen-year-old Daisy's summer stay with Bridget Graham and her mother at a Scottish time-share resort on the grounds of an old castle is disrupted by another guest, Clementina. whose life mysteriously parallels events on the same site 250 years earlier. Clementina, 16 and an orphan, arrives with a chip on her shoulder; spoiled, self-centered Bridget's instant dislike of her is compounded by jealousy when Angus, the attractive pony-trek guide, and Clementina fall in love at first sight. It gradually emerges that Clementina and Angus are descendants of two-thirds of a tragic 18th-century love triangle; in the end, Daisy realizes too late that Bridget has taken the third role in a reenactment. In spite of a fair number of Scottish words (glossary included), this reads briskly. Suitably for the genre, the changeable August weather plays its part, but not leo melodramatically. Characters are solidly drawn, although the antagonism towards Clementina is not quite justified except as a consequence of the mysterious ""timesharing"" with the past. Using the voice of the youngest character, Daisy, who as a guest feels constrained to loyalty to the troublemaker, Bridget, distances the reader from the drama, allowing it to be framed in a more comfortable everyday world. A satisfactory introduction to the Gothic romance.