u/bandfwqofg

I’m looking for a book I read in the early to mid 1990s. It was YA or late middle grade, time slip historical romance/mystery. The cover was a girl in a garden in regency dress with her hair up…..and maybe a hand by a big concrete or stone urn/planter?

Plot points, girl travels back in time after meeting a ghost in the garden…I think she maybe finds herself in her ancestor’s body? The ancestor’s mother is dead. The ghost she meets is the daughter of a neighbor who was killed or imprisoned or something. They are close in age and become friends….and because it’s regency-ish era her new friend falls in love with the ancestor’s widowed father, so things get awkward. Both girls (ancestor and friend) were mid to late teens.

The tone was light mystery and light romance. No dark or broody, not spicy. 

Set at a large estate house/grounds (Pemberly-esque), either in English or French countryside. It could be that the ghost was displaced from France to England, but I am not confident about that detail.

There’s a central mystery - that I do not remember clearly - but solving the mystery is why the girl is sent back in time? I vaguely remember it being about her mother or mother’s death, and finding/reading a diary or letter helps resolve the mystery.

The friend’s name is Angelique, Angelica….something French sounding - but it’s definitely not the mid-century Angelique novels.

I vaguely remember a scene where the family friend and the father gave been out at a party, or maybe in the rain…the friend is very excited that the father and she have discovered that they’re in love. She is incandescently happy and excitedly telling the FMC/ancestor about it…. And it’s really awkward for the FMC b/c it’s her friend and her dad…

I know it is NOT :

The Ghost in the Garden

The Angelique novel series

The Ghost Beyond the Garden, Lynn Blankman 

The Doll in the Garden

I’m looking for a book I read in the early to mid 1990s. It was YA or late middle grade, time slip historical romance/mystery. The cover was a girl in a garden in regency dress with her hair up…..and maybe a hand by a big concrete or stone urn/planter?

Plot points, girl travels back in time after meeting a ghost in the garden…I think she maybe finds herself in her ancestor’s body? The ancestor’s mother is dead. The ghost she meets is the daughter of a neighbor who was killed or imprisoned or something. They are close in age and become friends….and because it’s regency-ish era her new friend falls in love with the ancestor’s widowed father, so things get awkward. Both girls (ancestor and friend) were mid to late teens.

The tone was light mystery and light romance. No dark or broody, not spicy. 

Set at a large estate house/grounds (Pemberly-esque), either in English or French countryside. It could be that the ghost was displaced from France to England, but I am not confident about that detail.

There’s a central mystery - that I do not remember clearly - but solving the mystery is why the girl is sent back in time? I vaguely remember it being about her mother or mother’s death, and finding/reading a diary or letter helps resolve the mystery.

The friend’s name is Angelique, Angelica….something French sounding - but it’s definitely not the mid-century Angelique novels.

I vaguely remember a scene where the family friend and the father gave been out at a party, or maybe in the rain…the friend is very excited that the father and she have discovered that they’re in love. She is incandescently happy and excitedly telling the FMC/ancestor about it…. And it’s really awkward for the FMC b/c it’s her friend and her dad…

I know it is NOT :

The Ghost in the Garden

The Angelique novel series

The Ghost Beyond the Garden, Lynn Blankman 

The Doll in the Garden

I’m looking for a book I read in the early to mid 1990s. It was YA or late middle grade, time slip historical romance/mystery. The cover was a girl in a garden in regency dress with her hair up…..and maybe a hand by a big concrete or stone urn/planter?

Plot points, girl travels back in time after meeting a ghost in the garden…I think she maybe finds herself in her ancestor’s body? The ancestor’s mother is dead. The ghost she meets is the daughter of a neighbor who was killed or imprisoned or something. They are close in age and become friends….and because it’s regency-ish era her new friend falls in love with the ancestor’s widowed father, so things get awkward. Both girls (ancestor and friend) were mid to late teens.

The tone was light mystery and light romance. No dark or broody, not spicy. 

Set at a large estate house/grounds (Pemberly-esque), either in English or French countryside. It could be that the ghost was displaced from France to England, but I am not confident about that detail.

There’s a central mystery - that I do not remember clearly - but solving the mystery is why the girl is sent back in time? I vaguely remember it being about her mother or mother’s death, and finding/reading a diary or letter helps resolve the mystery.

The friend’s name is Angelique, Angelica….something French sounding - but it’s definitely not the mid-century Angelique novels.

I vaguely remember a scene where the family friend and the father gave been out at a party, or maybe in the rain…the friend is very excited that the father and she have discovered that they’re in love. She is incandescently happy and excitedly telling the FMC/ancestor about it…. And it’s really awkward for the FMC b/c it’s her friend and her dad…

I know it is NOT :
The Ghost in the Garden
The Angelique novel series
The Ghost Beyond the Garden, Lynn Blankman 
The Doll in the Garden