Heart Murmurs

Mia Templeton has just been released from the hospital following a heart transplant.  Though still recovering, she is eager to get back to school, friends, her writing, and her job working part-time in a Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women) museum in a house that was once part of the Underground Railroad.  Her boss, Beth, is actually a direct Alcott descendant.  Beth’s nephew, Morgan, has recently come to stay.  Mia is inexplicably drawn to him, but he keeps resisting her efforts to get close.  Morgan is keeping secrets, and they have something to do with the old tunnels running under the house. 

Heart Murmurs is an unexpected combination of time travel, Alcott family history, the Underground Railroad, and gothic literature.  The author creates the gothic atmosphere perfectly – crisp, dark and foreboding.  However, with so many elements trying to come together the intensity of the story falters.  The book might be more compelling if the storyline revolving around Beth was eliminated, and the focus remained solely on Mia and Morgan and their journey together.  Once all the pieces are in place, the action picks up and readers who race to the end to see how it all pans out will find that it doesn’t because this is apparently the first book in a series.  This paranormal tale provides a welcome respite from the recent glut of teen romances featuring vampires, werewolves, zombies, and angels.  

Leslie Stokes