The Ghosts of Their Ancestors

A young woman's forbidden love threatens to shatter her family's carefully constructed legacy in this oddly compelling early 1900s romance that dares to add actual ghosts to its social drama. Patricia Knickerbocker has been raised to believe that family name is everything. Her father Jonathan would rather see her miserable than married beneath their station. But Patricia has fallen for Richard Sheridan, a man whose ancestors and fortune don't match their own. When the spectral figures of Knickerbocker forebears begin appearing throughout the aging mansion, Patricia must confront whether she's doomed to repeat their mistakes or finally break free. The supernatural elements feel genuinely eerie rather than allegorical, and Mills writes with surprising empathy for his heroine's impossible position. This is a book about what we inherit, not just from our families but from the weight of old money and older expectations. It argues, gently but firmly, that love is worth the rebellion.