Emily Fox-Seton: Being the Making of a Marchioness and the Methods of Lady Walderhurst

This two-part tale from Frances Hodgson Burnett has it all: a charming character portrait of Emily, who in the first part of the story lives alone and is content in her admittedly predictable life; an account of a swept-off-one's-feet romance that will have even the most jaded reader swooning; and a descent into a gothic mystery that's packed with plot twists.