It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.

Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

Whip-smart and utterly transportive, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is historical fiction of the highest order: an unforgettable coming-of-age story, a tender romance, and a portrait of a nation on the brink of change.

Dear Ms. Simonson, 

Huzzah. A new book from you. I’d almost given up when I saw it on a “to be released” list and sprang at the chance to read it. It’s a complicated and at times melancholy and heartbreaking book. It also, yeah, takes a while to get into gear and truly had me guessing how certain things would be resolved.

Constance Haverhill is drifting in the early summer of 1919. She has been firmly eased out of the job she did to “do her part” for the war effort. Dreading becoming a governess, she gladly agrees to be a companion to a (truly sweet) elderly lady at a seaside resort and there becomes acquainted with a group of women similarly looking for the means to support themselves. The War has changed social mores and expectations, or so Constance and the other women hope. But has it really and is Constance truly a part of this society or merely there for a summer?

Rereading my review of “The Summer Before the War,” I should have remembered that your style is to slowly introduce the characters, set the scene, and only then allow the story to get going. This mimics the slower pace of life in a smaller seaside vacation town of 1919. People are not flicking and scrolling their phone screens and rushing around. Even with the gentler tempo, things are still going too quickly for middle aged characters who decry the sudden changes that are jolting their world. Meanwhile (usually wealthy) young women who see new opportunities are champing at the bit to enjoy life or, if they’re working class, are desperately attempting to find a job and scrounge a living. Those who fought and survived are learning how to live with their new realities.

Tertiary characters fill out the background and show how various social outcasts ease through this world. Naturalized German Klaus was once a sought after waiter in better hotels but made it through the war working hard in low rent jobs in London. Captain Pendra, a skilled Indian pilot, had to approach the French to get a commission before the embarrassed British would accept his credentials. Simon and Matilde de Champney have always faced racism due to their mother and the fact that their parents weren’t married. Sam might have money but it was made through trade so he’s not quite totally accepted into the golden circle. Meanwhile as one working class man says the rich live by different rules. 

Constance is inhabiting a middle ground. She’s not truly a part of the wealthy titled world that she lives in and can easily see herself sinking into the unnoticed working class. She knows that she must forge her way in the world which still views women as wives and mothers even though there is now a generation of women who will never find a husband. The camaraderie she sees in the motorcycle club draws her though some women are dilettantes and others are looking for money to supplement woeful pensions. I liked Constance and felt she was standing up for herself as well as she could in her situation. Yes, she bites her tongue at times but she has to keep on on the good side of certain characters who control her employment. But she does stick up for Mrs. Fog and that woman’s lovely second chance.  

She’s not at all sure about the brother of her new friend, Poppy. Harris has inherited a barontency but is mired in depression due to his amputation and the feeling that he should have died in the war with his friends. He is (usually) well mannered but also brittle and given to retiring from social events. A strong sense of responsibility for his former mechanic and a gift from his sister might be what drags him back even before the stark realities of the financial situation of his estate yank him out of his funk. I could understand Harris’s desire to withdraw from company, especially as we learn of past relationships that have been broken. Poppy is a character who both charmed and annoyed me. Often her heart is in the right place but she can also duck responsibility when she feels like it and makes a decision that causes a stunned Constance to tell Poppy that she just doesn’t understand the people in this (rarified) world. 

There are events and revelations that call out the racism and classism of this world. Some people will end up having to reap what they have sown. Some innocents will pay the price for jingoistic attitudes. I was annoyed at how a few people seemingly abandoned those who depended on them but at the same time, some of this was caused by the post war government policies dictating what genders could be employed. Still it stung. Rigid conventions almost upend a relationship until one person’s true colors emerge which allows the changing social mores to finally deliver what I’d been waiting for. This story is much more historical fiction with romantic elements than a romance. The pace is  leisurely. Bad things happen to some people. Other people get off the hook. But Constance’s eyes are open to what she’s going into and Harris knows that he’s found the woman he can respect and admire. B  

~Jayne

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Books have been her only solace.

Now they’re about to change her life.

London, 1775: The only surviving child of six, Dorcas Turton should have been heiress to a powerful family name. But after her mother’s untimely death, she is stunned by the discovery that her father’s compulsive gambling has brought them close to ruin. With the threat of debtor’s prison looming large, she must employ all her ingenuity to keep their creditors at bay.

Fortunately, ingenuity is something Dorcas is not short of. An avid reader, novels have taught her the lessons her governess failed to. Forsaking hopes of marriage and children, she opens a day-school for girls. But unbeknown to Dorcas, her father has not given up his extravagant ways. When bailiffs come pounding on the door, their only option is to take in lodgers.

The arrival of larger-than-life James Lackington and his wife Nancy breathes new life into the diminished household. Mr Lackington aspires to be a bookseller, and what James Lackington sets out to do, he tends to achieve. Soon Dorcas discovers she is not only guilty of envying Mrs Lackington her strong simple faith and adaptable nature. Loath though she is to admit it, she begins to envy her Mr Lackington…

Based on a true story, Jane Davis’s latest historical novel is for book-lovers everywhere, delivering unforgettable characters, a portrait of Georgian London on the brink of change, and a love song to the life-changing power of the written word.

Dear Ms. Davis, 

Books, reading books, loving books, talking about books, and getting books into the hands of others who might love them is something we love to do here. Books were something that Dorcas Turton had always loved. She used to love to sit in the library of her family’s Islington home, running her hands over the leather binding of the many books there. 

But her family, which had inherited wealth that should have seen them through generations, were forced to “retrench” once, and then again, and finally (in the middle of the night) again to the small house in London where her mother died and her father gambled away the rest of the money. 

Now having taken in sewing and teaching the daughters of “up and comers” to better themselves, Dorcas desperately ducks and dodges to keep the wolves at bay. When her father has accumulated yet another debt, and the family has nothing left that Dorcas can bear to pawn, she puts her foot down and rents out a room. Mr. and Mrs. Lackington seem nice even if her father barely hides his sneers that they are working class. Mr. Lackington is unlike any man Dorcas has met. He moves easily among all classes, adores his wife, and (luckily for Dorcas) appears at almost every moment when Dorcas needs moral support. 

Just when things are maybe looking up Dorcas’s father dies and the Lackinton’s move to live above the bookshop they’ve opened only for Mrs. Lackington to die. Not wasting much time, James Lackington, who remember had adored his wife, takes the initiative and proposes to Dorcas telling her that he knows he’s the type of man who needs a strong wife and that his beloved Nancy had urged him to remarry. 

Five years later, Dorcas and James are expanding the business and ready to try all kinds of new innovations to increase sales. Then the Gordon Riots break out around them.      

I could easily identify with Dorcas’s love of books and reading. I could also, to a lesser degree, understand her frustration with how her family’s circumstances had been increasingly diminished due to her father. My mother kept things together (as James Lackington’s mother had also done) but my family also had a time when we scaled down. I too felt frustration and anger at my father’s lack of ability or effort to support his family. I however, had more options than did Dorcas even if she was educated above the average for a woman in her time. 

One thing I think readers will agree on is supporting Dorcas’s efforts to educate the teens and tweens in her day school. She knows that most of them will be willing to sink into the proscribed roles for women but for the ones who want more, Dorcas wants them to have female role models and knowledge. One of the invented characters in the story is Patience Brine, a fourteen year old who had to begin work three years prior and whom Dorcas takes under her wing as Patience steps off the stage in London. Patience is awesome. 

James Lackington befuddles Dorcas a little. He’s a shoemaker who loves to read and wants to open a bookstore. His father’s family also had some means but James had to pull himself up by his own bootstraps, was taught to read at age fourteen, and happily fell in with a family who enjoyed discussing books around the dinner table. His first wife’s death has turned James from espousing Methodism as strongly as he did and made him willing to read beyond religious tracts. James is a born entrepreneur and willing to take gambles to improve himself and his store. He also appreciates Dorcas’s intelligence and cheerfully acknowledges how much he depends on her. 

The book is divided into two sections though, in my opinion, the second seems more like two different parts. The little details of eighteenth century life are enough to thoroughly ground the book without overwhelming it. The omniscient voice POV put me right in the middle of the action so that I could feel Dorcas’s fear at who was pounding on the door, her frantic worry as she searched for a way to pay the creditors, her sadness when her father died so soon after she realized the “gift” he had given her. In a darkly humorous scene, we see that funeral home directors have tried for centuries to guilt families into paying for more expensive services than they can afford. 

The beginning of the “five years later” part two was my favorite bit of the book. James has big ideas for the store and brainstorms ways and means to increase their foot traffic, turn their stock over, and get the word out that theirs is the best place to come and buy books. Dorcas and James work well together though he does have a tendency to keep some plans up his sleeve. Then came the last bit of the story which diverts into the horrific Gordon Riots of 1780. I can understand that with the Lackinton’s both living near and having their shop close to a major area where rioting occurred it would have affected them in real life, but I wasn’t sure why the book needed such a deep dive into it. 

The characters in the book are well rounded and realized. I didn’t think that they were just twenty-first century people in hooped skirts and powdered wigs. The marriage that Dorcas and James make is truly a marriage of convenience but it’s one that quickly moves into a marriage of equals and deep affection. I enjoyed my time among them and I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen next to all the people in the story. B

~Jayne   

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A huge-hearted, redemptive coming-of-old-age tale, a love story, and an ode to good food

Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends’ lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes.

Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. Chocolate teacakes remind her of a furtive errand involving a wedding ring; sugared doughnuts call up a stranger’s kind act; a simple cottage loaf brings back the moment her life changed forever.

With her baking star rising, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret—a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage. It’s the only time in six decades that she’s kept something from Bernard. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?

Dear Ms. Ford, 

When I watch the GBBO, I have found myself pulling for the older contestants. They often do the “classics,” talk about how they started baking them with their nans, and generally are a joy to watch. I guess that’s me getting closer to their ages than to the younger people. So of course when I saw this book, I knew I wanted to read it. Let me say, reading about all the bakes made me ravenous and any weight I gain I will blame on Mrs. Quinn’s sweets!

So much of what Jenny Quinn says are things I’ve heard GBBO contestants saying. I never thought I would be accepted. I never thought I’d do well. I’ve gained self confidence and now I won’t hold myself back anymore. Jenny Quinn is from a generation that aspired to be secretaries (she and a mate were taking courses) much like (I think) a Mary Burchell heroine. That, for Reasons, didn’t happen for her and she’s spent the past almost 60 years being a housewife. Jenny has loved her husband Bernard (a Prince Among Men), loved baking, and loved being Aunty Jenny. But she’s seventy seven now and something makes her think “now or never” as she prints off the application for Britain Bakes. Scared to jinx it, she tells no one.

There are bobbles and near misses with people finding out but after a fraught afternoon in London with three of her bakes (one of which a delightful young man helps her to salvage), she hears back and learns she’s beaten the odds over twelve thousand other applicants. Bernard is a bit stunned that she didn’t tell him but is quickly behind her 100%. But there’s one other secret, a much longer one, that Jenny has kept from Bernard. 

As I read the story, I muttered under my breath, please don’t turn treacly. There were moments when things could have gone cloying and sentimental but, yay, didn’t. That isn’t to say that things aren’t heartfelt and emotional but it’s British emotional and older generation emotional. Things are contained rather than shouted out loud but the feels are there. 

The scenes from the show were a variation on GBBO but not exactly. I liked that realistically not everything went perfectly for Jenny. Part of the reason she made it onto the show was her ability to think on her feet and improvise which I think all the contestants who make it far can do. Her relationship with Azeez is lovely and the way her family cheers her on and supports her is fantastic.  

I guessed what Jenny’s long held secret would be but my speculation on why she and Bernard never had children had a soggy bottom. Her reasoning does make sense – for her – but poor Bernard. I agree with Jenny when the realization hits her of what her decisions cost him. What Jenny endured (Ray was a rat fink) was delicately described but no less agonizing due to the attitudes of the times. When the truth comes out, as readers know it will, Bernard comes up trumps in my opinion even if I thought he ought to take a little bit more time over his reaction. But then he and Jenny have had an amazing marriage for almost 60 years and Bernard displays 1 Corinthians 13. 

Overall, in the book things tended to go better than I would expect so maybe it lacks a little depth. Yes there are some stumbles and missteps along with a bit of emotional pain but the story is well described as heartfelt, uplifting, and charming. Jenny and Bernard are a wonderful couple though yes, I wish Jenny hadn’t kept her secrets from the man who loves her so deeply. I would like to apply to be in the Bernard Quinn Fan Club. Booyah that your cat approves of the book. This is another book that I devoured (pun intended) and enjoyed very much. B+

~Jayne    

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Welcome to the thrilling and unnervingly prescient world of the slow horses. This team of MI5 agents is united by one common bond: They’ve screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves.

This special tenth-anniversary deluxe edition of a modern classic includes a foreword by the author, discussion questions for book clubs, and an exclusive short story featuring the slow horses.

London, England: Slough House is where washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their failed careers. The “slow horses,” as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated there. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they can’t be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they have in common, though, is they want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there?even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, the slow horses see an opportunity to redeem themselves. But is the victim really who he appears to be?

POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THE REVIEW

Review:

Dear Mick Herron,

I have had your book on my kindle for a few years (three or four years to be precise). I tried it once or twice, but it just felt slow and more importantly not that easy to read, I felt like I was drowning within the book if that makes sense. Recently I encountered the book in Russian translation in the library and decided to try again.

I am happy to report that I at least finished the book and overall quite liked it. I understand that these series are well known and quite popular and that there is a TV show going on which I have not watched.

I came to this also without reading the reviews at all, but the blurb was clear enough that spies will be the central characters in the story and specifically spies who supposedly did something wrong at one time of their careers, or not even wrong, but something that MI5 did not care for even if this was something that MI5 ordered them to do in the first place. Bottom line – off to the dog house you go, and hopefully you will resign within the next few years, since no serious and/ or exciting assignments will ever be given to you. Of course best laid out plans often do not work out as planned.

Even in translation the first I would say third of this book felt really slow to me. I understood why of course – the author was introducing the characters, just setting up the whole story, describing the place they work in now, etc and more importantly those are people who supposed to use their brains a lot, right? So less running and fighting made perfect sense, although I have to say, I think the author managed to insert some faster bits and pieces in the narrative and it worked well for me, too.

As I said eventually all of these disgraced former spies (no, not former, most of them are still very good) end up participating in an important attempt of trying to save a young man from having his head cut off.

In the meantime we get to observe (and sometimes be very annoyed) at the games the chiefs of the spy agencies play and of course involve their people in playing those games and I have to say this, of course I can imagine that what they do in real life is probably much much worse, ends justify the means and all that, but the stunt that had been played which ended up being connected to our victim made absolutely zero sense to me. I am trying not to spoiler much here, but as much as I get annoyed when innocent people are being stepped upon for the “higher purpose”, as I said I would understand if the result made some sort of sense. I was staring at the page and basically screaming – that’s it? That’s what you did it for and he almost got killed and got saved through no fault of yours? Why was it worth it?

Overall however, I ended up really liking most of the characters from the Slough House and wanted to see them doing more interesting things and already bought book 2.

Grade: B+

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Expecting a relaxing getaway at her family’s summer estate, pampered socialite Elsie Foster-Quinn signs up for the Women’s Land Army. When she ends up at a Somerset dairy farm instead, Elsie immediately butts heads with the grumpy farmer she now works for. Being a land girl in a small town is far more than the city girl bargained for.

Ben Grainger hates asking for help. When two land girls unexpectedly arrive on his farm, he quickly learns he can’t simply make them go away. He finds amusement in tormenting Elsie whose privileged life certainly didn’t prepare her for farm life. However, nothing could have prepared Ben for the feelings that suddenly emerge whenever the haughty little princess is near.

Why can’t he keep his eyes off her? And why can’t she stop thinking about him? Opposites attract—but is it true love?

Between the Germans bombing nearby Bath and a deadly disease rampaging through local farms, Ben and Elsie’s trust in each other is put to the ultimate test.

Dear Ms. Hamilton,

Given that Elsie was a little bit snooty in “The Seamstress on Cider Lane,” I wasn’t surprised to see that her book would be an opposites attract, social differences story. I liked the way that neither Elsie nor Ben were immediately attracted to each other and that their relationship grows over a series of months, but I can’t quite say that I was totally convinced of it.

Elsie Foster-Quinn’s plans to laze away her time at the family country estate as a member of the WLA gets upended when the Army requisitions it. Now she’s off to a dairy farm in Somerset along with Cockney Sheila who was in the month-long training session with Elsie. Farmer Ben Grainger is less than thrilled when assigned the two women but with no POWs available, much less British male workers, he resigns himself to his fate. He’s surprised that not only Sheila but also posh Elsie turn out to be hard workers. Double his surprise when Elsie volunteers to go with him to Bath to help transport people after the Luftwaffe bombs the city two nights in a row. Other things begin to bring the two closer and it’s only after that they discover how little their attempts to fool the people around them worked. But can upper class Elsie fit into farm life for good?

I know that the Women’s Land Army has figured in many other British series written recently but I haven’t read them so this was my first taste of the hard work done by these women during the war. Frankly I’m astonished that a single, month long course would be enough but then I guess most farm workers before them learned on the job so that’s probably how most WLA workers managed it too. Imagine how much worse the rationing would have been without their efforts.

Ben’s initial antagonistic attitude quickly disappears although Elsie retains a bit of her posh “I’m used to things being easier” feelings for a while longer. Good for Sheila in calling Elsie on this a time or two. I also wasn’t surprised to see Ben’s poor sister Vera have to handle so much of the domestic work as the males in the Grainger household would probably not have been brought up to be expected to dry dishes.

There were a few things that were mentioned only to then sink beneath the waves. Ben’s snarky “name” for Elsie is quickly dropped, his cows didn’t seem to mind the milking machine as much as Ben said they did, and what happened to his feelings of being a coward? I winced to see how the American soldiers section played out but I don’t doubt it either. Wouldn’t Elsie have gotten some lessons in how to judge and handle difficult men during her deb season or would she have been too young to have had one? And then just when Elsie and Ben were succumbing to their passions, along came two final conflicts.

Yes there were many things that occurred in the first two books in the series but this one just seemed to be packed a teensy bit too full. Plus despite them working together for months, I never got over the feeling that Ben and Elsie’s relationship was more than passion and proximity. I enjoyed the book, especially Sheila, but the dropped threads and other issues made this one not quite as satisfying for me. B

~Jayne

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A story of love, madness, sisterly devotion, and control, about the two beloved daughters of renowned 1700s English painter Thomas Gainsborough, who struggle to live up to the perfect image the world so admired in their portraits.

Peggy and Molly Gainsborough—the daughters of one of England’s most famous portrait artists of the 1700s and the frequent subject of his work—are best friends. They spy on their father as he paints, rankle their mother as she manages the household, and run barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly periodically experiences bouts of mental confusion, even forgetting who she is, and Peggy instinctively knows she must help cover up her sister’s condition.

When the family moves to Bath, it’s not so easy to hide Molly’s slip-ups. There, the sisters are thrown into the whirlwind of polite society, where the codes of behavior are crystal clear. Molly dreams of a normal life but slides deeper and more publicly into her delusions. By now, Peggy knows the shadow of an asylum looms for women like Molly, and she goes to greater lengths to protect her sister’s secret.

But when Peggy unexpectedly falls in love with her father’s friend, the charming composer Johann Fischer, the sisters’ precarious situation is thrown catastrophically off course. Her burgeoning love for Johann sparks the bitterest of betrayals, forcing Peggy to question all she has done for Molly, and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another.

A tense and tender examination of the blurred lines between protection and control, The Painter’s Daughters is a searing portrait of the real girls behind the canvas. Emily Howes’s debut is a stunning exploration of devotion, control, and individuality; it is a love song to sisterhood, to the many hues of life, and to being looked at but never really seen.

CW/TW – depictions of mental illness, parental (not the Gainsboroughs) physical abuse, miscarriage 

Dear Ms. Howes, 

I know a bit about Thomas Gainsborough, as I love his portraits, but when I saw the blurb for this book I realized I know zip about his daughters even though I’ve seen Gainsborough’s portraits of them. Overall, I found this novelization of their lives to be well written and interesting though a bit uneven at times. 

It is told from the first person present view of Margaret (the younger daughter) who is also known as Peggy, Peg, and called Captain by her father and intercut with the third person present story of their grandmother for Reasons which become clear as the story progresses. We follow Peggy and her older sister Mary – aka Molly – (and the Gainsboroughs had two daughters they named Mary, the first of whom died as a young child).from a young age when they lived in Ipswich, to Bath, then ultimately to London and (just a bit) of their later life in seclusion.

Peggy gives a rundown of the household which is run by their harried mother and of how her father’s profession influences their lives. There are paintings hung everywhere, including ones of the sisters, showing Gaingborough’s talent to entice prospective clients. Their father’s work precludes him spending as much time with them as everyone would like but when he takes his kit out to the countryside to paint the landscapes that he loves, sometimes the sisters will tag along with him. As portrayed, Gainsborough is a loving father though perhaps not the best businessman as mother Margaret (whose mother’s name was also Margaret) does all the household accounts. 

Persuaded to move to fashionable Bath to increase his prospects, Peggy gives us a child’s view of a carefree life in the country which morphs into life in busy, noisy, crowded, and slightly filthy Bath. Life is good but Molly’s tendency to vanish into herself as well as wander and do other frightening things is a hint of what is to come.

I found the first part to be the most interesting. Peggy is a child of ~ eight and the way she describes her life feels that age. Later during the early years in Bath – while she’s still supposed to be fairly young – her voice feels older than it should to me. I would have preferred life in the country too, wandering fields, picking blackberries, and playing in a stream rather than Bath, no matter how interesting the people or sights. 

During the second half of the book, I felt more ill at ease but also a little bored. It’s endless rounds of parties for the sisters who are now back from their six years at a school (one of those ubiquitous schools for girls that haunt historical romance books). As their portraits had when they were children, their adult social activities were meant to serve as accessories for their father’s career. But also I knew that the Event that nearly separated the sisters as well as Molly’s final descent into mental illness were around the bend. 

The descriptions of 18th century life are not prettied up. This is particularly evident in the parts with the sisters’ grandmother. Her life was grim but she did find a cleared-eyed way out of it. Thoughts regarding how she did this might differ but she had a goal and she got it. Early in the book, Peggy mentions a series of eight (Hogarth) prints that the family has which (from her description) are illustrating Bedlam. This horrible place is how we begin to see what might happen to Molly if she’s deemed to be “mad” and why Peggy works so hard to cover up her sister’s symptoms. But yes, there is a degree of becoming her sister’s keeper involved as well. I can also understand – as it’s shown – why Molly might have tried to throw over the traces at one point in order to try to live a normal life. 

The sparse details of their lives and the possible backstory of their mother and grandmother are wound into an interesting explanation of the sisters’ lives. I like that the events for which there is no evidence other than the known personalities of the people involved are mentioned in the afterwards note. It’s sad that Peggy’s and Molly’s lives couldn’t remain as happy as they were as children chasing a white butterfly in a garden as their father painted them. B-

~Jayne   

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When the Duke of Stanmere’s will reveals a nasty secret, London Society is shocked—and so is his widow, Joan. Humiliated by the scandal, Joan flees to Inverley in disguise. Surely the quaint seaside town would be the last place anyone would look for a duchess on the run.

After her mother’s remarriage, fashionable spinster Miss Maeve Balfour must make a living with hands whose only labor has been arranging her hair into the latest style. With nowhere to turn and nothing to lose, she persuades mysterious newcomer Joan to let her stay in her manor house.

Although entranced by worldly and seductive Maeve, Joan doesn’t know if she can trust again. As Maeve learns Joan’s secrets, she yearns to protect her from the men who have sought to destroy her. But can a spinster and a widow dare to defy a dukedom—and win each other’s hearts?

Dear Ms. Walsh,

I had hoped that the next book in this series would feature Maeve whom I met when reading “The Accidental Bride.” It does and it also has the MCs from the first book “The Accidental Heiress.” New readers need not worry though as Caroline and Arabella are in this book to support it rather than hawk their own.

Joan, Duchess of Stanmere is flabbergasted to learn that her late husband, the odious Duke, has only left her £200 per year in his will. Her protests are met with scorn from the new Duke, his uncles, and his aunt. Threats are made against Joan that if she raises a stink, the late Duke’s bastards will be attributed to her even though the oldest one is only five years younger than she is. Retreating to London, she learns that all her clothes and jewels have been confiscated. When she remembers the property in Inverley she bought with money gifted to her by her late father, she knows where she can go.

Maeve Balfour is shocked when her mother remarries and leaves Maeve behind with six months worth of living expenses and advice to find a rich husband to support her. Sapphic Maeve has no intentions of doing that but how can she support herself in a world with little use for spinsters? Events cause Joan to allow Maeve to rent a room in her house and soon Maeve begins to wonder if this woman might be the love she’s always longed for but Joan has secrets that are about to upend everything.

Maeve and Joan both have flaws that actually made them well rounded if at times frustrating. Maeve has always lived in genteel society but with her means of support – her now remarried mother – gone, she realizes she’s going to have to learn to earn her own keep. Easier said than done as Maeve likes how she’s lived and doesn’t initially want to start working. Her friend’s suggestion for Maeve to sell some of her better clothes dismays Maeve as being well dressed is a part of who she is but she soon realizes that needs must. Joan is the daughter of an Earl and now a Dowager Duchess. She’s had men taking control of her life from day one and even when she did question her father about anything, he did the usual dad/man thing of that day and told her not to worry and leave details to a man. To her later regret, she did. Unused to making plans, Joan does stumble a bit.

Yes, I wanted to shake Maeve but it’s also understandable that she’d like to continue living high on the hog. Who wouldn’t? She does face reality and try gainful employment before finding a niche only to face facts about how this affects others. When Maeve is offered a position for which she’d be perfect, she’s finally embraced her new status and goes for the opportunity. Joan also has missteps as she slowly realizes what she faces from the Dukedom and how her choices could end up harming others. But she does begin to act and make decisions on her own.

When I’d finished the book, I decided that I actually believed the Sapphic historical aspect more than the general historical one. Maeve has known her sexual preferences for a long time and acted on them when she could. She is friends with two lesbian couples (Books 1 and 2 of the series) and longs to find her “someone.” Joan was sheltered and married off then endured her husband’s matter-of-fact visits to her bed but she heard other debutantes discussing things so is not surprised when Maeve carefully hints at what she wants. Joan isn’t that experienced in any type of sexual relationship but Maeve takes it slowly and I can believe that they’d be able to carry on a relationship in private. No, there’s no hot and heavy public displays of affection but women walking arm in arm was common then plus a generation of women missed out on marriage due to the Napoleonic Wars so two women living together was also accepted. Besides the two other couples, there is a male character who is described in a way that leads me to think he’s asexual.

Some of the historical aspects of the book caused me the most problems. Joan does own her home but on a mere £200 annual budget the idea that she’d be able to employ the size household she does – plus maintain a carriage and horses – stretches belief. The Dashwood women lived in what appears to be a smaller house with two (?) servants and pinched pennies on £500 per year. Then there are the issues that Joan deals with from her in-laws. As much as I hate to say it, I think they’re correct in what they say about what she owns. Still the way that Someone intervenes and gets the new Duke to call off the dogs is in keeping with how that person is written and what they know. Okay, I’ll go along with how things work out. These parts of the book are also a bit of a downer even if they do free Joan from her past and set her loose to fashion the rest of her life. So there is that.

I liked the real character growth displayed by both Maeve and Joan. Past characters don’t crowd the story. And if the Found Family, “we’re all equals” parts seem more modern than historical, they make up for the darkness to which Joan is subjected until All is Righted in the End. B-

~Jayne

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Margaret is her brothers’ dependent. With her sister-in-law expecting another child and her younger brother soon to marry, Margaret will lose her home. When her former suitor offers her work as a governess, she accepts, despite misgivings.

Unable to marry his first love, Alasdair abandoned his home for a disappointing military career. When his dying brother begs him to return, he agrees. He must protect his brother, the children, and the estate from his brother’s wife and her greedy family.

While on his brother’s business, Alasdair meets his old sweetheart. Can love flare up again despite family chaos and fifteen years’ separation?

Dear Ms. Buckley,

Last year “A Peculiar Enchantment” was one of my Best of 2022 books. This one doesn’t quite reach that level but I still enjoyed it as, once again, it took me back to the Fawcett Crest books of my youth. Behavior matters. Etiquette matters. Family reputation matters. And there’s no sex. Okay so if that isn’t what a reader wants, this book probably won’t be for them. 

Margaret MacGavin is a widow now, living with her two brothers in London, above the shop, as Rupert and Adam run a Salle D’Armes teaching fencing as well as selling arms to gentlemen. She also brings in a bit of money to the household by giving lessons to the daughters of merchants. She and her brothers are the children of the second son of a Baronet but are firmly viewed as “trade” now which is why in her youth, her romance with Alasdair Falstone, the second son of a Baron, was thwarted. Alasdair’s brother, fresh from London and feeling snooty, didn’t feel that she was good enough for the family. 

Angered by his brother’s threat to cut him off financially should he marry Margaret, Alasdair leaves home, enters the Army, and give up his love after her father (a former military man, himself) writes Alaisdar a letter telling him of his own wife’s experience “following the drum” and how he felt that his wife’s health was ruined by this. With little money of his own and fearing for Margaret, Alasdair doesn’t write to her. 

Now fifteen years later, Alasdair’s brother writes to him, apologizing for his actions and (basically) begging his younger brother to come home. The Baron married badly and with failing health, he worries that his spendthrift wife will run through the estate monies supporting her rakish brothers, the eldest of whom the Baron had named as his childrens’ guardian. When Alasdair reaches home, he sees how desperate the situation is and agrees to take over, carrying his brother’s new will to the lawyers in Newcastle and London. While in London, he searches for a tutor for his nephews and a governess for his nieces. Guess who he finds. 

Margaret is sure that her love for Alasdair his died, that its roots have been yanked out of her heart, and also that this is her chance to earn enough money to give her some independence and control over her destiney as well as help set her up for her old age since both of her brothers (who dearly love her) will have the expenses of families to meet. So off she goes to Northumberland, back toward where she was raised in County Durham, and determined to be nothing but professional with Alasdair. But when something threatens her charges, Margaret isn’t going to faint or sit waiting for a man to save the day. Can Alasdair accept this fearless woman and is there a chance for the love they both set aside years ago?

Just about everything I said regarding “A Peculiar Enchantment” goes for this one, too. I will also caution readers that it is slow burn and seems a bit more historical fiction with a romance than a strict historical romance. There are sections during the part where the threatening takes place where Margaret and (separately) Alasdair think through what might happen next and how they could/should respond should this take place or that happen. I like that they think through things rather than just charging in but at times my mental “yeah, yeah, yeah, come on” hand twirl got engaged. 

I enjoyed watching Sebastian not only make up to Alasdair but also see to the welfare of his children. He obviously loves them and worries about what will happen after his death. Once that does occur, Alasdair and the other family, servants, and estate tenants begin training fourteen year old Colin in his new duties. In turn, Colin sees how well thought of his father was and worries about living up to his responsibilities as a good estate owner should. The children also love each other and protect each other. They are not plot moppets either. Huzzah. 

Along with Margaret, there is a tutor and various lawyers and bankers with whom Alasdair and the family interact. They are all treated with courtesy and respected for what they do. As well, the old family servants and retainers (but maybe not the toadies brought in by Lady Hawkslowe) hold positions of respect and are looked after. During an inquest, the magistrate and the coroner cleverly question Margaret in such a way that the male jurors – who are used to their women taking leading positions and helping in businesses and on the farm – applaud what she has done. 

It’s clear to readers that Margaret and Alasdair initially both think well of each other but given their past history and current positions, they act with courtesy and circumspection. Margaret doesn’t want to give Lady Hawkslowe any reason to think she’s setting her cap for Alasdair and he doesn’t want to overstep his position of authority over a servant (not the mark of a gentleman), as Margaret is. But he respects her intelligence, her riding ability, and something else she can do as well as how she averts a troublesome issue in the end. Margaret thinks that he has grown into a confident person who is ready to see to his responsibilities and family. In the name of honor and respect and despite the obvious fact that they both still have feelings for the other, they both seem ready to continue to forgo any romantic hopes until The Breakthrough occurs but readers will have to wait for that. Margaret might think that the passion of their youth is behind them but … nope, it’s still there. They have matured, have gained confidence in themselves and are ready for their second chance. B

~Jayne 

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1469. England is in turmoil. For almost ten years, the attractive and charismatic Edward IV has ruled with the Earl of Warwick’s support, but now rebellion threatens the fragile peace.

Young and determined, Isobel Fenton is resolved that nothing will separate her from her beloved manor of Beaumancote, even if it does mean marrying Thomas Lacey. But Isobel is unaware of the importance she and her land represent nor of the agenda of the formidable Earl in whose care she finds herself. As an unseen witness to a summary execution, she is propelled into the world of personal feuds and national politics, and as unrest boils into war, Isobel is drawn into the very heart of the conflict. Can she escape from the web in which she is trapped, and can she find her way home?

CW – on page death, on page child abuse, off page rape and later continued sexual assault

Dear Ms. Dunn,

Your new book kicking off a series about the English War of the Roses comes with an amazing cover plug from Elizabeth Chadwick. Plus it’s a gorgeous cover anyway and I’m weak when faced with a gorgeous cover. It’s also well researched and plunks the reader into 1460s England with all the good and the bad. There’s a whole lot of bad. There’s also no romance.

Isobel is a young child when she sees death. In a scene of revenge, the Earl to whom her father owes allegiance and from whom he was awarded the manor house they live in, chases down enemies on horseback and drags them there after which a man is beheaded. Four years later, Isobel’s father dies leaving her an orphan. She is *not* from a powerful family nor is her inherited estate that grand. It is in a strategic location and unrest is simmering. She is ordered to the power base castle where the Earl lives and begins helping take care of the Earl’s youngest daughters – plain Margaret and … hmm, how to describe her … “challenging” Cecily. This whole section is fairly slow.

Isobel’s wants and needs play no part in how she is treated. She is a pawn, she is a person with little standing even though she is the daughter of a knight and a lady. The nursery is ruled by the aunt (who is a bitch from hell) of the Countess (also bitch) who adheres to the belief of “spare the rod, spoil the child.” The Countess couldn’t care less about these two daughters but she is determined to hang onto every jot of power her position gives her. There is a fellow worker in the nursery who is shrewd and also determined to take advantage of every opportunity she can. This is a “dog eat dog world.”

The Earl, who holds the power of deciding whom Isobel will marry and thus who will gain control of Isobel’s estate, decides to deny her marriage to a young man she had thought she would be betrothed to. Isobel is scared of the Earl but is beginning to fall for his widowed brother who always seems to notice when she is around. Isobel is the only person to treat Meg and Cecily with kindness, she has herbal skills taught to her by her mother, her every move seems to anger the Countess and that woman’s aunt, and there is a spymaster always watching everyone’s every move. Oh, and the Duke of Gloucester is friendly to Isobel, too. Then comes the moment when the Earl becomes obsessed with Isobel. This is where the rape comes in.

Yes, the book is beautifully researched and I certainly felt I was seeing a world far, far different from what we have today. These are not twenty first century characters dressed in kirtles or houppelandes. They act as one would expect them to. I just don’t want to read any more about them. I also thought it was bizarre that so many people seem to be obsessed with Isobel. I mean really fixated on this woman who, it has been made clear, is not that important in the overall scheme of a country in the middle of the War of the Roses. She’s not quite a Mary Sue but she’s not far from it. At this point, I was 2/3 of the way through the book. It was also at this point that I realized that I either didn’t like or didn’t care what happened to anyone in the book and that I am not interested in continuing the series. So, I’m calling it quits on this one. DNF

~Jayne

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Dr. Oliver Hay-Smythe seemed to have met a modern-day Cinderella! Ever since Bertha’s father had remarried, the kindhearted woman had been put upon by her family. She appeared to live in her stepsister’s shadow, stuck doing the housework and wearing hand-me-downs! The doctor was about to change all that. In fact, he was about to change Bertha’s entire world.

Review

In her post about reading Betty Neels, Sunita referred to a type of heroine Neels began writing later in her career – the little matchgirl heroine. The heroine here, dear Bertha, is such a heroine. I mean … Bertha as the name of a heroine for a story written in the mid 1990s? Oh and the title is a bit misleading as the only bit about Christmas is that some of the story takes place just before it.

Bertha Soames is that downtrodden heroine of Neelsdom. Her father (who is never a part of this story) remarried after her mother’s death and wow did he pick a harridan. Harridan comes complete with a daughter named Clare who is pretty while Bertha is … not pretty. Bertha is short, tiny, has a button nose, her hair pulled back in a horrid bun, and is wearing a shrimp pink ghastly dress (though her eyes are lovely) when Oliver first sees her – basically a navvy at her own birthday party. 

Dr. Hay-Smythe, [is a] hard-working in his profession and already respected by older colleagues, a man who would never pass a stray kitten or a lost dog and who went out of his way to make life easy for anyone in trouble …

Of course Oliver whisks her away, pops her in his dark grey Rolls Royce and takes her off for a lovely, comforting dinner of bangers and mash at a local pub. Neels did not resort to her frequent description of this meal as “perfectly cooked” (as she does later) but the atmosphere is wonderful and Bertha enjoys herself. Mrs. Soames’s shrewish (though tempered when she notices Oliver standing beside her step-daughter) reaction to Bertha not having been on hand to act as a servant tells the doctor all he needs to know of this woman. 

‘I met a girl this evening, Freddie (the black lab) —a plain girl with beautiful eyes and wearing a truly awful frock. An uninteresting creature at first glance, but somehow I feel that isn’t a true picture. She has a delightful voice—very quiet. She needs to get away from that ghastly stepmother too. I must think of something.’

Oliver, though, is a smart man and soon cooks up a scheme to get Bertha out of the house and away from her step-relations.  He even doesn’t bat an eye at the awful clothes Bertha wears – mostly cast offs from her step-sister who I’d swear buys hideous clothes only so she can give them to Bertha and make her look awful. An acid yellow two piece jersey outfit and a lime green one are mentioned to go along with the shrimp pink floofy dress. 

Soon it’s obvious that lovely Clare, who can charm and or lie her way through anything and come out looking great, has set her sights on Oliver as the perfect husband – not that she loves him, mind you. Oliver just has scads of money and a lovely country home in Oxfordshire. With a perfect London flat, Clare’s life will be set. Only Clare best not count her chickens quite yet. 

So Bertha has been groomed to be a self effacing little thing although her manners are perfect. This is noted by those whose opinions Oliver counts on. Bertha is fearless when faced with danger – as happens twice, and she adores the old pet donkey Oliver keeps in Oxfordshire. Clare is given every opportunity to prove she’s a better person than Oliver knows her to be yet Clare fails every test. She really is a piece of work to go along with her mother. Oliver is not a rude Dutch doctor. He’s quiet, well mannered, shrewd, and observant. He’s also kind to elderly cats. 

Look for Bertha to begin to come out of her shell a little and zing her family with pointed remarks. Watch how brilliantly Oliver manipulates Mrs. Soames and her daughter. It’s a thing of beauty. And I can see why Bertha’s Aunt Agatha (watch out for British women named Agatha) despises Mrs. Soames and Clare. But yeah, honestly expect that Oliver and Bertha to settle down into a lovely relationship where they will probably try and out-do each other in kindnesses to each other and the world. They’re both just that type of person. B

~Jayne      

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The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley is a sparkling historical novel of wild and wonderful mechanical automata, love in a variety of forms, and gentle themes of identity, with a cast of fabulous characters.

In 1755, Abel Cloudesley, a London watchmaker and creator of remarkable mechanical automata, is mourning his wife, Alice, who died giving birth to their son, Zachary. Six years later, Abel is further devastated when a freak workshop accident takes Zachary’s eye. With his new eye made of gold and lapis by Abel’s soft-spoken apprentice Tom, Zachary, now with an astonishing gift of second sight, is sent to live with his eccentric Aunt Franny in the country. Abel buries himself in work until he is coerced by shadowy figures into designing a chess-playing automaton and delivering it to Constantinople to spy on the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. After meeting the Sultan, Abel is not heard from again. Years later, teenage Zachary receives a letter suggesting that his father is still alive, a prisoner of the Sultan. Zachary sets off on a perilous journey to the Levant, determined to find Abel and bring him safely home.

Dear Mr. Lusk, 

Wow, that was different. And for the most part I mean that as a compliment. It really is the characters who make this book but the characters are backed by enough of the (extensive) research you did that they are firmly grounded in the mid eighteenth century they inhabit. I will slightly alter the blurb by saying that it isn’t the false eye that is fashioned for him that gives Zachary Cloudesley his visions and second sight. No, he’s born with that and more which all appear to be inherited from the mother who died giving birth to him. CW Alice Cloudesley doesn’t die on page but there are descriptions of the after scene. She and Abel also lost three daughters at birth before Zachary was born.

To try and describe the intricate turns of the plot would take far too long but I think that three characters who are not in the blurb need some introduction. Mrs. Morely and her daughter Leonora arrive in the lives of the Cloudesley men when Abel needs a wetnurse for his newborn son and that wetnurse is unwilling to farm out her own daughter. Honestly I would have loved to have spent an entire book with Grace Morely instead of the few chapters told from her first person POV. She is a strong, no nonsense woman who stands on her own two feet, fights for what she wants and deserves, and dishes out her opinion regardless of whether it’s asked for or wanted. I love her. Leonora finds love but I never quite got a good sense of her beyond maybe chafing at life in general before she seems to settle for the conventional by the end of the story. 

Tom Spurrell begins as a shy young man in Abel’s workshop before one look from Aunt Franny reveals that Tom is actually a woman. Or is he? What Tom is, though, is a remarkable craftsperson who not only tirelessly brings Abel’s ideas to fruition but later journeys with Abel to Turkey and loyally stays there after Abel disappears within the seraglio. When Zachary arrives looking for his father, it is to find that Tom has built a new life for himself; one that he vigorously and emphatically defends to Aunt Franny. No, this is who he is and he won’t stand for being identified otherwise. 

Abel and Zachary are at the heart of the story and though, at times, they have reasons to question whether or not the other truly loves them, the reader knows that all along each would give his life for the other. Many times Abel must send Zachary away but for justifiable reasons – the need for a wetnurse, to recover after his accident, and to protect him from the forces who threaten him to strongarm Abel into a journey to the Ottoman court. But when Zachary is still a child, it’s hard for him to grasp these reasons. Zachary’s reticence in revealing to Abel something told to him as a deathbed confession plus Zachary’s heartache at the time, lead Abel to despair that his son understands the events that caused their longest separation and the ones before. Still the fact that these two aren’t immediately reconciled seems realistic. The scene which sets it all right is emotional and tender. 

For a long while I worried about one particular relationship. We are given hints of Zachary’s relationship preferences which, given the laws in England at the time, seemed impossible. Then there is a moment of hope which seems to also be dashed. It takes Zachary’s Aunt Franny’s bizarre will to set a possible solution in motion. Aunt Franny is … a bit of a pill to be honest. There are times when I admired her, times when I didn’t understand her, and times when I wanted to put her in the cage with Catherine the Great. I’ll give her credit for being complex and generally running her life as she wants in a time when most women couldn’t do that. 

I feel that I need to emphasize that this is a very, very character driven novel. There are lots of descriptions and lots more characters than I’ve discussed. Then there are a few things that led to my earlier statement that I enjoyed it “for the most part.” Frankly I feel that I would have liked to have seen more of Zachary’s “gift” plus the middle of the story suffers from a feeling that its mechanism wound down a bit, leading to a little bit of a drag in the pace. The whole slots together with bits and pieces finally fitting and locking into place but it’s a book that rewards patience. B      

~Jayne

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At this point we’ve reviewed so many Courtney Milan books on this site that the reviews are kind of a foregone conclusion – you know the book is going to get a good grade, the question is just – how good? My answer for The Marquis Who Mustn’t is: Very Good, especially if you are in the mood for pure heartwarming material. Evil is vanquished. Wrongs are righted. Apologies are made. And of course, love wins.

What I appreciate most about Courtney Milan is that she makes every book fresh. Common themes run through her work but I never feel like I’m reading the same thing with a new cover. Milan always provides something new for the reader to geek out over. In this book, it’s pottery. In the last book, it was brown sauce, something I didn’t know I could geek out over (but I totally did).There’s also always layers and layers of character development in her books. In this case, I expected a powerful romance. I did not expect an even more powerful depiction of a mother/daughter relationship that moved me right down to my core.

Aside from the relationships that the protagonists, Naomi and Kai, have with their relatives and their fellow villagers, my favorite aspect of this romance is that Naomi and Kai are not interested in changing one another, and they have a kind of trust mingled with boundaries that one rarely sees in fiction or in life. In many cases as the plot progresses, something is set up to be a dealbreaker, but when the protagonists encounter these potential deal breakers they tend to react with, “OK, I accept this new thing I’ve learned about you, and I will incorporate it into my life under my terms.” It leads to a fascinating dynamic and loads of interesting and moving character growth.

No one who reads Milan, or this site, will be surprised to see an A grade here. If this is your first Milan, I’d suggest starting with the first Wedgeford Trial book, The Duke Who Didn’t. However, The Marquis Who Mustn’t is a solid stand alone. It’s a great romance, it involves people who solve problems creatively and in interesting and unexpected ways, it has history and art, it has complicated family dynamics, it explores historical diversity in England, and, as I mentioned a long time ago in this sentence, it has a whopping good love story. Full squee for this installment in a long line of squee-worthy books.

To fall for Charles is the last thing Helen expected … but will her lies cost her the love of her life?

England, 1970s

When Helen Debenham agrees to help her friend Sylvia out of her unhappy marriage to the famous playwright Charles Lane, the last thing she expects is to find love waiting in the wings.

Conditioned from childhood to look after her needy friend, Helen doesn’t question Sylvia’s portrayal of Charles as a cruel, temperamental philanderer. But as she comes to know the real Charles much better than she had ever intended, suddenly her feelings are rewriting the script for her.

Astonished to find Charles a very different character from the one Sylvia has depicted, she quickly comes to regret the part she’s agreed to play in their separation. Especially when she realises she’s falling in love with him … and he still has no idea how she’s deceived him…

But does she know Charles as well as she thinks? And how will he react if her deception is uncovered?

Can Helen keep playing her role for ever, or is heartbreak waiting around the corner?

Set in London and the English countryside, YET LOVE REMAINS is a compelling 20th century tale of romance and deceit with an intriguing twist.

Review

Oh, the angst. Oh, the melodrama. Oh, how the plot dates this one. Let’s go back in time to when divorce was a bit unsavory though obtainable especially if one is a (terribly) needy and surface level woman who has a best friend who feels somewhat responsible for you because you’re just that delicate flower who needs tending to. Too late friend Helen realizes that Sylvia has everything neatly planned and is ruthless about them sticking to that plan. 

But wait, shall we talk plot a bit? Helen Debenham and Sylvia have been friends since school. When Helen is orphaned, Sylvia’s mother (does anyone else hear Dr. Hook singing that 1972 song?) takes Helen under her wing and ends up paying the tuition for Helen’s nursing course. After Helen leaves for America for a job in Washington, Sylvia’s mother writes and asks Helen to be there for Sylvia because Sylvia is just the type to get herself into messes and need help. 

Job finished, Helen meets a tall, dark, and handsome mystery man on the boat trip back but parts ways thinking never to see him again. Catching up with her friend, Helen discovers that Sylvia’s marriage is on the rocks (well, Helen was skeptical even when Sylvia was rhapsodizing about it) and that because (cruel) Charles Lane refuses her little teensy weensy request to divorce so Sylvia can marry (milquetoast) Richard, Sylvia needs Helen to take part in a theatrical production Sylvia has devised called “Be a Co-respondent.” All Helen has to do is show up at Charles’s remote cottage on the moors, stay the night, and be there en deshabille for Sylvia plus her barrister uncle to find in the morning. 

To her credit Helen has her doubts and reservations but Sylvia paints Charles with a dark brush and swears that he’s been unfaithful to her. Really? asks Helen. Yep, you betcha. I’m pretty sure, says Sylvia. 

I think we can all guess who Charles turns out to be but hip-deep in it already, Helen continues with the charade even though Charles is nothing but kindness and solicitude for this woman who shows up, at night, in the pouring rain at his doorstep.  Hmmm, as she gets to know him, Helen thinks that maybe Charles isn’t as bad as Sylvia makes out.  Too late now and the divorce goes through but poor Helen is in the soup because of it then won’t ask for help. Wait, it turns out Charles has fallen in love with Helen enough to confess his sad childhood and the reason he wouldn’t initially give Sylvia the divorce. Could this mean Helen has found her true love? But what will happen when the truth, as it inevitably does and at the worst time, comes out?

Overall, I liked this one but it is dated (first published in 1938 and redone a bit in the mid 70s) and does have its problems. Sylvia is a huge one but by the end somehow I think Helen has shed the need to take care of poor widdle Syliva. Sylvia is that kind of needy woman in distress who can hook men into dropping everything to hike ten miles through a snowstorm to the store because she’s out of milk for her coffee. I used to work with a woman like that and even though I knew what she was (probably unconsciously) doing, I still had to restrain myself from volunteering to help her, so I know Sylvias exist.

Helen is a much better friend but let’s be honest and admit that Helen, despite her second thoughts and third thoughts and feelings that she should have done more investigation before agreeing, goes through with Sylvia’s plan. When she learns more about how badly Charles was treated by his parents (really, it lays out exactly how badly he’s going to be hurt by Helen’s actions), Helen feels even worse but, she desperately tries to tell herself, Charles need never know. Yeah, right. 

Charles’s stark pain at this betrayal is obvious to Helen but he goes through part of the farce of their honeymoon (not to Italy though as that is a place for love) then plans to send Helen away with an allowance that will let her live comfortably. Through most of the book, Charles is truly a nice guy under it all. To her credit Helen realizes that if she gives up now, their marriage can never be saved so she gamely sticks to him like a happy homemaker barnacle. She also becomes fiercely defensive of Charles when Sylvia breezes through town.

The way things work out takes them through their own private purgatory with loads of angst and heartache which would probably have been viewed as necessary atonement in 1938. Today I think this would be viewed as a Harlequin Presents. I’ll give Burchell credit for not making any of the characters perfect – they all do something reprehensible.  It’s obvious to them, and the reader, that they still love each other but Charles needs to dish out a side of comeuppance to Helen before he realizes what he’s doing and reverses course, and Helen tries her best, through her feelings of guilt, to roll with it. Readers looking for Helen to stand up and kick ass to get his attention and love back will be disappointed. But in the end, both of them prove to the other that “yet love remains.” Burchell’s writing ability saves this one. B-      

 ~Jayne         

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You can tell a lot about a person from what they like to eat…

England in 1932 is in the grip of the Great Depression. Author of a much-loved but not very successful biography, Stella Douglas is a bit depressed herself. When she’s summoned to see her editor in London, she dreads being told her writing career is over before it’s even started.

But much to her surprise, she finds she is being commissioned to write a history of food in England and how the English like to eat. It’s to be quintessentially English and will remind English housewives of the old ways, and English men of the glory of their country. The publishers hope such a book will lift the spirits of the nation.

The only problem is—all English food is actually quite terrible (and anything good is from elsewhere).

So Stella sets about inviting recipes from all corners of England, in the hope of discovering a hidden culinary gem. But what she discovers is oatcakes and gravy and lots and lots of potatoes.

Longing for something more thrilling, she heads off to speak to the nation’s housewives. But when her car breaks down and the dashing and charismatic antiques dealer Freddie springs to her rescue, she is led in a very different direction…

Full of wit, life, and—against all odds—delicious food, Good Taste is a story of discovery and one woman’s desire to make her own way as a modern woman.

CW/TW – sexual harassment, attempted sexual assault 

“When you begin to think about what Englishness means—and, by extension, English food—it all starts to become rather precarious and complicated, doesn’t it?”

Dear Ms. Scott, 

I will admit that the reference to this being similar to “Dear Mrs. Bird,” got me to read the blurb which then got me to read the book. So I guess that worked. But I want to say that while this is a well written book about historical England and its traditions, it doesn’t have that “resolutely cheerful in the face of the hardships of war” tone. Readers looking for that will be disappointed. But what it does have is a woman doing some self discovery while trying to whip up a book about English cookery as the nation faces the Depression and slight breezes of what will become the winds of war. I also discovered a lot of heartfelt emotion, a wonderful father-daughter relationship, and two people who really needed Lucien to knock their heads together.

   Stella Douglas is one of the new, post-war women who leave home for uni with plans for a dazzling future. But unlike many of her fellow students – who all seem to be doing marvelous things, as they make sure to tell everyone at the party while conversing with Stella’s chest instead of her face –  she decided to take the guaranteed paycheck for her weekly contributions to a women’s magazine (where she’s lately been doing articles for the financially challenged kitchen) in addition to writing biographies about famous historical cooks. After its slow sales, she’s thrilled when her publisher offers her the chance to write a book about English food. Stella, who adores the French food that her bestie and his roommate prepare as chefs in top London restaurants, nevertheless grabs the opportunity. 

Replies to her appeals for information about family recipes and traditions pour in but after being deluged with oatcake recipes and contradictory traditional traditions, —

If only there weren’t so many inconsistencies and contradictions in the responses she was receiving. As she’d reviewed the letters on currant cakes, she’d again felt like she was required to referee competing legends. There did seem to be rather a lot of that in English food.

— Stella finds herself going on the road to suss out the true history of Bath buns and eels. Along the way she meets a man who might take the place of her bestie who has become engaged to a toxic society Bright Young Thing (who seems to be like an early version of an influencer). Freddie does mansplain on about the proper way to prepare rabbits (WARNING for vegans and vegetarians in this chapter) and pheasants but he’s handsome, fun, sets a lovely table, and urges Stella to “spice up” her book in order to get it to sell. 

But when her house of cards topples and Stella has to face all the issues in her life, what path will she take and with whom will she take it?

I am SO glad that I’ve been faithfully watching GBBO because I knew what Stella and others were referring to when they talked about genoise sponges, hot water crust pastry, raised pies, split buns, and various other things I’ve seen on the show. Now I want to try a parkin, an Eccles cake, and some of the Christmas and Yule cakes that are mentioned. I’ll skip the eels though. 

Stella is determined that she’s going to write a book that will earn back the confidence of her publisher. But when faced with umpteen recipes for oatcakes (that some readers got overheated and tetchy about) she realizes that she has to find more – something sparkling, something to grab the reading public’s attention. That is where Freddie takes her hand and leads her down a dark path of “embellishing.” It’s not a lie, he says, it’s just a small fib to liven things up. As she and her father are still grieving her mother’s death and her bestie is now running with the BYTs, Stella doesn’t have her usual sounding boards and steps off the path of truth and references. 

What is the book actually supposed to be though? Only English cookery or does she include all the foreign influences, immigrant food, and trader’s ingredients among other things which now permeate “English” food? Is there anything that is solely and completely down to English ingredients and cooking methods? Stella thinks, “At what point did a foreign flavor become native? We are a mongrel nation.” Plus during a dinner with Freddie’s public school chums and their wives, Stella is bombarded with political viewpoints coming out of Germany and Italy along with the (more than slightly) bombastic opinions these people have about the working man and British foreign policy. 

“Dessert? How deliciously northern of you! I suppose you have dinner at midday too, don’t you? And tea at six o’clock?” He looked amused by this thought. “For pudding it’s treacle tart and custard. I do hope that’s complicated enough?”
It said something about the English class system, and the strength of regional identity, that they couldn’t even agree on the names of meals, didn’t it? Stella made a mental note that she must look into this further …

Yet as she travels across England, reads the letters being sent to her from all over, and delves into her mother’s journal Stella begins to get an image of what she’s aiming for and what isn’t “her.”  She has to face up to what she’s (almost) done, decide how to move forward, and rethink the company she’s been keeping. Reading her mother’s words and recipes takes Stella back to her happy childhood as well as gives Stella a glimpse of why her mother pushed her to stand up for herself, to follow her dreams. 

I enjoyed all of this as well as Stella’s “voice.” She’s an intelligent woman but still dealing with the attitudes of the day. She also felt twinges of her decisions “not being right” but with the family and personal issues she was facing, I could see how she lost her way. When the chips are down, Stella bucks up and realizes what she has to do and then does it. Where I wanted to shake her and someone else was because of her refusal to see a relationship that had always been right in front of her. That’s right, Stella, ignore the advice of two people you trust and keep sticking your head in the sand. This part gets resolved a little too easily but the end of the book is happy and hopeful and I enjoyed learning more about How the English Eat. B    

~Jayne

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Life is a love song when you find the right notes

Maggie and Ibby make up a happy – if unconventional – family. After meeting at university, they now live in the village of Applecroft on the beautiful West Country coast.

Okay, so Ibby’s gay and prone to disastrous dates, while couples’ counsellor Maggie spends her days helping people with their relationship problems despite having no sex life of her own. Nevertheless, they’re devoted to bringing up teenage daughter Amelia – the result of a drunken one-night stand when they were students – in a stable and loving family.

Until a face from the past – in the form of hard-partying rock star Jordan Nash – disrupts their quiet lives. As Jordan struggles with his personal demons and old secrets are revealed, can Maggie and Ibby stay strong? Or will bringing back the past threaten all that they’ve built in the present?

CW – there is past and present drug and alcohol use along with homophobia

Dear Ms. Swift,

It’s been a while since I read “Friends with Benefits,” but I’ve always meant to try another of your books. This one sounded off-beat but also like I might enjoy it. It’s a mix of women’s fiction, rom-com, second chances, redemption, found family, and a touch of YA.

I won’t try and add to the blurb as I think readers would do better going into the book without much more information. Letting things unspool as the book moves along worked for me. I did suss some of the secrets but was having such a good time reading the story that it didn’t bother me. Fair Warning the book dives a bit deeper than the cartoon cover might lead one to expect.

The unconventional family at the center of the book is delightful. In their uni days Ibby, Maggie, Other Max, and Max became friends. Plenty of alcohol was consumed and as Other Max tells his new girlfriend Nicki, all of them – at one drunken time or another – have slept with Maggie at least once. Nicki is a bit stunned but Maggie confirms it. She was gay Ibby’s one and only het sex encounter and that just happened to lead to their daughter Amelia.

Amelia is so a thirteen year old whose shrug means “yes,” who rolls her eyes, who is in love with sixteen year old Isaac enough to take coding class, whose best friend swoons over the lead singer of a band who is as old as their parents (yuck, he’s like over thirty!) but who is basically a good kid. Maggie is a relationship counselor who worked her butt off to get her PhD while – along with Ibby – raising Melie. Ibby is a freelance journalist who also converted an ice cream truck into a mobile used book store, which he operates at the beach in Bristol, who adores his daughter. His statement to Amelia about his feelings on the day she was born is hilarious and the way he handles being the one at home when Melie starts her first period is epic. He’s a good dad.

… he bent to kiss her hair. ‘Did I ever tell you about the day you were born, Melie?’
‘No. Tell me.’ Amelia snuggled deeper into his arm. She loved hearing stories about when she was a baby.
‘Well, you were all gooey and horrible when you popped out.’
‘Ew.’
‘I know, right? Your mum got the first cuddle, then the midwife put you in my arms. You looked pretty unimpressed by me. Like you could just about put up with the mummy-shaped thing that brought the food, but the daddy-shaped thing, meh.’
‘What did I look like?’
‘Ugly as hell.’
‘I did not! You’re ugly as hell.’
‘Seriously. You were all wrinkly, covered in this downy black fluff. You looked like an elderly miniature chimp.’
‘No way,’ she said, poking out her lip. ‘Bet I was cute.’
‘Well, I never said you weren’t cute,’ Ibby said, smiling. ‘You were the most beautiful ugly thing I’d ever seen.’ His eyes glazed and he blinked a few times. ‘And that was it, I was done for. I knew I could never let my tiny chimpy daughter go. I held you cradled in one arm and your mum’s hand with the other, and I swore I’d never let anything bad happen to my little girl.’

I guess Ibby could technically be termed the Gay BFF but he’s a lot more than that and I came to love Ibby even if at first he isn’t willing to stick his head above the parapet of standing up to homophobia. Yes, Ibby isn’t a perfect Gay Hero but rather a dad concerned about how any public stands could affect his daughter in terms of abuse or bullying. But he really regrets saying no to the man he’s just started dating.

Maggie has an interesting counseling session that turns into an embarrassing meeting later that evening at the local pub. Thankfully she immediately realizes where she has to draw the professional line. She’s also had two past relationships that have scarred her. When one comes back from out of the blue and affects not only Maggie but also her family, she comes out swinging. I do, however, question her taste in often wearing a stegosaurus dinosaur onesie.

Yes, about that past relationship. This is what is going to drive the rest of the plot and it’s going to end up affecting most everyone including Melie who watches her tight knit and loving – if unusual – family (which she has thankfully never been bullied about) come under fire.

The plot twists back and forth. A hefty amount of “only in a book” occurs. Money really can buy your way out of some problems and issues but (yay!) other things must be examined, faced, worked out, or owned up to. When one character first appeared, I was not enamored. Yet, the scene also seemed to be straight out of true life rock star excess stories. I appreciate that the story doesn’t pull its punches. Painful past events come back to haunt people and there are reckonings (also yay!). The ending yielded a twist that I sort of guessed was coming along with some neatly wrapped up threads. Perhaps a bit too neat, tidy, and feel-good but I liked almost all of the characters by then and enjoyed smiling at their happy families. B

~Jayne

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London, April 1943. A little over a year since she married Captain Charles Mayhew and he went away to war, Emmy Lake is now in charge of “Yours Cheerfully,” the hugely popular advice column in Woman’s Friend magazine. Cheered on by her best friend Bunty, Emmy is dedicated to helping readers face the increasing challenges brought about by over three years of war. The postbags are full and Woman’s Friend is thriving.

But Emmy’s world is turned upside down when glamorous socialite, the Honorable Mrs. Cressida Porter, becomes the new publisher of the magazine, and wants to change everything the readers love. Aided by Mrs. Pye, a Paris-obsessed fashion editor with delusions of grandeur, and Small Winston, the grumpiest dog in London, Mrs. Porter fills the pages with expensive clothes and frivolous articles about her friends. Worst of all, she announces that she is cutting the “Yours Cheerfully” column and her vision for the publication’s future seems dire. With the stakes higher than ever, Emmy and her friends must find a way to save the magazine that they love.

Dear Ms. Pearce, 

I was thrilled to get a chance to read this book in advance. Thrilled. Over the moon. Giddy. Alright, I’ll stop now. Chuffed. Happy. Ecstatic. Right, right, stopping now. The previous two books had been such joys to read but I knew that there was still a lot to be written in this series. 

Emmy’s life is going well considering this is heading towards the fourth year of the war. She’s happily married yet has spent so little time with Charles who is off censored somewhere fighting for King and country. No personal news is good news, right? She and bestie Bunty are still living in Bunty’s grandmother’s house in Pimlico and thrilled that Thelma, Emmy’s fellow telephonist at the National Fire station were Emmy works part time, and Thel’s three children will be moving into the flat at the top of the house. 

Lord Overton, the beloved longtime owner of Woman’s Friend magazine has recently passed away but so far, the staff don’t anticipate any change to their mission to help the ordinary women of Britain soldier through the wartime shortages and challenges. Then word arrives that the magazine has been left to Lord Overton’s Society niece – the Hon. Mrs. Cressida Porter.     

While she might at first appear like a dazzling haute couture fairy creature dispensing glamor and fudge, Mrs. Porter, while smiling charmingly, quickly slashes through the bread-and-butter content of Woman’s Friend in a way that would make a velociraptor sit back in awed appreciation before beginning to take notes on her technique. Emmy’s brother-in-law, Mr. Collins – wonderful man and the type of manager anyone would be lucky to work for, is tact and patience personified as he attempts to stanch the blood and soothe the nerves of the staff. But there’s only so much Guy can do to head off Mrs. – “call me Egg” – Porter’s. ruthless plans to turn their humble but needed magazine into a glitzy publication for the wealthy, landed, and titled. As the complaints from their readers rise and ad revenue falls, can Emmy and Guy cook up a plan to save what’s left of Woman’s Friend?  

We’ve been through ups and downs with Emmy, Bunty, and the staff at the newspaper Woman’s Friend. The staff brought it back from the edge – and unwittingly became minor celebrities among the London journalists for doing so – but now they face their greatest challenge. They’ve dispensed helpful information and tips to their readers about how to make do and carry on. The “Friend to Friend” column has been a sounding board for readers’ hopes for the future “once the world is free.” And in “Your’s Cheerfully,” Emmy has given advice to those who often have nowhere else to turn. When Mrs. Porter’s little ideas begin to turn things on their head, the staff is dismayed and then furious. She might think that glum letters from dreary people are “a bit Mis” and that yet another recipe for potatoes or knitting patterns need to be ditched for a write up on a Society wedding or advice to spend 4 guineas for a frock (4 guineas!) but as boring as Mrs. Porter finds business dealings (a bit Mis) it’s soon obvious that the paper is spiraling and headed for disaster. 

Bunty is still a bit raw at the loss of her fiancé Will in a Luftwaffe bombing raid but Emmy susses out that there might be a new male friend in Bunty’s life. Soon Harold is a part of the jolly bunch living in the house and he finds himself a hero to Stan, Marg, and George – Thel’s children. As an engineer (formerly tasked with dealing with unexploded bombs), Harold is a key part of repairing the garden shed for Stan’s hoped for guinea pigs and other assorted creatures. If you need chickens, ask for Scary David or his scary brother but don’t ask too many questions. 

Emmy and Guy watch helplessly as Mrs. Porter’s ideas scuttle the paper until Emmy thinks outside the box after which the Wonderful Monica and her source at the Ministry Do Their Part. What Guy and Emmy don’t count on is a rear attack. I was sweating how this would end. I was also waiting for Something Dire as several people near and dear are fighting in various military theaters plus though the Blitz is over, the Luftwaffe still does bombing raids. What happened had me gutted. I cried. I will freely admit that. For a good section of the last third of the story, tears trickled. Emmy’s oft repeated thought, “You are safe and you are loved” got me through. Then just when I thought all hope of a positive outcome for one issue was lost, it was saved and I cheered.  

If I have one complaint to lodge, it would be that most of these characters are either very good or very bad. Most of the characters are three dimensional and have layers – even Small Winston – but yeah, good or bad. One big Yes from me though for Stan, Marg, and George who are Definitely Not Plot Moppets. Write the next book please quickly as I need to know what will happen next. A  

~Jayne

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In 1666, plague and fire will pull them asunder. But love will overcome.

In a privileged role as Maid of Honor to the Queen of England, Miss Mary Hook should be content, but her companions’ lack of morals makes her miserable. When the plague forces the Royal court to leave London, Mary is happy to leave the vice and frivolity behind… Only to find that the reputation of light-skirts follows her, regardless of how wrong the assumption is.

Back home in the countryside village of Woodham, Mr Francis Hartwell disapproves of her friendship with his sister. He can’t believe that Mary won’t be a bad influence and lead her astray. Then the plague hits the Hartwell household, trapping Mary in the house with them to contain the disease. And when she succumbs to illness, it’s not her friend who tends her back to health, but scandalously, the Master of the household himself!

With danger and rich historical detail, fans of sweet and clean historical romance will relish this Tudor and Stuarts era piece for the wealth of intriguing domestic history and the heart-pounding events that shaped England.

Review 

I thought I’d treat myself to a reread of “The Maid of Honour” in honor of it being released digitally. Plague! Fire! Charles II! Restoration goodness along with a wonderful cat named Oliver. Oh, you want to know about the romance? Well the Hartwell men (as I’ve pointed out in Briar Rose and Country Cousins) aren’t known for their romantic finesse but once they love their lady, their love is strong. 

Mary Hook is the daughter of the Baronet who owns Pinnacles and received his title from his restored King in gratitude for secret help during the Commonwealth. Clever Sir Charles carefully spun a tale of health woe that lasted until the Restoration. His only daughter, Mary, is now a Maid of Honour to Queen Catherine and heartily sick of Whitehall, court dandies, and her fellow Maids. When word that the plague is spreading reaches court – after word that the Dutch Navy has been defeated – Mary begs leave to visit home. There she is reacquainted with Jemima (Jem) Hartwell – a descendent of Matthew and Kate Hartwell (Briar Rose). Francis, Jem’s brother, eyes Mary askance and then quietly pulls her aside to ask her not to corrupt his younger sister with her wanton court ways. Insulted, Mary verbally hits back after which the two mainly avoid each other. 

On a day when Mary is at Cannons Grange helping with the brambleberry conserve making, Cook collapses and the terrified household is forced to isolate as she is revealed to have been Visited – by the plague. Francis and Jem survived the disease as children but Mary is struck down and then nursed back to health by Francis. Afraid that he is offering for her to save her reputation, Mary (who has by now reversed her feelings about this quiet, steadfast, and honorable man) declines his proposal. It’s going to take the Fire of London to break this romance deadlock. 

Oh, the Hartwell men. If only they could screw their courage to the sticking point and tell the women they love that they love them. But as it appears to be a family trait to remain mum about that, the course of their true love never runs smooth. The reader knows the deal but all we can do is sigh and urge them on. I will say that Mary’s reasons for turning Francis down are valid and given that he hasn’t told her he loves her (the lunk), I can understand why she’s trying to protect her heart. The romance here is definitely a slow burn.    

This time with the other of the books in the series fresh in my mind, I enjoyed reading more about the village of Woodham. The church bells are a minor event in village life and we see the place 120 years after Henry VIII was saved by Matthew Hartwell who, in return, got Cannons Grange for a peppercorn rent of one arrow delivered to the monarch every seven years. Charles II (who is shown very positively in the book) is amused by the story as Francis delivers the most recent one. I felt I was getting another glimpse of a slower time long gone when villagers had an ancient right to pannage for their livestock, massive shire horses pulled hay wains at harvest time, making preserves was a hot all day process, households depended on the herbal knowledge of the ladies of the house, and those houses were expanded by fits and starts over the years.   

Mary is strong willed – she lets Francis know he’s overstepped and fends off the handsy men at court – but she is also a woman of her time and not a dolled up 21st century woman. When she realizes she’s stuck at the Hartwell’s house, she pitches in, makes good suggestions, and doesn’t whine. When she is worried about Francis in London, she recruits help and goes searching for him. Mary is not an empty headed fool. Slowly we learn about Francis’s background and what he has endured – usually without complaint – in his life. Francis’s scarred palms, and how he got them, earn the respect of the Thames watermen. 

I enjoyed all the secondary characters and felt they were well rounded. Oliver, the cat who rules over Cannons Grange with a firm but benevolent paw, is again a favorite. But then everyone probably knew I’d say that. This time my grade rises to a B+    

~Jayne

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