This Little World by Francis Brett Young

This is a lovely story very reminiscent in style to R.F. Delderfield, and in theme to Dorothy Evelyn Smith's The Lovely Day and Margaret Kennedy's The Feast. It's a "slice of life" tale set in a small village in the Midlands some years after WW1. The village is picking up the pieces, sadly depleted of it's fine men, and people's lives and businesses are topsy turvy. Those who were wealthy gentry before the war find themselves struggling to pay their bills, and conversely, some everyday Joe Shmoes are rolling in money as a result of businesses (such as munitions) which thrived during the war.

As with many 'slice of life' books, no one character is given more attention to others, in fact its difficult to find a main character at all, but in this book you can almost do it in the form of Miles Ombersley who has just inherited his father's ancestral estate...complete with debt.

It's a story of everyday people and how life changes them from the inside out. You will see how some are ruined through bad choices (otherwise termed "bad luck") and become less likeable, while others actually mature and flourish under tests of character.

FBY's descriptions are a delight to the senses.They make you step back and say, Now why didn't I think of that! I'll give you an example:

One character, while driving into town on business, notices the growth of traffic on the roads and muses to himself how the brightly painted motor vehicles glide slowly and smoothly like newly hatched butterflies in every color, making his Silver Ghost seem so old fashioned by comparison...

I also liked his tongue in cheek humor. For instance when an old woman is lying prone, dying, the doctor calls for her next of kin and privately begs the good lady to brace herself for the shock in her sister's appearance. "Oh,Laura was never a beauty", she replied blandly.

 Or when said old lady recovers, she is told how the doctor saved her life her response was "his charges were certainly moderate. His bill for the whole of my illness was less than three pounds..."

I just love that!

One other thing I enjoyed near the beginning of the book was the minister complaining to the doctor about how difficult it was to rouse the village to camaraderie. He says,"It isn't that I want to improve them, I want them to enjoy themselves without being self conscious, I want to give them more fun!"

"Merry England and all that? No, Vicar, that hobby won't gallop. You see, England isn't merry by nature, and I doubt if it ever was. We have no abandon. We're stiff Northerners, self conscious and reserved. You can't make us unbutton...We English people are such individualists. Our homes are our castles; we're always on the defensive. Five hundred years ago we jolly well had to be. Then our lives, though you'd hardly believe it, are tremendously full and as different from another as -what shall I say- our cottage gardens. We hate what you call "being organized"- unless we're convinced that it's absolutely necessary for some specific reason. A war, for instance...and even then, though we take it like lambs, we like to pretend that our organization is voluntary...."

It's been too long since Ive read Francis Brett Young. His books are so well worthwhile. If you dislike Hardyesque descriptions you probably wont have the patience for this but I drank in every word. It's brilliant!

CONTENT:
SEX: None (past indiscretions of town characters mentioned)
VIOLENCE: Mild (a car crash)
PROFANTY: Very Mild

MY RATING: G

The House Of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt

I almost gave this 2.5 stars but it probably deserves 3.

Probably…

For three quarters of the book I was waiting for something to happen. Oh, things happen but not suspenseful things. The most interesting thing was the Chinese lantern festival. That's something I would love to see. But until the very end I wondered if I was even reading a Gothic. Where was the chilling suspense?

and the characters...I just better shut up. No sense in banging imaginary heads together.

This isn't Holt's best. But if you're new to the genre and can read a book without trying to "improve " it in your mind and if don't mind some senseless repetition and rooting for the wrong person then you'll probably enjoy this. But she can do so much better.

CONTENT:

SEX: Behind closed doors, mention of mistresses.
VIOLENCE: Not an issue
PROFANITY: None
PARANORMAL ELEMENTS: Brief mention is made of yarrow sticks, cards and tea leaf reading. Also ancestor spirits not being "happy".

MY RATING: PG

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

This is a sweet story about a spinstery spinster who conversely is given a new lease on life when her doctor pronounces a death sentence on her. "If I have only one year to live", she reasons, "I had better start living"!

The first thing Valency does while squeezing out of society's cage is to see things (and people) as they truly are and speak the truth, niceties and platitudes be hanged!

I have to say that if I wasn't pressured by my daugher to keep reading this, I would have given it up around page 45. It read like a serious pity party. 'Wah Wah Wah, I have a miserable life, no one likes me, I'm not even pretty, and did I tell you about the time my special buttons were unjustly shared out when I was a child... I hate this room, I hate porridge, all I want is a dust pile of my own....' serious whineage going on! I wasn't sure I could stomach any more. But my daughter ripped the book out of my hands, flipped the pages and said, "Give it 10 more pages". I did. And it turned out very good. So if you're tempted to give it up, give it to page 50-55 and then decide.

And for the record: Barney is quite possibly one of the sweetest heroes ever. No tall dark and handsome claptrap, just an honest to goodness decent guy for a change. We need more of that.

And I added a new word to my vocabulary: SNOBOCRACY. I love that!

CONTENT: CLEAN
MY RATING: G

The House Of A Thousand Candles by Meredith Nicholson

I saw this while browsing ebay just after I had finished reading The House of a Thousand Lanterns. How could I read about 1,000 lanterns and not 1,000 candles, right? Besides, I like obscure books. There's very few opinions out there so I don't feel swayed by popular opinion or shy of hurting an author's feelings. :) Anyway, you can read it for free on Openlibrary so I decided to give it a go.

IN A NUTSHELL:
A young, irresponsible man inherits his grandfather's estate with stipulations. He has to live there for one year and never leave town, he has to clean up his wild ways, and if he forms any romantic attachment to a certain individual he loses everything.

Rumor has it that there is treasure hidden in the house, and knowing the old man (an architect), it seems a likely thing he would do for amusement. Most of the house is unfinished and there are sounds of footsteps in the walls at odd times. Compound that with shots in the dark and chases through the snow and you have a general feeling of the book,

Well, as promising as it sounds, it was a no go for me. I did read the whole thing but it was rather dreadful. Oh, the writing was ok, but I never liked the characters, I thought the main character was a bit of a jerk and he pretty much stayed that way. The mystery was ok, but nothing thrilling and slightly predictable. Romance was very 'meh'. I couldn't see why the girl was attracted to him and all she had to do was grow up and he was like a hound dog on a coon's trail.

Bottom line: Check it out on OpenLibrary but don't rush to ebay to buy it unless you've read the author's other works and like his style. (yes, Meredith is a HE). It was just ok for me.

CONTENT:

SEX: None
PROFANITY: Very Mild
VIOLENCE: A shoot out during "seige" and general knockabouts throughout.

MY RATING: G-PG

The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas

I really liked this. At first I wasn't sure if I would. I wanted more hospital/patient stories and less nurse stories but hello, look at the title. It is a book about three student NURSES in 1930s East End London.

It is a bit of a soap opera, fans of 'Strong Medicine' (not a book, I know but you get the idea) and ' Call The Midwife' will like this. I found myself getting quite engrossed in their lives and had a hard time putting the last half of the book down. (In fact, as soon as I turned the last page I grabbed the next book in the series and bookmarked the first chapter).

There are love interests in the book but everything is kept clean which I appreciated.

Bottom line: Well worth the read and pretty absorbing.

CONTENT:

SEX: (view spoiler)
VIOLENCE: Not an issue
PROFANITY : Mild (B, D, H)

MY RATING : PG-13

*I received a free ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion

Sleep in the Woods by Dorothy Eden

I'm rather surprised to see several two star ratings for this excellent book. Were we reading the same thing? I absolutely loved this!

A servant girl accompanies two young ladies to New Zealand in their gentlewomanly pursuit of husbands. In a Cinderella -like twist, the servant girl Briar sneaks into a masked ball where they're doing the ancient wedding dance and lands herself a husband. Unfortunately for her, it was not the man she was aiming to snag, and unfortunately for him, she was wearing her mistress's gown and he also got the wrong girl.

But he needs a wife and she wants a home so they decide to go through with it and this is where the story really cranks it up a notch.

While Saul and Briar seethe with an intense hatred/ begrudging admiration for eachother, their biggest challenge isnt their loveless marriage but where they decide to set up home; for Saul lives in a remote region where the Maori are warring with the settlers and those they tomahawk and kill, they eat in their ceremonies...

I found this a gripping read and so real as to human nature and emotions. I could feel the agonizing frustrations of both Saul and Briar and while I wanted them to "sort things out" and be happy, the story was realistic. True understanding and appreciation take time and is all the sweeter when it arrives.

Lovers of Emma Drummond, M.M. Kaye and Catherine Gaskin would like this!

CONTENT:

SEX: Fade to black but perhaps a little mature for young readers.
VIOLENCE: Maori warring, some descriptions of their ceremonies and "feasts".
PROFANITY: Mild

MY RATING: PG-13 for sexual content and disturbing imagery

Beloved Rebel by Sylvia Thorpe

Well, thank goodness that's over!

This was a buddy read with Tweety and I refuse to look at her review until Ive sorted my own thoughts out. :)

The 1600's are not my preferred time period, I'd better say that at the outset because I'm sure others will enjoy this book more than I did.

My main complaint is with the characters. Why oh why do I seem to root for the wrong characters? For once Id like to see an author turn the tables on the obvious and go for the ultimate twist: the triumph of the underdog. *sigh*

In a nutshell: Gervase is a fugitive after the uprising of the Duke of Monmouth fails. Anyone who is found aiding and abetting such fugitives earn the penalty of death. This does not thwart Elinor, Gervase's wife whom he married 5 years prior at the tender age of 13 (even though she has not set eyes on him since) from stepping in time and again to save his sorry butt .

I found it difficult to believe that a 13 year old girl would be so infatuated with a man she married by arrangement and in name only and whom she'd only seen two or three times. He viewed her as no more than a child. (that is, until he comes back, and lo and behold the twerpit has grown up! Who is this creature with golden eyes and bosoms? )

As the story played out there was ample opportunity to show us some depth of character or even personality on the part of the hero but for the life of me I could see no reason why she should like him, let alone love him to distraction and risk her neck for him. For my part, I didn't care much whether he was caught or not.

CONTENT: Clean
No sex, profanity or violence