Dark Danger: Malcolm Saville, Girls Gone By 2018

The third Marston Baines book was probably my least favourite of this series so far.

( Read more... )

Poppy: Mrs Isla Sitwell Nelson (inscribed 1936, but the story is clearly older than that)

I try my best to avoid buying ‘double’ copies of books, but failed with this one. Despite an unusual title, I didn’t remember it at all, ( Read more... )

The Purple Valley: Malcolm Saville Girls Gone By Publishers, 2017.

Having reread ‘Three Towers in Tuscany’, I turned to its sequel, the second in the Secret Service/Marston Baines series. Simon Baines, the main character of the first book, is ( Read more... )

As I tagged yesterday’s post about rereading Three Towers in Tuscany, I noticed that I had a tag for the series, clicked on it and realised I’d reread the book in 2007. Here is my review from then, which is more detailed and attempts to analyse the dialogue style. I end the review talking about looking out for more books in the series, which I did ( Read more... )

Three Towers in Tuscany: Malcolm Saville. Heineman, 1967It seems as if everyone has been doing a Something Month, if not Dry January, Veganuary or Digital Detox January, then something this month, including blogging themes. This inspired me to do Rereading February. Don’t get too excited, my aspiration is to get my numbers of books read up from ‘ ( Read more... )

Here are a couple of links:

From Silver Petticoat Review Why you should read Mary Stewart.This feature delves into the appeal of Stewart’s romantic suspense books from the perspective of someone who'd just found them. I started reading them as a teenager and return to them as comfort reads, so I have no objectivity, but the points made here ( Read more... )

Here’s my annual round-up of highlights from 2018 posts. (All the links go to my Dreamwidth account.) ( Read more... )

Prep: Curtis Sittenfeld. Black Swan, 2010.I can’t pinpoint why I didn’t read this sooner. I’ve read ‘An American Wife’ and ‘Sisterland’ by Sittenfeld and was aware of this novel. Literature about American boarding schools has always fascinated me, mainly as a subset of the girls own genre because of the different context. You’d have thought I’d ( Read more... )

The Guernsey Literary Potato and Peel Society (2018) (rated 12A)Directed by: Mike Newell ( Read more... )

Biddy and Quilla: Evelyn Smith, Blackie

Evelyn Smith provides a sympathetic look at growing pains through a burgeoning friendship here. A few plot contrivances aside, it’s realistic, psychologically accurate and amusing.

Priscilla ‘Quilla’ Thornton is ( Read more... )