Susan at Herron’s Farm: Barbara Wilcox, Spring Books, The Halycon Library

The longer this book went on, the more I realised it wasn’t just part of that subset of girls own career books, specifically the account of a sort of land girl, but a rum mixture of that and romantic suspense. ( Read more... )

Or books I wanted to mention, but didn't want to write a full review about.

( Rattle His Bones by Carola Dunn; The Changeling of Monte Lucio by Violet Needhams; and The Girls of Mackland Court by May Wynne. )

Miss Jacobson’s Journey by Carola Dunn is a Regency romance with a dash of adventure, which its heroine always wanted. ( Read more... )

Carol’s Second Term by Ethel Talbot also featured a relatively fresh angle on the school story. ( Read more... )

And it wouldn’t be a holiday round-up if I didn’t mention that I’d read a Miss Silver mystery: The Ivory Dagger by Patrical Wentworth. There can’t be many that I haven’t read before by her, most the recentish paperbacks with vintage covers. ( Read more... )

Deborah’s Secret Quest: Cecilia Falcon The Thames Publishing Co.

This is a reread – I was uncertain as to whether I already owned this book, but the copy before me was lovely and irresistible. I didn’t really remember the story, anyhow. It has a little of the feel of a serial story brought together within covers of its very own: occasionally chapters start with an unnecessary recap and it stretches a little beyond most book length school stories in terms of genre. ( Read more... )

Rangers and Strangers and Other Stories: Ethel Talbot Nelson

I didn't realise until opening this book to read it that it was a collection of short stories, rather than one book-length story. The title of the collection comes from the first and longest story, and is, in a way misleading, because ( Read more... )

Some biographical information on Katherine L. Oldmeadow and a review of Princess Prunella here, which I first read when I was young enough that going to France did seem like a remarkable event to me.

Lyzzybee has written an enthusiastic review of Eva Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea that doesn’t give too much of the plot away but gives a good idea of what to expect and why you should read it (if you haven’t).

Mystery subgenres explained in the Washington Independent Review of Books.