By D. E. Stevenson

Of all of the D.E. Stevensons I have read, this one is right up there. I almost didn’t choose this book to listen to. I usually wait 4 or 5 months between Stevensons and I had just read one last month. But I knew I didn’t want to read another contemporary romantic comedy because the last one I read was so good, nothing else could measure up. I was still on hold for the scary book of my choice at the library and I had just read a domestic thriller and a Georgette Heyer. And some books I just like to read the words, not listen to them.

This one is a little different from most Stevensons because it moves through the years and the stories of various members of the Dunne family. We start in 1905 with Celia Dunne, in her 90s, who has decided not to bequeath her home and estate to the childless (and insufferable) son of her oldest brother who has every expectation of inheriting. Instead, she has settled on a more distant connection, her great nephew, Humphrey, who is a struggling Lieutenant Commander in the Navy with a young and growing family. She leaves her estate to the astounded and confused Humphrey on the condition that Dunnian will eventually go, not to his oldest son, Mark, but, extraordinarily, to a daughter, yet to be born, whom he will name Celia.

Humphrey is a good and loving father although we are told he does not have a sense of humor. His wife Alice is beautiful and sweet but is not too bright (as we see evidence of throughout their story.) We soon realize that the main focus of the story will be their oldest son Mark whom we first meet when he is 5 1/2. We spend a good deal of time with the growing family. Humphrey and Alice add a son, Billy and, sure enough, a daughter, Celia, to their brood. They also take on the care of a cousin, Deb, who comes to live with them when her disinterested mother remarries and moves to India. Unlike her cousins, she is plain and shy. As the children grow to adulthood the Dunne’s story starts to mirror Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Deb is devoted to Mark, and Mark is in love with a scheming and manipulative neighbor. Eventually Deb, who eventually blossoms, is pursued by her brother, a bit of a rake. Other parallels emerge with other members of the family. But curiously, we see little of the youngest daughter, Celia, except for a few anecdotes that show that she is an unusual child: lovable, spirited, and with a mind of her own. Rather like her namesake, as a matter of a fact. Sprinkled throughout are some mysterious coincidences and ghostly sightings which hint of a guiding hand from beyond. After Deb and Mark’s fate is settled, we skip ahead to 1932, where we get a another peek at Celia, in her early 20s. She is still uninterested in marriage. She is waiting. When she was 13, we had learned that she didn’t care to get married unless it was to someone “quite different”: Someone like Lochinvar “out of the west.” Quickly, we skip ahead 10 years to 1942. Mark and Billy are doing their bit in the war, while still unattached Celia and newly pregnant Deb are keeping the home fires burning with retired Admiral Humphrey, now in his 70s. There is only one chapter to go. How Celia finally meets “the one” in that last chapter moved me to tears.

I had read the follow up to this one, The Listening Valley before Celia’s House, and that was probably a good thing. Had I read it first, I would have been so anxious to learn more about what became of Celia and Dunnian, that I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on the first half of our heroine, Tonia’s, story. She does not land in Ryddelton, where Dunnian house is located, until midway through the book. In The Listening Valley, we also are filled in more about the original Celia’s younger years and the ties that bind her to her young namesake’s love story. To anyone interested in trying D.E. Stevenson, you couldn’t do better than Celia’s House, followed by The Listening Valley.