My Dear Aunt Flora

April 20, 2026 / Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

By Elizabeth Cadell

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I hope I have this right, but I listened to this on Audible so there is no way I can realistically check my facts. Our narrator, Jonquil, “Jonny” and Phyl grew up together in the same home headed by Aunt Flora along with Phyl’s brothers, George and Hugh. Flora was Jonny’s mother’s best friend and was taken in by her when her parents died. Jonny ended up marrying Hugh, and Phyl married Hugh’s best friend, Tom. Phyl and Jonny both were widowed at the same time due to an automobile wreck, and Jonny was left with two young children. Phyl and Jonny live together and the book begins when they decide to escape their dreary cramped apartment and move to “Rushing” a large but old and dilapidated cottage (it doesn’t even have an indoor toilet!) in the middle of nowhere.

This is what is known as a “slice-of-life” novel, which is a type of novel I read a lot of. It focuses on the largely unremarkable happenings and relationships of everyday life. Gentle humor, unusual characters, and the joy of living are key. At least in the novels of this type that I read. Needless to say, there is usually a satisfactory if understated romance which provides closure and a happy prospect for the characters we have come to feel invested in. Atmosphere and ambiance are key. The ones I read are usually set in the English or Scottish countryside and set at least 50 years ago. True to form, nothing much happens in this one until the previously mentioned George comes to stay at Rushing Farm. It’s not specifically stated what’s wrong with him, but he has been ordered by his doctor to “rest.” So I’m guessing nervous breakdown. George is a famous actor and something of a babe magnet. He is also spoiled, entitled, and a prima donna. The family loves George, but they don’t like him very much. They are confident that as soon as he gets a load of Rushing’s primitive conditions, he will quickly leave for less spartan accommodations far far away.

At first I was somewhat entertained by George and his angry incredulity over what he was asked to put up with at Rushing Farm. The women pretty much just take him in stride. They don’t know how to “just say no” but they are not complete doormats either. They know that George will not be able to stand being in the middle of nowhere for long and are not majorly inconvenienced by George’s whims and megrims. The stage is set on the first day when George confiscates Jonny’s son Paul’s bedroom for his own. To meet his standards, he then hijacks various pieces of furniture and decor from Phyl, Jonny, and Flora’s rooms. When they object, he bosses them and manipulates them into agreeing. But the more George complains, the happier the family is because the sooner he will leave. That is, until Angela ,the aunt of a summer guest of Jonnie’s daughter, comes to visit. She is gorgeous, sweet, down-to-earth and couldn’t be less interested in George, despite his glamor and fame. George, on the other hand, falls head over heels for the first time in his life.

All of the main characters were likable but boring. There are two romances involved, one was a foregone conclusion with no “will they or won’t they” tension to be had. George and Angela’s story had a little more suspense, but Angela deserved better even if the reader comes to understand and be reconciled to George a little more by the end. Jonnie, who I guess is our main character because everything is seen through her eyes, is the most boring of all. Her primary personality traits are competence, quietude, and inarticulateness. Phyl is charmingly lazy and Aunt Flora is wise, no-nonsense, and caring. A romance for Jonnie is threatened but is nipped in the bud by her disinterest. The book just kind of ends with the wedding of one of the characters which is a hair’s breath from ending in disaster. Or what would pass for disaster in this gentle world. There were some unanswered questions which are not my favorite. Why was Flora’s cousin so anxious to talk to her, what secret will he impart that threatens the family’s equanimity? We never know. If there ever was one. There were some amusing bits where I kind of chuckled. The most exciting and funniest part was near the end where Jonnie finally loses her temper. It was all very low-stakes. The quirky characters were not quirky enough. After I read this, I found out this was Cadell’s first book and I readily believed it. It explained a lot. Still it was lovely and charming enough to earn 3 stars from me.

A Fair Barbarian

February 4, 2026March 22, 2026 / Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

By Frances Hodgson Burnett

This early novella by Frances Hodgson Burnett of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess fame, was very much in the tradition of those stories that feature a visitor from afar whose different outlook on life transforms a person, a family, or even a whole town for the better. In the stories (or films) I am talking about, the transformation is not mutual. The visitor remains steadfast, it is the people around her that change. Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter, Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. It’s been compared to Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, but I haven’t read that one. And Maybe Silas Marner by George Eliot. Heck, what about Footloose or Sister Act?

I love the title of this book. Octavia Bassett is anything but a “barbarian.” If a little dashing and open-mannered, she is also well-behaved, kind, beautiful and classy. But she is from America, and in Slowbridge, “It was not considered in good taste to know Americans.” For sure not ones from “Bloody Gulch,” a small mining town in Nevada, where Octavia’s father made his fortune. She is a bit different from the young ladies in the small English enclave: she is self confident and unintimidated by the disapproval she encounters, particularly in the person of Lady Theobald, who rules insular Slowbridge with an iron hand. All of society must bend their behavior to her idea of what is gentile, proper, and correct. Particularly her sweet granddaughter Lucia. When Octavia arrives to stay with her meek and mild Aunt Belinda her effect on the town is much like a “tremor in the force.” Not that she does anything so shocking even by the standards of most of Victorian England, but it is how this town reacts to her. She wears beautiful gowns and jewelry, her hair is worn stylishly (curls on her forehead!), and she doesn’t just speak when she is spoken to but actually tries to have two-way conversations. She is not only seen but heard.

There is not a lot of action. The big climax occurs when a garden party is arranged without Lady Theobald’s blessing. Meanwhile Lucia has found some backbone thanks to Octavia’s example and influence. She has fallen in love with an unsuitable suitor while Lady Theobald is arranging a more conventional marriage for her. Unfortunately her first choice seems to have fallen under Octavia’s inevitable spell. The writing, descriptions, and the Austen-like satiric and humorous tone are the attraction here. I was also reminded of The Miss Buncle Books by D.E. Stevenson.

Satisfactory outcomes were had by all including an unhappy one for Lady Theobald. There was a slightly unexpected twist in the quickly wrapped up end. Or maybe it just seemed too quickly wrapped up because I just wanted more of Octavia Bassett. The narrator, Anne Hancock, of this Audible book perfectly voiced our main character. It reminded me of the raspy distinctive tones an old movie star, Jean Arthur, whose voice, as described by Edward G. Robinson, “grated like fresh peppermint.”

Northanger Abbey

December 18, 2025December 18, 2025 / Rebekahrox / 3 Comments

by Jane Austen

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Although I had never read this novel before, I knew the plot backwards and forwards thanks to the two BBC productions I have watched numerous times. Also I listened to an abridged version several years ago. I had started Val McDermid’s modern re-working of Northanger Abbey and it was not going well. It started me to thinking, “why am I reading this, when I still haven’t actually read the real one”? I decided to listen to it again since I have had the unabridged version in my Audible library for years. It was very funny right from the the start. It did go well. Of course I knew all the ins and outs of the plot. But I probably would have enjoyed it more if it were the first go round of any kind. Also, I suspect I would have picked up even more of the humor if I had read it on the page.

The book begins with Jane Austen informing the reader of all reasons why Catherine Morland, our heroine, is not suited to the role. In fact, The Narrator (Austen) pulls no punches in eviscerating Catherine and detailing her lack of heroic qualities. Brains? Nope.

She never could learn or understand anything before she was taught; and sometimes not even then, for she was often inattentive, and occasionally stupid.

Beauty? Nope

…and Catherine, for many years of her life [was] as plain as any. She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without colour, dark lank hair, and strong features…” No mention of “speaking, twinkling, intelligent, or laughing gray eyes, you will notice. But… At fifteen, appearances were mending…she had now the pleasure of sometimes hearing her father and mother remark on her personal improvement. “Catherine grows quite a good-looking girl-she is almost pretty today.”

Talents and accomplishments? Nope.

Her taste for drawing was not superior. though whenever she could obtain…any…odd piece of paper, she did what she could in that way, by drawing houses and trees, hens and chickens, all very much like one another. Writing and accounts she was taught by her father; French by her mother: her proficiency in either was not remarkable, and she shirked her lessons in both whenever she could. What a strange, unaccountable character!—

I laughed aloud at the idea of a house, a tree and a chicken looking very much alike. After being assured that Catherine’s father “is not the least addicted to locking up his daughters” we read that her mother was a woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, what is more remarkable, with a good constitution.”

So having assured us that Catherine does not fit the mold of a Gothic heroine she eventually plops her in the middle of a plot worthy of any respectable gothic romance. In her own mind. For Catherine is a little obsessed with gothic novels. Taken to Bath by well off family friends, Catherine is drawn in and befriended by the manipulative Isabella Thorpe and her crass brother who tries to worm his way into her affections. She also meets the upstanding and witty Henry Tilney and his nice sister Eleanor. Catherine develops a tendre for him and he seems to reciprocate her feelings. Eleanor invites her to their ancestral home, Northanger Abbey, for several weeks, and Catherine is in a state of shivery delight that the Tilney’s ancestral home is an actual Abbey.

Her passion for ancient edifices was next in degree to her passion for Henry Tilney…With all the chances against her of house, hall, place, park, court, and cottage, Northanger turned up an abbey…long damp passages…narrow cells and ruined chapel…the hope of some traditional legends, some awful memorials of an injured and ill-fated nun.”

Although unlike the films, the Abbey does not live up to her imagination, (not an “antique chimney”, dirt, or cobwebs in sight-Neither “awful forebodings of future miseries” nor “sighs of the murdered” either) she finds plenty of fuel for her fantasies. She convinces herself that Henry and Eleanor’s intimidating, strange-acting, and hot-tempered father murdered their mother (or possibly has her imprisoned somewhere in a secret cell.) When she is caught snooping in a place she should not be by Henry, he sets her straight and makes no bones about what he thinks of her deluded fantasies. In the face of his disdainful take-down she comes to her senses with a decided ker-plunk. (But he still likes her.) Ironically, it is after her wake-up call when General Tilney genuinely does her a shocking cruelty and even puts her life in danger by his rude and heartless actions. So maybe not so detached from reality after all.

Although Catherine Morland is not the crispiest chip in the bag, I grew to like her very much. She is kind and good-hearted, and if she is sometimes silly it stems from naivety and innocence rather than brainlessness. I was completely won over by this passage:

[Henry Tilney] looked as handsome and as lively as ever, and was talking with interest to a fashionable and pleasing-looking young woman, who leant on his arm, and whom Catherine immediately guessed to be his sister; thus unthinkingly throwing away a fair opportunity of considering him lost to her forever, by being married already… he had never mentioned a wife, and he had acknowledged a sister. From these circumstances sprang the instant conclusion of his sister’s now being by his side; and therefore, instead of turning of a deathlike paleness and falling in a fit on Mrs. Allen’s bosom, Catherine sat erect, in the perfect use of her senses, and with cheeks only a little redder than usual.

And she shines in comparison to two other women in the story: Isabelle Thorpe and Mrs. Allen. Mrs. Allen makes Catherine seem sensible and resolute and Isabelle highlights Catherine’s virtues by being her opposite. That Catherine has been able to attract the friendship and liking of such a role model as Eleanor Tilney also speaks very well of her. And how can one be too hard on someone who is such a voracious reader of novels? Unfortunately, although witty and tolerant, I found Henry a bit prosy and self satisfied. Not as likable as the Henry Tilney of the films.

“Henry,” said Miss Tilney, “you are very impertinent. Miss Morland,…He is forever finding fault with me, for some incorrectness of language, and now he is taking the same liberty with you. The word “nicest,” as you used it, did not suit him…”Very true, said Henry, “and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! It is a very nice word indeed! It does for everything. Originally perhaps it was applied only to express…”

And blah blah blah.

But that aside, I found myself chuckling at the wry humor, admiring Austen’s characterizations, and the skewering of the gothic novels of her day. Even though I am an old Gothic reader myself, I am not at all tempted to read one of the many of Catherine’s reading list based on the little snatches we are favored with in Northanger Abbey. I now have read all of Jane Austen’s books except Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice several times. I guess you could say I’m saving it.

Language of the Heart (The Toy Sword)

October 13, 2025 / Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

By Elizabeth Cadell

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This was Elizabeth Cadell at her finest. In most ways, it is a perfect example of the amusing old-fashioned English stories she writes. Everything typically revolves around a romance of varying importance to the plot, but there are always plenty of side stories and characters to entertain.

In the usual Cadell story, a nice, good, and attractive hero or heroine has somehow lost the plot and is not living his or her best life. They are often dominated by the wrong romantic partner. They leave the city for the country and find what is missing in their life. Usually, they are shown the way by getting involved, against their will, with someone who seems totally wrong for them, but turns out to be the right romantic partner after all. And throw in an eccentric character (usually elderly) or two that also contribute to our main character starting to see things in a different light. But this one set itself apart in more than a few ways:

A more deliciously nasty than usual fiancé for our hero to escape from. After Edmund gets back from his little life-changing vacation in Portugal, he is (cluelessly) looking forward to reconnecting with his beautiful, dignified, and sensible Angela again. To his befuddlement, he is greeted by her horrible mother who returns Angela’s engagement ring. He has committed the ultimate sin of doing something counter to his strong-willed fiancé’s stated wishes (orders). She will not even speak to him until he fixes what (she thinks) he did. Edmund handles the situation with grace and dignity. Unfortunately for Angela, Edmund has started to get a new perspective on life in general and doesn’t come to heel immediately as she expected. This is thanks to meeting…
Fran. And her little family while at his little farm in Portugal, Montebarca. She is a real charmer and the complete opposite of everyone he is used to: openhearted, kind, talkative, and spontaneous. To top it off, she loves and appreciates the primitive Montebarca, unlike his luxury-loving fiancé. She is made even more likable by …
The narration by Anna Guerrier. She gave our heroine Fran a real Hayley Mills vibe, and I can’t imagine the rest of the characters any other way but how she interpreted them. I love the way she gave Edmund a quietness that was an intriguing contrast with Fran’s garrulous personality.
Portugal. The author obviously knows and loves this country, and, as in many of her books, it becomes almost a third character. A metaphor exposing everything that is wrong with “London” Edmund and his normal life there. Edmund’s love for the country and his Montebarca reveal that he is a man worth saving from himself and his poor taste in fiancés.
There was one really great confrontation between Fran and Edmund after Edmund finds out how Fran interfered in his life behind his back. Edmund really lets fly, telling her off, and as much as I loved Fran and her generous heart, I was like, “He’s right! How dare she!” Then Fran had a go defending herself and eviscerating his character, and I changed my mind again.
There were some real surprises towards the end. Everything looked like it was wending its way predictably towards a lovely happy ending, but wait. Not so fast. There is a little secret that is revealed that puts a surprising new slant on Edmund’s two eccentric relatives he has given a home to and his supposed act of generosity towards them. And then all of our friends are confronted with scandal and infamy and end up in court. London is rocked. Didn’t expect that at all!

I can’t remember if justice is ever served to the meanies offstage in any of Cadell’s novels. But the comeuppances are front and center here. It was classic Cadell, but extra. An absolute delight.

Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle

September 21, 2025 / Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

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By Georgette Heyer

“Do you mean that I am redoubtable? Oh, you are quite mistaken!” “Am I? Then let us say intrepid!” She sighed. “I wish I were! The case is that I am a wretched coward.” “Your father gives you quite another character.” “I don’t fear fences.” “What, then?” “People – some people! To – to be slain by unkindness.” He looked at her with a slight frown…

Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle has always been right on up there with my favorite Heyers. I think it’s because of the unusual heroine and the complex hero. Most of her heroines have charm to spare and are, if not extremely beautiful, at least attractive with some outstanding feature or another. Phoebe is a drab little “sparrow” who is only at home and comfortable in a stable. She has been bullied and dominated her whole life by a rigid and cold stepmother whose mission in life seems to be to beat every spark of Phoebe’s own unconventional personality out of her and into a model of perfect but insipid behavior. As for our hero, although a large percentage of Heyer heroes are formidable and proud, very few, like Sylvester, have to undergo growth and change in order to find their happy endings. Of course as in all romances, Heyer included, one or both individuals must change towards each other, but not their actual mentalities. In this novel, although Phoebe comes into her own to a certain extent, It is Sylvester’s journey to self awareness that is the significant one.

The Duke of Salford has decided it is time for him to do his duty, get married, and perpetuate the House of Rayne. He has prepared a list of five candidates for the honor of his hand each more well born, well behaved, charming, and beautiful than the next. It makes no difference to him, so he takes his list to his beloved mother to see if she has any input as to which of the fortunate ladies to favor with a proposal of marriage. His wise and gentle mother’s suspicions are confirmed: Although always open, loving, and warm with her, (and his 6 year old nephew and current heir, Edmund) to all others he has closed himself off from any emotional attachment. He is considerate and well-mannered to his servants and his peers and is popular with all. But his exemplary behavior to others is not out of any empathy or warm feeling but because it is what is due to his proud family name and station. He says and does the right things always, but beneath this surface he is cold and aloof. Encouraged by his mother and godmother, on a whim he decides to meet one other candidate for the position of the Duchess of Rayne: Phoebe, the daughter of his mother’s long-deceased best friend and his godmother’s granddaughter. He is not impressed. And neither is Phoebe. To add to her discomfort, she has secretly written a novel which is about to be published and she has based the villain of the bloodthirsty gothic tale on Sylvester. She had met him at a ball once and she noticed his distinctive satanic-looking eyebrows and was hurt by his haughtiness and boredom with her. Of course Sylvester doesn’t remember her at all. Due to a misunderstanding, she has been told that he has travelled to her family’s country home with the intent of actually proposing marriage to her and she better accept him, or else. Horrified and panic-stricken by the prospect, she decides to run away to her grandmother in London (yes, that same one) escorted by her loyal friend Tom. Sylvester is considerably peeved, as well as incredulous, that such a plain and vapid chit of a girl would hold the idea of a proposal of marriage from him in such abhorrence that she would flee from home in a snowstorm. He leaves as well, and inevitably the 3 fugitives meet in a small inn and are marooned together for several days. As they get to know each other, Phoebe learns that Sylvester is actually a pretty good guy beneath the arrogant facade, and Sylvester learns that out from under her stepmother’s thumb, Phoebe is a clever, funny, and forthright original. She is mortified and guilt- stricken that she has made Sylvester her villain in a novel that will potentially hold him up to ridicule and suspicion. And Sylvester is embarrassed to realize that Phoebe’s initial poor opinion of him may be justified.

Adventures, escapades, and misunderstandings ensue. Despite its romp of a plot, there is a serious undertone to this book. Sylvester’s aloofness is self protection and is due to a terrible tragedy in his past. Before he is shaken off his high horse by Phoebe (and the down to earth Tom) he is on his way to a loveless marriage and, except for his care for his invalid mother and his little nephew, an emotionless half-life. The emotional abuse Phoebe has had to endure her whole life is the source of her hypersensitivity and fearfulness in society. Other than her writing, her future is bleak and lonely.

The book contains Heyer’s usual humor and comedy and the light tone is there. But although some of her comic set pieces involving Edmund’s flighty, shallow, and selfish mother and her silly fop of a husband are amusing, there is a potentially a very sad side to even them. When the couple actually kidnap Edmund from the guardianship of his Wicked Uncle (inspired by the plot of Phoebe’s unexpectedly successful novel) Edmund’s life is actually in danger due to their inattention and thoughtlessness, and he is exposed to the cruelty of neglect. Luckily for him, it is Phoebe and Tom to the rescue. And luckily for Sylvester and Phoebe, it is Sylvester’s lovely mother (and Phoebe’s eventual kindred spirit) who will save the day for them. The Duchess of Rayne’s cleverly engineered and tender reconciliation of the two soulmates continually at odds is one of my favorite endings in all of Georgette Heyer’s works.

Far and Away

August 20, 2025 / Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

by Amy Poeppel

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This is the story of what happens when a family from an upper middle class Dallas suburb exchanges homes for the summer with an affluent husband and wife from urban Berlin. Despite each being thrust into totally unfamiliar cultures and settings they manage to not only survive, but thrive. More or less. The core characters were all likable good people, which is the key to their ultimate success. And the premise was very entertaining. I’ve read 3 other books by this author and this was a close second to Small Admissions, still my favorite by this author. Lucy decides to get the hell out of ~~Dodge~~ Dallas when her sweet, brilliant and somewhat nerdy son Jack is expelled from school and cruelly crucified on social media and in their social circle (It was all a big misunderstanding). I was caught up in the injustice of it all and my fondness for Jack. Always in the background was my hope for eventual redemption and comeuppances. Lucy has a very happy and solid marriage but unfortunately she has to deal with the crisis on her own as her husband, a NASA scientist, is on a special project and incommunicado for 6 months. On the other side of the Atlantic, Otto, a surgeon, who is unhappy at his work and with his colleagues, gets a temporary job in Dallas and moves himself and his wife Greta, a private art curator. I should say loyal wife Greta moves them, because stiff and formal Otto is very much a traditional husband, and it is Greta that handles all of the day to day home type business.

Amy Poeppel’s books are all about the characters, although this one is jam packed with plot developments and many exploits as well. There is never a dull moment. In this novel, it is Greta and Otto who go through the most growth and change. They are different people by the end of this story. Lucy, Jack, and Lucy and Mason’s young twin girls are perfectly fine and happy as they are, barring Jack’s struggles and the fear for his crumbling future. They have other challenges, don’t get me wrong. In addition to trying to keep her rambunctious twins from breaking all of Greta’s priceless antiques in the lovely but museum-like (but tiny!) city apartment, Lucy has to contend with how to keep her bosses from finding out she is no longer in the United States (she mostly works from home), and more importantly, dealing with Jack wanting to meet his Scandinavian biological father when he doesn’t even know Jack exists, as well as the absence of her loving and normally involved husband. Meanwhile Otto and Greta have to contend with how to get Lucy’s huge modern suburban smart home to obey them, their (shock!) unruly dogs, too friendly and interested neighbors, Otto’s sociable new work colleagues, barbeques, and the very casual lifestyle of Dallas. On top of that, Greta has an ethical struggle and possible career-ender regarding a Vermeer painting that might have been painted by his daughter Maria instead. She also is concerned about her daughter Emmi who seems to be pulling away from her, and a mother that might be having an affair with a much younger man.

Stern and formal Otto’s enthusiastic embrace of everything to do with the Dallas lifestyle combined with Greta’s bewilderment over her husband’s new personality and her own more cautious and suspicious approach, provide much of the humor. When kitchen-adverse Otto brags that he has learned how to bake “stickerpoodles”, Greta is totally flummoxed. Despite his failures as a husband, Otto was very endearing in his ultimately successful efforts to fit in and his fracturing of the American language was too funny.

But the book is so much more than two fish out of water stories and how they end up being just what the doctor ordered. Amy Poeppel has a lot to say about social media, hypocrisy, gossip and how vicious and destructive it can be. And it shows how ordinary people can be brave and not go with the toxic mob mentality and make a difference with kindness, common sense, and fairness. It is not a romance at all, but by the end we have five happy couples, or maybe more, I lost count. The epilogue was all that I hoped, which means it was probably a little over the top.

Celia’s House

May 17, 2025 / Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

By D. E. Stevenson

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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.

Regency Buck

May 3, 2025May 4, 2025 / Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

By Georgette Heyer

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As familiar as I was with this story, listening to it being read (Audible-Jasmine Blackborow),as always, gave me a fresh outlook and enjoyment. The narrator was excellent, and I must credit her with making the ever-irate Judith a little less irritating and childish-seeming and Worth’s highhandedness understandable. This was the first Regency Romance by the mother of the genre. So this is the book, folks. The origin of it all. The urtext if you will. And as such, a more archetypal example there could not be. Judith is the quintessential strong, fiery, and headstrong type heroine. Worth is the all-knowing all powerful hero, a Corinthian, no mere Dandy, who excels at everything he does. Heyer mixed and matched all kinds of other personalities in her books of course, but this has sure been a popular combination of hers and her followers through the years.

The story unfolds around the country-raised and very rich Miss Judith Taverner and her eager but dumb brother Perry coming to London for the season after the death of their father. Due to a massive error on his part (like father like son in the brain department), they are under the guardianship of the 5th Earl of Worth, not his deceased father, the 4th Earl. Judith must have taken after her mother. To make a long story short, Worth gets on the independent-minded Judith’s bad side from the start with his arrogant dismissive ways, and they are at loggerheads throughout the novel. It is, in fact, an enemies to lovers trope, and a good one. Julian Audley, 5th Earl of Worth is not one of the more popular Heyer heroes. Some find him too overbearing, cold, and dictatorial. His behavior at their second meeting manhandling the prickly Judith into his phaeton (for her own good) and purposely provoking her by giving her a little kiss hasn’t won him any points among enlightened readers on the lookout for sexual harassment either. But I’ve always been a fan. His deft parryings of poor Judith’s every effort to get the better of him are very humorous. I did sympathize with and even admired her persistent efforts to exert her independence but for an intelligent girl she was not very wise when it came to her guardian. “Mad as a wet hen” is a phrase that comes to mind. She was forever letting her emotions and temper get the better of her brain while always trying to maintain her dignity. Worth’s overbearing maneuvers were often only to save her from cutting off her nose to spite her face while purposely provoking her for his own amusement. He just couldn’t help it.

As the Taverners are immersed in all manner of sport, culture, fashion, entertainments, and ways of the elite of society (AKA “The Ton”) in her introduction to London, so is the reader. The plot provides Georgette Heyer the perfect framework to display all of her meticulous research into the Regency period. The book could be used as a primer for aspiring writers of regency romances. Various real historical figures of the time are woven into the narrative including the Duke of Clarence (who proposes marriage), Gentleman Jackson the boxer, The Prince Regent (who makes a pass at her), and particularly Beau Brummel, who is a great friend of Worth and who becomes a wise advisor to Judith. We are treated to many actual quotes from the great Brummel woven into his conversations with Judith. Some readers count all of the factoids, long descriptions, historical details against the book. And I probably skimmed through a lot of it myself in previous readings. But listening to it all seemed different. I couldn’t just skip ahead and I liked it all. It is so obvious that GH took such delight in sharing all she had learned, and worked hard to include all of her little nuggets as seamlessly as possible. After writing historical romances set in other periods for 14 years prior to this first Regency, she finally found her niche, and it seemed to me like she was having a ball with the writing of it.

On top of the slow burn romance and Judith’s adventures amongst The Ton, we have a mystery! Someone is trying to kill Perry. It’s really not much of a mystery. Readers reading the book at the time might have been a little misled, but those who have read other Heyers or almost any other regency or gothic romance written in the years following this one will not be fooled. We 100% know who Judith will end up with from their first meeting so we know he is not the murderer. There is only one other person with a motive, and though he fools Judith, as savvy readers, we see right through him.

After our two combatants/lovers declare their true feelings, we are treated to a long happy conversation in which they have a lot of fun dissecting their relationship. We get a lot along the lines of “What did you think when I…? And when you did this, I just…! How could you have…? I thought I had lost you when…! Oh that day at…! This is very unusual for Georgette, and I absolutely loved it. Usually it’s declarations, clinch, and “The End.”

Georgette would continue to refine her style as the years went by, but this one, although it doesn’t have some of the subtle or hilarious characterizations of some of her later works, should not be missed. It is the foundation of a genre.

Auntie Mame: An Irreverant Escapade.

March 28, 2025March 28, 2025 / Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

By Patrick Dennis

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It’s been many many (many) years since I have reread this mid-century classic gem and old favorite of mine. I’ve read a few of Patrick Dennis’s books, many now very hard to find and undeservedly out of print. Two of the three books that are still readily available are (strangely) ones that I haven’t read and have no desire to. I guess that means my taste in novels by Patrick Dennis must be a little off. Around the World with Auntie Mame is still available and is now on my TBRR (To Be Re-Read) list. I’ve also read Guestward Ho, The Loving Couple, and The Joyous Season, which is one of my favorite books of all time, surpassing even this, his most well-known work. The Joyous Season is out of print and rarely mentioned when the subject of Patrick Dennis and his books come up in my poking around the internet. The reason why has always been confounding to me. I absolutely adored the 10-year-old narrator Kerry and his 6-year-old sister Missy whose upper-crust Manhattan parents’ marriage blows up one disastrous and hilarious Christmas Day. Besides the laughs on every page, I loved the romantic comedy aspects to it. I’ll stop there because otherwise this review of Auntie Mame will turn into trying to convince readers to read The Joyous Season instead. (But then read Auntie Mame, because it is a comedy classic and the basis for an award winning Broadway play and Hollywood movie for good reason.)

I listened to this on Audible and the narrator, Christopher Lane, was fine, although I would have wished for a more youthful voice as the book is narrated by Patrick whose adventures with his eccentric Aunt start when he is orphaned in 1929 at 10-years-old and ends around 3 years after his graduation from University. Mame Dennis’s guardianship is abruptly curtailed early on by his conservative trustee when young Patrick is discovered in an avant-garde school where all of the students and two teachers are racing around naked. From then on Mame only gets her “depraved” hands on him Christmases and summers.

I have seen the movie quite a few times and fairly recently. Most of the scenes play out much the same, with the book having the advantage of Patrick’s loving but sometimes acerbic narration and commentary on his and Mame’s life together. And of course the hilarious if sometimes harrowing episodes in their lives are unabridged. The first 3 chapters about Patrick’s and Mame’s first meeting up to when he is shipped off to boarding school for his own protection are pretty much the same. After that we are only favored with Patrick and Mame together only sporadically, while Patrick fills us in on what he knows about her adventures while he is safely at school. With the stock market crash and Auntie Mame “ruined, ruined, ruined!” (not by a long shot), she is forced to keep up with her expenditures by relying on her considerable social contacts for gainful employment. Her adventures on the stage with her great friend, Broadway star Vera Charles, down to her adventures selling roller skates at Macy’s, are almost identical to the movie. It is at Macy’s that she meets the love of her life, the fabulously wealthy Beauregard Pickett Burnside III, one of the “big, genial, easygoing, lovable” southerners. The movie only slightly curtails her clash with the old-time southern culture of Beau’s family and friends in the horsey set revolving around Peckerwood, Beau’s Georgia plantation. However, in the book, (trigger warning) horses die. I had forgotten that. After Beau’s untimely death (kicked in the head by a horse rather than falling off a mountain) Auntie Mame, as his widow, inherits all and is free to indulge her eccentric and lavish lifestyle once again. Upon Patrick’s prep school and then college years things start to diverge from the movie in plot, but not in spirit. The Agnes Gooch affair is much longer and set in Apathy, Massachusetts, home of Patrick’s St. Boniface Academy. Patrick is up to his neck with Agnes while trying to keep her and his aunt isolated from the school authorities to avoid possible expulsion. Agnes’s fate is a much happier one in the book. While in College (Ivy League, of course) we have Patrick entangled with a stripper named Bubbles, and Mame trying to recapture her youth by adopting Patrick’s social set as her own. Patrick’s engagement to the caricature of shallow wealthy WASP-dom, Gloria Upson, and her even more offensive family in the Connecticut suburbs are almost word for word. Except that in the book, they are even more racist, ridiculous, and pompous. Patrick as a young man is not as lovable as Patrick as a child. He takes way too long to rid himself of Bubbles, and to wake up to Gloria and her family. How he ever got engaged to her is a mystery other than she is beautiful and “stacked.” Wouldn’t be the first time, I guess. Moving on to WWII, Auntie Mame takes in some British War Orphans who are nothing more than thugs and reprobates who leave her with a permanent white streak in her hair. This is not in the movie at all, and Patrick’s meeting with his future wife, Pegeen, is completely different. Book Pegeen is a hoot. Patrick was a lucky guy, and sorry to say, given his history with women, I was somewhat amazed he had the good sense to nab her. As in the movie, everything comes full circle with Auntie Mame “kidnapping” their son Mike for an educational summer in India(Ha!).

Mame and Patrick become entwined with any manner of humanity likely to be ensconced in New York or environs from 1929 to 1945. And all are skewered in equal measure be they elite or common, liberal and avant-garde or conservative and stuffy. Some with affection, some not. Only two escape Patrick Dennis cynical wit: Beau, Mame’s late husband, and Pegeen (and maybe her father, Mickey the Mick.)

Despite their devotion to each other, Patrick is under no illusions as to Mame’s foibles and sometimes foolhardy impulses, And this applies to Mame’s insights into Patrick’s youthful follies and sometimes unfortunate tendencies. But the bottom line is that she raised a good man which we know by reading between the lines. Despite his understandable frustrations and complaints, he is always there for his Auntie Mame, and she for him (although as a master manipulator she is too wise to always lay all of her cards on the table.)

I Hope This Finds You Well

March 14, 2025 / Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

by Natalie Sue

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Jolene recalls the time she brought juice and milk instead of coffee and soda to an office potluck and they think it’s funny:

After that, I decided that limiting my interactions was the best way to keep people from hating me. But over time, embarrassment became resentment. I was annoyed that Rhonda had me buy drinks if coffee and the watercooler would’ve done it. That was the first step down a road. The thing about annoyance is that once there’s a spark, you can find more things to stoke it. It grew and amplified between me and them. And eventually the abyss stared back.

This was an entertaining and funny read with serious overtones. The darkness mostly stems from having to do with a heroine who has social anxiety and other damage due to a childhood tragedy that she was wrongly blamed for. She suffers from guilt that her family had to move to another city to escape the gossip and blame. Her mental state is not helped by an overbearing mother whose ill-judged parenting skills create stress and expectations she can not hope to meet. Therefore she lies about her career success and her romantic life, creating more stress. She is a bitter and very unhappy person.

She works in an office and to say that Jolene does not fit in is an understatement. Her office mates try to ignore her weird ways but are also hostile and hateful. They speculate on the chances of her going postal with a deadly weapon at some point, and they are half serious. And I’m not sure that I wouldn’t feel the same way about her (though I hope I wouldn’t be hostile and mean).

Her personal life is not any better. Her apartment is filthy and she is a borderline alcoholic. But since we are privy to her interior life and funnily sarcastic and incisive if black takes on the world and the people around her, I couldn’t help but like her while shaking my head at her self-sabotage. And I knew from the get-go that the book would be about Jolene’s journey out of the depths to happiness and health. So I was willing to put up with quite a bit from her.

The crux of the novel is how Jolene, due to some kind of computer foul up, is suddenly able to secretly read all of the private emails of her work mates and bosses. She finds out that massive layoffs are coming, and she will probably be first on the chopping block due to her, well, everything about her. She starts to play the social and political game to save her job. In the process, she finally gets to know the people she works with and everything that is going on beneath the surface. Needless to say, some people confirm her low opinion of them, and some do not. She gets to know Cliff, the new HR guy with whom she has to meet regularly for Sensitivity Training. He is a wonderful guy, and she starts to fall for him, and for some reason, he for her. With him, she is quick witted, funny, and nice with a refreshingly rebellious yet well-founded cynicism that he relates to.

There are many aspects of this book that are 5 star worthy. By itself, the premise of Jolene’s access to the secret thoughts and professional and personal lives of everyone in her office was a rich trove of humor and horror. There are revelations galore which made for quite the page turner. Eventually we know there will be hell to pay on many fronts when the truth comes out. We fear for Jolene while recognizing that justice is not on her side. But to me, Jolene’s growth came too late and then, too quickly in the book. I didn’t feel her journey was well managed. I was impatient with her constant negative attitude towards the good people in her life, especially Cliff. She always assumes the worst. I hoped that her relationship with Miley, a neglected little girl who lives in her apartment building would be the making of both her and Miley but the connection never really delivers on its promise.

The ending was satisfying and happy, just the way I like it. But I can’t give it 5 stars. Jolene disappointed me too often, until she didn’t.