Three Different Genres I've Enjoyed Recently: Mini Reviews

I have successively enjoyed three books from three different genres: one is a young-adult fantasy, the other a Golden Age mystery. The last one is a book from the middlebrow collection of Dean Street Press. I loved them all, and here's why...

Book of a Thousand Days (2007) by Shannon Hale

💙 This story was reimagined from a Grimm's fairy tale (an obscure one, which I doubt you've ever read - I haven't even heard of it). It becomes a sort of fairy tale, set in medieval Mongolia. Young Dashti is an orphaned commoner girl, who's brought up in steppes. After her parents died, she got a job as a lady's maid of Lady Saren, whose father is imprisoning her for seven years in a tower, for refusing to marry a wicked and cruel Lord Khasar. When Dashti agreed to serve her lady in imprisonment - for seven years, no less - I instantly loved her character. Serving here isn't just in the ordinary way, Lady Saren asked Dashti to pretend to be her, whenever Khan Tegus - Lady Saren's betrothed - came secretly to the tower. Thus I learned that Lady Saren isn't just a spoilt or lonely gentry girl, there's something dark and mysterious lurking in her heart. The mystery revealed when they have been out of the tower. Another thing revealed is that the Titor's Garden, the Realm whence they came, had been destroyed by Lord Khasar. Homeless and fearful, Dashti must save and protect her lady. But where could she go? And how could she do that by herself?

💙 All in all, it's a wonderful tale. There's enough of everything for everyone - the romance, the humour, the battle, the exotic background. And the story is told from Dashti's point of view, as a diary. When you read a diary of a pleasant and interesting character, it's bound to be entertaining. Add that with a medieval realm in Mongolian, well... like I said, a wonderful tale, is what you'll get.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Crook o' Lune (1953) by E.C.R. Lorac

🧡 Derived from the idyllic rural village in England, Lunesdale, E.C.R. Lorac presented a mystery set in High Gimmerdale, in the same dale. Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald is on holiday, and aiming to learn more about farming - an occupation of his dream after future retirement. However, when an arson and sheep-stealing cases took place, he couldn't say no when the local constable asked him to co-investigate. The fire was aimed to destroy Gilbert Woolfall's - the current owner of Aikengill - study. But his housekeeper was also found dead because of the fire. Who would have the motive? Was it the vicar, who resented the lose of a stipend; or the shepherd and his bethroted, who were promised by Gilbert Woolfall to stay at Aikengill if the housekeeper handed in her notice? Or was it only a decoy to smoothen a sheep-stealing scheme? 

🧡 I have realized from quite the beginning of the story, that its main attraction wouldn't be the mystery itself, but the vivid description of the beautiful countryside, the farming's hardship, and the people, which Lorac made live with her wonderful penmanship. You'd feel as though you yourself are making a holiday in Lunsdale, and breathing its countryside air. The result is a refreshing novel with an entertaining mystery. For once, I didn't try to guess the whodunnit or howdunnit, but just flowed with the story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ten Way Street (1941) by Susan Scarlett

🤎 I have enjoyed some of Susan Scarlett's (pseudonym of Noel Streatfeild) novels before, and this one is no different. Number ten of Way Street is the the abode of an actress called Margot Cardew, with her three children. And that's where Beverley Shaw had landed her first job as governess right after finishing the training, provided by the orphanage school, where she had come from. Beverly is a spirited young woman with positive attitude, ready to bring the three unruly children to their better selves. Peter Crewdson, Margot's admirer and friend to the children, saw Beverley as Joan of Arc. You know the drill... a governess to work her way to the children's heart that they're afraid of losing her, again. Then a handsome guy fell in love with her, triggering jealousy, not only from the children, but their temperamental narcistic mother too.

🤎 As were with all Susan Scarlett's, though the premise is predictable, the story was woven skillfully, and the characters are perfectly drawn. The result is a delightful story and a page turner - I knew how it will end, but still, there'd be little surprises along the way - that in the end, I sighed contentedly after "the end". What more would you ask?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Babbacombe's (1941) by Susan Scarlett #DeanStreetDecember

Book Beginnings on Fridays (hosted by Rose City Reader)

We are this term losing a head girl who has been in every way splendid. For me, and for the staff, and the school, next term will be the poorer because Elizabeth Carson is not with us.

👗 I have read three Susan Scarlett's so far (two adults' and one children's), and they're all so satisfying, that I decided to keep exploring her books. Babbacombe's combined working life, family dynamics, and romance. Beth Carson is just finishing school with great marks, and is now ready to enter working life as a junior in Gowns department at the Babbacombe's - a department store belongs to old Mr. Babbacombe.

👗 Beth is lucky because she would join her father, who has been working at the same establishment for many years. How many girls could boast the privilege to go to and from work in their father's company and protection? That would be an ultimate father-daughter time. Providing they have an intimate and affectionate relationship, which the Carsons possess. They embody the perfect family one could ever wish - loving each other, and thriving in each others' being. And now it's time to throw some prickly pins into their blissful existence.

👗 First, a spoilt, self-centered cousin has arrived from the country to live with them: a Dulcie Carson. Her single aim is to get a rich husband. Then Edward, Beth's brother, begins to show early stages of cataracts which affect his sights. An operation would be performed to see whether his sights would be improved or go totally blind. A devastating condition that shakes the family. Lastly, old Babbacombe's ne'er-do-well bur handsome son, David Babbacombe, who entered Beth's life as she was trapped inside the lift with him, and scorned him for not earning his own money, which in turn inspired him to get a job at the Babbacombe's.

Friday 56 Quote (hosted by Heads Full of Books:

You know, she was a girl of sense. I'm not sure she wasn't right. How would it be if I came back into Babbacombe's? ~ David to his father

👗 It's not difficult to imagine how the story would go from here (and even how it would end). And your guesses wouldn't have been very far from true. This is that kind of story, but with a cheerful and affectionate tone, as well as vividly portrayed characters. The characters are the strongest point of this book. I loved the family's dynamic; the way they daily interact. You can feel that they belong to each other, and feel at ease among the others. They become companions and partners, though they keep respecting each according to their merits. It reminds me a lot of my own family. I loved too, that Scarlett didn't "punish" the antagonist too severely.

👗 Babbacombe's reminded me a lot of Émile Zola's The Ladies Paradise. Both have similarities; from the setting (a department store), to the heroine (Denise and Beth are both junior salesgirl in Gowns department), and they both fell in love with their bosses, though in Beth's case, the boss' son. Denise and Beth are also torn between the decency of class difference and their hearts, with Mouret and Babbacombe are both despaired by their girls' aloofness. I wonder if Susan Scarlett was inspired by The Ladies Paradise, though Scarlett's version was stripped of any Victorian's superfluous exaggeration, typical especially of Zola's. All in all, this is a charming story and perfect read for #DeanStreetDecember. Many thanks to Dean Street Press to republish it!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Dean Street December #DeanStreetDecember

hosted by Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home

Frenchman's Creek (1941) by Daphne du Maurier

🛶 Frenchman's Creek is set in the 17th century of Cornwall. After my first acquaintance with du Maurier through Rebecca (loved it), I have since read My Cousin Rachel (quite like it, though not as wholesome as Rebecca). I've been wondering what to read next, when I read The Cornwall Sabbatical (a memoir) by Jonathan E. Cox last year, where Frenchman's Creek and Jamaica Inn (both are set in Cornwall) were mentioned. Then I knew what I should pick for next read. I found that Frenchman's Creek is in very different league with Rebecca, though equally entertaining.

🛶 Dona, the Lady St. Columb, was thirty, and mother of two children. Bored with the frivolousness of London's high society, and, partly, with her dull and foolish husband, Dona fled with the children to their ancestors' house in Cornwall, the Navron house.

🛶 She felt peaceful at first, but began to notice mysterious things like a jar of tobacco and a poetry book inside her bedroom's drawer, whom do they belong to? William, the butler? Very unlikely... Then, there's a secret meeting between William and a man at night outside the house. Who is he, and what they're discussing? Then one day Dona took a walk along the stream towards the river, and accidentally found a beautiful and secluded little creek. And there, totally hidden from outsiders' sight, a ship was anchored - a pirate ship!

🛶 There had been concern among the gentries in the village. A group of French pirates had been robbing their belongings for sometimes, but they failed to catch them. But they had had enough, and now, helped by some soldiers, they intended to capture and hang the pirates, especially the captain, a Frenchman called Jean-Benoit Aubéry.

🛶 The same Frenchman captured Dona during her walk, but rather than afraid, she was fascinated by the ship, the captain (a cultured and pleasant man), and by the overall idea of freedom, adventure, a bit of danger, and excitement of pirating. Moreover, she began to fall in love with the Frenchman - a feeling reciprocated by the other.

🛶 Now, what will Dona do - will she let her foolish husband and his peers capture and hang her lover, keep her love affair a secret, then be back to her London life as a wife and mother? Or will she throw her former life away, fight against the hypocrite landlords, and embrace the Frenchman's offer of a new life of love and freedom she really wanted? Whichever option she'd pick, it shows how unfortunate to be born as a woman in that era!

🛶 If you think this is a pure romance story, you're wrong. There's still the trace of du Maurier's remarkable quality of gothic-thriller writing, and vivid story-telling in this book. The romance and adventures just made this book more entertaining, with a touch of deeper subject of women's constraint versus men's freedom.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐