The Fair Miss Fortune (1930/2011) by D.E. Stevenson #DeanStreetDecember

👗 Jane Fortune is a new comer at a small picturesque English village. She stays at Dingleford Cottage, formerly owned by Mrs. Prestcott. As the title hinted, she is a fair girl with sweet nature, who intended to open a tea shop.

👗 Enters Captain Charles Weatherby, a smashing gentleman with good upbringing and lovely personality, who's immediately smitten to Jane, a sentiment that she reciprocates. Charles isn't the only man attracted to Jane, Harold Prestcott is another admirer. Harold is what we call "his mother's son". Mrs Prestcott is a selfish woman who dominate her son to be quite her slave.

👗 Unknown to anyone, Jane has a twin sister, Joan. While they are physically identical, Joan is quite different in personality to Jane. Joan is bolder, carefree, and often mischievous. She ran away from a bullying ruthless suitor from London, and take refuge at Dingleford Cottage. And for that reason, the sisters agree to keep Joan's presence a secret. And this forms the foundation of hilarious incidents and misidentification that made this novel another, softer, version of Wodehouse's stories.

👗 When Harold first came to Dingleford Cottage, it was Joan that he met, but he thought she's Jane. Joan seemed to equally like this sweet and simple young man. You can imagine, then, how astonished Charles, Harold, and others when they met Joan, whom they thought was Jane. Some awkward and comical meetings and misunderstandings are sure to take place! Not mentioning how Stevenson deliberately naming her heroine "Fortune". If you imagine there would surely be someone mentioning Miss Fortune, and the other misinterpreting it as "misfortune", well, you're not wrong. It sounds foolish, but to me those make this novel charming and delicious to read! Just the kind I need during the craziest time of year - December.

👗 The funniest scene is when a colonel is picking up Jane to be his guest at a dance party. Jane caught a cold the day before, and can't go to the dance. Joan, who loves dancing, insisted on replacing her place. When the colonel arrived - through kitchen door - he incidentally saw Jane, clad in pajamas, going down stairs. The two were astonished, the colonel was especially annoyed in finding Jane wasn't ready yet and thought he must wait at least twenty five minutes more. Imagine how astonished he was when not five minutes later Joan entered the kitchen, beautifully attired in gorgeous dress, make up, and all - and didn't understand the colonel's astonishment. (If you don't think it's that funny, it's because I'm not good at describing it😆)

👗 All in all, it's a satisfying read for me. This is just my second D.E. Stevenson, and though it's in different league from Vittoria Cottage, I still love it. I love them both equally. Interesting fact: D.E. Stevenson wrote this in 1930s but the book was only published posthumously in 2011, and Dean Street published it in 2022.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

I read this book for:

Dean Street December

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

A Bramble House Christmas (2015) by C.J. Carmichael #ALiteraryChristmas

🎄 Willa Fairchild, accompanied by her son Scout, arrived for Christmas holiday at Bramble House B&B in Marietta, Montana, followed by Finn Knightly at the same time. Willa's intention is to have a Christmas holiday, which, somehow, is important for Scout. Finn, however, are following Willa there for, as yet, an obscured purpose.

🎄 That's how this novella starts, with a snowy village, a cozy inn with lovely people, enshrouded with thin mysteries. Only gradually that the mysteries are unfolding. We came to know that Finn, a children book's illustrator, wants to know why his deceased father had left fifty thousand pounds to the nurse (Willa) who treated him during final illness. The reason behind Willa's over-protectiveness towards Scout soon becomes clear too.

🎄 Then there's also the mystery around the sapphire ring Finn's father had gifted Willa. The Brambles family - owner of the B&B - recognize the ring as an heirloom. Are there more than one ring, then? And how did Finn's father own the ring in the first place?

🎄 Amidst all these mysteries, one thing is sure. Finn and Willa are attracted to each other. Willa eventually opens up about her fuss over Scout all the time. But Finn still hasn't confessed that he is the son of her ex-patient, and that Finn isn't his real name. How would Willa react about his true purpose of getting to know her in the first place? That he had thought her a scheming ambitious woman?

🎄 This seemingly short, light, soppy Christmassy romance, turned out to have more depth than you would've expected - personal struggles in facing illness and death is one, and family secrets is another. All is encased with Christmas and winter cheerfulness - skating, skiing, tobogganing, hot cocoa, snowman's building, gifts, scrumptious Christmas dinner - just all you could imagine of a wonderful Christmas. And of course, there's love, forgiveness, and hopeful future - the essence of Christmas.

🎄 If it sounds like a perfect Christmas read, well.... it is!

Rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄1/2

Miss Marley (2018) by Vanessa Lafaye #ALiteraryChristmas #InspiredByClassics

🎄 We all know A Christmas Carol is the most famous Christmas story ever, written by Charles Dickens, the man who re-invented the Christmas spirit. It' is about Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation - perhaps the biggest character transformation in literature. We know what has made him the hard miser we have known him at the start. And his transformation begun with Jacob Marley. But what we know about Marley? What had made him ended up a tormented spirit burdened with those self-forged chains? This novella, Miss Marley, is our answer, written as a prequel to A Christmas Carol.

🎄 Miss Marley is Clara Bell Marley, sister to Jacob Marley. The siblings lived comfortably in their big house. But after their parents death, they were expelled from their house by their corrupt wicked uncle. Thus begun their wretched lives in London's slump. It began in working house, which infected poor Clara's lung and gave her severe coughing. Then Jacob brought her out in the street. And that's where we saw them at the beginning of the story.

🎄 Few days before Christmas, cold, hungry, and homeless, the siblings kept dreaming of a better life. Jacob was caring and attentive towards his sister. During their wretched hours, he kept telling her that he will fight and work hard to make Clara's life happier. One night they witnessed a man dying in the corner of the street. Instead of calling for help, Jacob picked one the man's two purses, and they ran away.

🎄 The money provided them shelter and medicine for Clara. They started working, and with the money, Clara suggested to lend money to the poor - thus the start of their money-lending business. Later on Jacob would find the acquaintance of a young ambitious Ebenezer Scrooge, with whom he would partner in building Scrooge and Marley counting house.

🎄 As soon as they started the money-lending business, Clara witnessed how Jacob gradually changed, from the caring and attentive boy who protected her in the street, to be the ruthless businessman who ignored his clients' plight for the sake of gain. This makes Clara abandoned their joint business, and chose to work at the store instead. After Scrooge and Marley, Jacob's transformation to the heartless man became more permanent. He didn't even relent when Clara and her fiancée needed business fund.

🎄 If you love A Christmas Carol, then this novella might thrill you. But let me warn you that it's less cheerful and hopeful for a Christmas read. It's about what had led Marley to be the doomed spirit, is it not? You can't hope that kind of story would make you feel Christmassy. But as a classic reader, I'm sure you'll appreciate it. Moreover, Vanessa Lafaye has kept the atmosphere true to Dickensian London.

🎄 An interesting fact: Lafaye died in the midst of writing this novella. The publisher and her husband then asked her writer friend Rebecca Mascull to continue. And we must give credit to Mascull for a seamless story, which you wouldn't know had been penned by two writers.

Rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

James: A Novel by Percival Everett, the reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn #InspiredByClassics

Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

🛶 James is the reimagining story of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, now told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. My reading of Huckleberry Finn was a few decades ago (hence no link of a review to provide here), that I almost remember nothing of the details before reading this book.

🛶 This story begins at the same point as was Huckleberry Finn. Jim heard about Miss Watson's intention to sell him, while Huck was apprehensive following news that his abusive Pap is coming home. Both slave and boy ran away that night. First to the Jackson island, then along the Mississippi river, with a lot of adventures - misadventures is more appropriate; more dangerous than fun - and revelations.

🛶 Their first adventures are close to what Mark Twain written in Huckleberry Finn - their boating along Mississippi river towards Cairo, the great flood that swept a house, from which they took provisions. I don't remember, though, the identity of the corpse they found in the house, which, would be revealed later in this novel. Their encounter with two con artists or confidence men, the King and the Duke, who were always attempting to prey on the gullible and naive, is also told here.

🛶 The major difference between the two books is in the depth of the story. Huckleberry Finn is more appropriate for YA readers, while James is more for those who had read the latter at school and now want to dig deeper than just what's on the surface, that is the adventures. For instance, here we get to know more of Jim's personality - his thirst for knowledge and passion for reading and writing.

🛶 His literary passions shaped Jim to be a more dignified man. The farther we plough through the book, we get to know the true mind and personality beneath the seemingly stupid, enslaved Jim: the intelligent, resilient, family man James.

🛶 Through James we were reminded of the extend of cruelty in slavery. Not only physical - the punishment, the lynching - but also the belittling of innocent human being. This novel is daubed as "both harrowing and ferociously funny". I personally think it's more thought provoking, though there are sprinkles of hilarity here and there, and of course, it's packed with the youthful adventures we are familiar with from Huckleberry Finn.

🛶 My favorite part is when Jim, or I should call him from now on James, talk normally to his fellow blacks, but then changes his language when a white people is present. His philosophizing in his mind or dream with John Locke or Voltaire is indeed quite hilarious. But my most favorite is perhaps the biggest revelation in James and Huck Finn's relationship; that is something I did not see coming, yet, quite makes sense. Their dynamic relationship is the book's soul anyway.

🛶 Needless to say, I am so impressed by this book, something I didn't expect. It deserves one day to be a classic of its own, which I believe Mark Twain would have approve had he read it himself. It's harrowing, but also hopeful.

Rating: 5 / 5

**James will be published on 11th April 2024.

Mystery in White (1937) by J. Jefferson Farjeon #ALiteraryChristmas

🎄 A Literary Christmas is always a seasonal reading event I'm looking forward to. This year, however, Tarissa @ In The Bookcase doesn't host the reading Challenge, so Brona @ This Reading Life suggested that we will just share the #ALiteraryChristmas hashtag for fun - no event, just sharing hashtag and to be connected. So that's what I'm going to do. This is my first book, a Christmas murder

🎄 When the six passengers found themselves being trapped in a snow-bound train, they decided to leave the train, and walk to the next station. They consist of one theater girl, one clerk, one psychic, one old pompous man, and a brother and sister who were on holiday. The psychic left first, running abruptly chasing someone. Then the others followed his trail. They were all eventually lost, like you would imagine during the blizzards. Tired, cold, and hungry, they were relieved when they find a house, imagining the warmth shelter it'll provide!

🎄 Fortunately the door wasn't locked, so they welcomed themselves in after knocking on the door without avail. The fire was lit, kettle's boiling, and tea were laid for three, but mysteriously, there's no one in the house! Since the theater girl's leg was injured, and the clerk's having fever, they decided to stay on. Then mysterious things started happening, like the sounds in the locked attic room, but next was found empty but not locked! A knife was found lying on the kitchen floor when they were entering it. There's also the framed photo of an old malicious man above the fireplace which felt like following them with his gaze!

🎄 Then a stranger came, a Cockney man, whom the old pompous man recognized as another train passenger who has killed another passenger! What was really happening? Was there a murderer among them? And yet... where were their hosts?

🎄 This, as you would imagine, was a perfect murder mystery you would love to read while curling under the blanket during a cold winter night - or in my case, cold rainy night! It might not be a proper Golden Age mystery - if you expect one by one were killed, you'll be disappointed - but it was fun and delightful nonetheless. There are the murder, family conflict of the past, little Christmassy stuffs, little sparkling romance, and the warm cozy atmosphere near the crackling fire amidst the snowy freezing storm outside, with a tinge of mystery and supernatural aspect. What more do you expect? I say, this is a perfect cozy Christmas mystery!

Rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄1/2

I also read this for:

British Crime Classics Challenge 2023

Murder While You Work (1944) by Susan Scarlett #DeanStreetDecember

❤ On board the train which takes Judy Rest to her new work in a munitions factory during WWII, she met Nicholas (Nick) Parsons, a handsome young man who works as some kind of explosive researcher at the same factory. He gets rather queer when Judy told him she'd been billeted with the Formers. That's apparently the first foreboding about the house.

❤ The household which would become Judy's temporary home consists of old Mrs. Former - a half-dead elderly woman who's fond of her equally old dog: Mr. Roger; her daughter Rose - a sweet, naive woman; Clara Roal - an intelligent widow and Mrs. Former's niece who manages the household with strict economizing. Last but not least is the boy - Clara's son Desmond - a queer child upon whom Clara's existence is centered.

❤ Judy sees clearly that Mrs. Former and Rose are afraid of Clara. She herself are instantly attached to them both, but she stands out against Clara, who dislikes her, especially after she learned about Judy's former work as hospital nurse. One day Mr. Jones, the dog, was found dead. Clara has been despising him, she thought it's a waste to feed a dog, that the food should be given to her child instead. In fact, that's her view of her economizing - Desmond should receive all the best, and the adults should make sacrifices for the sake of the child.

❤ Mr. Jones's death occurred right after he's stolen meat from the larder. And this incident raised Nick's first suspicions towards Clara. Things get worse with Mrs. Former's sudden death of, apparently, heart problem. The question raised whether it's natural death, or is it murder? If it's murder, what's the motive?

❤ This story is an inverted mystery. The readers - as well as our main characters - know without doubt whodunnit, but the motive and method remain a mystery, or at least, a doubt. Is it worth reading, then? Of course! If you are a hardcore fan of proper Golden Age mystery, though, you might be disappointed. But on the whole, this was a good entertaining read. There's the eerie Gothic atmosphere of it, fast-paced psychological thriller, a spark or romance to spice up the story, and loveable characters on the whole. My favorite is Judy Rest. She's a plucky young woman with determination, but also kindhearted towards the weaker. I love how she determined to stay in the house, despite of the looming danger, for the sake of poor Mrs. Former and Miss Rose. A strong headed but soft hearted heroine makes a perfect story!

Rating: 4,5 / 5

I read this book for:

Dean Street December

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

Vittoria Cottage (1949) by D.E. Stevenson #DeanStreetDecember

💚 In this quiet domestic post-war novel, we get acquainted with Caroline Dering, a forty something widow who lives in a rural village of Ashbridge, and the owner of the titular Vittoria Cottage. She is a simple, quiet, and charming woman, doting mother of two daughters and one son.

💚 Caroline's son is in Malaya, serving the British military. Her older daughter, Leda, is nineteen, and in love with Derek, son of the local squire. In this peaceful atmosphere, Caroline's life is suddenly stirred by the arrival of a Robert Shepperton, a widower who is recuperating from war and the loss of his wife and bombed London house. Reluctant at first to accept the fact, Caroline realizes that she is in love with Mr. Shepperton.

💚 Complication arises in the form of Caroline's sister Harriet, a vivacious actress from London, who, soon after her arrival to stay at Vittoria Cottage, falls in love with Mr. Shepperton. It is with anguish that Caroline watches them comfortable in each other's presence. But whom does Robert Shepperton - who always have reasons to visit Vittoria Cottage - really love?

💚 In contrast with these middle-age triangle-love, is Leda and Derek turmoil relationship. Leda is a spoilt girl who must get what she wants, while Derek a lazy chap. They want to get married, but Derek's father and Caroline advise them to wait until Derek finishes his law school (which he hates), and get settled.

💚 My favorite character, excepting Caroline and Mr. Shepperton, is Caroline's son James, who comes home from war midway through the book. He's Caroline dearest offspring, and James is so care and tender towards his mother. I love their relationship. If only every man in the world can treat his mother like James to Caroline, I believe our world would be much better to live in.

💚 All in all, this is a charming and comforting story of domestic life in a rural village after WWII. A perfect vehicle to catch a glimpse of post-war life - the peacefulness of the middle-ages, as well as the restlessness of the youths, all interwoven in one beautiful canvas, skillfully crafted by D.E. Stevenson. A very soothing read for the hustle-bustle of life during the end of year.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

I read this book for:

Dean Street December

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