Kaethe

It's not the perfect book for everyone, but for those who love I Capture the Castle and Code Name Verity, it should be a very good fit. The surface is the story of three princesses living in a medieval castle (almost) on a tiny rocky outcrop in the Atlantic, among the last few residents of the miniscule kingdom of Montmaray. The time is 1936. As the title implies, a fair amount of history is revealed, all of it accurate except for the ruling family and the island itself. Self-appointed librarian Veronica and novel-reader Sophie are both realistic and pragmatic even as their gothic cliche of a country, kingdom, castle, and way of life are fading out of the modern world. The whole is a marvelous synthesis of Mitford eccentricity and the terror of another Great War, as told by a young woman more familiar with Jane Austen than the progress of the early 20th century. The tone is more Indiana Jones than Anne Frank and it must be said that the book rollicks. There is an endearing Portugese Water Dog named Carlos and an impetuous younger sister who prefers to go by the nickname Henry. I'd particularly recommend it to younger readers who like clever kick-ass princesses.

***

January 3, 2015

I'd checked the whole series out for Natasha, and since it was just lying around, I decided to pass an idle moment with it. And then I got sucked in, and read some of it aloud to Natasha, and she got sucked in, and then I had to read the next two as quickly as possible in order to hand them back over to her. Loved them even more this time.

Library copy.