I received The misses Mallett as part of a wonderful surprise Christmas gift from Maren who reads this blog, and it was my first VMC of 2010. It is the slightly Jane Austen-esque tale of four unmarried women - Sophia and Caroline, middle aged spinsters, and their younger step-sister Rose, and their niece Henrietta, who comes to live with them halfway through the story after her mother dies. Neither Rose nor Henrietta are very happy with the idea of spinsterhood and devote their energies to trying to escape it, both trying to win over Francis Sale, a local gentleman.
There's just the one VMC cover, above, but my copy was actually a Dial Press edition - same picture but with black instead of green.
Such a bizarre coincidence - this book is now sat on my desktop as my next read!! Thought it sounded like an interesting story, and a like the description of it as 'slightly Jane Austen-esque'!
ReplyDeleteHow lovely of Maren!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds good. Although, "Jane Austen-esque" would have been enough to sell the book to me!
ReplyDeleteEscaping - what a coincidence indeed! Let me know what you thought.
ReplyDeleteClaire - it was an amazingly lovely surprise! Aren't bookish friends kind.
Makedo - Jane Austen-esque is a good selling point.
So did you like it, Verity? I have The Curate's Wife but am waiting to find its prequel, Jenny Wren, until I read it, which is proving VERY difficult and even more so now I can't buy any more books!
ReplyDeleteI did like it indeed. I have just bought The curate's wife, but didn't realise it had a prequel - oops! I'll try to get a copy to lend to you Rachel.
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