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.
