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red29's review
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ajackson's review
2.0
I didn't like this book nearly as much as some of Hill's other books (and I've been in a rut reading a TON of her stuff lately - Thanks Project Gutenberg- so I feel like I have a little perspective). Compared with her classic - The Enchanted Barn - this one just felt so flat. The main character was ok - I definitely feel like she was relatable in a lot of her anxiety - probably more so even at the time this was written; however she changed opinions so much that I got a bad case of whiplash trying to keep up with her current moods! Does she feel like helping her fellow boarders today? Or is she going to be a snob? Does she like the preacher? Or can she not stand him? Maybe she is too real, and as I've been reading a lot of books from the turn of the 20th century, I'm expecting my heroines to be a little too perfect. Regardless, this review is my own, and she annoyed the crap out of me by the end. I felt like it was a waste of a good book, though, because there was so much potential. She was a nice character at the beginning, and I felt like it was going to be great, but then I hated her snobbery towards Mamie and her unforgiving attitude toward Harry (although she definitely changed). And then her random engagement to the minister...don't even get me started! I know that romance was not written on the page often in older books (remember, I've been reading a lot of them lately - just check out my goodreads history!) and I do realize that it was hinted at - but it just seemed like it happened ridiculously fast. You knew it was coming because...predictability...but if it wasn't for that, you'd have never seen it coming. (side note: it's like the time my best friend and my husband's best friend decided to start dating...they broke the news to us one evening and it was rather shocking...you see, while we loved them both and knew they were hanging out, it was just completely random! They had nothing in common and had barely started hanging out! We didn't really see them together and it was a shock. Not surprisingly, they broke up 6 months later, but you see my point. When you don't see things coming, it is a shock, even if you see them coming.)
All that to say...this is not one of my favorite books by this author. If you want a great turn of the century novel, try The Enchanted Barn by Hill or He Fell in Love with His Wife by Roe. Skip this one and read something better!
All that to say...this is not one of my favorite books by this author. If you want a great turn of the century novel, try The Enchanted Barn by Hill or He Fell in Love with His Wife by Roe. Skip this one and read something better!
zireael's review
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I had high hopes for this one. I enjoy some of Livingston Hill's books, despite the religious aspect, because her trope of 'girl with money enters a run-down home and makes it lovely with cleaning and baking and heart' is all of my jams. It's why I keep re-reading Brentwood and The Honor Girl . This book looked like it would be right up that alley, but alas. Apart from a chapter or two focusing on that kind of Jane Eyre-ian domestic fervor, it's mostly about how the main character and her aunt spread the word of Jesus to the boarding house inmates and re-makes them into good Christian folk.
Things I liked:
-Celia trying to add some beauty into the run-down boarding house.
-Molly Poppleton.
-The brief, glorious, deep cleaning and food porn section.
Things I disliked:
-Celia's interaction with the 'three cent girls'. Poor Mamie is a sort of Eliza to Celia's Professor Higgins, except Celia makes Mamie as much as possible into herself. All the while secretly quailing with disgust at having to interact with her at all.
-If you're a Christian, you only sing sweet religious songs. People who like funny or romantic songs have such awful taste, can they even be saved?
-Celia assuming that the girl in Horace's picture was his girlfriend, and thus treating him with maidenly coolness, for a full third of the book. It's a predictable and tiresome trope.
-Livingson Hill's apparent belief that it's 'unmaidenly' for girls to fall in love without open encouragement. Pops up in Re-Creations too, if I remember rightly.
Things I liked:
-Celia trying to add some beauty into the run-down boarding house.
-Molly Poppleton.
-The brief, glorious, deep cleaning and food porn section.
Things I disliked:
-Celia's interaction with the 'three cent girls'. Poor Mamie is a sort of Eliza to Celia's Professor Higgins, except Celia makes Mamie as much as possible into herself. All the while secretly quailing with disgust at having to interact with her at all.
-If you're a Christian, you only sing sweet religious songs. People who like funny or romantic songs have such awful taste, can they even be saved?
-Celia assuming that the girl in Horace's picture was his girlfriend, and thus treating him with maidenly coolness, for a full third of the book. It's a predictable and tiresome trope.
-Livingson Hill's apparent belief that it's 'unmaidenly' for girls to fall in love without open encouragement. Pops up in Re-Creations too, if I remember rightly.
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