My Thoughts: Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindle

5 oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies.

Cover Love:
Yes.  There is something I love about this cover!

Why I Wanted to Read This:
The cover is really the first thing that caught my eye about that ans the synopsis made me want to read it even more.  Here it is from GoodReads:

Seventeen-year-old Althea is the sole support of her entire family, and she must marry well. But there are few wealthy suitors--or suitors of any kind--in their small Yorkshire town of Lesser Hoo. Then, the young and attractive (and very rich) Lord Boring arrives, and Althea sets her plans in motion. There's only one problem; his friend and business manager Mr. Fredericks keeps getting in the way. And, as it turns out, Fredericks has his own set of plans . . . This witty take on the classic Regency--Patrice Kindl's first novel in a decade--is like literary champagne!

Romance?: Yes!


My Thoughts:
I just adored this story!  I loved the time period, I love Althea, I loved the castle.  It is like the perfect cross between Jane Austen and a fairy tale.  We have a moat, a castle, and wicked stepsisters.  We have titled young men and the women who want to marry them.  We have snobbery at the untitled, "new" money and we have a very happy ending--with all the loose ends tied up neatly in a pretty bow!  So much goodness!

I shared in Althea's frustration between wanting to know something but having enough decorum to be unable to ask direct questions.  That would be so frustrating!  Everyone talks around the main topics and because Althea's mother was not a gossip there was much they didn't know until the end.

I also liked that Mr. Fredericks was not described as so good looking when Althea first met him and that his looks grew on her.  And that Althea was a beauty, but she also was witty and smart.  I saw elements of Emma and Pride & Prejuidice.   And all the while, Althea was so focused on her duty to her family that small things escaped her notice.

This is one of those books that I saw the writing on the wall, but I wonder if younger readers, who are not as well versed about Austen-ish tales, would pick up on the little things. I am going to send this off with one of my students this week and see what she thinks!

To Sum Up:  I bought this for my library and can't wait to book talk it this week to my seventh graders!  It was just wonderful!