Keeping The Castle
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- €4.99
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- €4.99
Publisher Description
“Fans of I Capture the Castle will love this delicious confection.”—Polly Shulman, author of Enthusiasm
“Take one Austenian heroine in desperate financial straits, put her in a crumbling castle, give her two evil stepsisters and some very unsuitable suitors. Make it funny! Patrice Kindl’s Keeping the Castle is an absolute charmer!”—Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
Seventeen-year-old Althea bears a heavy burden on her slender shoulders. She must support her widowed mother, young brother, and two stepsisters who plead poverty—and she must maintain Crawley Castle, a tumbledown folly designed and built by her great-grandfather. Althea, in short, 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, attractive, and very rich Lord Boring comes to stay with his aunt and uncle. Althea immediately starts a clever stealthy campaign to become Lady Boring. 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 . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her first book in 10 years, Kindl (Lost in the Labyrinth) creates a sharp-witted comedy of manners set in 19th-century England that mirrors the narrative voice of Jane Austen. Seventeen-year-old Althea Crawley's mission is to secure a husband rich enough to repair the family's crumbling castle, since her wealthier live-in stepsisters aren't much help. (They "did feel some obligation to contribute towards their upkeep, but the sum was ever in dispute, and tardy in payment.") Althea's best prospect for a suitable fianc is newcomer Lord Boring, but much to her annoyance, at social outings and parties she finds herself paired with his brash and outspoken companion, Mr. Fredericks. The banter between Althea and Mr. Fredericks will clue in readers that they are, in fact, a perfect match, something it takes Althea a while longer to recognize. Althea's tongue-in-cheek commentary regarding the selection of a suitor and her razorlike quips are abundantly entertaining, but it is the heroine's remarkable ingenuity and compassion for loved ones including her widowed mother, younger brother, and an artist friend, Miss Vincy that make her so endearing. Ages 12 up.
