Bright Arrows, book #4

 

Ok, so my B book threw me a little at first.  If you have ever read any of Grace LIvingston Hill's books, you know they are written in and set in the 1940s, so the language was just more proper and dignified.  It begins ...

Eden was sitting in the library of the old house where she had lived all her life.  She was going over some papers in the big library desk.  Her father had asked her to give special attention to them as soon as she would get home from his funeral service and be alone.

She had eaten quietly and conscientiously of the delicious supper that the devoted sorrowing servants had lovingly prepared for her.  She had tried to keep a cheerful face during their ministrations and then had told them that she wouldn't need them anymore tonight and they must go their beds and rest, for they had had a hard day.  They had blessed her for her thoughtfulness and gone off to finish the few remaining household duties.  Then they went silently to their rooms.

But once you get used to the style and try to put yourself in the scene, you can enjoy the story even more.  There were parts that got a little slow, and parts that were a little "spicy" by 1940s standards, but all in all in was a rather enjoyable book. 

Eden Thurston is orphaned and struggling to remain positive as scheming relatives swoop in for a portion of her father’s estate. Then letters she finds written by her mother when Eden was a child give her new hope to face the future, while a handsome young lawyer steps in to help her settle the estate issues.

I will tell you, though, this short summary does not even scratch the surface of all the characters involved in the book, including Ellery Fane, the son of her uncle's wife, but from a different father and his mother Lavira Fane, which are no good thieves who are trying to scam a way to getting into Eden's money.  Then there are Janet and Tabor, the faithful main servants who keep Eden safe from all the troublemakers; Casper Carvel, her childhood friend who changed so much during the war and thought he could just pick up where he left off with Eden; Mr. Lorrimer, that "handsome young lawyer" and the rat Niles Nevin, the brother of Eden's college roommate who just knew for sure she was the one for him.

Happy Reading!

O:)

Melissa