Regina (by Clare Darcy)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s been interesting re-reading my small collection of Regency romance novels by Clare Darcy. She’s the closest writer I’ve come across to Georgette Heyer’s brilliance, but it’s been a long time since I read any of her books.  I’ve just finished ‘Regina’, which I last read towards the end of 1999. 

Unsurprisingly, in the intervening twenty-five years I had entirely forgotten the plot and the characters. So it was as if I were reading a new (to me) book. The main character is a young woman - in her mid-twenties - called Regina. We quickly learn that she was widowed a year earlier, but she’s not grieving. She had been infatuated with an older man when she was in her late teens, but soon discovered that her late husband cared nothing for her.  The book is set in the early 1800s. 

Reggie has been called to the family home, where her uncle is feeling very stressed. His daughter Bella - who is 17 - wants to marry Lord Wrexham, a rather older man. So her father thinks she should have a London ‘season’, chaperoned by her cousin. He’s willing to pay for not just Bella’s new wardrobe, but Reggie’s too, and will open up his London home for them. It’s an offer she can’t refuse, even when she learns that she must also look after Bella’s three younger siblings. They will have plenty of staff, including an excellent ‘Nannie’. 

Lord Wrexham has something of a reputation with women and is rather older than Bella, so Reggie hopes to find someone more suitable for her cousin. She’s worried that she’s going to find herself in the same situation, with a mostly absent husband who has a string of affairs. But Bella is not yet old enough to accept a proposal without her father’s consent, and it’s agreed that the potential engagement should not be made public. 

The whole feels quite authentic, as the cavalcade travel to London. Reggie and Bella start acquiring new gowns and other essentials, and quickly become part of the local social circles. Bella meets plenty of eligible young men, but continues to show a strong partiality for Lord Wrexham. Reggie finds herself at odds with him almost every time they meet, but it’s clear, too, that she finds him oddly attractive as well as irritating. 

There’s an extra side story involving an elderly count and his nephew who recently arrived from France, and are looking for a diamond necklace. The older man says he gave it into Reggie’s husband’s keeping, but she knows nothing about it. So part of the story involves quite exciting searches in an empty house. Bella’s 16-year-old brother Colin is enthusiastic, caught between childhood and adulthood, and I thought he was very well-portrayed. I liked their two younger siblings as well, who seem to run riot whenever they can escape from their protectors. 

Lord Wrexham, too, is a surprisingly likeable character, and Bella is outspoken, attractive, and rather different from many young women of the era. I liked Reggie as well. I had guessed how it would end - part of it, anyway - but wasn’t sure if I was correct until the final chapters. There are a few surprises before an entirely satisfactory conclusion.

It’s not Heyer, but it’s a good story with a nice pace, and believable conversations and language. I enjoyed reading ‘Regina’, and hope I don’t wait another twenty-five years before reading it again.

Long out of print, but sometimes available second-hand. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

The real Katie Lavender (by Erica James)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s twelve years since I read Erica James’ novel ‘The real Katie Lavender’. So, unsurprisingly, I had forgotten both the plot and the characters. On the whole I like this author’s novels - I keep collecting them - but some, in my view, are much better than others. I hadn’t remembered this as one of my favourites, but started it, a few days ago, with an open mind.

It’s quite a dramatic opening. Katie, who is thirty, thinks she’s immune from shocks. Her beloved father died a few years earlier, and then her mother died unexpectedly a year before the story begins. She is still grieving, and misses them both; but she’s living in her mother’s home, where she loves gardening. And she has a job that she likes. 

Except that, on the first page, we learn that she has just been made redundant. She doesn’t react badly, and as she returns to her desk she notices her phone ringing. It’s a solicitor whom she has never heard of, asking her to a meeting. She had received a letter from the company the previous day, and was puzzled as they were not a firm she had heard of before.

But she decides she might as well take an extended lunch-break. She calls her best friend Tess to tell her that she’s lost her job, and that she’s on her way to a mysterious meeting. Then she gets to the lawyer’s office, and is handed a letter, written by her mother, giving her some shocking information…

The rest of the book is about Katie making some difficult decisions as she goes to check out some people she had never previously heard of. She meets not just the person she was looking for, but his extended family. She happens to arrive during a 90th birthday party for a delightful lady called Cecily, and is taken for a waitress. Then there’s a terrible tragedy that’s hits the family, along with some potential scandal… and she is slowly drawn into their lives. 

It’s a character-based book with some people whom I liked very much. Cecily is astute, intelligent and kind. Her daughter-in-law Pen is passionate about gardening, and somewhat absent-minded, but she’s also very intuitive and generous. And Pen’s son Lloyd is a free spirit who works making furniture, and loves to travel. He has no interest in making a lot of money. He’s rather good looking, too…

On the other hand, Lloyd’s cousins Rosco and Scarlet are snooty hard-hearted and driven. Scarlet, married to Charlie, is also pregnant and wants to talk endlessly about her hopes and fears for her baby. And their mother is elegant, refined, and extremely brittle.

Tess is a good friend to Katie - almost like the sister she never had - and is happily married to Ben. Tess’s brother Zac is also a good friend; he’s an excellent hairdresser, and is gay. Perhaps somewhat stereotyped, but still a likeable person who cares a lot about his friends. Tess and Zac don’t agree with some difficult decisions Katie makes, but they are still fully and unconditionally supportive. 

The book encompasses business problems, although never in so much detail as to be boring. It covers adultery, too, and the different reactions to it that the betrayed spouses might feel. There’s a lot of conversation and some introspection. But although apparently I found it too long-winded the first time I read the book, I didn’t feel that way at all this time. Indeed, at times I could hardly put it down. 

The writing is good, and the nicest characters feel entirely three-dimensional. Perhaps the gradual softening of the more unpleasant people is a tad unlikely, but they never become fully friendly. And I thought it was an encouraging ending.  Recommended if you like fairly light-weight women’s fiction.

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

A problem for the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly ten years since I read ‘A problem for the Chalet School’, 36th in Elinor M Brent-Dyer's original series. It's the first time in several decades that I read it in an unabridged edition. I previously had an Armada paperback which was starting to fall to pieces, so I was pleased to be able to acquire a ‘Girls gone by’ version, with the full original text. Apparently it was quite seriously abridged, with an entire chapter missing in the Armada paperback.

I vaguely recalled the story, which involves two girls called Rosamund and Joan. They go to the same day school, and are neighbours. Joan is something of a leader who uses emotional blackmail, while Rosamund is quieter and easily led. Rosamund’s parents were from ordinary working backgrounds, but brought her and her siblings up to be polite, honest and kind. Joan’s family are more snobbish, despite similar background, and Joan thinks it amusing to be rude, sneaky and arrogant. 

Rosamund is told, at the start of the story, that she has been given a full scholarship to the Chalet School by Tom Gay’s parents. She really doesn’t want to go to boarding school in Switzerland. Partly this is because she’s horrified at the thought of lessons in French and German, when she speaks neither. Partly it’s going away from family and friends. And partly because she thinks that girls will look down on a ‘scholarship girl’, whose mother was a maid and whose father was a market gardener. 

But Mrs Gay persuades her to take it up, and to do her best to be happy there. Rosamund is a likeable, if biddable person, and she does decide to make the effort. She has been thinking that she would like to be an air hostess, and realises that having extra languages would be useful. So Rosamund begins, rather nervously, and gradually starts to make friends. By the time she’s been in the Chalet School for two weeks, she’s beginning to feel settled, and even starting to understand some French.

Then she has a shock - Joan arrives. Her father had a big win on the football pools, and decided to send his daughters to private schools. Joan was very envious of Rosamund being chosen for the scholarship, and certain she can lord it over her in their new environment. But Joan is stymied, again and again, by the ‘gentlewomen’ approach of the Chalet School. She’s told that her gaudy outfits and heavy make-up look ‘cheap’. Nobody admires her when she’s rude or cheeky. And when people learn that Rosamund’s father is a gardener, they ask her questions about plants…

It’s a slightly different book from most, in that Joan isn’t reluctant to be at the school - she simply doesn’t fit in, finding their values and expectations to be entirely at odds with her own. She thinks some things, like Saturday evening games, are ‘childish’, and she wants a lot more independence than she is given. She also doesn’t  like having to wash so much, particularly the cold baths in the mornings (I can sympathise with her on those!) 

Joan is undoubtedly a caricature, but the author does it well, contrasting her nicely with Rosamund. They’re from the same school with similar backgrounds, yet Rosamund is polite, and full of integrity whereas Joan is not. The point is made, more than once, that what matters is how people behave, not their backgrounds, or their ‘class’.

Inevitably Joan does gradually absorb some of the Chalet School ethos. But there are quite a few incidents and discussions before she realises the value of the school and its principles. Mary-Lou, Joey and Miss Annersley all talk to her and help in different ways. And evidently Joan does have a seed of niceness inside her; she is horrified when it’s implied that her parents must have brought her up badly when she swears. 

Although I don’t know for sure which chapter was omitted in the abridged version, I suspect it’s one near the middle of the book where nothing much happens and there’s no real progression in the story. I expect there were a lot of other cuts too; there are a lot of conversations which don’t add to the plot. But they do add to the characterisation, and to the pace of the book. I’m very glad to have the original text at last, and liked taking a little longer to read it than I would have done with the Armada.

What I particularly appreciated about this book is that, although there’s a half-term trip, it’s not bombarded with educational information. Indeed, Nancy Wilmot says, several times, that they should ask Miss O’Ryan, rather than going into detail. And the end-of-term flower festival is only mentioned in passing, rather than in minute detail. 

Definitely recommended if you like this series. It could possibly even be a good introduction to someone new to the Chalet School books, although the number of people could be a bit overwhelming.  First published in 1956, it doesn't feel seventy years old to me, although it's obviously somewhat dated, including the class attitudes that are somewhat explored. I don't know that today's teenagers would appreciate it, but there are plenty of people my age or older who loved these books in our own teenage years.

As a bonus, there’s a short story at the end of my GGBP edition. It’s called, ‘A trying day for Joan’, and is set towards the end of the main book but before the final chapter. It’s well-written, very much in EBD’s style, by Lisa Townsend, and I enjoyed it very much.

Unfortunately the original hardbacks and the Girls Gone By editions are out of print, and tend to be quite pricey second-hand. Despite the abridgement, the Armada version is a useful alternative, and still tells the story well, if a tad more abruptly. 

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

The me I want to be (by John Ortberg)

(Amazon UK link)

I do like John Ortberg’s books. He’s an American pastor who writes with honesty and some humour. His writing is often thought-provoking, and I found it particularly so in this book. I last read ‘The me I want to be’ in 2010, so had pretty much forgotten what was in it. Possibly I borrowed it the first time, as I could not find it on our shelves. So I put it on my wishlist and was delighted to be given it for Christmas.

I’ve reread it over the past couple of weeks, a chapter or two each day. The premise of the book is that God has made us all as unique individuals for a reason. It follows that he wants each of us to be the best ‘me’ that we can, and also that this is possible. He encourages us all to find our unique ‘calling’, pointing out that this doesn’t necessarily mean something overtly Christian or ‘religious’. 

It’s a message I’ve read many times before but it’s always worth being reminded of something so very important. So many Christians attempt to be people they are not. If they feel pressure to ‘perform’, or to appear to be generous or happy when they are not, then they’re not being honest or real. It’s also not necessary to try to develop skills we don’t have and don’t particularly want. Far more important, Ortberg tells us, is to focus on what we can do, and where we feel most connected to God.

There are some useful chapters that focus on different ways that people can find out more about themselves. He looks at the Myers-Briggs system, for instance, and on books for helping people find their spiritual gifts, and their preferred pathways to God. Someone who is a nature-loving introvert is not likely to be called to pastor a large inter-city church. Not that God can’t work miracles - of course he can. But in general in the Bible, and in life, he uses people where they are, with their strengths and weaknesses, hopes and desires. 

Ortberg also reminds people that different ‘disciplines’ or practices help different people. If someone finds it helpful to write in a journal every day, or to get up very early to pray, then that’s great. But if someone finds journaling a chore or is absolutely not a morning person, then it’s best to find alternatives. We should not become arrogant when we find our best pathways to God, nor should we feel pressured to follow anyone else’s. 

There are some more general exhortations, too. For instance, he reminds us, where possible, to choose to fill our minds with what is true, noble, and so on rather than junk (as Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians). He tells us to chat to God about anything and everything, including the mundane. He points out that relationships - with people as well as with God - are far more important than careers, even overtly Christian ones. But also that we are designed to work; that the sabbath day of rest is important, but so is to give ourselves to work, in the broadest sense, for the other six days and to do it with integrity and thoroughness.

There’s much more, of course. The author talks about times when he failed, and about benefits of living each day with God, taking a step at a time, learning to be who we are designed to be. He suggests making a point of relating to people we find difficult so that we (hopefully) learn to grow in patience and understanding. And at the end he suggests that we ask for a ‘mountain’ ahead of us, a challenge rather than a quieter life. I’m not so sure about that; I prefer a simpler, more straightforward existence with minor challenges rather than major ones. 

My only complaint about this book - and I see it’s one I had when I first read it - is the nature of the diagrams, which look very scrappy, with a mixture of printed text and what look like hand-drawn lines. I didn’t allow them to interfere with the content, which is excellent; but they definitely make the book look less professional. 

However, other than the diagrams, I would recommend the book highly to anyone who is a Christian believer, whether long-standing or new; whether deeply committed or more on the periphery.  It’s encouraging, and inspiring, and very well-written.

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews

The Trapp family on wheels (by Maria von Trapp)

(Amazon UK link)

Since I re-read the book ‘The sound of music’ (originally known as ‘The Trapp family singers’) a month or so ago, I decided to read its sequel, ‘The Trapp family on wheels’, which was sitting on our shelves. I have no idea where we acquired it, nor do I have any memory of having read it before. The front cover states that it’s an ‘enchanting sequel’, and the blurb at the back says that it will appeal to anyone who read the first book. It's written, as with the first book, by Maria von Trapp. 

It was originally published in 1959 before the well-known film ‘The Sound of Music’ was produced in 1965, and the title then was just 'A family on wheels'. My edition is a paperback from 1966 which has a photo of Julie Andrews on the back. That was, I assume, for the sake of publicity since this volume charts the Trapp family’s singing career, in the United States and elsewhere, long after the events described in the film, which are loosely based on the first half of the first book.

As with the earlier book, Maria von Trapp writes in the first person, and her voice comes through in the informality, and somewhat rambling nature of the anecdotes. It starts in 1955, when they had stopped singing as a family, and the author mentions a family gathering where reminiscences abound, and she is encouraged to write this book.  It works well as an introduction, including a very brief summary of the first book and some subsequent family-related events.

The action then moves to September 1949 as the family, including Maria’s own three small children, embark on a tour in the United States. It gives a good picture of the organisation required to set up the various concerts, and the amount of luggage that they take with them. There’s a bit of homeschooling for the younger children, who are no longer left behind in boarding schools, and there’s a lot of extra paraphernalia - not just musical, but artistic as well.  They have a modified van that seats everyone, including the priest who travels with them and who arranges and conducts all the music.

The first few chapters mention incidents, insights and explanations about what was involved in the concerts. They stay in a variety of places, and have to learn new music as well as regularly rehearsing their current repertoire. They are mostly well-received. Through the book their Catholic heritage comes through not just in the music but in their regular prayers, masses and conversations. 

They then take to the air for international destinations including Europe, South America and - eventually - Australia and New Zealand. The style is chatty with a lot of paragraphs ending in ellipses; I don’t know if this was deliberate or an editing flaw. It doesn’t bother me, particularly, but does suggest that much more could have been said.

As with the first book, I found the sheer number of singers and other people rather overwhelming, and didn’t figure out who was whom in many cases. In each tour, some of the family members remain at home, either the family home in Vermont or their own families. Some of the older children have married and have families of their own; at one point Maria mentions that she has twelve grandchildren, but by that stage I had forgotten where they came into the picture. We never really meet them anyway.

The only person who begins to feel three-dimensional and distinct is Johannes, Maria’s youngest, who is around ten at the start of the first tour. He comes across as a delightfully curious child, keen on collecting flora and fauna of many varieties, including unpleasant insects at times. 

During the tours and concerts, there are many incidents that evidently stuck in the author’s memory - sometimes mistakes, sometimes things said in error due to language problems, sometimes last-minute problems. I could see that some of them would have been amusing at the time, but somehow the writing didn’t bring out the humour and I didn’t even smile. I liked the human touch, but feel that some editing would have helped the pace and brought the anecdotes to life.

I kept reading, although the details of music mostly passed me by. I was slightly surprised by some opinions and words that would be considered racist nowadays. But they were probably typical of the 1940s, and they’re made in the context of caring deeply about everyone, even if they find their customs ‘primitive’, or find their dress cute or amusing. 

I’m glad I read ‘The Trapp family on wheels’, for an impression of the hard work and dedication that went into this family’s professional lives. The book also demonstrates their love for each other, and for God. When they finally give up singing - and the last chapter picks up on the first - some of Maria’s ‘children’ (by then adults, of course) go out on the mission field as teachers or nurses. 

Worth reading if you’re interested in what happened after the first book (the film is a very sanitised and much-changed version of the reality) but it’s not the greatest writing, and I doubt if I’ll read this again.

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews