Possibly Persephone? (redux)

Coming to you a bit late, my report on the Possibly Persephone? event - and when I say 'report', you will soon see that it descends (or perhaps ascends) into a long list of books.

Claire (Paperback Reader) and I met outside her work at 5.30pm and headed along to the Persephone Books shop on Lamb's Conduit Street. I had wondered quite how we'd fit everyone into a fairly smallish shop - the answer being that we'd simply crowd in and be friendly! Nicola Beauman greeted us at the door, and we set about drinking madeira ("have some madeira, m'dear" was mentioned) which was delicious, and settling down for a fun evening. By the time everyone arrived there were probably about 15 of us, lovely folk one and all, and exactly the sort of bookish people with whom it is a delight to spend an evening.

Nicola kicked off proceedings by telling us briefly how often people recommend books, and how Persephone set about finding, reading, and thinking about these suggestions. She even unveiled a very tantalising folder filled with print outs and letters, containing suggestions - so many authors unknown to me, and so many potential gems.

And then we went round in the circle, giving our suggested titles and defending them. I was madly scribbling down everything I heard, although I can't remember plots etc. for that many of them. You already know about Mr. Pim Passes By - Nicola pointed out that Vintage and Capuchin have both brought out Milne titles recently, which would make AAM difficult to market as one of Persephone's authors, but we will wait and see... After the suggestions was some general chat, with many of us saying novels we love which are out of print, until Nicola must have felt under an avalanche. The first of these below were the suggestions; after Ann Valery's book it's a list of (some of) those which were mentioned at all.

If you want to know more about any of these books, and can't find anything by Googling etc., then I'll do my best to remember something! Or if you know something about them, do yell.

--Miss Penny & Miss Plum - Dorothy Evelyn Smith
--Summer in the Greenhouse - Elizabeth Maver
--The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery
--Earth and Water - Sheelagh Kinelli
--The Woman's Book - ed. Philippa Preston
--Memories of a Militant - Annie Kenney
--Peter Abelard - Helen Waddell
--The Wedding - Denis Mackail
--At the Top of the Muletrack - Carola Matthews
--Kirsteen - Margaret Oliphant
--Westwood - Stella Gibbons
--Miss Linsey and Pa - Stella Gibbons
--Baron von Kodak, Shirley Temple, and Me - Ann Valery
--The Wheel Spins - Ethel Lina White
--Diminishing Circles - Barbara Rees
--Harriet Dark: Branwell Brontes lost novel - Barbara Rees
--A Step Out of Time - Betty Askwith
--Guard Your Daughters - Diana Tutton
--Camera! - Joan Morgan
--Faster! Faster! - E.M. Delafield
--Cometh up like a Flower - Rhoda Broughton
--Laughing Mountains - Kay Lynn
--Harriet - Elizabeth Jenkins
--Miss Tiverton Goes Out - A.M. Champneys

Mr. Pim (Passes By)

I have come back from a really wonderfully enjoyable Possibly Persephone? event, which I will write more about soon - hopefully tomorrow. But tonight I shall leave you in no further doubt as to the choice I took along with me - it's Mr. Pim Passes By by A.A. Milne, and I left my copy with lovely Nicola Beauman, so I will wait and see what she thinks. Onto my review...

Every now and then I write about A.A. Milne's works, and mention that he was my first great grown-up-books love - ironically, given that he is best known as a children's writer. Two People and The Red House Mystery have both recently come back into print, and yet there is a huge amount of AAM's work which is mostly overlooked. Some of his whimsical sketches are currently appearing on Radio 4 - thanks for the heads-up, Barbara! - and you can listen to previous episodes and read more info here.
But today I'm going to write about the most amusing of A.A. Milne's novels, and the first that he wrote - Mr. Pim (1921). It has a slightly confusing publication history. It is an adaptation of his (once) very popular play Mr. Pim Passes By - and in later editions of the novel it reverts to this title. Confusing, no? Incidentally, it is dedicated to Irene Vanbrugh and Dion Boucicault (the picture is them in the play version, nabbed from Wikipedia) - the former's autobiography is one of the more interesting and unusual books I've read this year. I read it in 2002, and recently re-read it - finding it just as much a joy this time around.

Mr. Pim concerns the family living at Marden House. George Marden is a very proper gentleman, with very proper views. His niece and ward Dinah is rather flighty; her very-nearly-fiance Brian is modern and sweet; George's wife Olivia is... well, here description rather falters. Milne's strongest suit is his female characters, and Olivia is perhaps the best role he ever wrote for the stage - and then novel. Olivia, like many of Milne's heroines, though doubtless infuriating should one encounter her in real life, is an absolute delight on the page. She is strong-willed without ever being remotely antagonistic; she is sweet without being saccharine; she can be flippant or passionate with equal conviction, and yet never quite lets her guard down. Being married to George must be rather difficult, yet one feels that Olivia is the only person who could possibly ameliorate him in any way - and it's rather lucky that she happens to love him.

Here's a conversation between Dinah and Brian which rather sets the tone of the family:

Brian, lying back on the sofa, looked at her lazily with half-closed eyes.


"Yes, I know what you want, Dinah."


"What do I want?" said Dinah, coming to him eagerly.


"You want a secret engagement --"


She gave an ecstatic little shudder.


"-- and notes left under doormats --"


"Oh!" she breathed happily.


"-- and meetings by the withered thorn when all the household is asleep. I know you."


"Oh, but it is such fun! I love meeting people by withered thorns."


Her mind hurried on to the first meeting. There was a withered thorn by the pond. Well, it wasn't a thorn exactly, it was an oak, but it certainly had a withered look because the caterpillars had got at it, as at all the other oaks this year, much to George's annoyance, who felt that this was probably the beginning of Socialism.

As the novel opens, Olivia wishes to hang some orange curtains which George considers far too modern for his house. Of such things are narratives spawned - Milne wrote in his autobiography that this idea was the catalyst for the whole story. Elsewhere, Dinah and Brian are almost engaged, and Dinah is trying to find a way to tell her uncle. George himself is busy pontificating: "Tell me what a man has for breakfast, and I will tell you what he is like." George, I'm sure you will.

Milne was keen to point out that Mr. Pim isn't simply the play with 'he said' and 'she said' thrown in, and indeed it is not. The plot is the same, and the characters are the same, but the authorial comment and wry narrative (at which Milne was such an expert) come fully into play. At this juncture, Milne himself breaks off into an amusing account of various breakfasts at Marden House. It's too long to type out, but he does this sort of thing so well.

And we haven't even got to Mr. Pim yet. His passing-by is the spark which sends the whole household into frenzy - and quite inadvertently. Mr. Pim is delightfully absent-minded - he takes absent-mindedness into a whole new category. And, lucky Mardens, Mr. Pim has a note of introduction to George. Here he is on his way, being sent off by mutual friend Brymer:

"You've got the letter for George?" [said Brymer]

Mr. Pim looked vague.

"George Marden. I gave it to you."

"Yes, yes, to be sure. You gave it to me. I remember your giving it to me."

"What's that in your hand?"

Mr Pim looked reproachfully at the letter which he held in his hand, as if it had been trying to escape him. Then he put it close to his eyes.

"George Marden, Esq., Marden House," he read, and looked up at Brymer. "This is the letter," he explained courteously. "I have it in my hand."

"That's right. It's the first gate on the right, about a couple of hundred yards up the hill. He'll put you on to this man, Fanshawe, that you want. His brother Roger used to know him well - the one that died."

"Dear, dear," said Mr. Pim gently, emerging from his own thoughts to the distressing fact that somebody had died.

Mr. Pim ends up coming to Marden House several times that day, for various reasons - George being busy, or realising that he has said the wrong thing. But mostly he doesn't know quite what a stir he creates - for, on one of his little visits, he happens to mention having seen an ex-convict from Australia, named Telworthy. What Mr. Pim doesn't know is that Olivia's first husband, missing presumed dead, was a convict from Australia named Telworthy...

Cue all manner of confusion and upset, panic and madness. Bigamy appears to have arisen at the most proper, law-abiding house in all the county. More importantly, this crisis in George and Olivia's 'marriage' allows Olivia to see exactly how much George esteems reputation, and how much he loves her...

Milne inherits just enough of the wit of the 1890s to let his characters chop endless logic, and has enough of the 1920s to let them do it for a reason. Although all the insouciant characters give off the impression of taking nothing even remotely seriously, in fact there is an overtone where decisions do matter, and changes can happen. It is all incredibly funny, and fairly fanciful - one can only imagine what would have resulted had George Bernard Shaw turned his hand to it - but it is not flimsy.

I'm so pleased that I loved Mr. Pim as much the second time around as the first. I worried that I'd outgrown whimsy, which is a dirty word for some, but I think it would be impossible to outgrow the joy of reading Milne. I encourage you to hunt this one down - it's quite different from Two People, and very different from The Red House Mystery, and different again from Winnie the Pooh - and it is an absolute delight. Go on - let Mr. Pim pop in for a bit. You never know what might happen.

Waiting on Wednesday # 48 ~ Fury

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick:

Summary from Goodreads:

The first book in a paranormal teen trilogy featuring three beautiful, mysterious girls wreaking havoc on a small New England town.

Sometimes sorry isn't enough....

It’s winter break in Ascension, Maine. The snow is falling and everything looks pristine and peaceful. But not all is as it seems...

Between cozy traditions and parties with her friends, Emily loves the holidays. And this year’s even better--the guy she’s been into for months is finally noticing her. But Em knows if she starts things with him, there’s no turning back. Because his girlfriend is Em’s best friend.

On the other side of town, Chase is having problems of his own. The stress of his home life is starting to take its toll, and his social life is unraveling. But that’s nothing compared to what’s really haunting him. Chase has done something cruel...something the perfect guy he pretends to be would never do. And it’s only a matter of time before he’s exposed.

In Ascension, mistakes can be deadly. And three girls—three beautiful, mysterious girls—are here to choose who will pay.

 Em and Chase have been chosen.

Elizabeth Miles

August 30th, 2011

Goodreads / Amazon

I just love the cover! Don't you?

What are you waiting for? Leave your link in the comments.

Star-struck

(picture source)

Yesterday I went to a talk by Marilynne Robinson... I was very star-struck. Or possibly star struck. Or even starstruck. Maybe all of the above. Just being in the same room as her was pretty crazy - this must be how teenage girls feel when they see the cast of Twilight, or how my brother would feel if Wolverhampton Wanderers football team popped around for tea. When Colin phoned me to talk about Wolves (they didn't get relegated, btw - I am only interested because this means he is happy, rather than glum; it will not surprise you to learn that I loathe football) I told him about seeing Marilynne Robinson, and he didn't know who she was. So I suppose it is rather a niche thing, but it still felt bizarre to be in the same room as one of the finest living writers. I even took a poor quality photograph on my mobile 'phone...

Truth be told, I didn't understand a word of her talk. It was called 'Where Are We? What Are We Doing Here? Night Thoughts of a Baffled Humanist' and seemed to be a state-of-the-nation talk, with huge doses of philosophy and politics. I know almost nothing about philosophy, and I care almost nothing about politics - so I was lost from the outset. But I was pretty prepared for that. I wish I'd been to hear her last time she was in Oxford, talking about her own writing, but at that point I'd not read anything by her. Even now I've only read Gilead, though Susan in TX and I have a plan to read Home together soon, don't we, Susan?

So, I'd readied myself to zone out when Robinson got onto topics I know zilch about, and instead I spent the hour being a bit overwhelmed by being in the same room as her. For the record, she is funny and personable - especially during the off-script moments - and I'm sure I'd love to hear her speak about writing or reading or Christianity; anything I can get on board with. But that didn't diminish an exacting afternoon for me.

Which leads me to the over-to-you bit - have you heard any authors speak, and which living writers would you love to see? I've seen a few others - all those at the Vintage day this month (Sebastian Faulks, Mark Haddon, Lionel Shriver, Rose Tremain etc.) but the only other notable one I can remember right now is Penelope Lively. And I still haven't read any of her books...

[EDIT: I forget Susan Hill! And doubtless many others. I was very excited to chat with Mary Cadogan once - the biographer of Richmal Crompton. But most fun has been meeting lesser-known, but brilliant and lovely, authors like Angela Young, Jenn Ashworth, Natasha Solomon, Ned Beauman....]

Book Review: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Title: I Am Number Four

Author: Pittacus Lore

Series: Lorien Legacies #1

Release Date: August 3rd, 2010

Publisher: HarperCollins

Age: Young Adult

In the beginning they were a group of nine. Nine aliens who left their home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack by the evil Mogadorian. Nine aliens who scattered on Earth. Nine aliens who look like ordinary teenagers living ordinary lives, but who have extraordinary, paranormal skills. Nine aliens who might be sitting next to you now.

The Nine had to separate and go into hiding. The Mogadorian caught Number One in Malaysia, Number Two in England, and Number Three in Kenya. All of them were killed. John Smith, of Paradise, Ohio, is Number Four. He knows that he is next.

I AM NUMBER FOUR is the thrilling launch of a series about an exceptional group of teens as they struggle to outrun their past, discover their future—and live a normal life on Earth.

I AM NUMBER FOUR.

I AM NEXT.

I Am Number Four is one of those books that I've read so much about it that I didn't want to read it, specially because of the author thing. But anyway, I was curious and decided to read it, and here is my review...

Number Four is an alien. His planet was destroyed and he was sent to Earth. But, the same people who destroyed his planet are here on earth, and they are looking for him.

Four is a 15 years old boy, who is used to live hidden and running. Every time something weird happens, he and his guardian escapes. It's a boring life until they reach Paradise, a small town.  

I Am Number Four is a interesting story. The aliens from Lorien are practically extinct, and the few who reached earth are lost or dead. Everyone of them has a power, and just now number four is developing his first.

Number Four, or John, is a pretty common boy...except that he's an alien. He's the typical 15 years old guy, bored and without any interest until he met Sarah, the beautiful girl, and Sam, the geek/aliens lover guy.

At the beginning the writing was slow, because John explains everything about Lorien, their powers, etc. But at the middle of the book there is more action, because the bad aliens found John, and everything turns into chaos.

I liked the characters and though the story was original, but the book didn't grab me as others. I liked it and read it pretty fast, but I think the characters could have been deeper and the story had more to tell. Although, I accept that my perception of the book is tainted with everything I read before about the author. For example, my mother read it and loved it, and she doesn't even like young adult books!

Overall, I Am Number Four is a book I liked enough to read the next one, called The Power of Six, which is going to be released August 23, 2011. I recommend it to everyone who likes sci/fi, it's an interesting book and a story that promise more action.

More about this book at iamnumberfourfans.com, Goodreads, Amazon, The Book Depository.

Illyrian Spring

Early warning - there is a giveaway right at the bottom of this post!
That Rachel (Book Snob) is pretty scary, isn't she? I knew she loved Ann Bridge's Illryian Spring (1935), and so dropped her an email to let her know I'd found my own copy. Minutes later I found myself under house arrest, surrounded by armed policemen and ferocious guard dogs, and the recipient of dozens of death threats - if I didn't immediately drop everything, read Illyrian Spring, and post a positive review of it. Right now I'm in a dungeon, blindfolded, typing away with a gun held against my temple...

Gosh, that took a macabre turn, didn't it? What I MEANT to say was that Rachel thought I should definitely read Illyrian Spring before the end of April - which I duly did, it's just taken me a while to get around to writing about it. In return, I told Rachel she should read the (much shorter) novel The Love Child by Edith Olivier by the end of April. How's that going, Rach, hmm?

But I am only teasing, of course. I am very grateful that Rachel pointed me in the direction of Illyrian Spring (I gave you a copy of The Love Child - just sayin') because it's a beautiful novel.

Grace Kilmichael - known also as Lady K - feels unappreciated by her husband Walter, daughter Linnet and sons Nigel and Teddy. As the novel opens, she has escaped off on the Orient Express - hoping to evade discovery, it is perhaps foolish to choose this mode of transport, 'but Lady Kilmichael was going to Venice, and she lived in a world which knew no other way of getting to Venice than to travel by the Simplon Orient Express.' That sets the scene for Grace - one to whom custom and good fortune are equally good companions. In many novels this would be enough to dismiss her out of hand, but Ann Bridge is no inverted snob (in fact, she is often simply a snob) and Grace is undoubtedly the heroine of the novel from the outset. She is a talented painter whose family treat her paintings as an amusing hobby; she is intelligent, sensitive to others, and bewitched by the beauty of life and adventure. And she's off on an adventure.

I'm not going to pretend to understand the geography of Europe. I hadn't heard of most of the places she went, but I think they're probably mostly Italian. To be honest, I didn't really care. Seeing the sights through Grace's eyes was enough for me - much of the novel simply documents her travels, and reflections upon her life and family. And her affection, maternal friendship with Nicholas (I'll get on to him in a bit).

By rights, I shouldn't have liked Illyrian Spring as much as I did. You know me and descriptions of landscapes - and Bridge's novel is crammed full with descriptions of scenery, buildings, ruins, water, nature, everything. Grace even carries a travel guide around with her - a form of writing to which I am allergic. But how could I not be swept away by this?

But nature in Dalmatia is singularly open-handed, and distributes beauties as well as wonders with lavish impartiality. Within a few hundred paces of the source of Ombla they came on a thing which Grace was to remember all her life, as much for its beauty as its incredibility. The road here swung round to the right, pushed out towards the valley by a spur of the mountainside; some distance above the road the slopes of this spur rose steeply, broken by ledges and shallow gullies, the rocks of the usual tone of silver pear-colour. And all over the ledges of these pearly rocks, as thick as they could stand, grew big pale-blue irises, a foot or more high, sumptuous as those in an English border, their leaves almost as silver as the rocks, their unopened buds standing up like violet spears among the delicate pallor of the fully-opened flowers - Iris pallida dalmatica, familiar to every gardener, growing in unimaginable profusion in its natural habitat. Now to see an English garden-flower smothering a rocky mountain-side is a sufficient wonder, especially if the rocks are of silver-colour and the flowers a silvery-blue; and Nature, feeling that she had done enough, might well be content to leave it at that. But she had a last wonder, a final beauty to add. In the cracks and fissures another flower grew, blue also, spreading out over the steep slabs between the ledges in flat cushions as much as a yard across - a low-growing woody plant, smothered in small close flower-heads of a deep chalky blue, the shade beloved of the painter Nattier. Anything more lovely than these low compact masses of just the same tone of colour, but a deeper shade, flattened on the white rocks as a foil and companion to the flaunting splendour of the irises, cannot be conceived.

There are a few, a very few, authors who manage to write about the visual in ways which focus upon characters' emotions and their responses, even if this isn't stated explicitly, and that works for me. I'm thinking the moment when Jude looks out over Christminster in Jude the Obscure, and more or less every moment of Elizabeth von Arnim's The Enchanted April. Ann Bridge joins that select few, for me. Those of you without my natural-description-qualms will adore this novel all the more.


And I promised you Nicholas, didn't I? A less likely hero you'll be hard-pressed to find. Blustery, fairly rude, a victim to indigestion, self-pleased - and with a very red complexion, to boot - Nicholas meets Grace when she is trying to copy down an intricate engraving for her son. Nicholas doesn't think she's doing it right, and eventually insists upon doing it himself - and he does it very accurately. Somehow this is the beginning of their travels together - and I wouldn't know how to describe their relationship and discussions. I know some people (*cough*, Rachel) love Nicholas, and while I never wholly warmed to him, I did love Grace and Nicholas together. Not romantically, you understand, but as companions who discuss everything under the sun, and appreciate the beauty they discover together. Grace becomes something of a mentor to Nicholas, as he seeks to develop his own artistic talent, and prove to his parents that he can pursue a career as a painter, rather than an architect. Some of the novel's most interesting sections come, though, when Grace begins to tire of Nicholas, but is far too caring and kind to tell him so. That's when Bridge's writing is at its subtlest, and most perceptive - inching through changes in their relationship in a very believable manner. Bridge's style of narrative is the sort which does not lend itself to plot synopses, and is incredibly difficult to do justice - everything and nothing happens. Like many - maybe even all - great novels, the story does not matter so much as the way in which it is told.

At heart, Illyrian Spring could be considered a deeply feminist novel. Grace's emancipation happens so quietly and with so few signs of open rebellion that it would might seem understated - but there is incredible strength in passages like this:

Married women so often become more an institution than a person - to their families a wife or a mother, to other people the wife or the mother of somebody else. Apart from her painting, Grace Kilmichael had been an institution for years. She didn't mind it; she hadn't really noticed it; but when Nicholas Humphries started treating her as a person, being interested in her as herself, 'Lady K.', and not as Nigel's or Teddy's or Linnet's mother, or as the brilliant Sir Walter Kilmichael's nice wife, she did notice it. She found it something quite new and rather delightful. And entirely without conscious intention, without being aware of it, the presentation of herself which she was making up to Nicholas was, in some subtle way, more personal and less 'institutional' than it would have been if she had met him in her London house, as a friend of Linnet's or Nigel's.

Illyrian Spring is not without its faults. There is a persistent intellectual snobbery which has a stranglehold on the novel - people must always have the best, and be the best, and there is apparently no sense in doing things simply for enjoyment. The novel seems to suggest that only those with genius at painting should ever wield a paintbrush. Nicholas himself decides he'll only help people looking for directions because 'these people were intelligent, much more so than most - he might as well go down with them.' This constant thread of snobbery felt a bit like poison dropping steadily upon bowers of beautiful flowers, damaging what the novel could have been. If Bridge could have dialled this down, Illyrian Spring would be as charming as The Enchanted April, and even more substantial.

As it is, even with this fault (which some may not perceive as a fault, maybe) Illyrian Spring is a delicious gem of a novel. Grace Kilmichael and Nicholas are unlikely companions whose companionship would be impossible to doubt - and both are utterly genuine and believable characters, far more complex than I could delineate in this review. I am very indebted to Rachel for the joy of this novel - and if I found it joyful, I am certain that those of you who like their books to be like travel guides will fall so deeply in love with Bridge's novel that you will frame copies of it around the house, and name your first child after it.

So, Rachel, there you go - many thanks. Now, The Love Child...

* * *

I have a spare copy of this to give away - I spotted a nice edition in a bookshop, and swooped upon it, which means I'm now giving away my tatty old Penguin edition. I do warn you, it is very tatty - the cover is taped on, and the spine is so tightly bound that reading the far side of each page requires effort. It's a reading copy only - but Illyrian Spring is difficult to track down, so anybody who can cope with the poor condition and would like to read it, just pop your name in the comments - along with your favourite season, in honour of the novel's title. Mine, suitably enough, is spring.

Book Review: Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart (Love By Numbers #3) by Sarah MacLean

Title: Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart

Author: Sarah MacLean

Series: Love by Numbers #3

Release Date: May 1st, 2011

Publisher: Avon

Age: Adult

She lives for passion.

Bold, impulsive, and a magnet for trouble, Juliana Fiori is no simpering English miss. She refuses to play by society's rules: she speaks her mind, cares nothing for the approval of the ton, and can throw a punch with remarkable accuracy. Her scandalous nature makes her a favorite subject of London's most practiced gossips . . . and precisely the kind of woman The Duke of Leighton wants far far away from him.

He swears by reputation.

Scandal is the last thing Simon Pearson has room for in his well-ordered world. The Duke of Disdain is too focused on keeping his title untainted and his secrets unknown. But when he discovers Juliana hiding in his carriage late one evening—risking everything he holds dear—he swears to teach the reckless beauty a lesson in propriety. She has other plans, however; she wants two weeks to prove that even an unflappable duke is not above passion.

I almost went mad waiting for this book to be released, and when it finally was I just couldn't stop reading it.

Juliana Fiori is Nicholas and Gabriel's sister. She is scandal walking, since their mother had her with another man. Gabriel and his wife Callie have been doing everything they can to make the ton to accept her, but it hasn't been easy. She is impulsive, bold and doesn't understand all the rules of London's society.

I loved Juliana for her very nature. She was kind of like me at her age, very impulsive and passionate. She was strong, but not so strong so she would't be hurt by the gossips and the people who still didn't acknowledged her because of her mother. So when she met Simon, and they instantly liked each other, she hided her identity.

Of course Simon discovered and never wanted to see her again. He doesn't need that kind of scandal, now that his family has his own scandal and it will soon be discovered. But when he found her in his carriage, hurt by another man, he remembered why he can be with her: She is walking scandal and he likes her.

Simon was very arrogant and a jerk in the previous books, so I wasn't sure I was going to like him. It was difficult  because he was the same asshole as this book started but I loved how he was sucked in Juliana's passion. He had his reasons to be scared, but still could't resist her.

Sometimes Simon was too mean with Juliana, but I think Juliana was also very immature sometimes. It was good to see them both grow up and be a better person at the end.

Overall, I absolutely loved Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart. I love all the protagonists from the Love by Numbers series but I think Juliana is my favorite female, just because she was so naughty.

More about this book at macleanspace.com, Goodreads, Amazon, The Book Depository.