From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Mary
Jul 19, 2010 rated it liked it
Shelves: re-reads, format-audio, bookclub-novelpairings, 2024-shelf
I wrote the notes below back in 2010 - and on re-read, I have to wonder "what the h**** was I thinking?! This was not at all a "nice book". I do still love England between the wars, and I'm wondering what my Novel Pairings friends will say about the "happy ending"?

from my first read in 2010:
It was a nice change of pace to read a book that was...simply nice! Yeah, the story was a bit unbelieveable, but it's fiction (although if anyone other than Cassandra had narrated, I'm not sure I would've be ...more
1 like ·   · see review
Sarah left GR
Apr 28, 2009 rated it really liked it
Shelves: fiction
Bought this book at the Secret Garden Bookshop in Seattle. Had never heard of it before; discovered it via those little hand-written "Staff Picks" tags stuck to the shelves. Also, the giant J.K. Rowling blurb on the cover was hard to miss: "This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met."

And I agree with Ms. Rowling. Cassandra Mortmain is a wonderful narrator, full of contrasts (blunt/poetic, naive/wordly), never insincere, and always well aware of her own shortcomings. The ea ...more
 · see review
Karen
Apr 05, 2018 rated it really liked it
Utterly charming. (Caveat -- listened to the audiobook read by Jenny Agutter.)
 · see review
Laurie
Jul 12, 2009 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 2013
so good. I'm happy I read this book but sad I didn't read it years ago. highly recommended. ...more
 · see review
Nichole
Jan 12, 2008 rated it liked it
Shelves: 2009
Joseph
Feb 07, 2008 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Summer Rae Garcia
Feb 18, 2009 rated it it was amazing
Christian
Apr 10, 2009 marked it as tjek-ud
Kate
Apr 22, 2009 marked it as to-read
Shelves: fiction
Rachel
Sep 21, 2009 rated it really liked it
Aimee
Sep 06, 2012 rated it liked it
sarah
Dec 10, 2012 marked it as to-read
Akilah
Jul 09, 2013 marked it as to-read
CoCo
Sep 06, 2013 rated it liked it
Shannon
May 13, 2014 marked it as to-read
Sophie Brookover
Dec 09, 2014 marked it as to-read
Shelves: middle-grade
Sara
Dec 30, 2014 marked it as to-read
Anne
Jan 15, 2015 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: fiction
Cari
Aug 09, 2015 rated it really liked it
Claire Jefferies
Sep 18, 2016 marked it as to-read
Lia
May 11, 2017 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: female-authors, 26-classics-2017
Caitlin H
Oct 24, 2017 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: favorites, 2017-favorites
Emily
Mar 05, 2018 marked it as to-read
Christina
Feb 24, 2019 marked it as to-read
Shelves: ya, classics
Deanna M
Jul 26, 2021 marked it as to-read
Shelves: from-among-others
Alice
Jun 07, 2025 rated it really liked it
Shelves: fiction, classics
Lisa
May 16, 2022 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
152441

Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions
Photos Videos
Send invite Members Polls