I capture the castle

[Faira]

So how did this last meeting go? I have been horrible about keeping up with this book. I am about halfway through. It's an easy enough story line to keep up with but I am frustrated with the dad not working while leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves. I don't know what will become of Rose's relationship, but I feel like there is a potential for romance between Neil and Cassandra - am I off base here. I just finished the part where they went for a swim in the moat. Poor Stephan....I don't know. Cute story but kinda sad at this point. I hope it will pick up in the latter half of the book.
How is everyone else doing? Work here is good but I did just come back from a 4 day mini-vacation to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nice break - good to be able to stretch the legs and SHOP!!! And have real Starbucks (actually i didn't but I liked having the option) Oh and the Christmas decorations at the malls!!! How wonderful. I kinda forgot it was christmas - what with living in a Muslim country and it being about 80 degrees.
Anyways, what were people's general opinions about the book?
Miss you ladies.
F

[Erica]

Hi, Faira! It's so good to hear from you -- glad that work is going well and you're able to take some travel time too. I've heard great things about Kuala Lumpur, sounds like perfect R&R break.

Oof, so many thoughts on this book! Several of the discussion attendees hadn't finished either, so we tried to give them a recap, but decided we need you there for that kind of thing. Our recaps aren't nearly as entertaining...

Part of me wants to tell you to just STOP if you're halfway through. I loved the first half, found it very charming and endearing; but I was was not a fan of the second half. If you don't mind spoilers, see below (after the ==== line).

The group was in agreement with your frustration at the dad not working. I think he was suffering from some kind of depression and just unable to pull himself out of it -- but I would think that a head of family would be able to put those responsibilities first, and force themselves to do whatever was needed to support their dependents (especially given the timeframe and class constraints, when no one else in the family could step up because they weren't supposed to earn a living!)

I really felt for Stephen, too, and liked him a lot. In a contemporary novel, I would have rooted for Cassandra to have a little fling with him; but I couldn't really hope for them to get together here. Then what, Cassandra is relegated to a life of drudgery too? The class constraints were really sad there.

On a bright note, I was completely in love with Topaz. I loved how quirky she was, and how Cassandra was able to see through her absurdity, accept it as a part of her character, and love her anyway for her kindness. (p.194: "Dear Topaz! Her letter is exactly like her -- three quarters practical kindness and one quarter spoof." =)

Keep in touch!
Erica

==========================================

Ok, the latter half of the book does NOT pick up, it does pretty much the opposite. Simon gets engaged to Rose, but then kisses Cassandra, and she "falls in love" with him. (As opposed to the sane reaction of "wtf, you're making a pass at me, who you constantly refer to as a child?? While you're engaged to my sister?!") For the rest of the book, she's in a stilted type of depressed love/crush. The whole tone of the book changes, and never goes back to the earlier light-hearted charm. Even at the very end, she's still mooning over Simon, and the book closes on her subdued brooding over him. Super disappointing. I felt like the author was saying "this is growing up -- you lose your naive optimism and are never happy the same way again." If she had ended with Cassandra finding a way out of that malaise, getting over the crush and finding new things to look forward to, I could maybe have forgiven the misplaced crush in the first place. As it is, I'm very unhappy with the author's choices. I feel like she ruined a really winning character and turned her into just another moping teen girl. Ugh.
(Lots of other plot developments in the second half, but that's the part that bothers me!)

[Faira]

Thanks for the info. Very interesting perspective.

[Angela]

I didn't attend the meeting either so I missed the discussion. Overall I really thought this was a fun, lighthearted book and found the characters to all be pretentious and probably really annoying in real life. (They choose to live in a falling apart in a castle for Pete's sake!) For this book it worked! If you are at all hooked I would finish it because maybe I am daft but I did not see the ending coming. However, it is not that surprising/great of an ending so if you can put it down, keep it down ;-)

[Chelsea]

Hi Faira!

I finally finished yesterday. Thanks for the warning that it didn't pick up! I didn't expect much, and didn't end up minding the ending. It does end on kind of a downer note though, I totally aggree!

-Chelsea