Letitia

Sometimes, when you find some of these older books, you are pleasantly surprised at the quality of the writing and of the storyline, and this was one of those times. Viscount Grey has the biggest and the best stables in all of England. As you would imagine, his horses are his first love, and take precedence over anything else - even the "coming out" of his two lovely daughters, Letitia and Julianne - ages nineteen and seventeen. Upon the constant urging of his wife, Lord Grey hits upon a scheme that will make everyone happy - he will arrange a house party to show off his prize stables, and only invite the most eligible bachelors. Everyone will be eager to see his famous stables, and, when they all come for the house party, his daughters will have the "pick of the crop", so to speak, since he has already screened these men, and invited only the most eligible. This way, he will kill two birds with one stone - his daughters will be able to find husbands, and he will not have to go to London for the season - which he refuses to do! (What, and leave his stables for just anybody to take care of, imagine what could happen in his absence!) Lady Grey, his wife, as might be imagined, is less than enamored at this idea, and, the book starts off with a conversation between Lord and Lady Grey, Lady Grey is stating her opinions in no uncertain terms! She cries - they will be the laughingstock of the ton, everyone will know why only these bachelors were invited, everyone will assume that our two daughters are antidotes, and our daughters will lose any chance of marriage they might have ever had! Lord Brerely, confirmed bachelor, gets his invitation in the mail. By a series of unfortunate events, he accepts, before he realizes what the invitation is about. Once his friends "clue him in" he is horror-stricken, and determined that even though he must go to this house party, he will be disagreeable as he could possibly be, no way will he be caught in the trap of matrimony! The funniest part of this book is where Letitia acquires a pet raccoon - I guess you can say that the raccoon is what makes this story happen - and the situations the raccoon finds himself in, plus the situations where Letitia finds herself in because of the raccoon, makes for some very funny reading. This is one of those stories where nothing major happens - no spies, no dead bodies, no disasters - just a sweet and funny romance about everyday living. This is a story that is very easy to read, it is written with a "light" hand (similar to April Kihlstrom's style, I think), and there is constantly something funny happening in this wacky story about everyday life. I really enjoyed it, and recommend this one for anyone looking for a light, funny, and very easy read, or a story about a pet raccoon, or if you were looking for a very old fashioned kind of story in every sense of the word (this is the kind of story that you can have no qualms giving to your younger child) - this book will