Rating: 
Summary: More than cliches....
Review: Don't be fooled by the cliches. There's a lot more going on in this book than "quirky" and "charming." It's a brutally honest tale of a 17 year old girl coming out of that self-involvement phase and getting a good first look at the world around her. And it tackles the concept of understanding and portraying beauty in a very effective manner. Her father's puzzle exemplifies the puzzle of the novel....you have to pace through the book with Cassandra to get from point A to point B. There's no flipping straight to B for enlightenment. You must take the full journey.But it's a quirky, charming journey nonetheless. :)
Rating:
Summary: Not Another Chick Book
Review: My grandmother sent me this book when it was re-published a few years back, and told me it was her favorite book when she was my age. After reading the first page, I was really worried that this was going to be another old fashioned girl book with a one dimensional lead character and the typical story of her search for true love. However, it was quite the contradictory. I have always been one of those people who reads the last page first, which by 3/4 way through makes the ending really clear. but not with this book. Smith brings out real life feelings, and an understanding that only non-fictional people have of events. It was the most real book I have ever read! People who are most likely to enjoy this book: 1)people who have a sense of history, or an appreciation. it does take place in the first half of the 1900's in england, so in a way its almost historically themed. 2)people who have patience, or are detailed oriented. not much happens in major events within the first 1/3 of the book. the author is still establishing the complexities of the characters and the location. 3)people who enjoy people watching. the narrator recounts the quirks of those around her, or in short, is a people watcher.
Rating:
Summary: Very Captruring !!!
Review: This book is one of a kind. It really captures you into the time of story, no matter where you are reading and what mood you are at when you are the reading the book. The young girl, Cassandra who takes us through part of her life, maybe the most important part of her life is very charismatic in a way, she puts everyone's problems on her shoulder, and in the it was all payed back, but I felt realy sorry for her. I thought maybe she deserved better than the way she was treated, and even at the end, no convincing apologies were made. Not even by the people who really hurt her at times, when she didn't even realize it. The ending was really realistic. In most stories the girl and the guy get together after all they have been gone through, but in the end this doesn't happen though in thier hearts you feel some connection between them, each don't want to admit and they seperate. It is kind of sad, but you realize, that's how most of the world function. The author did a superb job and it almost left me in tears at the end.
Rating:
Summary: A treasure
Review: I'd been hearing about this book for a few years and I'm now terribly sorry I waited so long to get it. What a treat! The heroine/narrator is a smart, wry girl named Cassandra Mortmain, living with her father, stepmother and sister in genteel poverty in a ruined castle. With wit and an eye for detail, she describes her family, the history that led to their reduced circumstances, and the remarkable events that transpire to change those circumstances. I loved this book so much that I bought two more copies, for my mom and my aunt, for Christmas, and I know they will love it too.
Rating:
Summary: My favourite childrens book
Review: Hardly any need to add another description of this fantastic book which I first read at the age of 8 and have loved ever since. I was surprised to find it so overwhelmingly positively reviewed as it is long and I thought it might seem dated to new readers but I am delighted to be proved wrong. It spent so long out of print (my copy was my mothers) and I wonder who finally bit the bullet and put it back in print. May they be rewarded with great sales! Dont miss the review with the letter from Dodie Smith - I was fascinated to see this. If only the same people would resurrect the Far Distant Oxer by Katherine Hull and Pamela Whitlock (my other top childrens book but I dont have a copy). I shall write and suggest it.
Rating:
Summary: Capturing the Castle and its Audience
Review: This has to be my very favourite book. Cassandra is really easy to relate to, at the end of the book you are left longing for more of her thoughts and witty observations. This book captures its characters so well, that you could walk straight into the book and feel quite at home!
The cover of this book does really not do it justice. I bought a different copy which had a picture of Cassandra writing her journal by the castle in the evening light, with warm orange colours, this is perphaps more suited to the magic and warmness of the book.
Okay, so living in a castle and having rich guys come round bringing money with them seems a little convient and unrealistic, but the fantastic way in which this book is written persuades you that this could be a true story, with all its characters being believable and lovable.
Face it, we all hate one romance after another in a book, with more mood swings then you can count, but Dodie Smith has exactly the right balance of romance, comedy, and emotion. It does have you crying in parts of the book, but nothing else is expected when you become so involved with the each of the characters.
It is set at a time that isn't too far back that we cannot realate to it, but is far back enough to have a touching innocense, that creates a pleasant enviroment for its reader that modern stories simply do not have. Overall, I would say this is an excellent read, the best thing about it being its characters, and warmth. Read it as soon as you can, this is certainly a timeless book that should not be missed.
Rating:
Summary: If only there were a sequel
Review: This book really has no equal. I first read it when I was fourteen, and find that I appreciate better now at 32 than I did then. I am delighted to see it revived. The boost it's gotten from J.K. Rowling, however, has proved a bit of a mixed blessing. Many people seem to infer from her endorsement that it's of a genre with her writing. In fact, this is not fantasy, but a beautiful evocation of the life of an observant teenager in 1930's England. Highly recommended for artists, writers, and Anglophiles. And may I suggest: "The Death of the Heart," by Elizabeth Bowen, for an alternate existence to Cassandra's.
Rating:
Summary: An Endearing Read
Review: I highly recommend this book to any girl who is a romantic at heart. I felt as though I could relate to Cassandra on many levels; her story is timeless. This book is difficult to put down. I fell in love with all of the characters, their quirky personalities making them all the more endearing. Excellent writing, wonderful story. A++
Rating: 
Summary: a very good, fun read
Review: Have you ever had lots of people tell you that you *have* to see this great movie, only to go and wonder what they were talking about? That's how I feel about this book. My expectations were so high after reading the reviews here, that I was expecting this to be one of my favorite books of all time. And although it did not live up to the hype, I still thoroughly enjoyed this engaging book -- I just didn't *love* it. The story takes place in a more innocent time, in a lonely and dilapidated castle in England, where the impoverished Mortmain family lives. The narrator is the younger daughter of a once-successful author, and one of the sheer joys of this novel is the narrative voice -- it is charming and youthful, and wise yet perplexed in a way that intelligent young people can be -- remarkable since the author was in her 50s when she wrote it! This was also playwright Dodie Smith's first novel; often a playwright has trouble capturing the natural flow of conversation and description, but Smith accomplishes both here. Another strength is that the author, like Alfred Hitchcock, does not *tell* so much as *show*. Related as diary entries, and therefore more intimate than straight narrative, illustrative anecdotes immerse the reader in the state of mind of the narrator, Cassandra: we are as confused by her father's peculiar behavior as she is, we do not know whether or not sister Rose really loves her fiancee, we do not know whether or not Stephen would be a desirable beau for our heroine. Late in the book, Cassandra's father develops a theory that readers create and discover as they read, and Dodie Smith has ensured that we experience this as well as read about it. The Mortmains are complex -- stepmother Topaz is hard-working and kind, if a bit shallow; Rose is dramatic and moody, but also brave. Other characters, particularly the two American brothers who inherit the castle, are not as three-dimensional, and we are never as interested in them as we are in the English characters. The ending is lovely -- no neat resolution here. Instead, the reader is left to conjecture about the future of the Mortmain family based on what we know about them, and thanks to the talents of the author, we know a great deal and care enough to wonder.
Rating:
Summary: a classic
Review: Cassandra Mortmain is 17 years old and lives with her family in a damp old crumbling castle in England. She wants to be a writer, like her father. Long ago her father wrote a best seller and since then has had writers block, which has left the family in financial ruin. Her older sister, Rose, may be the one to save the family, if she can marry well. And she hopes to marry very well, and soon! If only there were any available men! The Cotton brothers arrive from the US to the adjacent property and there is excitement in the air. Could this be the answer to their dreams? This is a simply wonderful book, set in the 1930's but is written so beautifully that it is not dated at all. There is a great many things to like about this book, the setting, the characters, if it could be captured right, it would make a brilliant movie.
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