Book review: The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets at Amazon.com

It's 1954 in London and 18 year old Penelope meets whimsical, irrepressible Charlotte and her oddly captivating cousin Harry for the first time at a bus stop. From there, it's a whirlwind ride through rock and roll music, debutante balls, jealous lovers, fashion, families, love, history and growing up.

I adored this book. In fact, I started it around 10pm last night and finished it at around 4:30am this morning. It's not so much gripping as incurably charming, at least to someone like me, who adores evocative books about lovely things. I thought some parts of it were cliched (and I was wryly not surprised to learn that the first book Eva Rice ever published was "The Complete Guide to the Characters of Enid Blyton") but I think the book is just so charming and sweet and more-ish that it didn't matter.

It's a very "I Capture the Castle" type book (girl in her late teens living in an old, crumbling castle, her family without the financial means to support the castle's upkeep, the heroine wishing for some kind of escape from the mundaneness of life and finding it in the serendipitous arrival of strangers) but I found I enjoyed this much more than I did "I Capture the Castle". I was frequently bored with ICtC, but the characters here are likable and interesting enough that I never wanted to put the book down (even though I did want to hit them sometimes). There are a few flaws in Eva Rice's writing (it never feels as though they are in a post-war country; it doesn't even always feel 1950's) but I think the general loveliness of it all more than makes up for that.

I only grabbed this book at the last minute from the library shelf because I was intrigued by the title - I'm so glad I did, because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

10/10, because anything that keeps me reading into the wee hours of the morning and leaves me feeling joyful and touched by loveliness deserves nothing less.