I have discovered a fun and unexpectedly hilarious YA novel for Jane Austen fans. Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl has a heroine who must marry and marry well to save her family and their ancestral home. Unfortunately Althea tends to speak her mind quite plainly and has thus sabotaged many a relationship. Her father loved castles and built Crawley Castle in a remote region of Yorkshire. Though at one time it was fully functional, it is now falling down around their ears, literally. With her brother only four years old, it is pressing Althea marry soon.
Also living in the crumbling castle are two stepsisters. These two are the perfect twin for Cinderella's evil stepsisters. Their father married Althea's mother and he had the misfortune to die two weeks later. The father left his money to them. Despite depending upon Althea's mother for their necessities they are reluctant to spend money on any one or thing besides themselves. One of my favorite parts is the ruse Althea cooks up in order for them to help pay for a partial new roof. It is done rather magnificently.
Then comes the news the new Lord Boring and his friends will be visiting Lesser Hoo (oh the names are just perfect) in the coming weeks and all the countryside are atwitter. These people who come from the city must be handsome and also most importantly very rich. So Althea and her two stepsisters set their sights on finding a husband for themselves. Let the tournament begin!
I think you can see there are several parallels to the Austen books but also that of Cinderella fairy tales. Althea is a wonderful narrator who is fully reminiscent of Emma and her machinations to have everyone marry everyone else. You can foresee the ending but the journey to get there is deliciously fun. I thoroughly recommend this to anyone who wants a bit of snarky spice in their romance novels.
Six Degrees of Reading: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith; The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.
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