Tag: Wayne family trilogy

Review 2778: Six Impossible Things

~ whatmeread ~ 4 Comments

The third book in the Wayne family trilogy, Six Impossible Things centers on Nicholas, who in the first book, returned from military service determined to try to keep the family house and be a guardian to his youngest sister and brothers.

It’s ten years later. Most of the family is away now, but all of them are returning home for the wedding of Miriam Arkwright to an Austrian count. Nicholas goes to the airport to pick up his sister Julia, who has spent the last two years studying music in Rome. At the airport he is admiring a lovely girl when Julia arrives with a bundle of packages. She hands him an airline bag and goes back to get more packages. Then Nicholas is accosted by a large, rude man, who tells him he is holding his fiancée’s bag. Nicholas says his siter gave it to him and he wants to make sure it isn’t hers before handing it over. The man, who is with the girl Nicholas was admiring, insists that Nicholas just took the bag to meet his girlfriend and becomes abusive. Julie comes back and realizes she has given Nicholas the wrong bag. They exchange, but somehow when they get home, they find they have the wrong bag again.

Nicholas asks Julia to write the girl, Elaine Morley, a note telling her he’ll bring her bag if she meets him. Instead, she arrives on their doorstep, having broken with her fiancé, Sir Kenneth Springer, and left without taking anything with her. Knowing that Kenneth Springer will descend upon them, Julia suggests she take up an offer of her old music teacher to lend his house to wedding guests, whom she and Elaine will tend to, and the girls move to that house.

Soon Springer arrives. To add to the chaos, Joey Helyon has returned to town to shoot a documentary, a more long-term way to help Elaine must be found, Julia has two young men courting her, and even Joey gets romantic.

This is a delightful light read. After three books, Nicholas deserves a happy ending.

Related Posts

The Lark Shall Sing

The Blue Sky of Spring

Money to Burn

Review 2767: The Blue Sky of Spring

~ whatmeread ~ 3 Comments

I wanted to read something super light, so I picked up this book, the second in Cadell’s Wayne family series and the only one I hadn’t read before. This one takes place a year after The Lark Shall Sing, in which all of the Wayne family returned home after their older sister Lucille decided to put the family home up for sale.

Cliff Hermann, an American playwright, arrives in Greenhurst to deliver a package to an old lady. He has been encouraged by his friend Robert Debrett (Lucille’s Wayne’s husband) to call on the Waynes, but he’s not in the mood. Miss Dryden-Smth, the recipient of the package, is abrupt and seems uninterested, but as he leaves, he thinks she looks ill.

Nicholas Wayne at 21 has taken on the position of father figure to his three preteen siblings. He has opened a successful travel agency and owns a third of the family home. He is in love with Estelle Dryden, whom he has known all his life, but although she cares about him, she’s not sure of her feelings. He finds her upset. Her aunt, Miss Dryden-Smith, has died, and at the last minute, she attempted to change her will, leaving everything to her son instead of Estelle. It’s not that Estelle wants the money, but no one knows who that son could be or that proper Miss Dryden-Smith, apparently a spinster, could have had a son no one knows about. All anyone knows is that a man delivered a package just before she died, a man in a big black car who was wearing a sling on his arm.

On an expedition to the races with Estelle and her brothers, 12-year-old Julia Wayne spots Cliff Hermann wearing a sling. She is certain he must be the man who delivered the package. Unfortunately, he is on the way to make a bet, and she stops him from getting there in time, so he is angry and displays a nasty temper. But when he sets his eye on Estelle, he changes his tune and soon has come for a visit.

For her part, Julia has a schoolgirl crush on Estelle, who is teaching literature at Julia’s school. She has made Julia interested in a school subject for the first time in her life. Julia confides to Cliff that she is writing a poem about Estelle for a school competition and will present it to her if she wins.

This novel features a romance, a mild mystery, and bitter disappointment for two people. I have to say that I didn’t like Cliff or the way he conducted his pursuit of Estelle.

It was nice to check in with the rest of the family, although the novel doesn’t spend much time with some of them. Of the trilogy, I suspect this novel is going to prove to be my least favorite. It did make me cry, though, which is always a good thing.

Related Posts

The Lark Shall Sing

Consider the Lilies

Money to Burn

Review 2763: The Lark Shall Sing

~ whatmeread ~ 6 Comments

The other day a friend and I got on the topic of Elizabeth Cadell. She is an infallible read for a light-as-fluff experience. Most of her novels, written between the 1940’s and the 80’s, involve some kind of romance and sometimes a mild mystery. But she creates engaging characters.

This discussion reminded me that Cadell’s relatives had reprinted all her books—some not quite as good as others—so I decided to poke around and compare their list with the selection of mostly used books that I own. In poking around, I discovered that one of my favorites, Six Impossible Things, was not the second book about the Wayne family but the third! This meant, of course, that I had to buy the second and read all three. The Lark Shall Sing is the first. (Just an update: This whole discussion took place this spring, and I reread this book at the end of May. I just realized that although I read the first two, I forgot to read the third one. I’ll have to do that next.)

Lucille Wayne has come home to sell the family house, despite the recommendation to wait awhile by her godfather, Mr. Milward. She is from a large family now consisting of three young adult siblings and three child siblings. After their mother’s death, they stayed in the house a year, all except Nicholas, who was in the military, but Lucille convinced them to lease it for a year because they couldn’t afford it. Lucille had a job in Cornwall, and Roselle, having finished a secretarial course, was itching to get a job in London.

The year has elapsed, and the tenants, who once considered buying the house, were called back to South Africa. Lucille is engaged and plans to live with her fiancé Digby and his mother in Cornwall. Eleven- and nine-year-old Simon and Dominic are at school and live with their Aunt Mary, and ten-year-old Julia is at school and can spend the holidays with Lucille and Digby. Lucille has sent each of her siblings a letter instructing them to let her know which of their things they would like to keep.

Almost half the book is about them all coming home. Because as soon as they get Lucille’s letter, they all leave immediately for home, most of them with little money or preparation, to try to convince Lucille not to sell. On the way, the three children and Roselle are helped by three total strangers who somehow end up coming along. Roselle nearly faints when she gets off the train, and Miss Cornhill jumps off to help her, only to have her things go off in the train. Simon and Dominic arrive at the London station at rush hour, and Dominic is torn from Simon’s grasp and pushed onto the train while Simon can get nowhere near it. Simon is helped by Robert Debrett, who picks him up so he can signal to Dominic to continue, and drives him to the other end of the journey so he can meet Dominic’s train—in his limousine, because he’s a famous actor. Julia, exhausted and riding a bike too big for her, hits Italian brush salesman Pietro smack in the back and ruins his suit and brushes, but he puts her back on the bike and wheels her home. Nicholas arrives on a rickety motorcycle. Now, all everyone has to do is convince Lucille to keep the house.

This is a lovely book full of likable characters with some touching scenes, particularly the reunion between Simon and his dog, Long John. Of course, Lucille dislikes Robert on sight while Robert decides he’s sticking around to see if he can’t change her mind. What fun!

Related Posts

Money To Burn

Consider the Lilies

Death Among Friends