My review is basically first impressions, that was the idea. I hope people do not think I was too critical, but I was being as honest as I could.
I did have one thought today (well, hopefully more than one) on why I might like the school stories better, and that is that in the school setting, Nicola is among her peers. I've noted before what I think is AF's particular gift to make the reader feel as though they are one of her characters. They're people. But among her family, she's only one of the two youngest and the reader doesn't forget she's only 13 because those older sisters are forever hammering the lesson home! As is their job :-)
Off on another tangent; it's rather a pity that Edwin is almost dropped completely in the next book. He's only present in the letter he writes to Nicola and references from his family. Nice to see things seem to be working out, but after the ending of Family I often hope he'd walk in. Despite having read Cricket Term umpteen times, it had a slight newness about it when I picked it up after reading Family. I knew who these people were now.
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I did have one thought today (well, hopefully more than one) on why I might like the school stories better, and that is that in the school setting, Nicola is among her peers. I've noted before what I think is AF's particular gift to make the reader feel as though they are one of her characters. They're people. But among her family, she's only one of the two youngest and the reader doesn't forget she's only 13 because those older sisters are forever hammering the lesson home! As is their job :-)
Off on another tangent; it's rather a pity that Edwin is almost dropped completely in the next book. He's only present in the letter he writes to Nicola and references from his family. Nice to see things seem to be working out, but after the ending of Family I often hope he'd walk in. Despite having read Cricket Term umpteen times, it had a slight newness about it when I picked it up after reading Family. I knew who these people were now.