*****9 1/2 stars****
Book One of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series
Dedication: "For Mike"
What's a poor governess to do? Our heroine, Penelope Lumley, arrives from the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females to discover that her three charges have actually been raised by wolves. While other, less plucky girls would have turned on their heels and headed back to the train station, our Miss Lumley rises to the challenge, fortified by the encouragement of Swanburne Academy's wise founder, Agatha Swanburne (whose pithy sayings are sprinkled throughout the book) and the encouragement of the Academy's headmistress, Charlotte Mortimer.
In one of the most touching scenes, as Penelope stands alone on the train platform about to begin this new adventure, she closes her eyes and squeezes her own hand, imagining for just a moment that it is Miss Mortimer reassuring her.
Or did she? I'll let you be the judge...read pages 6 and 7 of Chapter One (entitled "One home is forsaken in hopes of another") and tell me what you think!
You will enjoy unraveling the mysteries of Penelope's new manor home, Ashton Place, and the dark secrets the estate, its inhabitants, and the surrounding forest grounds try to hide. You'll fall in love with three little wolf children, ridiculously named Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia by Lord Ashton. I don't recall laughing as I read Jane Eyre, but I laughed out loud more than once as I relished each page of The Mysterious Howling, described by School Library Journal as "Jane Eyre meets Lemony Snicket."
Convinced yet? Check out the book trailer.
Run, don't walk, to get your copy...in fact, run on all fours, if you wish.
Ah-ah-ah-wooooooooooooo!!
Convinced yet? Check out the book trailer.
Run, don't walk, to get your copy...in fact, run on all fours, if you wish.
Ah-ah-ah-wooooooooooooo!!
