Summer Pudding by Susan Scarlett 🥰🏡📗💙

 Happy Furrowed Middlebrow Friday!! 🥳💜

And, yay, for another Susan Scarlett book republished by Dean Street Press! I’ve had so many hours of lovely coziness reading these books. Thank you!! (I've read 6 out of 12 so far!) 😍

A light and sparkling summer novel! Susan Scarlett's (aka Noel Streatfeild) books are such a treat. So far, they've all been wonderfully entertaining. 

When I read that a reviewer from the Daily Telegraph (8 February 1941) declared, ‘Miss Scarlett has a way with her; she makes us accept the most unlikely things’, I immediately agreed! That's one of the elements that I usually dislike in other books, but Susan Scarlett manages to pull it off brilliantly!

Rating: 4.25🌟 

I adore this description in Summer Pudding:

"The cottage was as charming inside as out. There were beautiful oak beams in all the rooms, and they showed well against white distempered walls. There were two good sitting-rooms, a stone-flagged kitchen, a small scullery, four bedrooms, and halfway up the queer-shaped oak staircase, the pride of the cottage, a bathroom."

What I Loved:

☀️ Hardworking, helpful, independent, considerate and kind Janet Brain
☀️ Mrs. Maggie Brain and her determination to keep going and not give up on life
☀️ Lovely, thoughtful Barbara and her crusty-but-likable father, The Colonel
☀️ The sweet cottage at Worsingford
☀️ Adorable little Iris (she was my fav character!)

What I Didn't Love (and frustrated me greatly):

❊ The horribly selfish and self-centered sister, Sheila
❊ A somewhat rushed ending where things were resolved in a positive way, but all of the messed up situations seemed to be brushed over and dismissed.
❊ The misunderstanding between Donald and Janet that could have been resolved with just a few words. 

I had mixed feelings about Gladys—I felt indignation for her possessiveness of Donald, unkindness to Iris and general bad behavior...but, I could also pity her for the position she was in and how much she loved and counted on Donald's return affection.

Overall, I had fun reading this Furrowed Middlebrow novel and I would read it again. The only reason why I didn't rate it higher was because of the way the ending was written and the detestable, immature Sheila. Ughhh!

Many thanks to my dear friend, Gina (@gina.stanyer.books on IG) for buddy reading this book with me for July!

Definitely a worthwhile read...especially for the summer months! Happy July, my lovely reading friends!! 💕🌸🤗🌸💕

NOTE: Tarot cards shown are from the Herbcrafter's Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert and Latisha Guthrie 😍