Harvest Home by Dorothy Lambert 😊❤️💜💚

Happy Furrowed Middlebrow Friday! 🤩💃🏻❤️

Dorothy Lambert has been impressing me all month long with her exciting domestic novels! Although the setting of the books is not specifically summer, somehow they all feel summery. I would 100% recommend them all as the perfect picks for beach reading. 😊☀️🏖

It's not too late to pre-order these titles (available in both paperback and/or ebook) on Amazon! (US link) (UK Link) Only 5 days until publication! 🎉

RATING: 4.75🌟 Lively, fun, descriptive and wacky!

Harvest Home starts with Lucinda traveling to London to attend her sister Angela's birthday party and ends up with a whole lot of crazy consequences. From the very first page, I was pulled into this quirky romantic comedy. (I would love to see this novel on screen!)

From London to the remote countryside, there is non-stop activity for the Bradsole family and their friends. This includes devious plans, secrets, ghosts, romantic yearnings, frustrated parents, jealousy and little lies in order to "help" others. What happens after the harvest is a ball of confusion, but ends with surprising results!

I might have given this new Dorothy Lambert title a 5 star review, but I just felt too frustrated with some of the characters. But, it was SO close! 

Harvest Home mostly takes place during the autumn season, but it was the perfect choice to read during the summer. The wonderful writing, enthusiastic energy and particularly peculiar plot of this 1950s novel made it a shining summer gem!

MAIN CHARACTERS:

❊ Sir Giles Bradsole - Aka "Puffin", father of Angela, Lucinda and Gillian, farmer and owner of Dregllingore Place (aka "The Place"), hard worker
❊ Lady Bradsole - Aka "Muffy", the mother of the 3 girls, wife to Sir Giles, muddler and martyr to cooking and cleaning at The Place
❊ Angela Bradsole - Oldest Bradsole daughter, lives in London with roommate Priscilla, believes she is an artist, a wee bit selfish and conceited, pretty, not very intelligent or interesting
❊ Lucinda Bradsole - Aka "Cinders", middle daughter, has horticultural degree, amazingly helpful to Sir Giles on the farm
❊ Gillian Bradsole - Youngest daughter, beautiful, understands much more than others give her credit for, close to Lucinda
❊ Priscilla Yardley - Small, slight, coppery hair, eager, a "live wire", roommate to Angela in London, works for a psychoanalyst (and thinks she is one, too!)
❊ Simon Kingsford - Across the hall temporary neighbor to Angela and Priscilla, Canadian, big, strong, handsome, tough, friendly, parachute solider during the war
❊ Alywin Vines - Limp, sulky, obstinate, loves music, "long-suffering air", thinks he's a poet
❊ Toby Hargreave - Aka "The General", near neighbors to the Bradsoles, likes to flirt with young girls (especially Angela)
❊ Sybil Hargreave - Sister to Toby, a pain in the neck to all, thinking she's an important part of the community
❊ Derek Hargreave - Son of "The General", has a crush on Lucinda, jealous of Simon
❊ Mrs. Kingsford - Little old lady in the community from a distinguished family and a mysterious past. Presently not seen very often and mostly thought of as "batty".

WHAT I LOVED:

💜 Being swept into the story (like a tidal wave) from the very first page!
💜 Reading all of the cozy domestic details of everyday life on the farm, especially the food
💜 Priscilla's undeniable energy, charm and perseverance
💜 Seeing how Priscilla could turn things "her way" with such ease
💜 Simon's steady and loyal presence, even though it was clear that he was keeping something back
💜 The way Lucinda is like glue that keeps a lot of the family members together and sane 
💜 Tiny hints of the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's, at the beginning of the novel during the London birthday party 

WHAT FRUSTRATED ME THE MOST:

❊ Horrible Sybil with her bossiness, interfering nature, selfishness and complete lack of sympathy for others
❊ The household cat, Kenneth, who literally eats anything (and everything!) any time a person leaves the room. (Why doesn't anyone do anything about this??)
❊ Poor Muffie trying to run a household on her own with very little food at hand, very limited hot water, almost no help and dealing with Kenneth the cat!
❊ Mr. and Mrs. Styles (the servant couple) rules the Hargreave family with an iron fist

❤️ FAVORITE PASSAGES: 

"You don't know Puffin," said Lucinda with conviction. "He'd never let himself in for anything so modern as a camp, would he, Angela?" 

The scones were heavy and not quite cooked, but he ate them purely as fodder. Gillian stood by and piled jam on scones and handed them to him in quick succession. Lucinda cut a slab of gingerbread and put it on his plate while his wife poured out cups of tea. After five or six minutes of intensive feeding, Sir Giles lit his pipe and disappeared, saying that he wanted a really hot bath when he came in. 

"Muffie! Do look out! Kenneth is on the table!" But, it was too late. The sardine sandwiches had gone. Kenneth had had them.

I'm so grateful to Victoria at Dean Street Press (she's the best!) for sending along this book (and three other new Dorothy Lambert books) for me to read and review! DSP Furrowed Middlebrow books are my lifeline to comfort and entertainment—they are books I always reread, adore the cover art, and look to whenever I want a bookish hug. ☺️✨

Stay tuned for my last Dorothy Lambert post (here and on Instagram) next Friday—yay! 😍❤️

Will you be buying theses Dorothy Lambert books in July? (Psst...you really should...they're WONDERFUL!)

Have a relaxing and fun weekend! 💛🌼🤗🌼💛 

What will you be reading? Let me know in the comments!