Eva Rice

It's 1990 and February Kingdom (what a fabulous name!) is 19, just a few years older than I was at the same time, and the scene is set perfectly, taking me back to the days of the Sony Walkman and trying desperately to record the Top 40 countdown onto a cassette tape.

February's short life has been beset by tragedy at every turn, losing her parents and later her twin sister in terrible circumstances. Understandably, everyday life is difficult to cope with now and she hasn't been out for months. Could a little yellow bird and a boy named Theo be enough to help her carry on?

This is very much a character-driven plot and the characters are well-written, fascinating and larger-than-life creations that I really enjoyed reading about. There's a subplot featuring February's aunt and uncle and I think Ann, the aunt having something of an awakening of her own, was possibly my favourite character of all, along with the rather special Theo. I also loved Plato, a would-be pop star, and a cameo appearance by Michael Hutchence was such a thrill. The music storylines transported me right back to the 90s and the days of excitedly flicking through the new issue of Smash Hits for my latest heartthrob. It's such an evocative read in so many ways.

This is not my first Eva Rice, in fact I've been reading her since her first book, Standing Room Only. I've always enjoyed her quite wistful and whimsical style of writing, combined with the way she completely transports me to another time or place, or way of living. This Could be Everything is a sad read in many ways, but it left me feeling ultimately full of hope for February's future. Some very clever plot developments that I never saw coming but which made perfect sense once they were revealed, coupled with the dynamics between the characters, make this a charming read.… (meer)

I picked up this novel because one of my favourite authors EVER, Elizabeth Wein, gave it an excellent review on Goodreads. I had absolutely no idea what it was, except that there were comparisons to Dodie Smith's "I Capture the Castle" which I vaguely remember reading and enjoying. I found this gem on the fifth page -- the main character, Penelope (who has a brother named Inigo!), talking about another girl she had just met: "She was the sort of person one reads about in novels yet raraely meets in real life, and if this was the beginning of the novel -- well! (5)"

Penelope is the tall, plain daughter of a father killed in the war, and a beautiful young mother just seventeen years older than herself. Her chance encounter and subsequent friendship with the charming and outgoing Charlotte brings excitement to her life that has been absent -- living in the giant old estate called Milton Magna Hall, a crumbling old mansion, is a rather dull existence, broken up only by her mother's alternating moods of guilt and emotion, extravagance and spending. Penelope also becomes acquainted with Charlotte's brother, Harry, who is infatuated with an American woman, Marina; he eventually hatches a plot to win her by convincing Penelope to serve as a foil.

I began this book with great hopes, and went merrily along for about half the book, at which point I started to feel disillusioned with the characters; with Penelope and Charlotte's gushing over the popular singer Johnnie Ray, with her mother's whims and emotions, and even with the seeming smallness of things that bothered Penelope, especially in contrast to the larger problems around her. While I was intrigued by the idea of American popular music taking the fancy of young English girls (as in a counter wave to the "British Invasion"), as the novel wrapped up, everything came together a la Daphne du Maurier, and I was left more than a wee bit disappointed, despite the charm and witty prose of the narrator. I would say this is about 4 stars for the first half, then slides down to around 2.5 towards the end, which makes me sad because I really really wanted to like it.… (meer)