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A very quaint story. The characters were interesting, and I appreciated that it didn't fall in the trap of "literally everyone in town immediately loves the charming newcomer." Even by the end of the book, there was a number of characters who had no particular interactions with Mrs. Hollis. The characters were all interesting without being "small town quirky." There's so many characters that most of them don't really have a moment to BE "small town quirky," so they come off more as regular people.
Remarkably, this book is set in England but is by an American author, and it feels pretty authentic. There's a few word choices here and there that maybe wouldn't be accurate to 1860s England, but nothing sticks out as an egregious Americanism - at least to me, an American.
I had no idea going into this book that it was so... religious? I mean, it's really not all that overwhelming. The characters praying to God and such makes perfect sense given the setting. The main religious aspect comes from one character being sort of wheedled into studying the Bible. It's a long process, during which that character brings up a lot of interesting points. In my opinion his conversion was sort of sudden, but it wasn't all that bad.

My biggest complaint is the writing for the teen characters seems REALLY off. One of the main characters is 13 for most of the book, and then 14, but I kept imagining he was more like 10 or 11 because of how he was behaving. I can't really pinpoint what was so off about it - it's not as if I was expecting him to be thinking about girls constantly, but a 14 year old who just goes fishing all the time and doesn't protest at all to his mother tucking him in at night? That just seemed really odd.

All in all, an enjoyable book. 4 stars because I enjoyed reading it but I'm not totally sure I'll read it again. I will say that this entire book series would be great for some light PBS tv series. ( )

I initially had a really hard time getting into this, but once I got past the first 6 or 8 chapters, I really enjoyed the story! It reminded me in *some* ways of my favorite series, At Home in Mitford, because of the small town feel and the fact that it was written in numerous people's POV, which I liked.

The characters were all great; although I feel like Julia's children, particularly Aleda and Grace were underdeveloped. Phillip got so much more air time, and we were pretty frequently in his POV, yet there was almost nothing about Aleda and Grace. I loved all of the boardinghouse inmates, and their diverse personalities. My favorite was definitely the actor (I'm blanking on his name right now). He and Fiona were SO sweet and I loved how it ended!!!

One thing I particularly loved about this book was how mild and in the background the romance was. It was almost nonexistent through much of the story.

That twist at the end about Phillip finding the letter he forgot to give Fiona was SO GOOD! I DID NOT see it coming, and that's saying a lot, as I usually do. ;) I was quite literally writhing around in agonies after I found out. XD

All in all, a good read! I docked a start because there were some hard parts to get through, especially in the beginning. Recommend for ages 14 mostly because anyone younger wouldn't be interested in it. It is quite clean, with just a few thing, such as The romantic interest for one character was a philanderer, although there were almost no details given. Other than that, there was just a bit of mild romance, totally appropriate for all ages. ( )

I really enjoyed this book and all the characters. It is also refreshing to read a Victorian era book that's not set in London for the most part nor a big manor house. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series. ( )

I had the worst time trying to get into this novel. In the beginning, I thought that the problem was me. After working 40 hours this week, it was easy to assume that I was having this kind of trouble because I was exhausted and in need of a good rest. So I set the book down and slept for a good six or seven hours. Then I picked it up again and began reading. No, it's not me. The book is simply too dry and drags on endlessly.

While the book is clean and approrpriate for Christian readers, it still lacks many of the things I crave in a good book. I forced myself to finish it. The ending was nice, but it wasn't fantastic or anything. As much as I appreciate clean reads, I just don't see myself re-reading this one.
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