The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva Rice

...coming of age story. The inner teenager in me just likes to sit and watch a High school movie (as long as it is not gross our comedy) or read about an awkward teen becoming socially aware and and understanding themselves. The Lost Art if Keeping Secrets " by Eva Rice (daughter of the composer Tim rice)was no different. This charming novel about Penelope Wallace, an upper class girl growing up in 1950s England really enchanted me as it was a jolly ...
...our heroine's (and narrator as the book is written in the first person) life. The book opens with Penelope's first encounter with the girl with the sea green coat who is to become her best friend Charlotte Ferris. We are introduced to her young beautiful widowed mother Talitha and her Teddy Boy brother Inigo,and also Charlotte's aunt Clare and her wannabe magician cousin Harry. The plot revolves around the girl's love for 1950s teen idolJohnny Ray ...

duskmaiden 09.12.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva Rice

...that didn't impress me. The book is a really enjoyable view into the life of an 18 year old, Penelope Wallace, and her family back in the 1950's. She is part of a very eccentric family and becomes friends with a more eccentric family. She had lost her father at an early age as he died fighting in the war and they live in a huge ancestral home that is far too big for them to afford to run and it is literally crumbling around them. The book is well ...
...50's such as Johnnie Ray, the discovery of Elvis's new style of music, fashion, food available at the end of the war, tea shops/café-life, transport, you name it, it's in here and all in great detail. Eva Rice writes in a very readable style although she has a great skill of making you more and more inquisitive about what's happening by supplying you with tiny amounts of information that you have to hang on to until later on in the book. Her use ...

RClure 25.07.2006 · Read full review
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Review of The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva Rice

...recommend it to friends. The Plot and Characters: Set in 1950's England, the country is recovering from war and lurching towards the rock'n'roll era that shaped that true teenager. The novels narrator and most prominent character is Penelope Wallace, a girl living with her beautiful mother and Elvis-obsessed brother (Inigo) in a grand, ancestral house that is falling apart around her. After having lost her father the family are facing financial ...
...into Charlotte, a girl of the same age surrounded by bizarre family members such as her aunt and sardonic cousin Harry. They rapidly become best friends and the plot envelops into a quaint love story and delicate coming of age novel. I personally felt that the eccentric character drew me in through sheer curiosity and the engrossing narrative left me hungry to read the next chapter, every time. Eva Rice, daughter of Tim Rice, has written three ...

lisaa_p 25.08.2008 · Read full review
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Review of The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva Rice