Dashwood Sisters' Secrets of Love by Rosie Rushton, Rosie Rushton (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

The Walker sisters have always lived a privileged life in their beloved Holly House in Sussex. Even though their father, Max Walker, has left the family to live with his new macrobiotic-food-obsessed trophy wife, Pandora, he has always doted on his girls. But then one day, reality crashes down around them when Max has a heart attack and passes away, uncovering the truth that he was knee deep in debt. The Walkers discover that their home is actually in Pandora's name and she decides she wants it back. So the family has to uproot their lives and move to the seaside town of Norfolk in an old cottage. What happens then.?

Publishers Weekly

PW called this tale of the title sisters, forced from their ancestral home after their father's death to move to Norfolk, where they concentrate on their romantic ambitions "a bright-eyed tale." Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Ellie, Abby, and Georgie Dashwood dislike their father's new wife and the effect she is having on him. When he dies suddenly, the girls and their mother learn that Mr. Dashwood left enormous debts and no inheritance, and the sting is even greater because he changed his will to leave the family's ancestral home to the new Mrs. Dashwood. The girls must leave their private school near London and the only home they've known and move to a small cottage in the country. The sisters and their mother cope with their reduced circumstances in different ways. Ellie, the oldest, is the practical one who worries about everything but finds love. Abby, the drama-queen middle child, falls in love with the rich bad boy and ends up hurt, and Georgie, the youngest, is the tomboy who doesn't realize the effect she has on a local boy. The girls' mother just does a lot of hand-wringing. If the plot seems familiar, it should because the novel is presented as an "homage" to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. The author does a decent job of modernizing the tale, but the writing lacks Austen's subtlety and reads more like a movie script. In addition, the story is predictable, and the characters are all fairly static. However, the novel is enjoyable in the way that "beach books" are, and it will appeal to teens looking for something light and entertaining. The cover is eye-catching and au courant as well.-Cheri Dobbs, Detroit Country Day Middle School, Beverly Hills, MI Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Unlike Jane Austen's classic exploration of passion versus reserve, this homage to Sense and Sensibility itself falls victim to exaggeration and melodrama. As in the original, there are three Dashwood sisters, the eldest calm and the second impulsive. They live with their mother in the ancestral family home, which their father vacated when he fell for a young, fake-breasted health nut and remarried. He soon dies penniless and the destitute Dashwoods remove to a small cottage. Ellie and Abby (the eldest and middle sisters) have plotlines similar to Sense and Sensibility, with boys filling the same roles as in the original, but revelations fall flat. Rushton uses a jarring combination of Austen and update; for example, why is eldest sister Ellie named after Austen's Elinor but second sister Abby not named after Austen's Marianne? Hard-to-believe details include emotions that change too quickly and muttered put-downs that the victim (standing right there) never hears. Leans vaguely on Austen's structure without developing its own substance or grace; unsatisfying. (Fiction. 10-13)

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