Keeping the Castle

Patrice Kindl’s Keeping the Castle, a historical romance novel being compared to Pride and Prejudice, is on the Texas Lone Star Reading List 2013. Althea Crawley has the daunting task of finding a rich suitor so that she can cover the expenses of her family’s large, aging estate built on a precarious cliff by her great grandfather. Her father died right before her little brother, Alexander, was born. Thankfully, being male, he is an appropriate heir to the estate, but the family is in dire need of money to keep it up until he is of age to take it over. Besides Alexander, the Crawley castle is home to their mother and two unpleasant stepsisters who are also looking for husbands that can take care of them. While being courted by an appealing, eligible bachelor, Lord Boring, Althea learns to disdain his cousin, Mr. Frederick, who is always keeping their company. Mr. Frederick constantly finds things wrong with Crawley Castle and doesn’t hold back on saying exactly what he feels. Althea is determined to earn the affections of Lord Boring – he seems to be the answer to all of their problems. When a new single young lady comes to town, things become disrupted. This would be a great recommendation for fans of the television show, Downton Abbey. It is also great for libraries wanting to beef up their high lexile level selections.