The Vintage Girl

by Hester Browne

[Leah]

Hester Brown has quickly become a firm favourite of mine, since I read her novel The Runaway Princess a year or so ago. I’d not read any of Hester’s previous novels, thinking they were a bit posh for me but The Runaway Princess had sounded so intriguing, and so interesting, and it was SUCH an amazing read. I simply fell in love! So I very quickly got myself some more of Hester’s books, starting with The Vintage Girl (also published as Swept Off Her Feet). I was a little bit more hesitant about reading this book as it’s about antiques, not something that really interests me. Whenever I think antiques, I think David Dickinson and his tango-orange tan. Not a pleasant sight, right? But I decided to read it anyway, because I usually find that the subjects I know little or nothing about, or have no interest in, are usually the most interesting books, because I’m actually learning something as I read!

As I said, The Vintage Girl is about antiques. Evie Nicholson confesses on the very first page that she’s in love with anything old, including a tatty teddy-bear with a missing eye, which tells you all you need to know about Evie! (Although, to be fair, I probably would have bought the one-eyed teddy, because you just can’t leave a one-eyed teddy bear, can you? It would be positively cruel.) Evie loves anything and everything old and it doesn’t matter what it is, much to her boss Max’s consternation. She loves old photoframes, depicting happy couples, stuffed animal heads – you name it, Evie will most definitely buy it. So when her sister Alice offers her the chance to go up to Scotland for a few days to appraise a Scottish castle filled with antiques, Evie jumps at the chance. A proper Scottish castle? Yes, please! She fantasises about what it would be like to live in her own castle, and she’s soon knee-deep in the lives of the McAndrew’s desperate to find that one piece that will help them save the castle.

I actually loved diving into The Vintage Girl. I knew I would, despite my misgivings about antiques. I’m daft that way; it’s the topics that I think I have no interest in that always get me in the end. Plus Evie is such a fascinating, lovely character, so enthused by all these items that you can’t help but feel her enthusiasm rubbing off on you. I’m not about to go and start antiqueing, but I appreciate the business a little bit more, and I can see why old things fascinate Evie because, to be fair, they do have such awesome stories to tell and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the McAndrew’s ancestor Violet. She was an amazing character! The main draw for me came in the form of the McAndrews’ son Robert. I knew as soon as he appeared that he was going to be important to the story and I liked him immediately. If I’m being honest, I wanted to go and live in his little cottage (whether he was there or not is another matter, the cottage sounded heavenly).

The one bit of the novel I was really concerned about was the Scottish dancing – reeling. I’ve never heard of it, and initially it sounded so overly complicated that I feared it would never make sense but I actually liked learning about that, too. I’m not much of a dancer, but it’s something I would one day like to see in action because if done right it sounds as if it’s quite the spectacle! Hester Browne has written another brilliant novel, her storytelling style is so easy-going, so good and I will be forever thankful that I read The Runaway Princess because Hester has now become one of my must-read authors, and I am so looking forward to her next book which is out later this year. The Vintage Girl was so great, filled with some wonderful, unforgettable characters, some fascinating stories, and a fantastic-sounding ball (who knew they still had balls? I want to go to one!). Evie is such a down-to-Earth likeable character and I loved getting to know her!