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A review by mrskatiefitz
Betsy's Story, 1934 by Adele Whitby
3.0
Recently, I've been catching up on the Secrets of the Manor series. Today, I'm looking at the concluding books of the first story arc: Betsy's Story, 1934 (Book 5) and [b:Kay's Story, 1934|22546665|Kay's Story, 1934 (Secrets of the Manor, #6)|Adele Whitby|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1421828611s/22546665.jpg|42003403] (Book 6).
In Betsy's Story, Betsy is about to turn twelve, and she and her mother are planning the traditional birthday ball at which Betsy is due to inherit the Elizabeth necklace. Unfortunately, news comes from America that Cousin Kay and her family have fallen on hard financial times and that they won't be able to come for Betsy's ball. Worse yet, the Katherine necklace has been sold, and Kay will not have the opportunity to receive it for her twelfth birthday. Betsy feels terrible for Kay, but she is also worried about her own family's financial situation. Her mother has been having many meetings with advisers behind closed doors, and members of the kitchen staff are whispering about unpaid bills. Is Betsy's mother struggling, or is someone at Chatswood Manor trying to sabotage the family?
In Kay's Story, Betsy and her mother have traveled to America for Kay's twelfth birthday, with plans to help their cousins get back on their feet as they struggle to keep their home. Kay has already seen her mother part with many family heirlooms, which makes her sad, but also raises her curiosity when it comes to the family's attention that one of the buyers has been paying significantly more for Vandermeer Manor items than they are worth. In the meantime, Kay and Betsy wait to be told the big family secret that has been kept from them their entire lives.
This pair of books provides an enjoyable, albeit predictable, ending to the Chatswood/Vandermeer saga. Though it was a bit confusing trying to keep track of all the characters and which generations they belong to, and how they are related to each other, the inter-connectedness of all six books, and the jumps back in forth in time over the course of the series are an effective way to hook readers and keep them coming back. I figured out the big family secret before even reading these two books, and a huge hint at the end of Betsy's Story made it very easy to guess, but it's possible that kids with less life experience, and less experience reading mystery stories, could still be surprised.
It is disappointing, though, that Kay and Betsy don't really solve a mystery on their own the way that Elizabeth and Katherine and Beth and Kate do. Instead, so much time has passed that their mothers just flat-out tell them the family secret, and their other problems can't really be resolved without the help of adults, either.The other major disappointment is the over-the-top happy ending. Instead of just revealing the secret and resolving the family's financial problems, the last chapter of Kay's story provides a highly unrealistic and overly romanticized resolution, which comes out of nowhere and does not really match the mood of the rest of the series. Kids will probably like it, but it made me groan and roll my eyes.
If you've started the series, you should definitely read these two to finish out the story arc. If you're looking to quit the series, you can stop after these, as the next two are only tangentially connected.
In Betsy's Story, Betsy is about to turn twelve, and she and her mother are planning the traditional birthday ball at which Betsy is due to inherit the Elizabeth necklace. Unfortunately, news comes from America that Cousin Kay and her family have fallen on hard financial times and that they won't be able to come for Betsy's ball. Worse yet, the Katherine necklace has been sold, and Kay will not have the opportunity to receive it for her twelfth birthday. Betsy feels terrible for Kay, but she is also worried about her own family's financial situation. Her mother has been having many meetings with advisers behind closed doors, and members of the kitchen staff are whispering about unpaid bills. Is Betsy's mother struggling, or is someone at Chatswood Manor trying to sabotage the family?
In Kay's Story, Betsy and her mother have traveled to America for Kay's twelfth birthday, with plans to help their cousins get back on their feet as they struggle to keep their home. Kay has already seen her mother part with many family heirlooms, which makes her sad, but also raises her curiosity when it comes to the family's attention that one of the buyers has been paying significantly more for Vandermeer Manor items than they are worth. In the meantime, Kay and Betsy wait to be told the big family secret that has been kept from them their entire lives.
This pair of books provides an enjoyable, albeit predictable, ending to the Chatswood/Vandermeer saga. Though it was a bit confusing trying to keep track of all the characters and which generations they belong to, and how they are related to each other, the inter-connectedness of all six books, and the jumps back in forth in time over the course of the series are an effective way to hook readers and keep them coming back. I figured out the big family secret before even reading these two books, and a huge hint at the end of Betsy's Story made it very easy to guess, but it's possible that kids with less life experience, and less experience reading mystery stories, could still be surprised.
It is disappointing, though, that Kay and Betsy don't really solve a mystery on their own the way that Elizabeth and Katherine and Beth and Kate do. Instead, so much time has passed that their mothers just flat-out tell them the family secret, and their other problems can't really be resolved without the help of adults, either.The other major disappointment is the over-the-top happy ending. Instead of just revealing the secret and resolving the family's financial problems, the last chapter of Kay's story provides a highly unrealistic and overly romanticized resolution, which comes out of nowhere and does not really match the mood of the rest of the series. Kids will probably like it, but it made me groan and roll my eyes.
If you've started the series, you should definitely read these two to finish out the story arc. If you're looking to quit the series, you can stop after these, as the next two are only tangentially connected.