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11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Cute and Sweet Sep 13, 2007
By Coppertop
This series of Susan Wittig Albert's is charming and sweet. It is definitely a cozy mystery and one that you will enjoy, although not the type that will keep you up at night to finish it. The entire series has ran much the same. While the characters are a lot of fun, the plot tends to be a bit slow and gets sidetracked on a lot of other little things. The use of the talking animals is not badly done (in fact it was one of the issues that original worried me about this series, but I found I actually enjoyed), but some of the animal sidelines get a little lengthly and irrelevant (Jemima Puddle-duck and the fox, for instance). This story involves no murder, rather an abandoned baby. These are a great starter series for a young mystery reader - there is absolutely nothing shocking in the story and it is all very clean. Albert certainly has fun alluding to the eventual marriage of Beatrix Potter to Will Heelis in this book as well. There is plenty here to enjoy, but it is definitely a warm mystery, not a scary or thrilling one. The plot does have an interesting twist at the end to add to the story, though, as throughout most of the book, you think you know who did what, but it turns out to be something different.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Wonderful place to dwell! Sep 16, 2007
By Sandy Rhoad
"Insatiable reader"
If you are a fan of Beatrix Potter you have already read the first 3 books in this series AND have seen the film "Miss Potter"! If not I would suggest you begin with the open mind and heart of a child and read this book with the abandonment of conventional ideas. Animals speak, humans listen, mysteries occur, mouth-watering desserts are served and the villages will become home. I have reluctantly left the last book and wish to return. Jan Karon and Susan Albert have both created a haven for readers to dwell in and forget 9-11, Iran and money problems. You will love this style of writing if you remember to "let go and enjoy". Start with the first book - and when you are finished this series move on to the mystery series Ms. Albert has written. She is a writer worth the time and money.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Enchanting Tale Sep 30, 2007
By Judy Brown Eyes
This is Susan Wittig Albert's fourth Beatrix Potter mystery (after 2006's The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood) and it's a charming addition to the series. Beatrix, to her profound surprise, finds a lovely baby girl left on at doorstep of her Tree Top Farm. Unbeknownest to all, Baby Flora was stolen from her teenage mother, Emily, by a stange old lady, Mrs. Underthewall. Emily, agast at the theft of her baby, and a bit muddled in the head, takes this as an omen, and decides to leave her life as a maid and runs off to London to begin a new and exciting life. Beatrix suspects the child of having gypsy origins and proceeds to investigate the abandonment of the baby. Capt. Miles Woodcock and his sister, Dimity, temporarily give Flora a new home, while leaving Beatrix to solve the mystery of her old one. Meanwhile, the animal characters also have issues and problems to solve. Jemima Puddleduck broods over a nest of long overdue eggs; Reynard the Fox, smitten by Jemima, struggles with his unnatural and unforseen love for Jemima; and the whole village is talking about a marriage between Beatrix and the highly eligible Captain Woodcock, and his sister, Dimity, and the highly unsuitable Major Kittdrige. Meanwhile, on a business trip to London, Beatrix accidently meets Emily and gets to the bottom of the mystery of the stolen baby. This charming book with its whimsical blend of mystery, romance and the cozy descriptions of English village life and Beatrix Potter's Tree Top Farm, will delight all cozy mystery lovers. I suggest that if you haven't read the other 3 books in the series, you begin with the first one and proceed happily through to the present volume.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
"There is nothing like a village for managing everyone's affairs." Sep 16, 2007
By Corinne H. Smith
That's an oh-so-polite way of saying that the residents of the Land Between the Lakes have a tendency to gossip. But they have a lot to talk about.
The theme of this fourth episode of The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter is motherhood. A foundling, Baby Flora, is deposited on Miss Potter's stoop by one of the Hawthorn Folk, who have an affection for young bairns. Where did she come from? Whose daughter is she? Why was she abandoned? How can the errant mother be located? Who will take care of her in the meantime? At Hill Top Farm, Jemima Puddle-duck has been sitting on a nest for several months. Are those eggs hers? If not, where did she get them? What will happen when her ducklings finally hatch? And whatever became of that fox who was trying to seduce her a while back? Something must be in the air in that part of England in 1908, for several individuals who are not part of a pairing are beginning to look around at the options, making decisions about whom they might like to spend more time with. Who will propose marriage in this book? Will everyone find a chair before the music stops?
As in the previous books in this series, Susan Wittig Albert shows her adeptness at weaving plotlines between the humans and the animals. The story is told in the all-knowing view of an omniscient narrator, who uses "I" and the royal "we" in asides to the readership, just as Beatrix herself did in her own tales. Fans who have grown disgruntled with Rita Mae Brown's mysteries would do well to make the leap to this strong series.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
There's all kinds of family and each has their rythm and rules Mar 05, 2008
By Gayle Surrette
"omnivorous reader"
Family. It's all about family. Beatrix Potter can only have short visits to her farm because her parents don't approve and they need her to run their home in London. Her brother Bertram Potter has escaped to his own farm but he can't escape all the demands of his parents either. Jemima Puddle-duck wants to hatch her own eggs and have children to cherish. Dimity Woodcock has put her chance of love out of her mind because she knows her brother won't approve. A woman made a mistake and a baby is left on Beatrix Potter's doorstep, needing a home. But in August 1908, women didn't always have the freedom to do choose their own path, pick their own mates, or have a career. The Tale of Hawthorn House is a tale of an abandoned child and the impact it has on the residents of New Sawrey.
Once again Albert has crafted a tale that lets us enjoy the English countryside of the Beatrix Potter paintings and the inhabitants of Near Sawrey and its environs. The omniscient point of view allows us to enjoy observing everyone in town and yet be outside the story. This viewpoint can annoy some people but I find it, when used as here as a guide to the story with occasional asides to fill us in, to be amusing and in a way adding to the comfort of the story. There's the story of the humans and that of the animals that populate a village surrounded by farms. Sometimes the threads of their stories cross and affect each other but only the readers get to see how these two tales interact with each other.
The central mystery of who is the baby's mother and why was the child abandoned would normally be moot as the child would be placed in a work house and raised there. Luckily, this child was left on Beatrix Potter's doorstep and thus has an advocate. This is a look at the times, putting faces to the beliefs and prejudices of those times -- that some of those beliefs haven't changed much in the intervening years, or at least not for some people.
Families are something all of us can relate to in one way or another and in The Tale of Hawthorn House. There are the families we're born into, the families that we make for ourselves, and the families that we hope to achieve. Ideals, idealism, roles, and attitudes are important but, at heart, it's all about families.
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