Midwinter Nightingale

Rating:
Summary: Continuing Excellence
Review: I loved Joan Aiken's series, starting with the Wolves of Willoughby Chase, when I was a child, and now at 36 they still have just as much ability to charm me. This latest in the installment had enough excitement and humor to keep me reading cover to cover in one sitting. At first I thought she might have gone too far in this story line-werewolves after all! (though I suppose after the Stolen Lake anything was possible), but Aiken carried it off admirably. I was a bit disappointed by the ending though. I suppose I was hoping she might wrap up the story, not because I want the series to end (I wish it could go on forever), but because Aiken is 80 after all and I hope she ties up loose ends before she dies. I hope she's working on the next one!

Rating:
Summary: Dido Twite is back...as sassy as ever
Review: Who needs Harry Potter when you can thrill to the adventures of Dido Twite, the indefatigable Cockney heroine of Joan Aiken's Wolves Chronicles?
In this latest installment, Dido is back in England during the (fictional) reign of King Richard IV, just in time to help save the throne from the loutish son of a werewolf baron. Yes, the plot sounds outrageous, and perhaps it is--but the story is so fast-paced, the narrative so vivid and yet so concise, and the characters so charismatic that even the most literal-minded reader (youngster or adult) is unlikely to care.
For fans of Aiken's entire series, which begins with "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase" and includes "Black Hearts in Battersea," "Nightbirds on Nantucket," and "The Cuckoo Tree" (one of my favorites), one of the most rewarding aspects of "Midwinter Nightingale" is Dido's reunion with her mate Simon--and the bittersweet yet open-ended way Aiken closes the book. Surely another episode is in the works?