Reviews for The Twenty-Fourth of June: Midsummer's Day

The average rating for The Twenty-Fourth of June: Midsummer's Day based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-11-26 00:00:00 Maria Mackay Such a wonderful book. This is, essentially, a romance. A romance seeking a kindred spirit in the right Reader of the 21st Century to love this book as it ought to be loved. Some might roll their eyes at the love-at-first-sight, at the (at times) "overly" sentimental or flowery prose, at the sheer *goodness* of the characters. Yet, I loved the book for all these reasons and so many more. If you will look deeper, you will find such a multi-layered story, full of personalities and problems and joys and struggles that are as profoundly meaningful today as they were in 1914 when this book was first published. Richmond's books are so powerful to me because, more than making me wish for "the good old days", they make me want to find many of these beautiful qualities of the past in my own life. Rich Kendrick is refreshingly more three-dimensional than many a leading man. I was so grateful that this wasn't a typical bad-boy-turns-good-for-good-girl story. Rich was good to begin with but, like so many young people, he lacked guidance (and motivation) to broaden his character and his interests beyond the high society life he was born to. Roberta Gray was good and worthy and idealized, yes, but she was also mired with pride and prejudice (against Rich, judging him unfairly simply because of his status) and she had her own learning to do along the way. I so enjoyed Rich's journey and I would probably have wanted to marry him if I was reading this as a young teen ;-) All of the secondary characters are drawn with depth and care, and I really felt the heartbeat of the Gray family's home and could understand how much Rich longed to be part of the kind of warm family, the sort of Real Family Life, with all it's little joys and troubles and helpfulness and genuine friendship for one another, that made his solo pursuits of clubs and travels and parties seem pale and puny. As with all of Richmond's books, I am surprised by the course of events, even though it's pretty easy to guess the eventual outcome. I feel challenged to write a review that shows how deeply I loved this book, and perhaps, Dear Reader, you will not love it as well as I do. Yet I still encourage you to read it if it sounds the least bit like something you would enjoy. Or consider one of Richmond's other works--they deserve to be better known. If you're a fan of Louisa May Alcott, L. M. Montgomery, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and the like, please consider giving Richmond a try. Several of her books are on Project Gutenberg :-) I should also add that, despite the title, much of this story takes place during winter and (even has a few lovely Christmas chapters) so it's suitable to read any time of the year.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-07-14 00:00:00 Gayla Mcord Grace Richmond's books are kind of like a fluffy blanket or a mug of hot cocoa. Nothing really earth-shaking happens in them; you just spend some time with thoroughly good, nice people who face ordinary life problems and challenges and sort them all out happily by the end of the book. Which means there's not a lot of conflict (at least none that you can't pretty accurately guess the outcome of), but sometimes you can do with a book like that to while away an afternoon.