Customer Reviews

Cordelia Underwood: Or, The Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Van Reid has written an homage to turn-of-the-century Victorian novels with Cordelia Underwood, or the Marvellous Beginnings of the Moosepath League and its delightful sequels. It's a romance, a treasure hunt, a mystery, quirkily wriggling between genre descriptions...Wonderfully evocative of the novels of the period, but with a modern humor and sensibility. Wonderful descriptions of the small towns of Maine in 1898 as well. Having visited Maine for years, I can testify that it's a true picture of the scents and sights and sounds. Very well done, and I'm eager for the next book in the series to be published.

Van Reid has crafted a delightfully charming work. CORDELIA UNDERWOOD actually made me, a deep-fried Southern Belle, dream of adventuring in the very New England setting inhabited by the members of the MOOSEPATH LEAGUE. I look forward with great anticipation to reading all the books in the series and sincerely hope that there will be many more escapades to read about in years to come. If you are a fan of Miss Read's English villages, Jan Karon's Mitford, and L.M. Montgomery's ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, then Van Reid's Maine missives are for you!

Van Reid has a magic way with words. In "Cordelia Underwood" he has created each character (and there are many of them)with wit and insight. His characters understand the importance of kindness and respect. They are also, with a couple necessary exceptions, game for adventure, especially when that concerns helping a friend or rescuing a "damsel in distress" (who turns out pretty good at helping herself). There are stories within stories and intersecting adventures, and I found each a delight. They all fit together into as pleasurable a novel as I have ever read. You won't regret reading this.

What delightful, innocent, clever, adventure stories Van Reid writes. I picked up Cordelia Underwood because someone said it was reminiscent of John Irving's humor, but I found the characters more like Tolkein's hobbits - full of innocence and charm, bumbling into and solving problems, and we don't have to travel to Middle Earth to be a part of the adventure. (From Massachusetts, Maine is just a 2 hour drive!) I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Moosepath League (Molly Peers, the second book rates 5 stars too.)

We stumbled on this wonderful book by way of a recommendation from Amazon.com and absolutely loved it. My wife grabbed it first and was soon giggling and smiling with the various antics of the Various and Sundry personalities that make up this story. Once I wrestled it away from her, I too was off and away to the salty sea air of the coast of Maine in the late 1800's. "Breezy" is the way the book jacket describes this tale and that's it exactly. If you are looking for a challenging plot and deep thought, this is not what this book is about. Character-driven from beginning to end....but what fascinating characters and great tales they do tell. We have now recommended this book to everyone and ordered the sequel. A fun, meandering read. And we're ready to pass it on to our 12 year old daughter who will enjoy it just as much. Grab a copy. As an aside...never again will my wife be able to don her winter underwear without fits of giggles on my part and wry comments about her attractive pair of tights.

This is a delightful story of a young woman's inheritance and her journey through the Maine coast of the late 1800s as she claims her legacy.

Strikingly similar in style and tone to Dickens' Pickwick Papers, Reid has woven a fun tale, with characters that come alive with adventures devoid of useless violence and sex, but rather the depth of character one would find in American Classics.

Van Reid may well be the next Garrison Keillor as he brings us back to a time that is complex, not with technical wizardry, but with the evolution of society. You truely feel the wharfs of old Portland and smell the salt air of the seashore of Wiscasset.

The twists and turns of the story line emphasize the characters and highlight a time gone by. Not only a great summer read, but a collectors item as well. I loved it.

Ordinarily, it would be spurious to review a book which already has 5 stars, but this book deserves yet another accolade. The funniest and most engaging book I have read in the last decade, with great characters and an acute sense of place. I can vouch for the authenticity, since I have independently heard many stories about the Wiscasset House from friends and family in that town. Rush right out and get this book!

On the back of the dust jacket, the blurb about the author of 'Cordelia Underwood', Van Reid, simply states that he has been the assistant manager of a book store for the past seven years. This must be an example of great modesty, because this book is nothing short of a work of genius. After reading 'Cordelia Underwood' I would have thought that Mr. Reid would surely have various degrees and titles to his name, the least of which would have been Professor of Literature at some fine college, and the most of which would have been Historian and Archivist for The Moosepath League.

Van Reid has written a good old-fashioned yarn that includes humor (the laugh-out-loud variety, and lots of it,) wit, romance, and an undeniable sense of adventure that sweeps the reader away to another time and place. The cast of wonderful characters and the eloquent and the stylishly written narrative transform themselves into a vivid, transportive tale, the likes of which I have never read before. Although I have read many books, and wished myself a part of them, I have never had the yearning to have known the characters and participated in the adventures written about, as I had with 'Cordelia Underwood.' I was truly saddened that the book had to end.

To try to describe the plot, or explain its finer points, would only take away from the experience of reading this book, so, suffice it to say that a chance meeting at a local wharf between Cordelia Underwood and Tobias Walton starts these two on numerous solo and intersecting adventures. In addition, any attempt on my part to describe these two main characters would only detract from the pleasure you will have in meeting them for the first time yourselves.

I love this book and I completely recommend it to everyone. Read it NOW.

Van Reid is an amazing story teller. There are many great stories within the larger story. This book was great, albeit a little slow in places. If you liked it at all, you should continue on to the other two books in the triology which just keep getting better.

A classic adventure story, populated by a wide array of colorful characters and interspersed with memorable tall tales and devastatingly funny comic interludes. The plot unfolds slowly, but its pacing is a key element of this novel's Wodehousean charm. Highly recommended to anyone who likes their heroines intelligent and high-spirited, and has an affinity for New England.