In Good Company

Back Cover

After growing up as an orphan, Millie Longfellow is determined to become the best nanny the East Coast has ever seen.  Unfortunately, her playfulness and enthusiasm aren’t always well-received and she finds herself dismissed from yet another position.

Everett Mulberry has quite unexpectedly become guardian to three children that scare off every nanny he hires.  About to depart for Newport, Rhode Island, for the summer, he’s desperate for competent childcare.

At wit’s end with both Millie and Everett, the employment agency gives them one last chance – with each other.  As Millie falls in love with her mischievous charges, Everett focuses on achieving the coveted societal status of the upper echelons.  But as he investigates the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the children’s parents, will it take the loss of those he loves to learn whose company he truly wants for the rest of his life?

Review

I had just started a week-long farm-sitting stint when I cracked open this novel.  I was so, so excited to dive into this book, and it came at the perfect time.  Jen Turano’s stories always provide a fantastic escape from my crazy, stressful life inside the law office.  In Good Company proved to be true to form as Ms. Turano’s previous novels and I finished it before my week of farm life was done.  In between mucking paddocks and changing irrigation at the farm, and plowing through mountains of files at the office, I spent my free moments in the world of Millie Longfellow and Everett Mulberry and three cute rascals known as Elizabeth, Thaddeus, and Rose. Chock full of humour and wit, the characters’ antics elicited more than a few laughs and chuckles (the flour scene…those peacocks!...and the tennis match – oh my gosh!), which are very classic in a Jen Turano novel.  Filtered in was a thread of suspense regarding the circumstances of the deaths of the children’s parents…was it truly an accident, or murder? 

However, the true story were the sparks flying between Millie and Everett – something that proves to be quite complicated given Everett’s expected engagement to Caroline Dixon, a lady that lives and breathes the society’s lifestyle – right down to the proper way to fold a napkin for a ball (I can’t believe there was such a thing as napkin folding classes!).  Even while at the beginning of the story cracks were starting to show in Everett’s and Caroline’s relationship, Everett’s strong-held views that he needed to marry someone of his “station” isn’t something that can be overcome easily.  Especially marrying someone as flamboyant and unorthodox as Millie…

In Good Company is a delicious read that I did not want to end.  The only consolation was realizing that I had missed reading Jen Turano’s previous novel, After a Fashion – a mistake that I’ll be rectifying very shortly!

Book has been provided courtesy of Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group.  This is my honest review.