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Rhiannon: A Surprising Summer Term: Servants and Schoolgirls in Wartime
In World War Two Rhiannon is still a servant in a boarding school, but determined to get ahead, studies in every spare moment for the RSA exams leaving time only for her other passion – Girl Guides. She makes a wireless with her Guide friends and picks up a strange coded signal. Is it kids mucking around? Criminals? Or even Nazi agents?
Then some other working class girls – Alice and Josie - get scholarships to the school so Rhiannon must cope with her jealousy.
But it isn’t all jam for Alice, one of the scholarship girls, as she struggles with a stammer. She is brutally teased and runs away. Then one of Alice’s tormentors loses her beloved horse and Alice finds it. Rhiannon is on a Guide trek, hears the call for help and goes to help. A love of horses brings the girls together so they start to make friends.
At the same time some of Rhiannon’s fellow domestics make it difficult for her to study as if the hours she has to spend cleaning and doing kitchen work weren’t enough.
Then there’s a possibility of a new opportunity for Rhiannon to work in a factory with day release classes. Should she take it or is the teaching she gets at the school better?
Then some other working class girls – Alice and Josie - get scholarships to the school so Rhiannon must cope with her jealousy.
But it isn’t all jam for Alice, one of the scholarship girls, as she struggles with a stammer. She is brutally teased and runs away. Then one of Alice’s tormentors loses her beloved horse and Alice finds it. Rhiannon is on a Guide trek, hears the call for help and goes to help. A love of horses brings the girls together so they start to make friends.
At the same time some of Rhiannon’s fellow domestics make it difficult for her to study as if the hours she has to spend cleaning and doing kitchen work weren’t enough.
Then there’s a possibility of a new opportunity for Rhiannon to work in a factory with day release classes. Should she take it or is the teaching she gets at the school better?
400 pages, Paperback
Published April 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 4, 2026
What an absolute delight this was! Such a jolly old fashioned boarding school story with so many obvious nods to the Chalet School and Malory Towers etc. Annoyingly I only discovered it was the second in a series when I found it on NetGalley, so now I have to go back and read the first! We definitely jumped right into the action from the get go and it felt as though the book had begun mid-chapter and I had a lot of mental catching up to do. Thankfully a few little bits of back story were eventually sprinkled in! The pacing is very fast - at times it felt too fast and like I couldn’t catch a breath for the first few chapters but it soon settled. I found it to be very long (and I loved it so that wasn’t all a bad thing!) with a lot of unnecessary detail - eg. almost a whole chapter on religion which could have been skipped. I know it’s set in a different time and is emulating books of that period where such things were a big deal, but to a present day audience I don’t think we need to hear that much about it as it got quite dull and skippable. There were also a lot of the girls’ lessons gone over in huge detail which could have been shortened too.
I think that this book should honestly have been two or three books because there were SO many characters to focus on - old girls like Hilary the hockey fanatic, servants Rhiannon and Ivy, new girls such as Josie the actress, horse mad Antonia and her snobby clique, Alice and her stutter, not to mention the teachers and other girls as well! I feel like each of these characters could have had their own book to make their stories a bit fuller and their characters a bit less two dimensional. Antonia was the only girl who really got to have a character arc. It felt like maybe we could have focused on just one new and one old girl, and saved the others for another book. Really I just want more books!
I am intrigued to read book one now, and will eagerly await book three - and hopefully many, many more after that!
To anyone who grew up with Enid Blyton and Elinor M. Brent-Dyer this is a MUST.
I think that this book should honestly have been two or three books because there were SO many characters to focus on - old girls like Hilary the hockey fanatic, servants Rhiannon and Ivy, new girls such as Josie the actress, horse mad Antonia and her snobby clique, Alice and her stutter, not to mention the teachers and other girls as well! I feel like each of these characters could have had their own book to make their stories a bit fuller and their characters a bit less two dimensional. Antonia was the only girl who really got to have a character arc. It felt like maybe we could have focused on just one new and one old girl, and saved the others for another book. Really I just want more books!
I am intrigued to read book one now, and will eagerly await book three - and hopefully many, many more after that!
To anyone who grew up with Enid Blyton and Elinor M. Brent-Dyer this is a MUST.
July 21, 2026
An enjoyable story about the lives of schoolgirls in the early 1940s during the time of the bombing of Britain.
It continues the story of Rhiannon who at age 14, works as a maid so that she can continue her education at a boarding school for girls.
The story doesn't only revolve around Rhiannon but also of other girls from different backgrounds and circumstances and the hardships faced by many during wartime. Despite opposition to it, the divisions of class gender race and religion are still very much prevalent within the school community and the wider British public.
This is the second book of the Rhiannon series, the first which I have not read.
I received a free copy of this ebook from Netgalley.
It continues the story of Rhiannon who at age 14, works as a maid so that she can continue her education at a boarding school for girls.
The story doesn't only revolve around Rhiannon but also of other girls from different backgrounds and circumstances and the hardships faced by many during wartime. Despite opposition to it, the divisions of class gender race and religion are still very much prevalent within the school community and the wider British public.
This is the second book of the Rhiannon series, the first which I have not read.
I received a free copy of this ebook from Netgalley.
September 6, 2026
DNF at 47%.
The same criticisms that i had of the first book but I am giving up on this one. Again it's far too long but this isn't keeping my attention enough to keep going. I feel like I read for ages and make no progress. If I'm bored as an adult I don't know how kids will go...
I don't like that it's called Rhiannon but swaps between many people.
Even less plot than the first one and I wasn't as invested. Even more preachy and too religious for my liking.
I really wanted to like this series but it's just not for me.
My thanks to NetGalley for the advance ebook copy.
The same criticisms that i had of the first book but I am giving up on this one. Again it's far too long but this isn't keeping my attention enough to keep going. I feel like I read for ages and make no progress. If I'm bored as an adult I don't know how kids will go...
I don't like that it's called Rhiannon but swaps between many people.
Even less plot than the first one and I wasn't as invested. Even more preachy and too religious for my liking.
I really wanted to like this series but it's just not for me.
My thanks to NetGalley for the advance ebook copy.
August 30, 2026
Rhiannon continues to work at The Alpine School, but they also provide her with opportunities to continue her studies as well as to participate in a local Girl Guide troop. But the book also follows several of the school pupils, both old and new, several of whom learn important life lessons. And Rhiannon has a difficult choice to make regarding her future.
June 1, 2026
Really enjoyable continuation of Rhiannon's adventures and challenges. Looking forward to the next one!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews