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Daughters of England #13
Midsummer's Eve
Annora Cadorson
Set against the wild and rocky shores of nineteenth century Cornwall and the primitive outback of Australia, Midsummer's Eve is the story of Annora Cadorson, a young and innocent girl whose love and happiness are threatened by tragedy and disillusion.
The daughter of Sir Jake Cadorson, lord of one of England's oldest manors, Annora is raised in the warmth of a close-knit family who ardently encourage her to marry the dashing Rolf Hanson, man of her childhood dreams.
But then comes Midsummer's Eve. The haunting events of that terrible night shatter Annora's illusions about Rolf and cause her to distrust men. She escapes to London, where fashionable society is celebrating the accession of Queen Victoria. There she meets Joe Cresswell, whose father is vying with Annora's uncle for an important Parliamentary seat. But her romance with Joe is dashed when scandal erupts between the two politically ambitious men who have brought them together.
With her family, Annora sails to Australia, where she is futher shaken by their cruel and unexpected deaths. Henceforth she must confront alone the animosity and unexpected rivalries that pursue her home to her beloved Cornwall. By overcoming these trials and hardships, Annora follows the path toward womanhood and regains at last the love she had lost but had always held so dear.
Set against the wild and rocky shores of nineteenth century Cornwall and the primitive outback of Australia, Midsummer's Eve is the story of Annora Cadorson, a young and innocent girl whose love and happiness are threatened by tragedy and disillusion.
The daughter of Sir Jake Cadorson, lord of one of England's oldest manors, Annora is raised in the warmth of a close-knit family who ardently encourage her to marry the dashing Rolf Hanson, man of her childhood dreams.
But then comes Midsummer's Eve. The haunting events of that terrible night shatter Annora's illusions about Rolf and cause her to distrust men. She escapes to London, where fashionable society is celebrating the accession of Queen Victoria. There she meets Joe Cresswell, whose father is vying with Annora's uncle for an important Parliamentary seat. But her romance with Joe is dashed when scandal erupts between the two politically ambitious men who have brought them together.
With her family, Annora sails to Australia, where she is futher shaken by their cruel and unexpected deaths. Henceforth she must confront alone the animosity and unexpected rivalries that pursue her home to her beloved Cornwall. By overcoming these trials and hardships, Annora follows the path toward womanhood and regains at last the love she had lost but had always held so dear.
334 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
56 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
Philippa Carr
100 books247 followersEleanor Alice Burford, Mrs. George Percival Hibbert was a British author of about 200 historical novels, most of them under the pen name Jean Plaidy which had sold 14 million copies by the time of her death. She chose to use various names because of the differences in subject matter between her books; the best-known, apart from Plaidy, are Victoria Holt (56 million) and Philippa Carr (3 million). Lesser known were the novels Hibbert published under her maiden name Eleanor Burford, or the pseudonyms of Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anna Percival and Ellalice Tate. Many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities.
-Wikipedia
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 2, 2021
4 stars only due to the fact that Annora was very annoying 🤪
I loved the backdrop of Queen Victoria's coming to the throne and yet again a large cast of characters. Others who are new to the Era of this writing style of chauvinistic men will not enjoy the series but I find it hilarious in fiction only.
There were some tragedies in this one that were not expected plus a whole lot of intriguing subplots that make me eager for the next book in the Daughters of England series.
I loved the backdrop of Queen Victoria's coming to the throne and yet again a large cast of characters. Others who are new to the Era of this writing style of chauvinistic men will not enjoy the series but I find it hilarious in fiction only.
There were some tragedies in this one that were not expected plus a whole lot of intriguing subplots that make me eager for the next book in the Daughters of England series.
January 5, 2020
I read a lot of Victoria Holt and Jean Plaidy but it has been awhile since I have read Philippa Carr. Yes it is the same author but they all have a different style. There were some interesting twists and turns. I liked the Australia setting but I felt that the character development needed more. There were two different villains in this book and I just felt like there were loose ends. Not a bad story but I definitely like some of her other books more.
August 25, 2017
I think this is my favorite one so far. It is clearly inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown." I love how Annora struggles with trust just as Brown did.
February 17, 2017
I love this series! I don't want it to end!
March 30, 2021
Well first let me say that I'm glad I didn't see the GR book description (for this edition) prior to reading this book, because it contains major spoilers that the back of my copy didn't hint at ... Inaccuracies, too. Anyway, as far as this series goes, I found Annora's story refreshing after the previous two. Now, her story is one of those classic ones where people could at least partially address many of their issues if they just opened their mouths and communicated properly, rather than spending inordinate amounts of time fretting. I personally find that a little tiring but of course, it did help draw out some of the intrigue and keep us from figuring out all that was going on. There were lots of twists and turns, and a good shocking development or two. Although I would have chosen a (way) different path for some of the characters, I was satisfied with this entry in the series. Sidenote: Let me say how annoying it is that this series decided to stop displaying the family tree in the front of the books (or anywhere), JUST as that tree got really complicated. Come on now!
October 23, 2019
This novel starts well with its build-up to events on Midsummer’s Eve, and the conflict that takes place on the dreaded night itself, plus the aftermath, but once the setting changes from Cornwall to Australia, I grew bored fast.
The Australian section often reads like non-fiction travel writing, which is fine if you don’t mind such digressions, but I’d rather stick to the story. Some scenes are good, though, but at one point the author ruins the suspense with this line:
> I had no idea when I awoke that morning that this was to be one of the strangest and most tragic days of my life.<
While lines of this type might make for good novel openers, they usually fall flat when inserted halfway through a story. I predicted at once what would happen because of events mentioned prior to this, so when the revelation came, it was devoid of surprise because of the line quoted above.
Much of what happens is predictable. Only once or twice was I surprised when something “unexpected” occurs.
Like the previous three books in the series, we have a plodding narrative with little action and lots of repetition. The repetition in this case occurs between Annora – the narrator – and her frequent references to the tragic episode on Midsummer’s Eve. More specifically, she harps on and on about her disappointment in Rolf – her childhood hero – who she believes led the mob in the tragedy.
This hang-up about Rolf being the leader dressed in a habit with his face hidden by the hood obsesses her. She’s sure it’s him, despite not seeing the man’s face. This theme, plus others like it, is annoying when the reader can work out what the heroine can’t.
The Annora and Rolf relationship is also weird in that when Annora's eight, the older Rolf is impatient for her to grow up. It's not the first novel I've read by this author where a grown man has romantic feelings for a child. Writing as Jean Plaidy, for example, this author has a grown male character in "The Red Cloak" falling for a seven-year-old, whom he feels is older than her years, and he wants to marry her when she's of age. It's not so blatant as that in this novel, but it's still creepy in this context that an adult would want a child to grow up faster.
This author, including her works as Victoria Holt, has a tendency to have her heroines refer to one of the male characters by both names, which really irritates me. This novel has several male characters referred to by both names, including John Milward, Matthew Hume, Gregory Donnelly, and particularly Joe Cresswell. The quote below is taken from one page in my PDF document:
> Joe Cresswell said: “I’ve something to tell you<
> Joe Cresswell turned to me<
> “I think,” said Joe Cresswell<
>Joe Cresswell asked me how long I was staying. <
>Peterkin and Joe Cresswell exchanged smiles. I liked Joe Cresswell; he was very relaxed.<
This type of thing might not bother some people, but it grates on my nerves. The fourth line also highlights another of this author's trait, namely the overuse of reported speech. Reported speech is passive. Why not make it active by changing it to dialogue?
Regarding dialogue, however, at times several characters are speaking together, which becomes confusing when the dialogue attribution is tagged on at the end. I reached the stage where I had to check the end of the line first to see who’s speaking. Otherwise, you read a line thinking it’s the character who spoke before the previous one, only to sometimes find out it isn’t.
Below is an example of a confusing dialogue exchange:
>“Oh dear,” said my mother.
“Matthew can take care of her,” put in Jacco. “After all, that’s his job now.”
“She’s nervous still. She clings in spite of everything.”
My mother said: “I think Annora had better stay here<
Because Annora’s mother speaks the first line, I assumed she spoke the third line, which has no dialogue attribution; however, the fourth line is attributed to her mother. This means the reader has to stop and readjust what they’ve just read. Not good. The author should always ensure the reader knows who’s speaking sooner rather than later to avoid this type of ambiguity.
As for the characters themselves, I feel that this is the weakest cast in the series so far. The kitchen servants at Cador are quite entertaining. Peter Hanson is colourful, and I rate Diggory as the most interesting character, but that’s about it.
In short, I consider “Midsummer’s Eve” the least impressive of Books 1–13 in the Daughters of England series. [I've since read Book 14, which I rate even lower than this one!]
The Australian section often reads like non-fiction travel writing, which is fine if you don’t mind such digressions, but I’d rather stick to the story. Some scenes are good, though, but at one point the author ruins the suspense with this line:
> I had no idea when I awoke that morning that this was to be one of the strangest and most tragic days of my life.<
While lines of this type might make for good novel openers, they usually fall flat when inserted halfway through a story. I predicted at once what would happen because of events mentioned prior to this, so when the revelation came, it was devoid of surprise because of the line quoted above.
Much of what happens is predictable. Only once or twice was I surprised when something “unexpected” occurs.
Like the previous three books in the series, we have a plodding narrative with little action and lots of repetition. The repetition in this case occurs between Annora – the narrator – and her frequent references to the tragic episode on Midsummer’s Eve. More specifically, she harps on and on about her disappointment in Rolf – her childhood hero – who she believes led the mob in the tragedy.
This hang-up about Rolf being the leader dressed in a habit with his face hidden by the hood obsesses her. She’s sure it’s him, despite not seeing the man’s face. This theme, plus others like it, is annoying when the reader can work out what the heroine can’t.
The Annora and Rolf relationship is also weird in that when Annora's eight, the older Rolf is impatient for her to grow up. It's not the first novel I've read by this author where a grown man has romantic feelings for a child. Writing as Jean Plaidy, for example, this author has a grown male character in "The Red Cloak" falling for a seven-year-old, whom he feels is older than her years, and he wants to marry her when she's of age. It's not so blatant as that in this novel, but it's still creepy in this context that an adult would want a child to grow up faster.
This author, including her works as Victoria Holt, has a tendency to have her heroines refer to one of the male characters by both names, which really irritates me. This novel has several male characters referred to by both names, including John Milward, Matthew Hume, Gregory Donnelly, and particularly Joe Cresswell. The quote below is taken from one page in my PDF document:
> Joe Cresswell said: “I’ve something to tell you<
> Joe Cresswell turned to me<
> “I think,” said Joe Cresswell<
>Joe Cresswell asked me how long I was staying. <
>Peterkin and Joe Cresswell exchanged smiles. I liked Joe Cresswell; he was very relaxed.<
This type of thing might not bother some people, but it grates on my nerves. The fourth line also highlights another of this author's trait, namely the overuse of reported speech. Reported speech is passive. Why not make it active by changing it to dialogue?
Regarding dialogue, however, at times several characters are speaking together, which becomes confusing when the dialogue attribution is tagged on at the end. I reached the stage where I had to check the end of the line first to see who’s speaking. Otherwise, you read a line thinking it’s the character who spoke before the previous one, only to sometimes find out it isn’t.
Below is an example of a confusing dialogue exchange:
>“Oh dear,” said my mother.
“Matthew can take care of her,” put in Jacco. “After all, that’s his job now.”
“She’s nervous still. She clings in spite of everything.”
My mother said: “I think Annora had better stay here<
Because Annora’s mother speaks the first line, I assumed she spoke the third line, which has no dialogue attribution; however, the fourth line is attributed to her mother. This means the reader has to stop and readjust what they’ve just read. Not good. The author should always ensure the reader knows who’s speaking sooner rather than later to avoid this type of ambiguity.
As for the characters themselves, I feel that this is the weakest cast in the series so far. The kitchen servants at Cador are quite entertaining. Peter Hanson is colourful, and I rate Diggory as the most interesting character, but that’s about it.
In short, I consider “Midsummer’s Eve” the least impressive of Books 1–13 in the Daughters of England series. [I've since read Book 14, which I rate even lower than this one!]
February 26, 2012
An ok read
The heroine Annora is very passive. Events happen to her and he has no back bone to fight back.
The "big misunderstanding" that keeps her from trusting the hero is rather weak.
The heroine Annora is very passive. Events happen to her and he has no back bone to fight back.
The "big misunderstanding" that keeps her from trusting the hero is rather weak.
November 29, 2024
Annora Cadorson es una joven e inocente muchacha, hija de uno de los grandes señores de Cornualles, en la víspera de San Juan, aprovechando que los padres salieron de viaje, la gente del pueblo realiza una de sus fiestas paganas, Annora junto con su hermano se escapan para ver el espectáculo sin saber que eso les cambiara su vida, pues la gente del pueblo comienza a atacar a la “bruja” que vive en la cabaña hasta el punto de quemarla, una figura encapuchada es la que comenda la comitiva, capucha que se parece a la que su amigo, y de quien se creía enamorada, Rolf Hanson, vecino suyo, le había mostrado unos días antes, lo que la hace sospechar de el y de la maldad que habita en su ser, al mismo tiempo los hermanos descubren escondido al nieto de la anciana, a quien acogen y esconden hasta que llega su padre, pero el pueblo tiene tantos prejuicios contra él, que logran que lo manden a Australia como un prisionero, el padre de Annora en su juventud también fue mandado por un crimen en su juventud, Annora queriendo escapar va a Londres con sus tíos, ahí se verá envuelta en una trama política entre su tío y el rival de el por un puesto en el parlamento, aquí conocera a Joe Cresswell con quien pudo tener algo hasta que un escandalo ocupa tanto a su tío como al padre de Cresswell, pues es hijo del rival de su tío, ante tanto caos la familia decide ir a Australia para ver la finca que tiene allá sin saber que este viaje determinara su destino.
Libro escrito bajo el pseudonimo de Philippa Carr, mejor conocida como Victoria Holt, es parte de la serie de libros de La Hijas de Inglaterra, el libro esta ambientado en la Inglaterra del siglo XIX, tenemos suabes guiños a la reina Victoria y lo que llevo el cambio que llevo su coronación, la historia tiene tantas subtramas que a veces olvidaba cual era la principal, también iban y venían personajes que parecían relevantes y luego ya no sabias quien era el bueno o malo, aunque he de decir que lo veo más histórico, aun así siempre es un placer leer algo de la autora, pero esta serie de libros es para gente que quiera saber mas sobre historia metida en una novela y que sepa un poco del estilo de la autora, además de que no son libros tan pequeños y fáciles de leer porque deja muchas pistas en los capítulos.
Libro escrito bajo el pseudonimo de Philippa Carr, mejor conocida como Victoria Holt, es parte de la serie de libros de La Hijas de Inglaterra, el libro esta ambientado en la Inglaterra del siglo XIX, tenemos suabes guiños a la reina Victoria y lo que llevo el cambio que llevo su coronación, la historia tiene tantas subtramas que a veces olvidaba cual era la principal, también iban y venían personajes que parecían relevantes y luego ya no sabias quien era el bueno o malo, aunque he de decir que lo veo más histórico, aun así siempre es un placer leer algo de la autora, pero esta serie de libros es para gente que quiera saber mas sobre historia metida en una novela y que sepa un poco del estilo de la autora, además de que no son libros tan pequeños y fáciles de leer porque deja muchas pistas en los capítulos.
December 19, 2025
With "Midsummer's Eve," Carr shifts the action of her "Daughters of England" back to Cornwall, home of Jessica Frenshaw Cadorson's husband and setting of several of the first few novels, effectively jettisoning the Eversleigh family, protagonists of the series since the fifth volume, who now only make appearances through the family of Amaryllis, daughter of Claudine, heroine of "Voices in a Haunted Room." The first of the novels not to sport a family tree in the end papers, "Midsummer's Eve" is also one of the books that could function as a production of Carr's alter ego, Victoria Holt. This is perhaps understandable, as with this book, we are firmly in the Victorian age, Holt's primary comfort zone, as well as in Australia, locale of many of her later novels. The novel gets its title from a traumatic event that occurs at a midsummer eve celebration Jessica witnesses as a child—an event that will make her distrust people she knows for years. By the time the novel has finished, Carr will have done one of her periodic eliminations of almost every character the reader has gotten used to, as if to reassert her creative authority (or perhaps she simply grew tired of them and couldn't be bothered to bring them into play), leaving a nearly fresh slate for a new family to bring her series through the rest of the nineteenth century. "Midsummer's Eve" isn't a bad novel--Carr is incapable of writing one--but it definitely feels like it is the moment when the series begins to feel less dependent on its predecessors.
July 15, 2019
I enjoy these Victorian historical novels. In this book we have a happy family in the Cornwall area who decide to visit Australia where the father had been sent as a criminal of the King. In his time in Australia, a seven year sentence, his hard work and knowledge of the land, puts him in favor of the landowner. After his time is served, he buys some land and makes a start. Being called home to take his place as a titled gentleman and landowner, he returns to find the girl who helped keep him from the gallows and grew into a lovely, spirited woman. But the story is about their daughter, Annora. Midsummers Eve brings an eye opening awareness of the superstitions of the Cornish people. The family trip to Australia causes tragedy to the family, leaving Annora alone to face a fraud who wants her home.
A very interesting story, and it kept my attention. Looking forward to next in the series of “The Daughters of England” series.
A very interesting story, and it kept my attention. Looking forward to next in the series of “The Daughters of England” series.
August 3, 2024
In Southern England there were traditional events on particular occasions and Annora witnesses a horrific display of hatred which disturbs her life. Daughter of the landowning gentry she is very marriageable and respected in her homelands. Later she travels with her family to Australia where a tragedy is to change her life before returning to Britain.
October 29, 2019
One of the best books in the series as I didn’t know for sure how it would end and for once the heroin wasn’t persuaded to marry the man she hated on first sight! Kept my interest to the end
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2023
Outstanding historical fiction as always. I wish this author was still living.
September 21, 2025
About half way thru, I was ready to speed read to the end. But then a slow twist and turn grabbed my interest. Enjoyed
April 13, 2014
Part of a series of mother to daughter generations stories telling the history of England from Henry VIII to WW II. Fabulous to read them all in order. Each one is a gem; each is surprising and well written.
love this series!
love this series!
April 9, 2010
I do not pick this one up as often as others in my keeping, but i do enjoy the love story, though tragedy is hard to take. I suffered right along with her and then I could have kicked her in the end.
May 15, 2011
Nichts anspruchvolles aber schoen um einfach dem Alltag fuer eine kurze Weile zu entfliehen...
June 22, 2011
book 13
July 26, 2011
Not my favorite of the series due to the lack of an exciting male hero. Carr's male characters are typically very strong.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews