Nineteen-year-old Prudence is the focal point in this quite readable coming-of-age novel set in Ireland. It features an aristocratic set with their horses and hounds on a fox hunt. Prudence gets around the countryside with her good friend Peter while she's feeling a growing attraction to her neighbor Toby. I enjoyed this charming story featuring beautifully-phrased descriptions of the landscape and depicting snippets of everyday life. ( )

I read Young Entry for All Virago / All August 2015 and didn't that much care for it. Cousin "Gus" Augusta was a great/nasty character, cousin Kat was catty, and that was about it. Prudence was a dishrag, Peter (a female, but that was her name) was fairly predictable, and the other characters tended to be nonentities. If this had been a satire of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, it might have been different, but I think it was supposed to be a charming little piece of country fare, which it wasn't. In fact, I think the character I most sympathized with was the farmer whose cow had been run off years earlier by some foxhound – except the farmer (in a "God bless the squire and his relations" fashion) rather quickly reconciles himself with the new Master of Hounds.

Actually, the whole book was about the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible, and it got a bit confusing since I haven't the foggiest about fox-hunting. But it was Molly Keane's debut (and my debut with Molly Keane) so I'll keep up with her since I think she'll get better. Anyway, I'm trying to fit AV/AA in with the Reading Through Time group, and Keane fits in with the August 2015 theme, Ireland. ( )