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ebaca41's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
1.0
This book was painful to read. The main character was a rude condescending know it all. The title was misleading, the story doesn’t really start until about 175 pages in. The book was weirdly obsessed with dairy, you’d think the dairy Industry wrote it. Stay far, far, far away from this book.
portybelle's review
5.0
Shona is a librarian at Morningside Library in Edinburgh and considers it her duty, as an ex-pupil of Marcia Blaine's Academy, to keep all copies of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie out of the hands of readers. You see, pupils of Marcia Blaine feel that Muriel Spark did their school a disservice when creating her character and detest any mention of her. But Shona has a bit of a double life as she is also sent on missions by 'The Founder', Miss Blaine herself. These missions involve travelling back in time and are often rather vague, with Shona discovering what her mission is as she goes along. This time, she finds herself in fin-de-siecle France, in a small village called Sans-Soleil where she feels her task is to save the villagers from vampires! This mission is perhaps by way of retribution for a shameful error on Shona's part. She discovers that there is a new edition of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (that harpie!) and is ashamed that it has made its way into her library.
Shona is exceptionally well educated, being a Blainer, and my goodness does she know it! She does make me laugh with her absolute confidence in her own talents and abilities - and there are many of them. In many ways, she is rather like Miss Brodie, though I wouldn't dare suggest it to her! She does not question at all why she has been sent on the mission even if she doesn't know what it is: it is obvious to her that she is the only person suitable to carry out Miss Blaine's task. I love the Edinburgh - Glasgow rivalry Shona alludes to so often and the way she is so determined that the French villagers understand that being Scottish is very different from being English
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Vampire Menace is so clever, hugely enjoyable and absolutely hilarious! Even if, like me, you are not at all into vampires you should give this book a go as it's such great fun to read! Shona is a fantastic character and I hope she has many more time travelling adventures.
Shona is exceptionally well educated, being a Blainer, and my goodness does she know it! She does make me laugh with her absolute confidence in her own talents and abilities - and there are many of them. In many ways, she is rather like Miss Brodie, though I wouldn't dare suggest it to her! She does not question at all why she has been sent on the mission even if she doesn't know what it is: it is obvious to her that she is the only person suitable to carry out Miss Blaine's task. I love the Edinburgh - Glasgow rivalry Shona alludes to so often and the way she is so determined that the French villagers understand that being Scottish is very different from being English
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Vampire Menace is so clever, hugely enjoyable and absolutely hilarious! Even if, like me, you are not at all into vampires you should give this book a go as it's such great fun to read! Shona is a fantastic character and I hope she has many more time travelling adventures.
mystikai's review
4.0
This is book 2 in the Miss Blaine's Prefect series, I enjoyed the first one a lot so had to listen to this one next.
This time Shona McMonagle is sent on a mission isolated French mountain village where she must solve a mystery involving the mayor, the cheesemonger, the soprano Mary Garden, and even Count Dracula himself. Confusing right?
Again I found myself laughing throughout with Shona’s wit, especially when the villagers didn’t understand what she was saying, and her getting very annoyed at people saying she was from England rather than Scotland.
This is a light-hearted cosy mystery, it is such a fun audiobook.
Olga Wojtas narrates it beautifully.
This time Shona McMonagle is sent on a mission isolated French mountain village where she must solve a mystery involving the mayor, the cheesemonger, the soprano Mary Garden, and even Count Dracula himself. Confusing right?
Again I found myself laughing throughout with Shona’s wit, especially when the villagers didn’t understand what she was saying, and her getting very annoyed at people saying she was from England rather than Scotland.
This is a light-hearted cosy mystery, it is such a fun audiobook.
Olga Wojtas narrates it beautifully.
_lozzieloves's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
rprimrose's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.5
Fun light read. Better pace & structure than the first in the series but still somewhat meandering and the ending is anticlimactic
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