Amy's Reviews > The Two Mrs. Abbotts

Third in the Miss Buncle trilogy, The Two Mrs. Abbotts was a fun enough read but it lacked the timelessness of Miss Buncle's Book or the tight plotting of Miss Buncle Married. And it is not necessarily the book's fault. It just feels much more like a product of its time. Written in 1943, the story gives into all the tropes one would expect from a book written during WW2: including a stirring scene where a woman whose husband is at war chastises a would-be shirker and another scene where someone captures a German spy.
Though the reader is reminded of "our boys at the front" in multiple little ways, the story really focuses on the people back home and how they "do their duty!" and handle rationing with good cheer. While this has potential to really give a taste of life in England during war, the forced cheeriness and low-key propaganda throughout makes the story feel very 1940s. Kind of like how you can always recognize 70s carpet, there is something blatant and uncomfortable about characters gushing over phrenology, women discovering the joys of housework, and mothers stressing because their cherubic babies only mind the nursemaids and won't listen to them.
And unlike the first two, several plot-lines introduced in the story don't get tied up at all, which surprised me considerably because from what I've seen so far, that is not Stevenson's style at all.
But less you think I truly disliked The Two Mrs. Abbotts, I didn't! Even amidst the over-the-top good cheer, the personalities of the characters strike true to life. It is the little things (tea parties getting too big and match-making married people and indignation over someone bringing a guest you don't like) that give this book its comfortableness. It is emotions I recognized and found funny to see displayed so well.
Not quite a satisfying wrap-up to the series, but still a delightful book to curl up with on a rainy day. (Or when stuck in your house for two week straight because social distancing.)