I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain and her family may live in a ramshackle old English castle, but that’s about as romantic as her life gets. While her beautiful older sister, Rose, longs to live in a Jane Austen novel, Cassandra knows that meeting an eligible man to marry isn’t in either of their futures when their home is crumbling and they have to sell their furniture for food. So Cassandra instead strives to hone her writing skills in her journals. Until one day when their new landlords move in, which include two (very handsome) sons, and the lives of the Mortmain sisters change forever.

REVIEW:
I don't know how this wonderful coming-of-age story has never crossed my radar screen before, but wow am I grateful for the online recommendations that made me pick up up now. Written post WWII but set in pre-war England, every page is steeped in nostalgia and the author's love for England bleeds through every word. Cassandra's narrative voice is magnificent as is the bucolic and unbelievable setting. The story here is secondary to the characters and the setting and Cassandra's growing realization that she is truly leaving childhood behind. I couldn't put it down once I started, and the memory of the prose gives me a warm glow even now that I'm finished. Highly recommend!