The Governess Game

Really enjoyed escaping into this one. Chase, next in line for his uncle's dukedom, is the guardian of two young girls (Daisy and Rosamund, ages 7 and 10) whose interests are death and thievery, respectively; Daisy's doll dies of a different malady every day. The book toes the line between these repeat deaths being something serious (and very important to Daisy) and comic, and I loved it. I also loved Alex as a heroine and her friends and their animals, and that she was an astronomer and tried to teach the girls piracy. Plus the dialogue was great. Chase had ... a lot of issues (as a person, not as a character), and that whole “he can't let people love him” thing was a bit overplayed as the book went on, but I still enjoyed their story.