Story: 4/5 
 1: Being Vague, rambling plot with no little believable storyline 
 5: Ripping yarn, clever, thought provoking 
 I read this out loud to my 8 year old daughter each night as part of our bedtime story time. 
 This was a FUN read. The story is of 4 sisters aged (guessing here) 12, 10, 9 and 4. Who go on a 3 week holiday to a mansion (where they rent a cottage in the gardens). The girls father is a single parent and the loss of the girls mother (many years ago) does play a part in the way the girls act in this. It is very well written how they cope as a family and the interaction between the sisters. 
 The story is all about the girls meeting the young boy living in the mansion with his neurotic rich snobby mother and her creepy boyfriend. The mother is great and we had a good laugh with me impersonating a New England old money middle aged snob. 
 Whilst the story has no massive moments of OMG, there is plenty happening in each chapter, resolution of sub plots, foreshadowing for new chapters and great character development. From a pacing perspective, it was a great read. I started to look forward to my nightly read, the chapters are long, more than 10 pages at a time, but we felt that we got a great piece of the story in each night. 
 Characters: 5/5 
 1: Unrealistic/unbelievable. Feel nothing for these characters 
 5: Fully engaged with the characters, believable. Researched. 
 This was the highlight of the book for me. I really enjoyed reading the interaction between the sisters. The two middle girls, Skye and Jane had wonderful characters and I really felt that I was understanding who they were and adding my own inflections and speech patterns to their crazy antics. The youngest girl, Batty was a little too young to develop her characteristics too much, and I felt that real too. Being the youngest with 3 older sisters, it was hard to compete for attention. The oldest girl was harder as at first I felt she was very stifled in her development, but the more i read the more I understood her role as the substitute mother. She is also starting to become interested in boys, which wasn't my favourite part of reading to my daughter as it made me realise what is too come very soon. 
 Read Weight: 
 Fluffy, Light, Solid, Heavy, Struggle 
 Light 
 Engagement: 4/5 
 1: Not fussed about finishing 
 5: Could stay up all night 
 Recommend: 4/5 
 1: Would advise you to read something else 
 5: Go read it now. It is THAT good 
 Reading this to a girl aged between 7 and 10 would be just about the ideal time. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to the second one in the series.