Book Review: Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good

I believe I have read only two of the Mitford series books and not in order either - Shepherds Abiding (a Christmas novel) and In the Company of Others (the book just before Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good). I will cut this book some slack because I was intensely distracted during the read - tried to consume it during the boring hours at my mother's bedside in the hospital. The book was hard to get into and I came away disappointed that I had chosen this title to bring along on the plane (I had requested a copy for Christmas a few years ago). My sister brought The Lost Girls of Paris and I should have snatched it from her (my book club's January read). Alas, with four held books (all with no renewals) to consume in a little over a week (impossible), The Lost Girls of Paris must wait.

In Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good, Father Timothy has retired and returned from his trip to Ireland. He is at the beck and call of so many other characters - his adopted son's errant brother, a mentally handicapped man who loses his mother, his former parish and the resigning minister, a bookstore clerk whose pregnancy requires bed rest, etc. Lots to keep track of with little attention span. Plus, it just seemed to meander through all these scenarios. It wasn't at all a riveting read - what I needed - but I persisted and didn't bother to seek another title from my mother's ample (now untouched) shelves. For fans of Mitford, this book might not live up to other titles, but the characters must certainly be more recognizable to those familiar with the series.