This book is lovely, charming, delightful, and all those other adjectives you expect to pair naturally with “women’s literature” taking place in quaint English villages full of quirky characters. Both the story and the writing are wonderfully smart (without being self-congratulatory) and deep(ish) without being heavy, and the romance plot felt grown-up and dignified—two characteristics whose lack turns me off of a lot of similar books. (Three cheers for mature people!) I loved how the characters were allowed to be complex enough to change (and to cause a reader’s feelings for them to change), and I thought the balance between plot and atmosphere and message was just right. Almost all of my nitpicky issues (“why does the Major wisely think X but instead stupidly do Y?”) were issues I had with the *characters,* as people, rather than with the *writer,* and that, to me, is a sign that the author did a fantastic job giving us complex, real humans to think about and feel for. Well done.