I also loved how the sections of the book were arranged in differently priced notebooks, which really demonstrated the progression of the story! Overall, I would recommend this book as a must-read for any preteen/teenage girl.

This book was such a wonderful, enchanting and unpredictable read that by the end of it I felt like I almost was Cassandra, since her confessions, recordings and thoughts in her journals gave me a thorough insight into her. This kind of 'bass-line' plot was all about trying to get him back to work again, and letting the reader get to know Cassandra's brother Thomas a bit more, who does not feature much within the story. I also loved the underlying story of Cassandra's father, a novelist who wrote one renowned book then, after a short spell in prison, became strangely reserved, writing nothing at all. Set in the early twentieth-century English county side, I Capture the Castle, is the first-person journal of Cassandra Mortmain in year of her eighteenth birthday. The story is a revelry told by Cassandra Mortmain, a 17-year-old girl living with her family in the English countryside. Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle provides all this and more, as her heroine struggles to find herself and wade through first love, all the while setting it down in writing. Each character is totally unique and unpredictable, from beautiful Rose who is convinced she will do anything to escape the poverty that she is living in, to strangely glamorous step-mother Topaz, who is absolutely stunning but whose unusual rituals include prancing naked on the hilltops. A beautiful, deluxe edition of Dodie Smith’s beloved novel, I Capture the Castle, featuring a new foreword by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Han, a stunning new cover, and designed endpapers that is perfect for devoted readers and those discovering this timeless story for the first time. Written in 1940, this was the acclaimed first novel by the renowned playwright. Dodie Smith, the author of the charming '101 Dalmatians,' published 'I Capture the Castle' in 1948.

I could certainly relate to Cassandra with her timidity and clumsiness. The characters are vivid and individual, and I think very relatable.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith