Wednesday, April 8, 2009

More on Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall

I am loving this book! Bits of this book remind me of Betty Gordon at Boarding School and Betty Gordon and Her School Chums. Both series were produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, so the similarities are not surprising.

Billie and her friends have met the usual group of new acquaintances. Their first new friend is Rose Belser. Rose latches onto the girls as soon as they arrive. Rose is very friendly at first, but Billie soon realizes that Rose is the type who is friendly as long as she gets what she wants in return.

Rose considers herself the prettiest, most popular girl at Three Towers Hall. Soon, Rose notices that Billie has become very popular, so Rose decides that something must be done. Billie already had two jealous rivals in Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks, and Rose Belser becomes the third.

Eliza Dilks is considered Amanda Peabody's shadow, so the girls refer to Eliza as "The Shadow" rather than by her real name. Amanda and Eliza remind me of Lettie Briggs and Ina Mason from the Dana Girls series.

From pages 97-98:
She was just about to tell Rose the plans and invite her to the party when the door opened again and Amanda entered with Eliza Dilks. Amanda was never seen without Eliza trailing along in the background, and for this reason the girls had nicknamed the latter, "The Shadow."

By this time the girls at Three Towers Hall had learned to dislike the two sneaks as much as the girls of North Bend disliked Amanda.

Wherever anything was going on, especially of a secret nature, Amanda and "The Shadow" were sure to be prying about, saying mean little things, forcing the girls to move over to some other place where they could be private for a little while.
Presently, Rose decides that she personally cannot do anything to hurt Billie, "but she might make use of Amanda—." So Rose is going to have Amanda do something to Billie. This should be interesting.

The first book in the series was so-so, but this second book is outstanding. I love boarding school settings and jealous rivals. How fun!

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