Pink Sugar by O. Douglas

Pink Sugar is the third book in the Priorsford series by O. Douglas (pseudonym of Anna Masterson Buchan). Although I didn't like the second book very much, this one harkened back to the style and charm of Book One (Penny Plain) because of its rich vocabulary and many literary references (Shakespeare, the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, the Brontës, Chesterton, Dickens, etc.)

I was enchanted with this light novel of Kirsty Gilmour and her bravery in tackling new goals and projects after the death of her stepmother. At thirty she considers herself a spinster and plans to spend her life investing in other people. 

Having lived only in hotels as she traveled the world, Kirsty wants life at its simplest: a little plain house in an old-fashioned garden with plain meals and no smart servants. On hearing her desire to buy a small cottage and "live for others," her friend Blanche responds drily: My dear, I'm afraid you think now that you are free and in Scotland that the millennium has come. It hasn't. People can be just as selfish and tiresome and ungrateful in Muirburn as in any other place. [Your cottage], charming as it is, won't be a serpentless Eden. Don't expect too much and don't try to do too much for people... I don't believe, she said darkly, 'that people like being lived for.'

Previously Kirsty had served a demanding and spoiled parent, but in her new life she gladly gives of herself to take care of an elderly aunt and three motherless children. Her desire to help others (her "pink sugar" attitude is that everyone should be happy) occasionally gets her into trouble. These troubles keep the book from becoming too saccharine. The well-to-do vicar and his wife who care too much about keeping up appearances, the handsome poor vicar with his unhappy sister, the darling governess, the down-to-earth author of "pleasant fiction" and the surly landlord are just a few of the characters who keep the story interesting.

The Scottish brogue can be a challenge, but it's delightful when you make the effort to decipher it. "Gleg as a hawk" means alert. To "fash oneself" is to trouble yourself. "She was sweir to gang' an' blythe to come back," means she was disinclined to go, but eager to return.

Charming from start to finish.

Blessings,