A Book for English Majors

I remember reading the promotional blurb for The Heroines, by Eileen Favorite, and thinking to myself 'I have got to order this book'. The premise is great: Anne Marie runs a cute bed-and-breakfast in rural Illinois where literary heroines can come to get a grip when their story becomes too intense. Anne Marie is always willing to listen and nod sympathetically, but does not want to dispense counsel, lest she alter the course of great literature. Her 13-year-0ld daughter Penny is tired of her mother's time and attention being taken up by weepy 19th century women, but when she gets involved in one of the stories (and I mean involved), the weepy lodgers are the ones who come to her rescue. Some of the lines in this book are great. When a dashing horseman comes thundering into the woods looking for his lost love Deirdre, Penny's thought is "Deirdre was so depressed...she must have come from some awful romance. Only a cheap book would have binding too weak to hold back a stereotype like this guy". A little bit about teenage angst, a little bit about the importance of literature in shaping in our lives, and a little bit of a love story, Heroines is a wonderfully fun read (even if you hated Senior English class).