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This final volume gave me the happy ending that I needed and most of the answers that I wanted, but it felt a little too convenient in places. Penelope stows away on a fishing boat, and the sailors just happen to cast her off in the exact remote village where her long-lost parents live, and she stumbles across them immediately? And they just happen to have befriended Admiral Faucet, who is able to return Penelope to Ashton Place immediately? Maybe it's the hand of fate, or the power of the curse, or whatever, but it feels like rushed storytelling.
Also, it felt very out of character for kind and sensible Penelope to so outrageously deceive and even swindle the Russian family that took her away from the Ashtons at the end of the previous book. The author tries to justify Penelope's behavior by depicting the Babushkinovs as one of the most horrible families ever imagined, but the plan of escape that Penelope devises involves stealing not just from them, but also the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Queen of England. Queen Victoria eventually absolves Penelope, in a letter stating that she's sure Penelope wouldn't have charged all those expenses to her if she didn't have a very good reason, but please not to do it again without asking first... still, I expect Penelope would at least try to repay some of what she owed at some point.
I was hoping for some sort of rehabilitation for Quinzy, so that the family could truly be made entirely whole. Instead, he is driven mad by his past misdeeds and attempted crimes, and flees into exile; only the younger generations get to live happily ever after.
Also, it felt very out of character for kind and sensible Penelope to so outrageously deceive and even swindle the Russian family that took her away from the Ashtons at the end of the previous book. The author tries to justify Penelope's behavior by depicting the Babushkinovs as one of the most horrible families ever imagined, but the plan of escape that Penelope devises involves stealing not just from them, but also the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Queen of England. Queen Victoria eventually absolves Penelope, in a letter stating that she's sure Penelope wouldn't have charged all those expenses to her if she didn't have a very good reason, but please not to do it again without asking first... still, I expect Penelope would at least try to repay some of what she owed at some point.
I was hoping for some sort of rehabilitation for Quinzy, so that the family could truly be made entirely whole. Instead, he is driven mad by his past misdeeds and attempted crimes, and flees into exile; only the younger generations get to live happily ever after.