"Miss Buncle Married" by D.E. Stevenson (re-read)

My D.E. Stevenson group recently finished its chapter-by-chapter reading & discussion of   "Miss Buncle Married," the 1936 sequel to one of Stevenson's best-known and most-loved books, 1934's "Miss Buncle's Book" (reviewed here). 

It's 1934, and the former Miss Barbara Buncle is now married to her publisher, Arthur Abbott. Early in the story, the couple decide to leave the city and its tiresome social obligations for a quieter life in the country. 

Barbara finds her dream house -- a fixer-upper in a quaint village called Wandlebury -- and Arthur's visiting nephew, Sam, soon falls in love with Miss Jeronina (Jerry) Cobbe, niece of Lady Chevis-Cobbe, one of the town's wealthiest citizens. Barbara, however, is in possession of a certain piece of top-secret information that compels her to try to keep the couple apart, for the time being anyway. It's probably not a spoiler to say that love triumphs in the end (as it always does) -- but not without a few twists & turns along the way. 

SPOILER/ALI content warning:  There's a pregnancy announcement at the end of the book. Also a rather eye-rolling reflection by Barbara on the superiority of the married state. (But this WAS the 1930s...!) 

As I've often said, Stevenson's books are perhaps a little old-fashioned -- products of the era & culture in which they were written -- but they are still well-crafted, funny and charming tales about interesting, realistic, very human characters. Miss Buncle remains her charming self here, and this is an enjoyable book overall -- but the sequel does lack the satirical bite of the original (which I rated at 4 stars).   

My most recent review, from April 2025, here, and my original 2015 review here. I wasn't a Goodreads member then, but when I did join (a year later, I think?), I retroactively assigned it 4 stars. On my most recent reading before this one, I rated "Miss Buncle Married" 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads, and that rating still stands. 

Next, we'll be reading the third book in the Miss Buncle trilogy, "The Two Mrs. Abbotts." 

This was Book #21 read to date in 2025 (and Book #1 finished in July), bringing me to 47% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books."