Speaking of oldies but goodies, I have to confess to a guilty pleasure. I was a child of around eight or nine when I first read something by this author, the only one of her books that my aunts had in their small personal library. At that time, book rental shops were in existence; you could rent a book for about five pesos (at that time, about 25 cents U.S.) and keep it for a week. The nearest book rental shop was in the next town, some 20 kilometers away. My aunts and I made it a weekend ritual to go to that town so that I could return the books I'd read and rent new ones, and we could do the weekly shopping. This went on until I had finished reading the shop's entire stock of Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, and the few books it had of this author I liked. Over the years, whenever I saw a book by this author, I bought it, even when the price seemed a little steep for me, because they were so hard to find.


It was only when I had grown up and I did some research that I found out that this author, whose books were mostly set in the 1930s and later--many of them are set in WWII America-- was born in 1864 and only began writing when she was 50(!). I have most of her books now, though usually paperback reprints, except for a couple or so in hardback. The pages of these last are already crumbly, and I have to take extra care in turning them, for a slight crease would tear the paper. *sob!* [The copy I have looks the same as the one in the Amazon ad below *points*] Even then, I still take great delight in reading these books-- another variety of "comfort reading" for me I'd guess!

So here's a teaser from one of my fragile old books: To Love And To Honor by Emilie Loring, written in 1950. The girl's name is Cinderella "Cindy" Clinton-Stewart, and the story mentions an absent husband in a marriage-by-proxy, an inheritance, a castle, jewel thieves and pirates, and costume parties (cosplay, anyone)?

"One hand gripping the iron ring, the other clutching the edge of the float with all her strength, she clung while the water swept over her and knocked the breath from her body. She opened her eyes as a man with her blue cap in one hand pulled himself up beside her; sat back on her heels, shook water from her hair, and looked up into clear gray eyes in a tanned face."
-p. 32, To Love And To Honor by Emilie Loring

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!