The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book III: The Unseen Guest

The Ashtons, Incorrigibles, and Penelope have been back from London for only a few days when Lord Frederick's mother shows up, with a new boyfriend in tow. The boyfriend is obsessed with his latest money-making scheme, racing ostriches, but he seems a bit too interested in the children for Penelope's taste.

Well, not very many answers here either. And also more questions. Reading these books is like watching an episode of Lost: each book gives you 1 kind-of-answer and 5 huge new questions. But they're still really entertaining. Penelope is a perfect unexpected heroine, and the villains are never too villain-y, nor not villain-y enough. The children are adorable, and all of the supporting characters are excellent. ( )

When you have been raised by wolves, you tend to be a bit incorrigible. That’s okay. It gives you a bit of strong-minded-ness that is often lacking in our milktoast world. Like the story. Like the illustrations. ( )

We again have a fun adventure. As I said in my reviews of the last two books there are a lot of questions that need answering and this one brings us a few steps closer to those answers but we also end up with more questions. Is Lord Ashton’s father still alive? What is the curse on the family? And what does it have to do with the incorrigible’s and Penelope? And so many more…

It was very interesting when the children are sent out into the woods to help find the Admiral’s ostrich and how once they were in the woods again they started becoming a bit feral again , we also get a hint of where the children lived for awhile. I hope there will be some flashbacks in the future books about the children’s time in the woods and how they came to be there. The Admiral is not a good man and it seems like Penelope is the only one who see’s it but she has a plan to help out Lord Ashton’s “widowed” mother get out of her engagement to the rascal. But if you have been keeping up with these books you know that Penelope’s plans never go as planned. I really enjoyed the séance it cracked me up, Mrs. Lanesko was so much fun.

I really want the next book right now but I guess I have to wait till November. I do hope that we will get some answers even if it is not all the answers but some would be nice because this book just brought even more questions.

As with the first two books Katherine Kellgren’s narration is so fabulous with a lot more people making wolf sounds, and an ostrich we can’t forget the ostrich! Every voice is distinct and every animal sound/voice is fabulous loved Mrs. Lenesko(sp. audio) in this one too. Kellgren’s range is so unbelievable that at times you wonder if there is more than one voice narrating but no it is all Katherine. It is books like this one that make me realize why Katherine Kellgren is one of my all time favorite narrators. This book is up for an Audie Award for Best Solo Female Narration and I do believe I have found my winner!

I highly recommend this series I think these are a great roadtrip series, they are fun for the whole family, and they aren’t too long with this one being the longest at 6 hrs 50 min. so even if you aren’t going too far you could easily get one whole book done and everyone in the car will enjoy them!

4 ½ Stars ( )

We loved all three in this series and can't wait for the 4th to come out. So fun to read aloud! ( )

Cleverest of the series, thus far. Rampant wordplay (synonyms and acronyms feature prominently throughout), with a snappy storyline to boot. (Though it seems like Daniel Handler should get royalties for the Snicket-ness.)
Z is very much looking forward to the next book in the series, which he will have to wait for, since he's actually reading it contemporaneously. ( )