The Abbey Girls in Town by Elsie J. Oxenham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Once you do an Abbey reread, you can’t stop. Though I was much more intrigued by the middle-aged spy drama happening in the background of this cover, and disappointed that it did not appear in the actual text itself, this was pleasant. Pleasant! It’s such an empty word and yet sometimes it’s full of everything that something actually is. I could not tell you what happened here, nor could I really remember who is who and what was what, but I can tell you that Mary-Dorothy is a cabbage, Joy remains a moron, the vaguest hint of something naughty (the smallest of things!) is presented as something akin to murdering a puppy, there’s an INTERMINABLE amount of dancing, and then there’s a bit more dancing, and a bit more, and then Maidie’s all I HAVE TO TALK TO JOY and Ros is all MAIDIE YOU MUSTN’T and Maidie is all BUT I HAVE TO ROS IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO, and then everything is okay! We’re all friends! Let’s dance about it!
And yet, it’s really rather pleasant. There’s no other way to describe it. Pleasant!
(I am here to provide summaries of EJO’s entire oeuvre, you really only have to ask).
Daisy May Johnson 
Is this the one where they meet up with Karen and Tazy from the Swiss books? I forget which book’s which sometimes! Karen’s my favourite EJO character.
It’s the one where rich Rachel turns up? I’m not sure I’ve read the others!