Cute, funny, sad, and, if nothing else, short. One of the reviews on the back compared it to Jane Austen, and the completely omniscient narration of the characters' thoughts motivations and thoughts had that 19th Century feel to it; I guess it's a writerly choice, but it feels like a bit of a cop-out. It is a novella, so I suppose we must allow that some of the threads in the story will not be tied off, but one enduring mystery is why Dan and Catherine Buttersfield, a working-class couple from Vermont, would name their daughter Mirabelle.