I always find D.E. Stevenson a pleasant but almost aggressively undemanding read. Everyone is nice except for the people who are just kind of awful; there is a vague sense of contentment permeating the entire book despite the fact that it's taking place during e.g. World War II. Servants are happy being servants, upper-class are happy (obviously) being upper class. There are some rather desultory romances at various points; an arriviste governess clearly makes efforts at catching herself a man but doesn't do so very well and luckily in all cases the men have proper upper-class women to marry or pine over instead, and since the governess is never a viewpoint character we don't much care. There is quite a lot of drama (affairs, death, embezzlement, etc.) but it never really feels very dramatic.