My second Ibbotson book (and not my last).

Summary
Set after the Russian Revolution, Anna, a Russian countess, and her family have to flee to England and live in impoverished conditions.  Anna takes a job as a temporary maid at the Earl of Westerholme's estate to make some money for her family.  The household needs extra help because they are readying the house for Rupert, the Earl, and his soon-to-be wife, Muriel Hardwicke.  With her innocent, earnest, hardworking ways, Anna enchants the household, below stairs and above.  She also manages to enchant the earl, who has come to find that his bride-to-be is not quite the woman he thought her.   

Opinion
I liked this book just as much as I liked A Company of Swans.  Again, Ibbotson uses pretty basic romance conventions, but she writes my favorite kind of heroine (innocent, everyone loves her, a little too perfect), and I haven't gotten annoyed with the conventionality yet.  Maybe by the next book.  I didn't like that Anna and Rupert spent very little time just with each other.  In Swans, there is a point when Harriet and Rom are together almost constantly, which gives them a chance to fall in love.  In Countess, Anna and Rupert are hardly ever alone.  I'm able to spend my disbelief and accept that they are in love without having really gotten to know each other, but I shouldn't have to do so.  Ibbotson makes up for it, though, I think, because Anna and Rupert have more powerful moments together than Rom and Harriet do. 

The secondary cast of characters play a huge role in the story.  This is one thing Ibbotson does very well--give all her secondary characters their own personalities.  She never makes them just fillers or walk-ons, so the reader can connect with them and enjoy them.

All in all, I give the book 8.5 out of 10 for personal enjoyment, 7 out of 10 for actual quality. (Same as Swans)

This was book two in my list for the What's in a Name Challenge, but I couldn't wait until the beginning of the year, so it's just a regular book review.

Summary
Set in 1912 Cambridge, England and the Amazon, A Company of Swans stars a ballet dancer, 19-year-old Harriet Morton.  She is the repressed (oppressed?) daughter of a Cambridge professor who is almost engaged to be married to a not-entirely-objectionable-but-certainly-not-ideal colleage of her father's.  She is offered a chance to be in the corps of a ballet company about to tour the Amazon. She escapes from her overbearing father and miserly aunt to join the company.  They travel to South America to perform in an Opera House run by Rom Verney, an Englishman living in self-imposed exile.  She and Rom discover a once-in-a-lifetime love that is threatened by the appearance of Harriet's almost-intended and Rom's former flame.  

Opinion
Ibbotson wrote for these books (A Company of Swans, Countess Below Stairs, and other recently rereleased novels)adults in the eighties, and some of her books have recently been rereleased and marketed to young adults.  I think this was a good move by the publisher (Speak, an imprint of Penguin) because the book is pretty simplistic.  That said, it does have some adult themes and situations like SPOILER lust, exotic dancing, and premarital sex (highlight to see spoiler).  Also, outdated romance fiction conventions feature prominently in this novel: helpless female rescued by male, one-dimensional "Other Woman" character, etc.  I don't really have a problem with this, but I could see how people would.  I could also see how people would have a problem with the plethora of coincidences that carried the plot forward.  Seriously, one Amazon review compared it to Charles Dickens' novels, and she is so right.  At one point, Ibbotson blatantly announces that Rom encounters a deus ex machina, and I wanted to yell that her whole novel is one deus ex machina after another (if you are slightly liberal with the definition).  Oh well, I got over it. 

I really do love this book.  The exotic locale and the 20th century time period are nice changes from the Regency and Victorian England settings I'm used to.  I like Harriet's character, though some may find her too good, too sweet, too perfect for their liking.  She's this innocent, joyful, loving girl that can do no wrong.  I tend to like characters like that because a lot of romance novelists make their heroines shrews because they can't find that balance between independence and niceness.  I much prefer too much niceness to too much shrewness (if that's a word).  

Ibbotson infuses the book with classical references and vivid descriptions of the life of a ballerina and of the ballet.  She is one smart, cultured lady, and her allusions and descriptions make the novel that much more enjoyable.  Sometimes they can make things drag, as can the multiple points of view she writes in, but the story is worth the digressions and time away from the main characters.

All in all, I give the book 8.5 out of 10 for personal enjoyment, 7 out of 10 for actual quality.