The Reluctant Heiress (original 1982; edition 2009)

Amazon preorder,Amazon received

A re-read. I do like this one. The atmosphere of the various settings is lovely, and the characters are fun. The antagonist is definitely in the love-to-hate category. The hero could easily slip into that kind of overbearing stereotype, but he never does, which is nice. [Mar. 2011] ( )

I love Eva Ibbotson, I really do, but it does seem like she recycles the same storyline. Her writing really sparks my imagination and that a huge compliment to her style and descriptions. However, in this book, I pictured Tessa (not my favorite name choice) as an early teenager rather than a 20-year-old woman and that did not enhance my feelings of the book, for obvious reasons.

Other things I enjoyed
Imagining Pfafferstein and the grounds
Ditto the sets and music from the opera
All the music references
The idea of a "wild strawberry place"

Things I enjoyed, eh, not so much
Guy Farne as a name--this just reminded me of Guy Fawkes
How it did not seem the Herr Witzler was actually trying to be frugal
How Guy did not seem to have any conversations with Nerine early on in their engagement so as to learn how vapid she was
Though I understand Ibbotson is Austrian and I love how she really brings the world to life--I could do without so many references to unique Austrian and/or German food dishes and street names. It really cuts into the narrative when read in English. But that is just me being a jerk:-) ( )

A slow starter, but enjoyable. Girl finds boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy . This story has some nice description about the scenery in the country. ( )

This is such a strange book. Do you know how a cat will tip its head and jerkily poke an unfamiliar object? That's how I feel starting this review.

The writing style was... weird. I don't know if it was a "I was written in the 80's and we did things differently then" kind of weird or what, because I'm not an expert on the evolution of writing styles. Maybe it was an Austrian type of style (the story is set in Austria, and I'm willing to wager that Ms. Ibbotson is Austrian).

Or maybe Ms. Ibbotson was simply doing as I suspect she was - writing a fairy tale.

SEE MORE AT: http://shelversanon.blogspot.com/2012/05/review-reluctant-heiress-by-eva.html#.T... ( )