From Library Journal
Ellen, the lovely heroine of this romantic novel, is raised in London by a suffragist mother and aunts but rejects the liberated life. After graduating from a culinary school, she takes a job in Austria at a run-down boarding school for neglected rich children and transforms it with her beauty, hard work, and good cooking. Like Ellen, all the characters are pleasantly drawn if exaggerated stereotypes: Ellen's love interest, Marek, the school handyman, is really a brilliant composer hiding out from the Nazis; the scullery maid is beautiful and saintly; and all the children are budding geniuses. When the war intervenes, Ellen returns to England to build a sanctuary for her friends and other refugees; eventually she and Marek are reunited, and love conquers all. Ibbotson, who grew up in Austria and fled the Nazis herself, provides rich details of prewar life in Vienna and the alpine countryside. Her prose is like a Linzertorte?well constructed but awfully sweet. Still, this is a lively read. Recommended for popular fiction collections.?Reba Leiding, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. Lib., Troy, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
When Englishwoman Ellen Call assumes the housekeeper position at a unique private school in Austria in 1937, she has no idea what she will encounter. She embarks on her adventure, determined that every child there have what he or she needs to be happy and to succeed. Ellen succeeds in winning the hearts of everyone around her, including the young man who is posing as a grounds keeper in order to hide his true identity and rescue his friends from the Nazis. Narrator Sophie Ward conveys with precision the gentle humor and poignant events of this WWII romance novel. Her portrayal of the many vivid characters with distinct accents and a full range of emotions captivates the listener from first tape to last. J.J.F. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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