A Countess Below Stairs

Eva Ibbotson's A Countess Below Stairs has also been published as a YA novel under the title The Secret Countess, and to me it perfectly straddles the ground between light adult historical romance and young adult fun -- it's a fairy tale, and utterly satisfying in a fairy tale way.

I can't remember how I heard about it, but I found it at the Ath (of course) and it was perfect, delightful comfort reading. Our heroine, Anna, is a dispossessed Russian noblewoman, forced into exile in England after the 1917 Revolution. She's a sweet, unspoiled, enthusiastic young woman who takes a job as a housemaid at a grand country house -- can you see why I couldn't resist it? Of course, her fellow servants can see at once that she's cut from different cloth, but they all fall in love with her anyway. And naturally, there is an eligible heir to the estate, survivor of the War, unfortunately engaged to a beautiful but deeply unpleasant fiancèe...

Everything plays out as it should, complete with high comedy vignettes, tearful misunderstandings and a dog called Baskerville. It's pure froth, but such deftly handled, pleasurable froth. I've never read any of Eva Ibbotson's work before, but I have a feeling she might become a favourite.