[Jenny Davidson's The Explosionist was released yesterday. Sorry for forgetting it!]

I’d been looking for a good copy of this for a while; someone else had reviewed it (I’ve forgotten whom, unfortunately), and it piqued my interest. Ms. Ibbotson was born in Germany in 1925, but moved to England shortly thereafter. She published her first novel in 1965, and has gone on to publish quite a few since. I’m rather confused that I’d never manged to read anything by her before this, considering that she writes YA and children’s fantasy and other kinds of novels. Her books have even been mentioned as similar to J. K. Rowling’s, in that way where she was writing English children’s fantasy many years before JKR and just got the boost recently from having, “If you like Harry Potter, try these!” put near her books. (Rather like Diana Wynne Jones, that way.)

Anna was the oldest child of Count Grazinsky in St. Petersburg, but then the Russian Revolution came, and they moved, penniless (an old maid had disappeared with all their jewels), to England. Eventually their small stock of money runs out, and Anna decides she must get a job to support her mother and brother. The only jobs available (this being just after the war ends) are as maids, so she accepts a job as a temporary housemaid to the Earl of Westerholme. The earl is coming home from the hospital he had been in (he’d flown planes in the war), and he is engaged to be married shortly. Anna has tried to hide the fact that she is a countess; she’s not conventionally attractive, but she has endeared herself to the entire staff and all the neighbors. And, perhaps unfortunately, the Earl of Westerholme . . .

I adored this book. It was just the right mix of historical events, lively characters, a sweet romance, mistaken identities, and humor. There were a few serious events, but overall it was lovely and hit all the right notes. The historical events — right after World War I, what with volunteer nurses, impoverished nobility marrying merchants’ daughters to save the title and family home, and the Russian Revolution — provided a lovely backdrop to the story. Ms. Ibbotson incorporated philosophical threads of the time into her story, as well, what with Muriel’s obsession with New Eugenics, and I found it added another dimension of realism.

All the characters are fantastic, from Anna down to Olive Byrne. Especially Olive Byrne, who is described by another character as knowing how to make people love her. Rupert is, I guess, not the best-described person in the book, but he still has his academic internal life, and his rebuilding of his life after he unexpectedly gets the earldom. Muriel, I thought, was especially fascinating. She was definitely not a sympathetic character, but she started merely neutral and went strongly downhill from there. It was, I thought, an excellent characterization, that took more than just a few sentences. (Although of course those who know what eugenics is would know that she was intended to be borderline evil from the beginning.) The servants and relatives of the servants are also well-done; I especially liked Mrs. Proom and her appendix. Nearly every single character has a history, described in just a few sentences, but one that makes it rich enough to round out everyone.

One thing that made me giggle, a bit, is the fact that Count Grazinsky is the name that Victoria Grant takes in the movie Victor/Victoria, when she pretends to be a man. Also, there is a reference to Method Acting in the book that’s almost, but not quite, anachronistic. I’ll forgive her both things, though (Victor/Victoria came out prior to this book being published), because the love story is very romantic, and the touches of humor (including Mrs. Proom’s appendix) make it sparkle. 5/5 stars.