2015 book 127

Eva Ibbotson's A Song for Summer
I liked that other Ibbotson sort-of-YA sort-of-romance book I read, so thought I'd give this one a shot. And it's also pretty great! It focuses on Ellen, a young woman raised by her suffragette/career women mother and aunts, who are mildly disappointed that she's much more interested in domestic stuff (she is very clever though). So she goes off to be the matron of a British boarding school in Austria, which would be totally idyllic--except . . . it's 1937. Her love interest also works at the school, though helps rescue/transport Jews and other political refugees as a sideline (he also has a past he is hiding!). This isn't really a romance, though romance does occur--it's much more her story, and the story of the school, and the students there, and it doesn't go at all how I expected. There is also a lot about the process of creating art. Anyway, Ellen is AWESOME, I am delighted to have discovered a new plucky girl, and so much of this is hilarious and adorable and even heartbreaking. GREAT. A/A-.