The best authors will make a love a book even if it's not the sort of thing you'd usually enjoy, and Eva Ibbotson is one of the best authors. Despite being a cynical person who rarely reads romance, even my hardened heart was beguiled by this intelligent story with loveable characters and a very dark backdrop. It's that setting which prevents it being 'fluffy' or light, and balances out the neatness and niceness of the love story (and since the course of true love never does run smooth, than in itself is pretty angst ridden).

It's set in 1930s Austria, as the dark clouds of Nazism gather on the horizon. The reader knows what's coming even better than the characters - who are certainly fearful even though uncertain - and it's impossible not to read through the lens of that knowledge. The heroine, Ellen, is a young British woman who arrives to act as matron at an unconventional arts-based boarding school. The school is full of eccentric characters, both pupils and staff, and a handsome handyman with a secret past and dangerous present. Ellen soon becomes indispensable, but war is looming and the very existence of the school and their way of life is under threat.

Ibbotson is able to create characters that you really care about, and that for me is what enables me to really love a book as opposed to just liking it or admiring it. Her writing style is also a joy to read, so easy and flowing. There's a sadness beneath the story, and yet it's a tale full of the bravery and goodness that people can show, rather than just the bad sides. It's one of those books that gives you hope for humanity and that good might outweigh bad in the world eventually.

The underlying darkness of the setting means it's maybe not holiday reading in the way you might expect a historical romance to be, but it is a really great read if you like literary fiction and characters you can care about.