It seems somehow cheapening to call this story a cute little kids book, but I can't help my impressions. I have a feeling I would have adored it about 17 years ago. It was still a good read and the story was nicely done and the characters were well-drawn. But it was definitely a kids book.
So while I don't fault it for not being anything more than a well-told story in the children's fantasy section, it also wasn't one of those kids/YA books that you can come back to again and again no matter how old you are. If I stumble across the sequels, I will probably give them a try, but I'm not sure if I'll seek them out. On the other hand, if I meet a 9 year old girl in need of a "Girls who do stuff!" story, this is one of the first I will reach for.

As my first foray into the realm of Wilkie Collins, I must say that I was a bit underwhelmed. I think I had just heard too much about how Collins and Dickens were the authors of the 19th century and I expected Collins' most famous book to rival Dickens at his best. It doesn't.
That being said, it's miles ahead of the bad Dickens, so I shouldn't complain too loudly.
Collins, in this book, is borrowing from the tradition of the epistolary novel in creating disparate narratives that are, ostensibly, written as retrospect by their tellers and he does a good job with it. The story itself is quite fun to follow through all the twists and turns and, as is usual, the banality of the main couple is more than made up for by the eccentricities of the villain and supporting cast.
A good story and well told. Collins is, in many ways, the father of the detective story as we think of it.

On rereading this book, I found that I liked it far more than I remembered. I think that, having experiences more of Dickinson's writing, I can appreciate his sections more and I think I know more about what to expect from McKinley, having read her later work.

One does not read Eva ibbotson for novelty of plot or character. One reads her because she is the best at what she does. She writes sweet, fun, meticulously researched and elegantly told (albeit amazingly predictable) young adult romances. This is another example of her doing what she does best and i very much enjoyed her storytelling, her fine turn of phrase and her attentive ear to what makes a character become vividly real in one short sentence. Her prose is gorgeous and, for someone like me, with a soft spot for fluff, the romance is fun too.

Eva Ibbotson's books always make me want to go out and become an Austrian pastry chef. No, seriously, her evocation of the grandeur and beauty and FOOD of her childhood are always so vivid and powerful.
This is one of Ibbotson's sadder books, and surprisingly adult for all that it is a YA romance (of the old school), as it takes place during WWII and the threat of the Nazis hangs over much of the story.
That being said, it's in no way a holocaust story, but rather a story about people finding themselves.
Warm, sweet, ever so slightly old fashioned (but in the best way) - Ibbotson delivers the sort of story she's known for, set against the splendid backdrop of a world lost to us over 70 years ago.

I love Eva Ibbotson's books. Her style is unmistakable and, despite how familiar each story is and how clearly she is playing to an almost childish sense of wish fulfillment, her defer hand at secondary characters and her obvious love for Europe in the early 20th century elevates her books far above the usual.
The plot is mostly predictable, though Ibbotson has a good eye for cliche and knows when to deploy it and when to avert it.
But it's really the love she has for the world she recreates and the elegance of character delineation that makes me come back to these books, even as an adult, and wish i had read a more of them when I'd been younger.