Reviews - The Secret Countess. Eva Ibbotson

477 reviews for:

The Secret Countess. Eva Ibbotson

This book was super predictable. It’s great if you want that, but I wasn’t kept guessing at all. And the writing was confusing too. It doesn’t read easy. I’ve read a lot of books and it took me a while to get used to.

daniellesalwaysreading's review against another edition

4.0

Yes it was predictable in many ways, but it was very sweet and Ibbotson has a very lyrical writing style. She uses lots of cultural references that can be hard to understand and could make it boring to some readers; it seemed to be more for adults than teens but it is shelved with teen books at our library.

al27caro's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I was a little disappointed. I had heard this was a perfect comfort read. There was nothing really wrong with it, but it wasn't great. I plan to reread in about a year to see if it is better the second time.

bethgiven's review against another edition

2.0

After finishing The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson, I put this one on my to-read list to try out; I hadn't loved The Morning Gift, but everyone said that A Countess Below Stairs was much better.

And I did enjoy Countess quite a bit more, though as I revisit my review of Morning Gift, my likes and dislikes of both books seem remarkably the same -- as though these were essentially the same stories in a slightly different settings. The language is, again, pretty flowery (maybe that adds to the mystique of the setting, but it also drove me a little batty, too). The characters had little opportunity for development; I had a hard time liking Anna, the main character, who was so ridiculously perfect and adored that there couldn't possibly be any growth for her. Luckily Ibbotson (again) fleshes out the story with a whole slew of other quirky, flawed characters; and while they're all a bit stereotypical as well, at least there are enough of them to fill the 383 pages with something. That said, it wasn't exactly easy to keep track of them all, and unfortunately I didn't really connect with any them, either.

I found myself wishing away the last hundred pages so I could pick up my next book. A fluffy, flowery read that was a little too fluffy and flowery for me.

woodsy23's review against another edition

1.0

Awful fluffy nonsense. No real character development, couldn't find myself caring about anybody in the story. Had to repeatedly check I hadn't picked up some kind of Barbara' Cartland.