Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Sara

Twenty-year-old Ruth Beger is desperate. The daughter of a Jewish-Austrian professor, she was supposed to have escaped Vienna before the Nazis marched into the city. Yet the plan went completely wrong, and while her family and fiance are waiting for her in safety, Ruth is stuck in Vienna with no way to escape. Then she encounters her father's younger colleague, the dashing Bristish paleontologist Quin Sommerville. Together, they stike a bargain: a marriage of convenience, to be annullled as soon as they return to safety. But dissolving the marriage proves to be more difficult than either of them thought - not the least because of the undeniable attraction Quin and Ruth share. To make matters worse, Ruth is enrolled in Quin's university, in his very classes. Can their secret survive, or will cirumstances destroy their love?

The confusion between the characters of Quin and Ruth would be laughable if it weren't so heartbreaking. Ibbotson has the same set up for each of her four like novels and all are just as frustrating. You know that they will end up together, the question is - how?