Customer Reviews

Glove Shop in Vienna and Other Stories

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are a fan of Ibbotson's teenage novels; the ones where beautiful young ingenues end up with the man of their dreams, despite wars, aggressive fathers, or spiteful aunts, then this is a collection of short stories you will enjoy.
Set in both Britain, and Ibbotson's beloved Austria (where I am determined to visit one day, just to see if it is as wonderful as she makes it sound!), the tales combine humour, pathos, true love and genuine hearbreak.
Don't read it back to back - take a break between stories; they do all begin to be over-familiar after three in a row. If you spread it out over a fortnight, you'll have a warm glow for the whole time!

Eva Ibbotson is a wonderfully charming writer with memorable and funny characters. Yes, as the review above states, her stories are as light and sweet as the Viennese desserts she often refers to, but her heroines are not sacharine or dull. But, let's face it, who would you rather spend your afternoon with: charming, witty and fun characters or someone from Hannibal? Ibbotson developes characters with personalities you want to meet and know. I highly recommend Glove Shop as well as any and all of her books, her adult ones as well as her juvenile fiction. Let's face it, if you like books filled with "throbbing and panting" or congealed blood Ms. Ibbotson is not the writer for you.