REVIEW: The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson
Twenty-year-old Ruth Berger 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 fiancé are waiting for her in safety, Ruth is stuck in Vienna with no way to escape. Then she encounters her father’s younger college professor, the dashing British paleontologist Quin Sommerville.
Together, they strike a bargain: a marriage of convenience, to be annulled 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 circumstances destroy their love?
Dear(ly departed) Eva Ibbotson,
I put a hold on this from the library for some reason – someone recommended it maybe? Anyway, by the time the library hold came in, I’d forgotten what spurred it. From the blurb, I was expecting a daring adventure/rescue story (I’m a sucker for a rescue trope) but that’s not really what this book is. From the cover and the font (and indeed, the publisher) I thought it might be YA or a children’s story (Macmillan Children’s Books is a clue IMO). But it’s not YA or children’s either – at least, the protagonists are too old for the story to be YA and it contains quite a few adult concepts so I wouldn’t give the book to a child, even though the sex is fade to black and not frequent (at all, there’s hardly any in it). So it took me a while to work out what the story was and to settle into it. While it does touch upon some very serious issues indeed (the lead up to WWII and the horror of the Holocaust), it only touches on them lightly. Ruth is out of Austria and out of danger very quickly and none of the things I thought might happen in relation to that part of the story ever eventuated. No, it’s actually more in the nature of a light-hearted farce.
Ruth is one of those people who, if rendered in cartoon, would have bluebirds of happiness spiralling around her head in full song. She’s extremely clever and also pretty but she has a magic about her when it comes to people. (I was describing it to my son when we took the book back to the library and he thought, based on her character alone, the book was better described as “fantasy” so there’s that.) Ruth is the kind of person who can be in a place for an hour and know that Mildred’s aunt Gertrude is poorly, Annie wants to study nursing and Uncle Charlie has a prize collection of snuffboxes and is on the hunt for a rare one at auction next week. (None of that is in the story, I made it up). She talks incessantly and her chatter is both intelligent and horribly naive. At one point, she asks another character if she talked too much and if the other lady wanted her to stop talking. she says; “It’s hard but if I concentrate I can do it.” One of my Twitter friends said she read as a 14 year old and in some ways that felt right to me. But in others, she was just a fairly sheltered young woman. Sheltered in the sense that up until the Nazis came, her life was happy and secure and she had not really known want or fear. She’s not sheltered in the sense of lacking knowledge. She knew about the birds and the bees from age 6 when she read about it in one of the many many books she virtually inhaled.
Quin Somerville is a 30 year old professor who had a long time association with Ruth’s father. When he arrives in Austria to collect an honorary doctorate arranged by Professor Berger (Ruth’s father), he finds that through a mix-up, Ruth has been left in Vienna and the rest of her family are in England. The only way to get Ruth out quickly is via a marriage of convenience (I love marriages of convenience!). On arrival in England, Ruth and Quin resolve to obtain an annulment as soon as possible but they are advised by his lawyer to wait until Ruth has gained British naturalisation, else an annulment may put her ability to remain in England at risk. They ought not to have anything to do with one another however, so as to preserve the status quo and make the annulment, when it eventually occurs, a little easier. That said, the lawyer does not expect it will be easy without a medical examination of Ruth (something Quin does not wish to impose upon her). A divorce is a possibility but they cannot even apply for three years and even then, it will not be difficult to obtain. Quin and Ruth keep their marriage a secret because reasons (which make sense enough) and only the lawyer knows the true state of affairs between them. Ruth only tells her parents that a mysterious benefactor helped her get to England and, while her parents have their suspicions, they are content not to pry.
At the time all of this is taking place, Ruth believes herself in love with Heini, a second cousin once removed and a musical prodigy. He is a selfish pain in the arse if you ask me but it takes Ruth a very VERY long time for her to see any of that and even when she does, she forgives him for much of it because of his great talent. (*gag*).
Ruth had been offered a place at University to complete her Honours degree in Zoology so as to follow in her father’s footsteps and because reasons, ends up at the same university where Quin teaches palaeontology. Even though Ruth tries to stay out of his way, they do bump into one another and have various interactions and it gradually becomes clear that Quin has fallen head over ears for her. When Ruth finally catches up (she is very slow with this and it literally takes some physical manifestation of love before she sees it at all), things are looking up.
Then there’s a Big Misunderstanding and it all turns to custard up until the last few pages. The Big Mis is my least favourite trope in romance. When something is important, when something means a lot, why not go and ask “I heard this and I thought it meant that. Am I right or did I misunderstand?” Or “what did you mean by this because I thought you might mean that and I wanted to check before I acted upon a wrong assumption.” But neither of them do that and so for months (which, fortunately, takes up less page time than it could) they are apart when they could have been together and that made me STABBY.
While I could understand the reasons for their Big Mis, I still thought it not unreasonable for one of them to ask a freaking question already instead of making assumptions. Grrrr.
Anyway, because I hate Big Mis’s and because if I haven’t read it, it hasn’t happened yet, I skimmed all the angst and frustration until they sorted it out.
What else? Once I settled into the story and realised it read like an old fashioned rom com, where the hero is a long suffering guy who is hopelessly in love with the heroine who gets into all sorts of scrapes with the very best of intentions, I was really enjoying the story. Then the Big Mis happened and much of the goodwill which had been built up was lost.
It is a grown up book but it is not explicit and there is not a huge amount of interaction between the two protagonists. I prefer my romances to have more time with the protagonists together but I was able to go along with it here for the most part. It wasn’t the angsty read I had been expecting but I did enjoy it – for part of it I even had a lot of fun. But the final section left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
I did appreciate the epilogue which briefly drops in on the main cast after the end of WWII. With the main story finishing just as the war had been declared, this was kind of necessary to ensure the HEA stuck.
Regards,
Kaetrin
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Eva Ibbotson passed away a few years ago. She was a beloved children’s author and less known for her romances for adults, written from 1981 to 1997. Sadly, she stopped writing romances after her husband died. All her romances have fade-to-black love scenes or no sex at all, but they are romantic nonetheless. There’s a fairy tale feel to many of the books. The young heroine who falls on hard times but makes the best of it is a common trope.
I really love Eva Ibbotson’s other books for adults but this one is the only one that doesn’t work for me and I would probably grade it in the C range too. A lot of people seem to love it, but her fairy tale threaded with humor style just doesn’t fit this backdrop. Also all the stuff about how the heroine was half-Jewish but didn’t look it really, really bothered me.
My favorite of her books is Madensky Square — the only one with a heroine in her mid-thirties. It feels more adult than the others, with less of a fairy tale feel. The heroine is the mistress of a man who is married but separated from his wife (the book takes place in Vienna in 1912; at that time and place divorce wasn’t a real option). The heroine is a lovely person with a tragic event in her past and as in most of Ibbotson’s books, there are a lot of secondary characters who also have to find their happiness. Find happiness they do, but SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER the heroine’s lover remains in her life without ever being able to divorce his wife, so I don’t know if it would count as a romance, though it was published as one.
If you want to read a romance with a stronger HEA, my favorite of those is Magic Flutes, which was also published under the title The Reluctant Heiress. A Countess Below Stairs AKA The Secret Countess (I reviewed it for DA, and we had a discussion in which UF author Patricia Briggs chimed in about her love for Ibbotson’s books) and A Company of Swans are also good. I’m hoarding A Song for Summer and her short story collection, A Glove Shop in Vienna, for a rainy day, since she’s a great comfort read author for me.
The only Ibbotson I’ve read is her children’s story Which Witch?, which (haha) was a buddy read with my sister ages ago. It was delightful.
I think this is an awful cover for this book. The romance didn’t work so well for me here either. It’s been quite a few years since I read it but from what I recall, there’s almost none until right at the very end (literally) and I’m supposed to believe in roses and HEAs for Quin and Ruth based on that. Nope. Didn’t buy it.
Two authors I enjoy reviewed today! This is a wonderful day. I’m a massive fan of Ibbotson’s books, as per Janine’s reply. Countess Below Stairs is a comfort read, and Madensky Square makes me laugh/cry in equal measures. Her books are a bit sweet, but I do not mind the fade to black aspect of the love scenes, because I have believed in the connection and the romance. She has made me believe that 2 minds were meeting equally, and thus I can believe that they would find common ground in the bedroom, without slot A/Tab B details.
I hope more people can read her and enjoy her books as lovely, idealistic romances.
@Jayne: You know I had forgotten that the romance took a long time to bloom in this one but I believe you’re right.
@Allison: That’s a great description of her books. I feel the urge to reread one now!
I think Madensky Square is the only one of her adult romances that I haven’t read yet. I hope it will get released as an ebook at some point.
Quin is probably my favorite of Ibbotson’s heroes. I loved the first part about his youth. I was frustrated by both Quin and Ruth by the middle of the novel, though, and especially by the big Mis. That brought it down from a solid A-/B+ to a B- for me, but I do so love Ibboton’s fairytale-esque writing. Her books fall into easy, comfort reading for me. My favorite of her books, though, is the first one I read: A Song for Summer.
@autonomous: How I would love for Madensky Square to be digitized in the US! I keep checking on that periodically. It’s all the more annoying because an ebook is available in the UK. Several years ago most of Ibbotson’s romances were reissued in the US as YA books, even though they were written for adults originally. Madensky Square was not, but with a 36 year old heroine it really couldn’t be. Oh well, at least there’s a audiobook version available on Amazon now.
@Janine–A Glove Shop in Old Vienna will give you hours of joy. I rationed myself to a story a day in order to prolong the pleasure.
The first of her books I read was ‘Magic Flutes’, but my comfort re-reads are A Company of Swans and Madensky Square. Madensky Square is so bittersweet because we know that war (WWI) breaks out in a short while and that her lover will undoubtedly be involved in a big way. However, I try not to think about that when I read it, as it really doesn’t affect the story.
The Morning Gift is my least favorite of hers. Ruth’s total density re: Heini and the Big Mis just ruined it for me.
The only juvenile book of Ibbotson’s that I’ve read is The Star of Kazan–great fun.
@Barb in Maryland: Thanks so much for letting me know that about A Glove Shop in Vienna. At one time it was out of print and expensive to acquire but I bought a print copy when the price went down. More recently I was thrilled to see it has been digitized.
I agree completely on the bittersweet aspect of Madensky Square. At least all the secondary characters sail off to relative safety.
Of her children’s books, I’ve only read Journey to the River Sea. It was a good book for kids, but I rarely appreciate children’s books as much, and that was the case here too.
@Janine: Yes, it took aaaaages.
I don’t mind about fade to black love scenes. I expected it here actually, for a number of reasons. Some of my favourite books are not explicit. But all of my favourite books have lots and lots of the protags together and this one didn’t, alas. They were my favourite bits but they were few and far between.
_The Morning Gift_ is absolutely one of my favorite Ibbotson romances, and that is despite the Big Mis and terrible ending (the epilogue isn’t the problem). Re: “Also all the stuff about how the heroine was half-Jewish but didn’t look it really, really bothered me.” — I am half-Jewish and like many people of my ethnicity, blond, green-eyed…so this was another way I related to Ruth. Also Ruth reminded me so much of Anne of Green Gables; I find this charming, probably more so in fiction than real life.
@Kaetrin: I think it’s not uncommon for Ibbotson to postpone the central couple’s first meeting, and to include secondary characters with storylines of their own in her books. At the time her books were written, the latter was not as uncommon as it has become in many of today’s romances. I enjoy that because I love the way she creates whole communities and enjoy the “When will they meet?” suspense. But if you find it frustrating, then she might not be the author for you.
With that said, I think that even so her romances usually take off faster than they did in this particular book.
I also felt the same way about the book. I liked the heroine and most of it.
I didn’t like the endings for three reasons a) the misunderstandings b) the misery they cause Ruth and c) (most importantly,) Ruth who is brilliant totally giving up on her career and education.
@Emily: Yes – I don’t think I mentioned that in my review. She really got short-changed in the education department didn’t she? And she is so smart! Grrrr.
Ibbotson may not have included love scenes in her books, but her characters were definitely aware of the physical as well as the emotional aspects of love. In “Company of Swans”, Harriet spends the night with the hero, Rom. I love her thoughts on waking the next morning, and I love Rom’s response: ‘I am ruined’ said Harriet, waking in the great white-netted bed. The word seemed to her so beautiful that she spoke it again to herself, very softly: ‘Ruined. I am a fallen woman.’ She turned her head on the pillow. Rom’s dark head was half-buried in the sheet, with one arm thrown out in sleep. The problem now was what to do with so much happiness; how to contain it and not let it spill out and disturb him. . . A new world lay before her — a world whose existence she had not even guessed. The mystics knew it, and perhaps God Himself and possibly Johann Sebastian Bach in places . . . But none of them had been ruined by Rom, so they could not know it as she knew it. . . .
‘Who gave you permission to leave my side?’
She spun round. Rom was leaning on one arm, looking at her. ‘I was getting to know the room’ she said.
‘So I saw. But you happen to be further away than I care for.’
‘Then I will come back.’ She came to him and hung her head, for what she saw in his eyes was too much even for a woman as officially depraved as she now was.
‘I thought perhaps I should get dressed?’ she suggested.
‘No, I’m not very keen on that’ said Rom in conversational tones.”