Forced to abandon her dreams of completing medical school in order to support her profligate parents, Katya reluctantly accepts a position as a governess in Vienna. Though she quickly grows fond of both her peculiar young charge and the child's father, their safety is very soon threatened by the the onset of World War II, Hitler's sudden annexation of Austria and unrest in the streets.

There has been a whole string of recent books I have had complaints about, and I feel kind of bad because often the negative aspects make up a greater portion of my review due to the extent to which they irritated me. I consider Gabriel to be one of my favorite authors, going all the way back to his epic The Original Sin which swept me away during formative teenage years, but unfortunately this is another of those instances in which most of the notes I took while reading were about things that were driving me nuts. Most of the characters were like caricatures, especially the villainous — no subtlety. Katya and Thor's relationship felt weirdly abrupt with few to no supporting scenes suggesting a progression of intimacy. It was also almost gag-inducingly saccharine ("You are everything I've always wanted in a man"). Katya herself comes across as naively lacking in common sense. Minutes after she has been beaten by a mob in the street she is heard to utter, "I don't think things are that bad." ??? Over and over throughout the story she has opportunities to avoid conflict/detection by blending in or going through the motions, whether it be remaining silent, saluting or wearing a Nazi badge, but nearly every single time she chooses the worst action, thereby continually risking her and others' safety. Also disappointing was Thor's false choice as he justified to Katya his reasons for remaining in Austria. They could absolutely have fled together.

Having said all that, I thought the beginnings of WWII from a more unfamiliar Austrian perspective was new and interesting, and (assuming this is based on a mostly accurate timeline) I was both surprised and disappointed at how quickly Austrians ate up the propaganda. There were numerous moments and dialogue that I felt were pointed, though fitting, warnings for today's United States and increasingly conservative Europe. I really wanted to like this book more than I did — there were just too many things that made me want to pull my hair out. ( )