A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson

When 18 year old Harriet Morton is asked to go join Sasha Dubrov's Ballet Company on a tour to the Amazon, she turns them down. Both her father, the stuffy Classics Professor at the local Cambridge College and her penny pinching Aunt Louisa would most definitely disapprove. After all they took her away from school the moment her teacher suggested she can go to university with a full scholarship. Now all she has is her Ballet classes and if she even whispers about the job offer to anyone at home there would be nothing left for her. But she cannot help it she asks her father and is automatically shot down and banned from going to her Ballet classes.

In the past Harriet has never complained or in any way tried disobey her father's wishes. But when she meets 7-yearold Henry Brandon, heir to the Brandon estate, she is convinced to leave her family and travel to the Amazon with the Ballet Corps. However, working for the Ballet Company isn't all what Harriet goes to the Amazon to do. Henry wants her to help him find "the boy" who would help the crumbling Brandon estate back in proper form, and he believes that "the boy" is somewhere is the Amazon. With this in mind Harriet sets out to have the adventure of a lifetime.

If you're a fan of Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle Trilogy and/or Anna Godbersen's The Luxe. Or if you are a fan of fiction set in the elegant Victorian Ages, you'll love this book. A Company of Swans is set in this time and reflects the life of women and young girls in the era. Eva Ibbotson has become one of my absolute favorite authors after reading this book. It's impossible not to fall in love with Harriet. She is just so sweet, a little bit like Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. Add this book to your reading list. You will love it.