"But if you have a drop of pity for my unhappy lot, you'll not forsake me" 
 -K. S. Shilovsky (paraphrased by me), libretto of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin 
 My rating might be so high because I didn't expect much from this book. It sounded like the main characters of A Countess Below Stairs changed their names and got dropped into the setting of The Star of Kazan only fifteen years later. Anna Tessa is a Russian Countess Austrian Princess working at a(n) English Manor Viennese opera company when she meets Rupert Guy, a(n) Earl self-made millionaire engaged to a vain heiress named Muriel Nerine. They fall in love, having a discussion about Anna's Tessa's hair somewhere in the middle, some twist of fate allowing them to be together in the end. 
 This book was a lot better than just that. In fact, if you're planning to read A Countess Below Stairs, I would recommend you read this one instead. ACBS, as I call it, romanticizes imperial Russia, confuses the reader more than necessary, adds several unnecessary elements and leaves the reader with a somewhat unsatisfactory ending. This book, nationality and location aside, is ACBS only better. TRH includes a supporting cast of lovable, if stereotyped, small parts, references to opera that I understand but would have enchanted my younger self more, quirky aristocratic poverty like that of A Brief History of Montmaray and a more satisfactory ending than that of ACBS. I thought Nerine and Guy and Tessa's relationship could have been done better, but as I've stated before, this is quirky old-school historical fiction novel is the perfect break from the same-trailer-different-park of YA these days. 
 :) Ah, satisfation :).