The Glass Bird Girl by Esme Kerr

Orphan Edie is sent by her artdealer uncle to Knight’s Haddon School, to investigate the disappearance of a precious glass bird belonging to his secretive client’s daughter, Anastasia, an unhappy Russian princess. But what Edie uncovers instead is a dangerous mystery that only the girls themselves can solve.

Raised by her grandmother then abandoned to her aunt and horrible cousins, Edie is rescued by her uncle to go undercover at a boarding school. Her mission: to protect a Russian princess from the fellow schoolgirls that seem to be picking on her. 

In this brilliant boarding school setting that reminded me of a younger version of Night School, Edie has to navigate secrets, general bitchiness and tough lessons to get to the bottom of whatever Anastasia's problem is. Which appears to much more complicated than her just misplacing things.

Edie was so sweet, surprisingly strong considering what she's been through and so determined not to mess this up, both for her future and her growing friendship with Anastasia. Considering all the pressure her uncle was putting on her, I'm surprised she didn't crack but after he let her go, she wanted to find out the truth no matter what, which is very admirable. As for Anastasia, it took me a while to get a bearing on her, maybe because for a while we only heard about her from her father and gossip, and even when we did meet her properly she seemed so flighty and unpredictable. But once she calmed down and started to trust Edie, we got to see the real her, who was friendly and energetic and dramatic.

Speaking of trust, everyone seemed to be hiding something or acting weird at some point and I could not for the life of me figure out what the motivation was for making Anastasia seem paranoid! But that is of course the makings of a great mystery and this did not disappoint in the bad guy arena! With all the accusations flying everywhere, the real culprit was a shocking discovery and, apart from the whole 'we can save the day, never mind the adults', was very well written. All in all, a very enjoyable read.

Published 1st May 2014 by Chicken House. Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.