The Ivy Tree

The Ivy Tree

by Mary Stewart


(Edited) Blurb:

An English June in the Roman Wall countryside; the ruin of a beautiful old house standing cheek-by-jowl with the solid, sunlit prosperity of the manor farm-- a lovely place, and a rich inheritance for one of the two remaining Winslow heirs. There had been a third, but Annabel Winslow had been presumed dead for years.  However, one day a young woman calling herself Annabel Winslow comes "home" to Whitescar and sets big changes into motion.

My Reaction:

I've loved some of the other books by Mary Stewart that I've read.  I'm never sure how much is down to the strengths and weaknesses of the individual books and how much is "me" and how I may have changed over the years, but I didn't like The Ivy Tree as much as I remember liking many of the others.  It may be difficult to explain my problems with this book without giving away twists and turns, but I'll try... 

-- Didn't love the romance; was disappointed that it was so slow to start.  

-- Found it difficult to know how to take Con, until too far into the book.  I'm sure that was intentional, but I didn't find it enjoyable to read!

-- Found the big twist a bit of a cheat.  Predictable, yet you talk yourself out of it because of the way the book is written.  (The twist shouldn't be possible, really.)  It just didn't "wow" me.  

-- Felt slow for most of the book; not much happening, most of the time.

-- Found the horsey parts completely boring-- not a horse person.  They can be pretty animals, but it's not an obsession I enjoy reading about.  If it had been a dog, I'd probably have been riveted. 😁 (Actually skimmed the horse section of the "thrilling denouement", as well as the driving scene.  Yawn!  Too drawn-out, in my opinion.)

-- Too much "oh, but I'm only a woman!" stuff.  I don't consider myself a militant feminist, but it was so frequent that it was difficult to ignore.  I had to roll my eyes a few times.  Ditto for the Irish stuff with Con.  Blurgh.  

-- Came away feeling very "meh" at the end.  

For positives, there were some nice descriptions of the setting... And I'm always interested to see similarities to Jane Eyre, though in this instance, they were too weak an echo and made me wish I was reading that instead!  Um... There was a character named "Donald" (my husband's name). 😜 That's not necessarily a positive or a negative for most people, I'd assume, but I'm struggling to come up with specific good things!  I enjoyed some aspects of it; I just didn't come away loving the reading experience as a whole.