The Ivy Tree | Mary Stewart

The Ivy Tree | Mary Stewart | One of Mary Stewart's best

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The Ivy Tree

	The Ivy Tree Mary Stewart Chicago Review Press, 2007 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Mary Grey had come from Canada to the land of her forebears: Northumberland. As she savored the ordered, spare beauty of England?s northern fells, the silence was shattered by the shout of a single name: ?Annabel!? And there stood one of the angriest, most threatening young men Mary had ever seen. His name was Connor Winslow, and Mary quickly discovered that he thought she was his cousin?a girl supposedly dead these past eight years. Alive, she would be heiress to an inheritance Connor was determined to have for himself. This remarkably atmospheric novel is one of bestselling-author Mary Stewart?s richest, most tantalizing, and most surprising efforts, proving her a rare master of the genre.

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interesting

This book is wordy and descriptive--half of our book club really appreciated her use of words, and half found it tedious. The beginning is a little slow and hard to engage in, but stick with it because the plot thickens enormously in the middle and the twist is so much fun! It has a dramatic conclusion that made for some fun conversation at book club.

One of Mary Stewart's best

First Sentence: I might have been alone in a painted landscape.

Annabel Winslow has been dead for four years. Mary Grey, over from Canada, looks enough like Annabel to be her twin. When Conner, foreman at Whitescar, stumbles upon her, it takes a bit of convincing that she is Mary. Con, and his half-sister, Lisa, work up a plan for Mary to pretend to be the missing Annabel long enough to ensure her grandfather passes the ownership of Whitescar to Con in his will. Annabel Winslow has been dead for four years. Or has she?

This is Mary Stewart at her very best. With lovely nods to Josephine Tey's "Brat Farrar," which I also loved, "The Ivy Tree" is a more complex, layered book, although the clues are there for us to find. Stewart's characters come alive and even have reader questioning just who is Mary? There is that constant threat of danger. Her descriptions and use of imagery make me go back and re-read passages for the pure pleasure of her words. It is a story of love, loss, and hope is wonderfully timeless. Stewart is always such a pleasure to read and this is one of, if not the, best of her works.

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The Magic of Mary Stewart

Back when I was in high school, my bookshelves were filled with the Gothic romances of Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney. In my mind's eye (especially on a dark and stormy night!), I liked to cast myself as one of the the intrepid governesses who finds employment at the manor house of a devastatingly handsome but brooding lord with a plethora of mysterious, murderous relatives and eavesdropping servants. While I always questioned why these young women used to traipse out at midnight into the fog-shrouded moors - wearing only a diaphanous nightgown - to investgate a spooky noise, I was nonetheless captivated by the way all three of these authors could spin such breathtaking ambiance and make a reader feel as if they were right in the scene. I was, thus, delighted when an associate sent me a paperback copy of the newly re-released "The Ivy Tree" by Mary Stewart. Her heroine is a plucky lady of mystery who or may not be who she really says she is, and the scintillating underscore of sexual tension throughout the chapters makes this the kind of read that should be enjoyed with a pot of herbal tea, a fire in the fireplace, a cozy comforter, and a storm outside one's windows. Even with the passage of 40 years since I originally read this title, it's a cleverly orchestrated mystery that still feels timeless.

Christina Hamlett
Author of "Movie Girl" and "Screenwriting for Teens"

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Books you love to read

Mary Stewart is a great writer. I'm glad that I discovered her again. This book keeps you guessing until the end. I really enjoyed this book.

Summer page-turner

At first I thought "The Ivy Tree" was a silly tale of contrived identity mix-ups. But then I just couldn't put it down. Stewart writes with such command of her subject that it rolls along nicely, and ultimately provides a satsifying read.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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