Classic Review – The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart

This is the copy of “The Ivy Tree” I wish I had.

This is the copy of “The Ivy Tree” I have.

Mary Stewart is Gothic Romance’s Shakespeare — an enduring talent whose books have become classics. In my ongoing effort to become better versed in the classics, I bring you Stewart’s The Ivy Tree.

Here’s a synopsis, courtesy of Goodreads:

If Mary Grey looked so much like the missing heiress, why should she not be an heiress? And so plain Mary Grey became the glamorous Annabel Winslow. But she did not live happily ever after. In fact, she almost did not live at all. Because someone wanted Annabel missing . . . permanently.

First published in 1961, The Ivy Tree has everything that a classic Gothic should: a mysterious heroine, a brooding but darkly attractive hero (anti-hero, perhaps?), a large estate and fortune at stake, and menace in spades.

The plot synopsis tells little about The Ivy Tree, for good reason. To reveal much more would give too much away. The book’s heroine is Mary Grey, recently relocated to England from Canada. Within days of her arrival, Mary is approached by the handsome, but gruff Conner Winslow. Conner mistakes her for his distant cousin and almost-fiancee Annabel, who’s missing and presumed dead. Conner’s also — conveniently — the manager of Annabel’s grandfather’s estate, Whitescar. Together they hatch a plan: if Mary will impersonate Annabel, the heir to her grandfather’s estate and fortune, just until the old man kicks the bucket, they’ll divvy up Annabel’s inheritance. But only if she can fool her grandfather, her young cousin, and all the others in and around Whitescar.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The impersonation plot is a difficult one to pull off in any situation, but leave it to Mary Stewart to make it appear child’s play. Mary is, of course, Annabel. And if you haven’t figured this out by, oh, say the the first third of the book, once the reveal comes, you’ll realize that you should have known it all along. But the mystery of Mary/Annabel is only one of many that unfold during the course of the story. Nothing’s what it seems at Whitescar.

To reveal any more of the plot would deny you the pleasure of seeing it unfold layer by layer. But it gives nothing away to tell you that like all of Stewart’s books, The Ivy Tree has style and atmosphere to spare. Stewart’s descriptions of the Pennines/Hadrian’s Wall setting are gorgeous, as are her characterizations. Mary/Annabel is mysterious, yet sympathetic. Julia, Annabel’s younger cousin and harbinger of the Swinging 60s, brings a sparkle to the story that lightens the dark themes of the book.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!

Since no Gothic would be complete without a enigmatic hero, Stewart outdoes herself and provides two. The first, of course, is Conner.
There’s no besting Stewart, so let’s let her describe Conner:

He was tall, and slenderly built, with that whippy look that told you he would be an ugly customer in a fight–and with something else about him that made it sufficiently obvious that he would not need much excuse to join any fight that was going…he had the almost excessive good looks of a certain type of Irishman, black hair, eyes of startling blue, and charm in the long, mobile mouth…all his movements had a grace that seemed a perfectly normal part of his physical beauty.

Whippy! Certain type of Irishman! Grace! Be still my beating heart! A better anti-hero than Conner Winslow will not be found anywhere, believe me. He lies, he cheats, he schemes and he calls Mary/Annabel a bitch. He’s tormented by what he can’t have. And he’s sexy as hell.

And then there’s Adam. Hmm. How to describe Adam? I wouldn’t know where to start, and neither, evidently, did, Stewart, because he’s hazy — dark eyes, dark brows, thin. Scarred. Suffering and sad.

Who, do you think, is the most interesting of the two? And who, do you think, survives the book?

I give The Ivy Tree 5 cleverly hidden love notes. That’s it. I’ll say no more. I don’t want to ruin anything. Just pick a day/weekend when you have nothing to do, and settle in for the ride. You won’t regret it.

Did you like this book? Here are a few more books like The Ivy Tree:

The Bride of Pendorric by Victoria Holt

Sea of Secrets by Amanda DeWees

By the way: Conner?

Okay, this is actually Ian MacShane, but I think he makes a great Conner.

Book Review: Marriage of Mercy by Carla Kelly

Synopsis:

From riches to rags, Grace has had to swallow her pride and get a job as a baker. But everything changes when she’s the beneficiary of a surprise inheritance.

Her benefactor’s deal comes with a catch: give up her life of toil and live in luxury only if she marries his illegitimate son, a prisoner of war. It’s an offer she can’t afford to refuse. But her husband-to-be is dying, and he begs her to take one of his men instead—to marry purely out of mercy….

A marriage of convenience with a complete stranger… Could this arrangement ever work?

I am a faithless reader. The authors that I love are not necessarily auto-buys for me; no matter how much I appreciate an author’s talent, the subject really has to draw me in before I’ll read the book. Here’s the story of how I almost missed a great book by one of my favorite authors, simply because of a bad synopsis.

Although Carla Kelly has been writing category romance for several years now, it’s obvious that Harlequin, the publisher of Marriage of Mercy, has no interest in playing up the strengths of her writing, but is anxious to pigeonhole her books, perhaps to give them greater appeal. That’s the only explanation that makes sense of the fact that Harlequin gave Marriage of Mercy a title that has nothing to do with the story, then slapped a synopsis on the book that gets many of the major plot details wrong.

Since I couldn’t do it better myself, here’s a great synopsis, courtesy of Wendy Clyde’s review at All About Romance:

The daughter of a baronet, the heroine, Grace, has slipped. When her father died penniless, she was forced to become a baker and is now considered a member of the working class. Pragmatic Grace has never minded her new station in life, as she is doing work that she enjoys, and that allows her contact will people from all walks of life – from the candler’s young grandson to the Marquis of Quarle, Lord Thomson. She bonds with the elderly Marquis over her specialty biscuits, Quimby Cremes, taking them to him personally when he becomes too ill to purchase them at the shop himself, and then feeding them to him when he becomes too ill to even do that. When the Marquis passes away, Grace is told to come to the reading of his will. There she learns that she is to be given the dower house and thirty pounds per anum from the estate, and that an American POW, the Marquis’ bastard son, is to be paroled there under her care.

When Grace and the Marquis’ lawyer reach Dartmoor to release the prisoner they find him dying. Before he passes away, the Marquis’ son begs Grace to take another prisoner in his place, and while the lawyer is obtaining medical help the switch is made and Grace releases a different prisoner, Rob Inman. What follows is typical Carla Kelly. Rob quickly endears himself to Grace’s friends and neighbors, and becomes Grace’s friend and confidant. But a villain has plans for Rob, other than his release when the war is over, and it soon becomes difficult for Rob and Grace to decide friend from foe. Mysterious letters appear in the dower house, with instructions such as “Trust No One”, and Rob is followed everywhere he goes by a man that will kill him if he’s ever out of Grace’s sight. In this atmosphere of confusion and danger, Rob and Grace fall in love.

I would have read the book that Wendy Clyde describes in a heartbeat — not so the book Harlequin is touting.

There’s nothing in the Harlequin synopsis that even hints at Marriage of Mercy’s unusual hero, an American prisoner of war, or of the book’s unusual setting, the War of 1812. It’s as though Harlequin hoped you’d buy the book because you love Regency settings and the umpteenth hero who was Wellington’s secret right-hand man.

Whether Harlequin just doesn’t know how to market books like Marriage of Mercy, or is hoping to bait-and-switch readers into buying a book that’s unlike most other Regency-set books, I don’t know. I just hope they appreciate what a rare talent they have in Carla Kelly.

Not to make this review more about the author than the book, but I can’t say enough good things about Kelly. She’s the rare romance novelist who transcends the limitations of the genre. She routinely turns the Regency setting that has become synonymous with silly, wallpaper historicals on its head. Her heroes and heroines are rarely wealthy or titled, and are never exceptionally beautiful or of the alpha male variety. Even minor characters are imbued with detail that makes them real.

While many of her books have the wartime settings that are so popular in Regency romances, glittering balls are few and far between, as are drawing rooms, for that matter. Rather, her talent is for the collateral damage of war that is often glossed over in romance novels; few characters escape unscathed.  But there’s no purple prose in a Carla Kelly book; she employs a spare, elegant prose style, full of small, telling details, and truly creates a world within the covers of her books. Kelly’s the one writer I’ve encountered who can, in three or four sentences, sum up years of a character’s back story.

Marriage of Mercy, I’m happy to say, displays all of Kelly’s remarkable talents. As usual with her books, the characters are unforgettable. In a less-skilled writer’s hands, both Grace and Rob would have been bitter about their lot in life, but Kelly never takes the easy way out, and instead gives us a heroine who has accepted her lost social position with all that her name implies, and a hero who, rather than hold a grudge against the English who’ve attacked his country and imprisoned him in deplorable conditions, brings joy to all he meets.

I can’t say enough about the deft way Kelly handles the War of 1812 in this novel. Kelly truly captures the essence of life during wartime, from the belligerent treatment of prisoners of war to the uncertainty faced by citizens in both countries in an era when news from the war front was weeks or months out of date.

My only minor quibble with Marriage of Mercy revolves around the subplot that Wendy Clyde mentions, the mysterious letters and even more mysterious villain. Grace and Rob’s story simply didn’t need this, and wonder if that may not have been an editorial decision on the part of Harlequin.

I give Marriage of Mercy 4 out of 5 Quimby Cremes. Grace and Rob, however, get 5 each! 

No matter what its title, Marriage of Mercy is well worth reading. I just wish Harlequin would have a bit more faith in an author who has done much to prove her worth.

Marriage of Mercy

Carla Kelly

Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages

Publisher: Harlequin

Release Date: May 22, 2012

Did you like this book, dumpling? Here are a couple more books similar to Marriage of Mercy:

Charity Begins at Home by Alicia Rasley (look over that awful cover – it’s a good one, I promise)

One Perfect Rose by Mary Jo Putney