The Ivy Tree | Mary Stewart | The Magic of Mary Stewart

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

books:

The Ivy Tree

	The Ivy Tree Mary Stewart Chicago Review Press, 2007 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

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.

for more information click here

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"

for more information click here

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.

for more information click here

still thinking of it 18 years after

I read this when I was much younger, probably around 12 years old. It was a great inspiration to my early creative fiction writing back then, and my current prose writing later, and I still remember it and think of it throughout the years. I moved several countries since I read it and I lost the book somewhere along these years (it wasn't really mine to begin with...I think I 'borrowed' it from my mother) and have been searching for it. Finally it hit me to try the internet and of course, Amazon.com! Duh! I need to catch up with the age (especially since I've been using the web for everything for so long now). It's a very unforgettable book for its plot and story, for the emotions that it so easily evokes within the reader, and the beautiful painting of the landscape through the author's words. I can't wait to get the book again in the mail and finally have it in my library and read it once again.

for more information click here

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

products you might be interested in