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Ivy (Ivy #1)

3.3 of 5 stars 3.30 · rating details · 1,002 ratings · 153 reviews

Ivy is used to being overlooked. The youngest in a family of thieves, scoundrels, and roustabouts, the girl with the flame-colored hair and odd-colored eyes is declared useless by her father from the day she is born. But that's only if you look at her but don't see. For Ivy has a quality that makes people take notice. It's more than beauty -- and it draws people toward her...more

Paperback, 333 pages

Published May 4th 2006 by Oxford University Press

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Jun 21, 2011 Josie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, historical-fiction

I have no idea what was going on with this book. Every time I thought it was going to be one thing, it veered in a completely different direction. It had all the essential ingredients of a Victorian melodrama: an orphaned heroine, a den of thieves, laudanum addiction, pre-Raphaelite painters -- but it was so bizarre, and the writing so clunky, that it left me completely cold. I felt alienated from Ivy, who was very difficult to warm to. I found her vegetarianism unbelievable (as if a starving ch...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Anna Kim rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

There is a lot of historical, though not very descriptive, passages about Victorian England the pre-Raphaelite art movement, and the author's coyness about revealing the identity of "the Italian" gets tiresome pretty quickly, especially for those who studied English literature and was able to ascertain the name fairly early on.
This is a pretty typical story of a hard luck girl who, through sheer luck (and it was luck since Ivy is pretty dumb, not uneducated, though she is that, too) manages to f...more

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May 10, 2009 travelmel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-dickensonian, ya-darkish-themes

EDIT: BEGINING THE BOOK:
I've grown tired of the book I've been trying AND TRYING to read: Bitten - and I left the new Mortal Instruments book somewhere so I'm going to try this! The cover summary reminds me of the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Mysterious, supernatural/magic, nineteeth century England.

EDIT: FINISHED
OH I WAS HAD!! Swindled, Kaboozled.... I am so dumb! So I'm reading and reading and mark my words it's an enjoyable read BUT where was the magic? Where was the supernatural??? Where were my go...more EDIT: BEGINING THE BOOK:
I've grown tired of the book I've been trying AND TRYING to read: Bitten - and I left the new Mortal Instruments book somewhere so I'm going to try this! The cover summary reminds me of the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Mysterious, supernatural/magic, nineteeth century England.

EDIT: FINISHED
OH I WAS HAD!! Swindled, Kaboozled.... I am so dumb! So I'm reading and reading and mark my words it's an enjoyable read BUT where was the magic? Where was the supernatural??? Where were my goosebumps?? Where? In another book. After about 270 of 370 pages I read the back flap again, certain I had SOME MAGIC to look forward to. None. After re-reading the back I realized that the BACK was PRAISE for A DIFFERENT BOOK. (The Ministers Daughter - which I will definitely be reading) ******SIGH... HEAVY SIGH***** FORHEAD SLAP!!!!

Oh well. So this book: I read the reviews on goodreads and they're correct. This is a Dickensian tale. Nicks, theives, and beggars meet the elite art world. I would recommend looking up this painting: Beata Beatrice before reading the book. Just look at it. The book mentions it alot but of course in the context of (mostly) fiction.

The book was really well written (in my opnion) I was often impressed with how something was said, described, or the witty (NOT FUNNY) cleverness of the prose. I read it in one sitting (though I had to sleep at the end and finished the last 30 pages the next day.) - it was engaging. But, I am the same person who caught "Great Expectations" on late night TV one night and watched the entire thing from 2-5 am. Yes, it's LONG.. and enthralling, just like this. You don't know why but you must...if you like that sort of thing.

I liked it and continued turning pages and each page had something pretty and good to read but.. it was sort of like eating a large salad for dinner. The bits were tasty but it lacked satifying substance somehow and you can eat and eat and eat and it doesn't look like you've made a dent in the supposed meal. Finally, when it's done, you are full and you're glad you ate it. Make sense?

3.5 stars. 4 stars if I liked salad more. And sometimes, I do.

EDIT: I was thinking about this book and I realized that it's a story... almost a biography. I think I kept waiting for an event but there wasn't one and that's ok. I mean, stuff happens, but there is no "bad force" and "good force" or ruling family and desitiny. It's the story of these people's lives and so that's that. It's still good on it's own, I guess.. I'm just more used to reading books with "events." Ya know?(less)

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Nov 11, 2012 April rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, ya, library

Sometimes a girl just needs a really good work of historical fiction to ease her hectic life. Ivy by Julie Hearn was exactly what the doctor prescribed. First, there is the gorgeous cover, which actually kind of threw me. I went into the book expecting some sort of romance, just because there was a woman on the cover. Silly me. What I got in return was something much better.
Read the rest of my review here

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Mar 11, 2012 Maggie rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 24, 2011 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Looking at the reviews I've written so far, I became concerned that it would appear I hate everything. This is not the case. I've just picked up some duds, and a few middle-of-the-pack werewolf books lately. Ivy, however, was a lovely, captivating, and refreshingly different book, and the first in this project of mine that I've truly enjoyed.

Ivy, a red-haired orphan living in the slums of Victorian London, learns early on to expect nothing but misery and humiliation from life. She moves through...more Looking at the reviews I've written so far, I became concerned that it would appear I hate everything. This is not the case. I've just picked up some duds, and a few middle-of-the-pack werewolf books lately. Ivy, however, was a lovely, captivating, and refreshingly different book, and the first in this project of mine that I've truly enjoyed.

Ivy, a red-haired orphan living in the slums of Victorian London, learns early on to expect nothing but misery and humiliation from life. She moves through life in a dreamy state of unreality, dosing herself with laudnum to soften the edges of a dreary, violent existence. The slow, subtle changes she undergoes never alter the fundamental aspects of her character--she's illiterate, uninterested in romance, and coarse--but she nevertheless transforms over the course of the book. There are no Pygmalion-style makeovers to be had, and while I initially expected a standard-issue story about a diamond in the rough who betters herself through education, pretty clothes, and the love of a nice boy, I'm much happier with the way the story actually played out. There is a happy ending, just not the sort we're used to seeing in young adult literature.

Set against the backdrop of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, artistic details and literary allusions abound. Rossetti himself appears as a character (he lives next door to the painter who seizes upon Ivy as his model), although curiously Julie Hearn refuses to name him until the last quarter of the book. I'm not sure why she made this choice, unless it was because Ivy would not have been aware of his identity until later.

This is a book well worth savoring. The pace is slow, the plot meanders from one character to another without clearly setting up a Villain and Love Interest. The closest thing to a true villain is Mrs. Frosdick, the mother of the artist who paints Ivy. She's horribly infatuated with her son, and goes to terrible lengths to keep him all to herself. If readers are willing to allow the story to unfold, they will be rewarded with lyrical prose, dynamic characters, and a satisfying story. (less)

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Feb 07, 2010 Stephanie Pina rated it 2 of 5 stars

I started this book wanting to love it because of its subject matter since the Pre-Raphaelites and Lizzie Siddal in particular are dear to my heart. I'm disappointed that I couldn't embrace it as much as I had hoped. I can't understand why the author couldn't use Rossetti's name. Repeatedly he is referred to as "the Italian". After the third or fourth reference, I was exasperated. After reading it so many times (the Italian, the Italian, the Italian) it just became an intrusive element in the st...more

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Dec 31, 2009 CLM rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historicalfiction, ya, uk, 19th-century, orphans

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I hate reading books out of order, so when I realized I had read Hazel, about Ivy's daughter, I had to rush to the library (electronically speaking) to order this earlier book. I read it last night when I should have been sleeping. I found this book somewhat disappointing because it was all over the place: dazzlingly beautiful redhead (yes), neglected orphan (yes), abusive family (yes), abusive teacher (yes), Victorian do-gooders (yes), bands of thieves (yes), drug addiction (yes, laudanum), art...more

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Jan 28, 2009 Terry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those upon whom Dickens has been imposed too soon

Recommended to Terry by: terryloden@gmail.com

I am reminded of Ursula K. Le Guin's statement that her great-aunt "said nobody under 18 had any business reading Dickens." I know that I had no particular fondness for Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, etc, until I was much older (A Tale of Two Cities, as I recall, was more to my liking in my youth). Philip Pullman' Sally Lockhart Trilogy (The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well) plus one (The Tin Princess) and Julie Hearn's Ivy seem to me to make accessible for th...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Matt Spencer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Given the lurid pitch of this book from the friend who loaned it to me, and the profound effect it had on her artistic identity, I think I expected something a lot darker, sexier, bleaker, generally more dramatic. Which isn't to say this dampened my appreciation for what I got. Ivy has a rough go of life, but she's a resilient innocent, and there's a light sure-footedness to the narrative voice that finds warmth, humor and charm in even the most grotesque situations and characters, to where it b...more Given the lurid pitch of this book from the friend who loaned it to me, and the profound effect it had on her artistic identity, I think I expected something a lot darker, sexier, bleaker, generally more dramatic. Which isn't to say this dampened my appreciation for what I got. Ivy has a rough go of life, but she's a resilient innocent, and there's a light sure-footedness to the narrative voice that finds warmth, humor and charm in even the most grotesque situations and characters, to where it borders on screwball comedy of the best kind. The more I think about it, almost all the major characters are on some level buffoonish innocents (to quote Joe R. Lansdale, "calling a character an *innocent* doesn't necessarily mean he's a swell guy. He just doesn't have a clue."), but in a very real, endearingly human way. Carroty Kate is DEFINITELY my favorite character here. Frosdick's mother is the sort of character I generally can't stand in a story, in that she's SO so deliberately pompous and evil as to feel more like a caricature than a real character... but she's so vividly fleshed out and nuanced IN her utter vileness that I got caught up looking forward to what the author would have her think, say or do next with wicked relish. And the truth of the matter is, she IS a realistic nasty person, and makes a fascinating contrast to the other villains Ivy faces. Fing and Cousin Jared are certainly unlikable people you wouldn't want to have to deal with, but they're understandable, even sympathetic, in you can see how their own hardknocks lives have made them who they are, almost by necessity (Fing, in fact, might not be such a bad guy, all things considered). Mrs. Frosdick is just such a spoiled old bitch that she'll fly into a melodramatic tantrum at seeing the power she holds over her cushy little world disrupted, and sees murder as a perfectly vaingloriously reasonable response to the perceived threat Ivy poses. GAH, why isn't it legal to just beat people like that with a stick? Anyway... The author, I can tell you, has done her historical homework, and keeps dialect-heavy dialogue comprehensible (most authors who try this just wind up slowing the narrative to a crawl and distancing me from the characters, not making them "realer"). The thoroughly omniscient narrative plays fast and lose with point of view, often head-hopping from paragraph to paragraph, occasionally addressing the reader directly. Near the end it occurred to me what works so well here with this approach: the omniscient narrator becomes a character unto herself, like we're sitting there with her watching the story unfold and listening to her commentary on it. Favorite plot-kick: there was a certain surprise twist I saw coming a mile away... then it finally hits and is accompanied by a whopper of a revelation I sure as hell DIDN'T see coming, to the point that now I'll have read the book again at some point just to see how this knowledge alters my view of events. It's telling that I was halfway through this book before checking the author/publisher/genre info and learning it's actually a young-adult publication. Kinda went, "Huh, was wondering how this captures Victorian-era impoverished squalor/street-crime culture as vividly and juicily as it does... yet is nowhere NEAR as graphic as it easily could be." My one real complaint is that near the end, it sort of starts to feel like Hearn is just getting tired of this story. A lot of the more interesting subplots and characters are wrapped up hastily, presumably to make room for tying up Ivy's story... though a lot of aspects of this also come out too easily settled (including her kicking the drug habit). That said, this author has a unique, vivid, highly readable prose stile, and I definitely hope to check out more of her work. (less)

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Jan 11, 2011 Kristy rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I picked this book out of my pile to read, I admit I judged the cover. I thought it was going to be a cheesy love story or be about some kind of jacked-up version of
Poison Ivy

But, I was way off.

Ivy is a girl living in London, with basically no one to care for her and no way of supporting her own self. One day she happens to meet a skinner, a robber of small children. But, this woman, this Kate takes a liking to the read-headed little Ivy and devises a plan to use her. She takes her in alo...more

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Oct 17, 2012 S rated it 3 of 5 stars

I, like many other reviews here, picked up this book at my local library because I am interested in historical stories.
The story follows Ivy as she is orphaned and forced to live with family that can't afford to support another child. Ivy is forced into becoming a con artist and lives with a gang of thieves where she is given laudanum in order to reduce the nightmares she has ever night. Years later she manages to escapes and she goes back to live with her family.
She is spotted by a young painte...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Amanda added it

Ivy was a simple story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Yeah the wording was a little funky but I got it. Ivy has no education, emotionally abused, shes had an overall tough life. She let herself get swept up in an addiction so she wouldnt feel. I thought it was a good twist for her to be a vegetarian and into animals and not the all criminally cruel like her family. I'm not really all that knowledgable of the pre-raphaelite era artists but her reference to 'the Italian' in that context so much was a...more

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May 18, 2010 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: yafiction

Ivy grew up in England in the mid-1800s. Orphaned and left with selfish relatives, she is given the opportunity to attend school; after a negative run-in with a woman who tries to force her to eat meat, she runs away. Ivy is taken in by a street gang and begins a different sort of life on the streets...

Fast-forward a number of years. Ivy is living with her relatives once again, when an artist inquires about her becoming his model. Although she may be stunning on the outside, there are many thing...more

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Feb 07, 2009 edh rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Victorian world is not kind to destitute little red-headed girls, and Ivy is no exception. The titian titular heroine finds the use of laudanum a blessed escape from the grinding poverty of her family (such as it is). After a rather unsuccessful childhood in the mean streets of London, Ivy finds herself sought after by an aspiring pre-Raphaelite painter who wants her to pose as iconic characters Eve and Ophelia. The painter's mother is terribly jealous of her son's newest obsession and plots...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Ms. Sapkarov rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of A Great and Terrible Beauty, The Bell Jar, and Victorian writing

Recommended to Ms. Sapkarov by: saw it sitting on the shelf at Pages for All Ages

Shelves: ya, fiction, historical-fiction

Once I figured out that this was not your average YA novel, I was better able to appreciate the story. Something of a Victorian-inspired with Oliver Twist and The Bell Jar elements, Ivy is a complex tale of its title character. From a poorer than poor family, to a school for wayward children, to a life on the streets with thieves and criminals, Ivy's first few years of life more than difficult and unfortunately formative. She spends the next ten years in a drunken stupor, and then is recognized...more

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Mar 20, 2010 Morgan F rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2000s, young-adult, historical-fiction, own, its-a-girl, read-2010, medium-sized, pretty-covers

Ivy's life is far from picturesque. Orphaned at a young age, she moves in with her in-laws, a poor family of scoundrels. At the age of five, she runs away and finds herself an addition to a troupe of thieves, in particular, the "skinner" Carroty Kate. In order to silence Ivy's screams in the middle of the night caused by nightmares, Kate starts giving Ivy laudanum, one drop at time.

Eleven years later Ivy is back home with her family, when her bright red hair and pale beauty catches the eye of a...more

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Jun 25, 2010 Lady Knight rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen, victorian-edwardian, historical-fiction, 19th-c, public-library, england-uk

A decent teen read, but not outstanding. It was simply okay, everything from the plot to the characters to setting can be summed up by "unremarkable", "okay", and other such words. Good, but not memorable.

Ivy is a "stunner" that poses for an aspiring artist in Victorian London. She doesn't like it, but as long as she has her laudanum to take nothing bothers her. Due to her poor birth and lack of education, Ivy has no prospects and is lucky to get work as a model. It wasn't always this way though...more

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Jun 03, 2010 Kress rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So I haven't written a review in some time since I've been reading some non-fiction books that I don't think will appeal to teens. But now I'm back on the YA scene....

I enjoyed this book. It's set in 19th century England's art world. (And, as you may know, this is a world I love.) Hearn begins the book with one of my favorite poem's by Christina Rossetti. And she does give voice, as does that poem, to the women who peopled the famous paintings of the day by allowing us to know one artist's model...more

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Jun 25, 2010 Gorfo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

This book is a light read. I found myself following the life of Ivy with very little care. A good novel for just passing the time. There's was nothing especially striking about it. Though I did learn a little something about skinners. I felt like the book was missing something, perhaps the adition of the supernatural would've made it more interesting. Ivy seemed like a female version of Oliver Twist, so her character was not really that original, on top of this she doesn't talk much so the story...more

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Jun 14, 2010 April rated it 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book for the complex characters and just slightly gritty feel. Typical Victorian-era novels have more fluff than anything, but this one focused on the underclass with glimpses into the upper. The situations were so strange that they kept me interested and engaged through the whole book. I'd have liked a little more justice in the end, but that's me!! :)

This is a pretty clean book with just a few suggestive references that were relevant to the story and not at all gratuitous in my...more

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Dec 07, 2009 Meredith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

I went through several stages of liking/disliking this book, but in the end I liked it. Several of the supporting characters were satisfactory caricatures - deliciously-evil or bumpkin-humorous - and just the right mix of squalor/decadence and humor/grim despair. You wanted to slap Ivy just about all the way through, but she couldn't help it. I was puzzled, at first, by a reference to Dickens on the flyleaf, but I see it now. Except this book was readable. (Not to disparage my non-ancestor, but...more

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Nov 07, 2009 Ashe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, should-reread

Ivy was an interesting book... novels set in old English times usually aren't very appealing to me, but there was something about this book that drew me in. Ivy is a redheaded orphan who's living in an old apartment with her aunt and uncle along with her cousins. She meets a painter who wants her to model for him and while she's being paid, her quality of life improves... until she becomes addicted to a dangerous drug and the jealously of another woman threatens to destroy her.

The ending was a b...more

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Aug 30, 2010 Maddie rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 17, 2009 Amber rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting novel. I thought it was different from other YA books in two regards:
1. The main character is poor & remains poor. I haven't read too many YA books (except, of course, the one I read just the other day--How To Be Bad) where the main character is poor & illiterate. The time of the book is around 1850s or so (I believe).
2. The main character is a vegetarian. Yeah! :)

Overall, this is a nice, quick read. There's not a whole lot happening in this book but it's enjoyable to read...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Although quite enjoyable, this book tended to jump around a bit, from one concept to another without much warning. I found this rather annoying! Concepts were introduced and not followed up and interesting advances in the plot barely lasted a chapter and dissapeared promptly without a trace. But in saying that it was a good take on Victorian life, that didn't try to be overly grungy or sweet, therefore striking the right balance. Some characters seemed one dimensional, but Ivy was atleast on the...more

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Apr 21, 2009 Julia Driscoll rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ivy has grown up in the London slums of the 19th century. Her childhood caregivers have been con artists and thieves. As a child, she was often given laudanum (an opium drug) to help her sleep and became an addict. Despite this, she remains a striking beauty as she grows up. One day she discovered by an artist who wants to use her as his model. Little does Ivy realize that she’s stepping into a world of greater danger when she agrees to work for him. Will Ivy be destroyed, or will she discover s...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Mara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-to-buy, 2012-reads, comedy, historical-fiction

Cover Blurb: Not a fan of it; it leers, and it is really quite misleading about what sort of book it is. I was expecting something sappy, and horribly mushy, and probably even edgy, with more than one bedroom scene. Yeah, my expectations were not high, and now that I've read the book, I really think they ought to have chosen a different approach with the cover.

What I Liked: I love, absolutely love, Mrs. Frosdick! She is wonderfully horrid; I am seriously jealous of the Author for coming up with...more Cover Blurb: Not a fan of it; it leers, and it is really quite misleading about what sort of book it is. I was expecting something sappy, and horribly mushy, and probably even edgy, with more than one bedroom scene. Yeah, my expectations were not high, and now that I've read the book, I really think they ought to have chosen a different approach with the cover.

What I Liked: I love, absolutely love, Mrs. Frosdick! She is wonderfully horrid; I am seriously jealous of the Author for coming up with her. I loved how she kept trying to kill Ivy, and how very proper she was in her behavior; she was worthy of Dickens. Carrotey's gang was very amusing - a very good nod to Fagan's boys in Oliver Twist without being too obvious. And Ivy's relatives were completely awesome, conniving little crooks.

What I Disliked:<?b> I did like Ivy, but I got to know so little about her personality that it really did begin to feel like the story had no protagonist. I was able to see her potential, which is what kept me from getting annoyed with her, but the Author really should have given the Reader more opportunity to know her. I got to know all of the other characters very well - and I loved them! But a story will always feel hollow if there isn't a protagonist.

Believability: While all of the characters felt legitimate, and the Author did a superb job with accents, there were a few unconvincing things. One: Ivy being a vegetarian. I'm sorry, but if a child were starving on the streets, like Ivy, that child would get over her qualms about eating meat very quickly. Two: Ivy recovers from her laudanum addiction with remarkable ease, especially considering how addicted she's supposed to be. She has one severe relapse - which isn't even that severe in itself - and that's it. Sorry; not buying it.

Writing Style: I actually really liked it. While not nearly as bitingly sarcastic as Dickens (it's hard to be that cynical; he was a master at it), her writing follows along the same lines, and it is hilarious. Unlike some people, I did like how the Author kept referring to Rossetti as simply "the Italian." But because it was so obvious who "the Italian" was, the Author shouldn't have ever said his name in the book, because then it gave an impression that the Reader was supposed to be shocked at the revelation of his identity. I found the whole scene with Carrotey Kate revealing who she is was confusing - and I personally didn't even understand the point behind it.

Content: Ivy's relatives constantly hint to Ivy that if Mr. Frosdick wants Ivy to become his mistress, she should let him - for a price, naturally. This does lead to her relatives constantly making rather lewd jokes, but Mr. Frosdick never once makes any sort of advance on Ivy, and the relatives' jokes are never graphic.

Conclusion: To be honest, the ending was extremely anticlimactic. And I thought the Author passed up a lot of opportunities to bring her story in so many different directions. Like with Carrotey Kate's gang - she could have done so much more with them, or Ivy's time at the school, and her relatives' constant scheming. While the Author had rather Dickensonian characters, she missed opportunities to deepen her plotline and connect characters together that Dickens never would have. And I think that if the Author hadn't passed them up, this book would have had a far more interesting, far more satisfying ending. I did like the book - Mrs. Frosdick totally makes it worth reading, - but I mostly saw missed possibilities in it, and for that I am sad.

Recommended Audience: Historical fiction fans, especially Readers who are looking for a story that has a hint of Dickensonian humor to it. Don't be fooled by the cover, people - it's really a very funny story. Girl-and-guy read, fourteen and up.(less)

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Sep 13, 2012 Melinda Belle Harrison rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: alternative-historical-fiction, based-on-real-people, childrens-fiction, do-not-like-style, historical-ya-fiction, pre-raphaelites, reading-in-2012, serious-issues, womens-issues, young-adult

3.5 stars

I bought this book because it is about a flaming-red headed girl who poses as a model for a Pre-Raphaelite wannabe in Dante Gabriel Rossetti's London.

However, the book is not about Rossetti or about art and so I was disappointed. But once I got past that, I became engaged in the story.

(NOTE: The author uses Omniscient POV, which is really the author and thus, there is never a deep narration. The author is telling the story with insights into all characters and so forth. It's much like...more 3.5 stars

I bought this book because it is about a flaming-red headed girl who poses as a model for a Pre-Raphaelite wannabe in Dante Gabriel Rossetti's London.

However, the book is not about Rossetti or about art and so I was disappointed. But once I got past that, I became engaged in the story.

(NOTE: The author uses Omniscient POV, which is really the author and thus, there is never a deep narration. The author is telling the story with insights into all characters and so forth. It's much like reading an old Victorian novel. I don't really like this unless I am reading Victorian novels, but my mind soon adjusted. If it has not been set in Victorian London, I would have not read on. Warning, this type of POV is not good for modern fiction.)

The heroine of the tale is one Ivy Jackson, who at the age of five, falls in with some theives. Part I and some 90 pages of the book details this episode, which was overlong for the return of this cast of characters and the ending. However, I did enjoy this part and learned a few things, did some research and found the author a master of description.

Part II is Ivy, years later, returned to her family of cousins and aunt in the slums of London where she is spotted by the Pre-Raphalite wannabe and hired to pose for him. He is a social imbecile with a narcissistic and doting mother. Ivy, an opium addict of sorts, dislikes the both of them but is trapped into posing by her family who needs the money. What the reader sees here and I loved this part is that Ivy is trapped in a life from which she cannot escape, not even with her flaming-red hair! The jealous mother soon becomes more a danger than the life with the thieves. There are some serious issues here, and some hauntings of the model Lizzie Siddal, who hangs over the story as the Fate Ivy might choose for herself.

We do get inside No. 16 Cheyne Walk, (if you are a Pre-Raphalite lover then you know who lives there) and we get glimpses and shadows of that life. But it's not enough. It's not the focus of the story. It is a hint at what fate might bring to Ivy.

However, our little heroine overcomes her addiction, throws off her needy and cruel family, and finds a new life for herself. It has a happy ending. And no, there's no prince to save her, no love triangle, no false fantasy about what life had to offer. It's all grounded in reality.

Why I could not give it four or five stars when it could have been that: The Ending was rushed. It needed as much time as Part I. The character of Rosa should have been introduced a lot earlier. The thieves who returned at the end should have had a bigger part. That scene was wasted. And it left some threads hanging a bit.

But I did not dislike this book. I like it enough to read all the way through and enjoy the highly descriptive writing of the author. This is her wonderful gift. Maybe her editor wanted the story cut shorter. I don't know. A lot goes into the making and finishing and selling of a book. For anyone who loves Victorian London and wants to see and feel and smell the city, this is a good book to read.(less)

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Apr 01, 2011 Cat rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, young-adult

I read this after reading Hazel, as Ivy is mentioned as Hazel's mother and seemed like an interesting character. Like Hazel, Ivy is very much like a character study and touches on several issues and themes of the time (skinners, the Pre-Raphaelite movement, etc). The most interesting thing about this book is probably the depiction of the slums in which Ivy and her adopted family lives. The story is somewhat anti-climatic, but the book is still good for those interested in the circumstances of th...more

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