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The Holly and the Ivy Elisabeth Fairchild 9780451198419 Books

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The Holly and the Ivy Elisabeth Fairchild 9780451198419 Books

The Holly and the Ivy is a very well-written and well-paced romance novel. However, as the romance began to develop nicely between Lord Balfour and Mary Rivers, Lord Balfour does something that really sucked much of the romance out of it for me. I still quite liked the story and the characters, but what occurs is such an offensive (at least to the heroine) plot contrivance that I wish it had been left out of the novel and that Fairchild had come up with some other conflict or none at all.

I was able to enjoy the book despite this plot conflict because Lord Balfour is such a sweet and to some extent, naïve hero. In addition to bad vision, he is rather unsophisticated as far as the ladies are concerned, and his mother and father have basically never troubled themselves about his upbringing. At the start of the novel, we learn that Lord Balfour's secretary and only father figure, Temple has passed away: Lord Balfour is completely adrift without Temple Sr. and Temple Jr. isn't shaping up to Balfour's expectations. Overall, Lord Balfour was rather pathetic and dour in a cute way. Mary Rivers was a good foil to him: Mary or Merry, as he wrongly understands her name to be, is a sweet, optimistic, kind, and clever dairymaid, who is staying with her grandmother for the holiday season. Mary, like Lord Balfour, is lonely without her family and is greatly troubled about her grandmother's finances and failing health. Within this context and the upcoming holidays, Lord Balfour and Mary's romance and friendship develops swimmingly along the course of normal life (shopping for glasses, cutting out snowflakes, etc.) until the aforementioned plot contrivance. Lord Balfour does, of course, redeem himself immediately, but let me tell you, if I was Mary, I would probably be throwing his "offer" in his face for a long time.

I still have to rate The Holly and Ivy highly. The characters were very likeable, the romance was charming, the supporting characters aided the plot, the author provides significant insight into Lord Balfour's thoughts, and the length was decent for an evening read. So if you like regencies, enjoy - it is far above much of what is out there, but if you are like me, you will wish Lord Balfour had remained true to his own values!


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The Holly and the Ivy Elisabeth Fairchild 9780451198419 Books Reviews

A good Christmas time story from Ms. Fairchild. One can only wonder at the naïveté of characters, but in spite of this, it's a fun read
I expected this book to be an entertaining bit of Christmas fluff. I was surprised to find that the book wasn't particularly merry for the most part, but actually dealt very realistically with issues of bereavement, loneliness, betrayal, and rejection, which contrast with the outward happiness of the holiday season. This book really took you inside the minds and hearts of the two main characters. When though Lord "Thorn" does a dishonorable thing, you are privy to his inner struggles and feelings of guilt. You know that he just wants someone to keep him from his lonliness. This was a very thought-provoking book that touches upon what love really means.
I really had to make myself keep reading this book because it was such a slow starter. Ultimately, I'm exceedingly glad I stayed with it and finished the book. Once I got into the feel and atmosphere I literally could not put it down until I had finished it.

Lord Balfour is not your typical Regency buck. He is short (at least by hero standards) at 5'8" which means that he actually looks Mary Rivers in the eye. He is blind as a bat and doesn't know that his squinting looks like scowling and so adds to his reputation as Lord Thorn (his middle name is Thornton). He is completely self centered (but that is actually a defense mechanism caused by his very unhappy childhood) and expects total perfection from everyone around him. Oh, and by the way, he hates Christmas.

Enter Mary Rivers, come to London from Glastonbury to stay with her Gran because it is her turn to do so. Gran is thought by her family to be very well off but Mary finds this is not true and she has to economize without making Gran suspicious because Gran is ill. Previous Rivers daughters have stayed with Gran for the Christmas season and have been treated to many expensive pleasures so Gran's lack of funds is a recent thing. I got confused by the name thing in the beginning. Was she Merry or Mary? Later on I figured out where the author was coming from but boy, oh boy, was it ever subtle! Mary is just what Balfour can't stand, always happy and smiling for no apparent reason.

It took a long time for me to warm up to Lord Balfour because the author took so long to explain about Temple (and I had a problem knowing that there was Temple the elder and Temple the younger). If Ms Fairchild had been a little more revealing a lot sooner, I would have just fallen right in with this story and moved right along. As it was, I had to fight to make myself continue reading until I understood where Lord Balfour was coming from. Mary was always an easy character as was Gran. I really liked this book once I got involved. It is full of surprises and the character of Lord Balfour grows tremendously. He has to act like a terrible heel before he realizes what he has lost and then fight like crazy to right his mistake. Ms. Fairchild really invented a man with a load of problems and then allowed him to work through them and come out victorious. This book is essentially about the hero but without the right heroine he would never have been redeemed.

Highly recommended. Just don't get impatient with it.
The Holly and the Ivy is a very well-written and well-paced romance novel. However, as the romance began to develop nicely between Lord Balfour and Mary Rivers, Lord Balfour does something that really sucked much of the romance out of it for me. I still quite liked the story and the characters, but what occurs is such an offensive (at least to the heroine) plot contrivance that I wish it had been left out of the novel and that Fairchild had come up with some other conflict or none at all.

I was able to enjoy the book despite this plot conflict because Lord Balfour is such a sweet and to some extent, naïve hero. In addition to bad vision, he is rather unsophisticated as far as the ladies are concerned, and his mother and father have basically never troubled themselves about his upbringing. At the start of the novel, we learn that Lord Balfour's secretary and only father figure, Temple has passed away Lord Balfour is completely adrift without Temple Sr. and Temple Jr. isn't shaping up to Balfour's expectations. Overall, Lord Balfour was rather pathetic and dour in a cute way. Mary Rivers was a good foil to him Mary or Merry, as he wrongly understands her name to be, is a sweet, optimistic, kind, and clever dairymaid, who is staying with her grandmother for the holiday season. Mary, like Lord Balfour, is lonely without her family and is greatly troubled about her grandmother's finances and failing health. Within this context and the upcoming holidays, Lord Balfour and Mary's romance and friendship develops swimmingly along the course of normal life (shopping for glasses, cutting out snowflakes, etc.) until the aforementioned plot contrivance. Lord Balfour does, of course, redeem himself immediately, but let me tell you, if I was Mary, I would probably be throwing his "offer" in his face for a long time.

I still have to rate The Holly and Ivy highly. The characters were very likeable, the romance was charming, the supporting characters aided the plot, the author provides significant insight into Lord Balfour's thoughts, and the length was decent for an evening read. So if you like regencies, enjoy - it is far above much of what is out there, but if you are like me, you will wish Lord Balfour had remained true to his own values!