The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen Blog Tour and Giveaway!

What can a widow do in Regency England when she is suddenly left with an Inn to upkeep and no practical experience to do it?  Jane Bell was raised a lady, but after a disappointment in love, marries innkeeper John Bell.  After John’s untimely death, Jane has been left with his Inn and basically lives in denial for a year after his death.  When it becomes clear that the inn will soon be doomed without action, Jane rises to the occasion.  There to help her is her mother-in-law, gruff but effectively Thora, and her brother-in-law, Patrick.  The inn is the center of their small village, Ivy Hill, as Jane soon learns, the rise and fall of the Inn will affect the livelihoods of many beyond the immediate Bell family.  Will Jane be able to save the Inn?

I love that The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is a novel about an entire village with many intriguing characters and storylines.  With the story starting after John’s death, there are many small mysteries to figure out.  Why are Jane and Rachel no longer friends and what does it have to do with Sir Timothy?  Why did John take out a large loan endangering the Inn with no trail on where the money actually went?  Why was John gone the day of his death?  Who is Gabriel Locke and why did he appear after John’s death willing to work for such a small salary?  I found the characters compelling and multi-layered.  For example, when Thora comes back to town and is critical to Jane, the reader would think that she is going to be a one-dimensional evil mother-in-law.  In fact, she is a compelling multi-dimensional character.  Thora has lost her beloved son and also the rights to the Inn.  The Inn was her family inn that went to her husband upon marriage, to her son upon her husband’s death, and now to her son’s widow at his death.  She has no rights to it or its future, but she loves it.  Although she is 51, Thora has more than one man trying to woe her and I LOVED it.

Rachel Ashford was once Jane’s friend.  She was disappointed in love and takes care of her ailing father.  He has lost his fortune and his estate is entailed away to a distant cousin.  Upon his death, Rachel is left in a quandary.  What does a single youngish gentlewoman do when she is thrust alone amongst the world?  Luckily she has her friend Mercy who runs has faced a similar predicament and runs a gentile school to survive.  Mercy has gathered together a group of the working women of Ivy Hill in a knitting club where they can talk about problems they face as women trying to run a business.  Jane Bell realizes from the club that she needs to support other women and that there is support for her across the village.

The theme of women trying to make it in a man’s world is prevalent throughout the novel.  I thought it was very intriguing and it really made me think about how hard it was to make it if you were without a husband or father figure in your life. I loved all of the characters in the village and the storyline was very engaging.  I also loved that there was a map of the village at the start so you could visualize where various locations were around town.

I loved the following quote as it echoed Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice:

“I realize I possess not those happy manners to ensure my making friends easily.”

The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is the first in a planned series.  I can’t wait to read more in this series. There is much more to this story and I want to spend more time with these characters.

Overall, The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is a wonderfully engaging novel full of intriguing characters and storylines.  I highly recommend it and can’t wait for more in the series!

Book Source:  Review Copy from Bethany House.  Thank-you!

Book Description
The lifeblood of the village of Ivy Hill is its coaching inn, The Bell. When the innkeeper dies suddenly, his genteel wife, Jane Bell, becomes the reluctant landlady. Jane has no idea how to manage a business, but with the town's livelihood at stake and a large loan due, she must quickly find a way to save the inn.

Despite their strained relationship, Jane turns to her resentful mother-in-law, Thora, for help. Formerly mistress of The Bell, Thora is struggling to overcome her losses and find purpose for the future. As she works with Jane, two men from her past vie for her attention, but Thora has promised herself never to marry again. Will one of them convince her to embrace a second chance at love?

As pressure mounts from the bank, Jane employs new methods, and puzzles over the intentions of several men who seem to have a vested interest in the place, including a mysterious newcomer with secret plans of his own. With the help of friends old and new, can Jane restore life to the inn, and to her empty heart as well?

Visit talesfromivyhill.com to find a map of the village, character profiles, a book giveaway, and more!

Author Bio


JULIE KLASSEN loves all things Jane--Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Julie worked in publishing for sixteen years and now writes full-time. Her books have been honored with the Christy Award for Historical Romance, the Minnesota Book Award, and the Midwest Book Award, among others. Julie and her husband have two sons and live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. For more information, visit www.julieklassen.com.

The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill Blog Tour Schedule

December 5: Author Q&A on Pemberley to Milton
December 6: Excerpt on My Love for Jane Austen
December 8: Review on Laura's Reviews
December 9: Book Spotlight on More Agreeably Engaged
December 10: Review on A Bookish Way of Life
December 11: Review and Excerpt on Delighted Reader Book Reviews
December 12: British Show Inspiration Guest Post on Living Read Girl
December 13: Historical Background Guest Post on English Historical Fiction Authors
December 14: Review on Calico Critic
December 15: Excerpt on So Little Time
December 16: Review and Author Q&A on My Jane Austen Book Club
December 17: Review on Just Jane 1813
December 18: Excerpt on Babblings of a Book Worm
December 19: Review on Austenesque Reviews
December 20: Guest Post on Jane Austen in Vermont
December 21: Review on Luxury Reading

Giveaway
Be sure to enter the giveaway before you leave—the winner will receive a $20 Teavana gift card and a package of four inspirational British romances from four different eras (The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen, A Haven on Orchard Lane by Lawana Blackwell, The Lost Heiress by Roseanna M. White, Not by Sight by Kate Breslin). The winner will be notified on December 22.

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On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

What a joy it was to read On the Banks of Plum Creek with my daughter Penelope this year.  We started this novel right before we went on our family voyage to Walnut Grove at the end of July.  It was wonderful to actually walk through the prairie and see the same flowers and same sights that Laura Ingalls also saw in On the Banks of Plum Creek.  It was a great book experience for both Penelope and myself.  More on our journey at this link.

On the Banks of Plum Creek is the story of the Ingalls family’s voyage to Minnesota.  After they left their cabin on the prairie that they had illegally built on Native American land, they buy land in Minnesota that includes a dugout.  Living in a dugout is a new experience for the Ingalls family and Ma is not pleased.  Luckily, Pa gets a loan to buy new timber and build them a new house – their first house made of purchased wood boards.  The loan is taken out based on what looks to be a bunker wheat group, but tragedy soon strikes with grasshoppers landing in Minnesota and devastating the area.  How will the Ingalls family make it with no money, a large debt, and no food to eat?  They are in one of their lowest moment of the series.

Laura and Mary also attend school for the first time and meet the infamous Nellie Olson.  Nellie is the spoiled daughter of the owners of the general store.  She has a life much, much different than Laura’s as she discovers attending a birthday party at Nellie’s.  Nellie has purchased toys, store bought clothes, furniture, and carpets.  Laura has a country birthday where she serves up revenge to Nellie Olson.

In contrast to Nellie, Laura has only one beloved toy, her doll Charlotte that she got for Christmas in the first book in the series, Little House in the Big Woods.  Charlotte has traveled through the West with Laura, but her story takes a tragic turn in On the Banks of Plum Creek when Ma makes Laura give away Charlotte to a younger neighbor girl in a chapter appropriately named “The Darkest Hour is Just before Dawn.”  I love this chapter and feel it is the strongest and most disturbing chapter in the book that really taps into the emotions of a child.  My son Kile ran from the room when I read this too him when he was five, and now years later, my five year old daughter Penelope was frankly disturbed by it.  “Why?” she kept asking.  I was unsure how to answer. I know Ma didn’t want Laura to be a selfish little girl, but having her give away her one beloved toy just seemed cold.

Life on the prairie was brutal.  Besides the crop failure, the family had to endure a hard winter.  “Laura shivered in her shawl.  She kept staring at the blank window-panes, hearing the swishing snow and the howling, jeering winds.  She was thinking of the children whose Pa and Ma never came.  They burned all of the furniture and froze stark stiff.”  How scary it would be as a child to be caught alone in your house during a blizzard!  

I love the scene when Pa is trapped in a snow bank so close to their house during a sudden blizzard and how Ma keeps a lantern in the window for him at night although she tells the girls he stayed in town.  This is a story I loved while reading this book as a child and I still loved reading again as an adult.

My favorite quotes:

“Pa’s slow voice answered, ‘We’re safe enough, all right.  Nothing can happen here.’”

“Out on the prairie there was a long grey rock.  It rose up above the waving grasses and nodding wild flowers.  On top it was flat and almost smooth, so wide that Laura and Mary could run on it side by side, and so long that they can race each other.  It was a wonderful place to play.”  My kids sat on this rock this summer!

“’Now, Charles,’ said Ma.  ‘Here we are, all healthy and safe and snug, with food for the winter.  Let’s be thankful for what we have.’” (Christmas and Pa wants horses, which eventually the entire family wants.)

“Laura knew now that there were things stronger than anybody.  But the creek had not got her.  It had not made her scream and it had not made her cry.” (Laura almost drowns in the creek – behold the power of water!)

Overall, On the Banks of Plum Creek gives a genuine portrayal of what life was like on the Minnesota prairie for a pioneer family.  It gives the reality of what it was like to live during brutal times.  The magic of Wilder’s writing is that she writes everything from the child’s perspective and gets it so right.  It makes children today 150 years later able to relate to the story.  It also is relatable to me as an adult remembering what it was like to be a child and also fascinating to me from a historical perspective.  It’s a book not to be missed and should be read at least once in your lifetime!  Penelope and I have now moved on to By the Shores of Silver Lake.

What was your favorite book as a child?

Have you visited any locations from any favorite novels?

If you’ve read this book, what is your favorite scene?

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com as a set a few years ago as my beloved childhood set was falling apart upon reread.

Darcy’s Hope: Beauty from Ashes by Ginger Monette (and GIVEAWAY!)

Pride and Prejudice, WWI, Downton Abbey – these are three of my favorite things and make for a winning combination.  Darcy’s Hope:  Beauty from Ashes includes these three elements as it tells a Pride and Prejudice variation set during WWI.  

Captain Fitzwilliam Darcy has requisitioned the dower house at Longbourn manor for the military during WWI and in doing so promised Elizabeth Bennet’s father that he would take care of her if anything happened to Mr. Bennet.  After Mr. Bennet’s untimely death, Captain Darcy proposes to Elizabeth only to be turned down. After Mrs. Bennet turns to madness and Longbourn goes down in flames, Elizabeth and Jane become nursing assistants, VADs, and are sent to France.  

Elizabeth wants to become a doctor and take care of herself, but working in a bloody field hospital, gives her pause.  Darcy arrives at the field hospital she is working to take over the general management of the hospital, but also to look for undercover agents that could be linked to the despicable Lieutenant Wickham.  Is Elizabeth part of the plot?  Can Darcy keep his emotions reined in throughout the turmoil of war?

I greatly enjoyed this novel.  One of my favorite parts of the novel was the mention of other great characters.  For example, John Thornton, mill owner and hero of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South shows up as a batman for Captain Darcy and helps him to understand that class boundaries don’t define people.  “He had maintained a comfortable distance from his men over their months in the trenches, but remaining aloof from Thornton had been a challenge.  Despite the mill owner being a man of trade, Darcy liked him.  Both possessed a reserved temperament and generally preferred books to crowds.”

Captain Darcy also meets Robert Knightley, the descendent of George and Emma Knightley of Jane Austen’s novel Emma.  He like Matthew Crawley of Downton Abbey, has inherited Donwell Abbey after the male heirs died away.  He has a problem as a doctor trying to fit into the life of a gentleman.  I loved his story and hope to see more of him in the follow up book, Darcy’s Hope:  At Donwell Abbey.

I enjoyed that author Ginger Monette really seemed to do her research on WWI and incorporated a lot of intriguing details throughout the story.  I also enjoyed that this variation was set after most of the events of the original story so it was more of an add-on to the story.  What if Elizabeth refused Darcy, but never received his letter?  I also liked that the novel really showed Darcy’s changing attitudes as well as his pain from being on the front in the Somme.  I will admit thought that I was dismayed by the ending as I really want to know what is going to happen next?  Who is behind the espionage?  What does Wickham’s cryptic message mean?

My favorite quotes:

“Though she despised the man, she now needed him.  Life had a cruel way of mocking her fate.”

“He startled, stunned as if struck by a bolt of lightning.  All men were the same – equal in the sense that they all had two arms and two legs.  What truly differentiated one man from another was opportunity and character.  The rest were merely superficial presentations – like money and manners.”

“But war had a way of changing things.  Sometimes beauty rose from ashes.”

Overall, Darcy’s Hope: Beauty from Ashes was an engaging historical fiction story and intriguing Pride and Prejudice variation.  I look forward to the next chapter in this saga.

For more on Darcy's Hope:  Beauty from Ashes, read an interview with author Ginger Monette at this link.

Giveaway

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