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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Authentic Historical Fiction, August 17, 2005
This review is from: Chloe (The Women of Ivy Manor Series: Book I) (Paperback)
I have read many historical fiction novels, but this was the best yet. As a history major it's hard for me to enjoy a 'historical' story when the history is really fiction. Lyn Cote finds a superb way to blend fiction with historical reality in this coming of age story. Set among the backdrop of WWI and the Roaring Twenties flapper Chloe learns what real love is and deals with family dynamics in a way that keeps the reader turning the page to see what happens next. The storyline is original, characters are believable and authentic and the history is right on the mark. Congratulations to Lyn Cote for such a superb work of fiction.
I would like to make a few corrections to a previous review. The man whom Chloe marries is named Theran Black, not Thoeran. Also, her black servant is Minnie, not Millie.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful inspirational/historical..., September 6, 2005
This review is from: Chloe (The Women of Ivy Manor Series: Book I) (Paperback)
I picked up Chloe on a whim because of its historical turn-of-the-twentieth-century setting and the backdrops of the first World War, the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. The 1920s Jazz Age intrigued me as well. This is one of the most beautiful and moving inspirational fiction books I have read. Chloe Kimball is a beautiful blue-eyed seventeen-year-old blonde who has had enough of her dysfunctional parents. She is nothing but an essential tool for her father's political career and the proper heiress to her mother's Carlyle upbringing and Ivy Manor estate. So, in the year 1917, Chloe and her pretty black maid Minnie, victim of Chloe's father's come-ons and sexual harassments, decide to escape to New York City, where Chloe marries a gorgeous soldier she only had brief encounters with, in spite of her friend Roarke's love confession. Chloe hadn't imagined the struggles she'd face after that. Her husband Theran dies during the war in France and Chloe has to work as a model to make ends meet. But then she discovers that she is pregnant with her late husband's child and moves back to Ivy Manor, where she begins to work with her selfish father again, loses her newborn daughter to her overbearing mother, and experiences the loss of her friendship with Roarke and his sister Kitty. There is something missing in Chloe's life, something that could change her life for the better. Will she be able to figure it out before it is too late? There are various twists throughout the novel.
There are several time lapses during the course of the story and we experience the different settings and backdrops as the years and decades change. The reader gets glimpses of Chloe's life from the year 1917 to the year 1930. There are many insights on WWI and its aftermath during the "Lost Generation" of the Roaring Twenties -- where jazz clubs, chic clothes and the Charleston dance were the height of fashion. I enjoyed this particular aspect of the novel because the descriptions were so historically rich that it felt as though I had been alive during that interesting era. The author took us on a tour of the startup of New York City's bohemian lifestyle, the fashion changes and the beginning of the fights for equal employment for African Americans and the demand for women's right to vote. The insights on the stock market crash in 1929 (also known as the "Crash of '29") and the beginning of the Great Depression were also quite interesting. As said earlier, this is a very historically rich and insightful novel. I loved it. As for the characters, I was able to feel their pain and emotions. Chloe and Roarke touched me deeply. Chloe's lack of backbone frustrated me at times, but she redeemed herself in the last pages of the novel. I loved the chemistry between Chloe and Theran Black. He sounded wonderful and I wish he had been in the novel more. But the love story between Chloe and Roarke is also quite moving. All in all, this is a beautiful first offering of a family saga that springs through generations of the Women of Ivy Manor. The next installment will center on Bette, Chloe's daughter. I will certainly give it a whirl, especially because I want to know what is happening to Kitty, a loose end in the story that I hope will be resolved in Bette. I recommend this inspiring story most highly.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Should be 3.5 - I'm being generous!, June 30, 2005
This review is from: Chloe (The Women of Ivy Manor Series: Book I) (Paperback)
The story begins quickly and without much character development, but that can be overlooked at first, as it jumps headstrong into an intriguing plot. However, the unsettling and jerky pace continues throughout the whole book, landing you in one place and then swiftly moving you on to another before you can even catch your breath and have a look around. As a previous reviewer said, it reads like a saga - except in my opinion, it reads more like the summary of a saga. It felt like there were holes all over in the story, as vast passages of time and events were casually skipped over. The historical setting is wonderful and well researched, but the characters are thinly drawn and the plot moves way too fast - this book has the potential to be something really great, but somehow misses the mark by trying to cram too much into 304 pages.
And then there's the ending. It left me entirely unsatisfied! I think the author was trying to create a cliff-hanger to lead in to the second book, but it ended too quickly with little explanation or reason. Suddenly, in the blink of a single page everything changes and ends!
Lastly, as the previous reviewer mentioned, there is not much religious/spiritual content in this book. That's fine, the story is not lacking because of it. The problem is that it is sold as being a "Christian" book, and God is only vaguely mentioned about 4 times. I am all for a book that does not beat you over the head with sappy Christian sentiment - but I feel it's wrong to try and throw in two or three awkwardly placed and unexplained references to Christianity and call it an "inspirational" book.
Despite its shortcomings, I am looking forward to the other books in the series, to see what happens to the other generations of Chloe's family, but mostly because the historical context of this first book was well written.
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