To Have and to Hold: A Novel [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Jane Green (Author), Elizabeth Sastre (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2004

Alice knows she should be happy. After all, she has a handsome husband, a beautiful apartment and membership to all the most exclusive clubs in London. So what if the rumours about her husband and anything in a skirt are becoming harder to ignore? When Joe's job transfers to New York, Alice hopes it might be a fresh start. Especially when they find a beautiful old house in Connecticut to buy. But why is the house such a steal? And why has it been empty for so long? As Alice sets about restoring it she begins to unravel the answers to these questions. And as Joe's late nights at the office start all over again, she's determined not to repeat the mistakes of the woman who once lived there.

--This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In bestselling British novelist Green's sixth novel, a less-than-perfect London marriage disintegrates stateside. Alice loves her husband, the dashing Joe Chambers, even though he works late and travels a lot—he can be so wonderful (when he's around) and she still can't believe he picked mousy little her. (Of course, he transformed her into a blonde-highlighted, Jimmy Choo–sporting sophisticate first.) Blind to Joe's incessant philandering—even after an office sex act gets him banished to New York—Alice accepts his guilt gifts and hopes for the best. She doesn't want to leave her London life, but she's always loved nature and the rustic life, so Joe buys, in addition to a Manhattan apartment, a house in fictional Highfield, Conn. As the prologue warns, it's not just any house; it belonged to (fictional) 1930s writer Rachel Danbury, whose novel The Winding Road blew the lid off the town with its saga of infidelities. "Does history repeat itself?" Of course! Green tracks, in great detail, Joe's further infidelities, Alice's dissatisfactions, their fights and reconciliations; she also dips into the POVs of Josie Mitchell (Joe's lover) and Emily, Alice's best friend. Alice is mostly sympathetic, but for someone who thinks of herself as "a post-feminist child of a feminist," she sure bends over backward to please the snake she married. The one plot twist, involving Emily and her beau, Harry, is sweet but predictable. Green's style relies heavily on exposition, and while her prose is clean, her story is padded—kind of like one of those sexy bras that rat Joe likes.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Alice Chambers has a life most women fantasize about. Married to Joe, a rich businessman who showers her with presents and takes her to exclusive London parties, Alice appears to have everything anyone could ever want. But before she was a glamorous wife, Alice was a shy wallflower who loved running her own catering business. Joe encouraged her to change her look and her interests, but at heart Alice dreams of a quiet life in the country. Joe, on the other hand, loves life in the city, especially the bevy of beautiful women who catch his eye. Joe wants to be faithful to Alice, but he just can't help himself. When Josie, a beautiful, sophisticated colleague finally gives into his advances, Joe is thrilled, until an ill-advised romp in the office reveals their affair. Joe's bosses promptly transfer him to New York. Alice, who doesn't know the reason behind the transfer, is upset until Joe promises her the country house she's always longed for. But as Alice starts to rediscover her old self, she and Joe grow farther and farther apart, and Alice finds herself attracted to the unlikeliest person--her best friend's boyfriend. This novel is as charming as Green's Jemima J (2000) and Mr. Maybe (2001), proving her mastery of the chick-lit genre. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (May 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739310941
• ISBN-13: 978-0739310946
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,550,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jane Green is a bestselling author of popular novels. She has been featured in People, Newsweek, USA Today, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan. She lives in Connecticut with her family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars NOTE: "Spellbound" is "To Have and To Hold", August 3, 2006

By 

S. Christie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spellbound (Paperback)

When I saw this on Amazon I thought, "Hey there's a Jane Green novel I haven't read before, or even heard of." Turns out, I had read it. Called "Spellbound" in this UK edition, the American version was retitled "To Have and to Hold" but it is still the same story. So while this cover art is much better than the US version (in this graphic designers opinion) if you've already read the US version, you've already read this too!

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Jane Green's best..., June 17, 2004

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: To Have and To Hold (Hardcover)

I am a huge Jane Green fan since her Jemima J days. I've bought and devoured all of her books ever since. However, I've noticed a decline in her writing since Bookends. Though Green now writes novels centered on women that have bigger priorities than going to trendy clubs and searching for Mr. Right, her new material lacks the edge and sharpness of her earlier work. To Have and to Hold was a chore to read. As much as I love Jane Green, I just couldn't get into this novel. The main reason is that I couldn't empathize with the somewhat pathetic heroine. Alice sacrifices her dream of living in the country and having kids in the name of her love for Joe -- the man she has loved since she was a teenager. Not only does she have to give up on various lifelong dreams, she also changers her appearance to please her selfish husband. But blond highlights and trendy clothes don't keep Joe from having more than just a wandering eye. He has a thing for leggy blondes, something that gets him into trouble at work and is forced to transfer to Connecticut. Alice is excited about finally living in suburbia, but with Joe's constant infidelity and overall awful behavior Alice may well venture into a little indiscretion of her own...

I know that a lot of women turn a blind eye on blatant bad behavior when they're in love, but Alice's conforming ways irritated me at times. The thing about the Connecticut home's so-called curse made Alice's denial all the more acute. I am aware of Green's message in the story, but it was still difficult to swallow. But the bigger picture is that this novel didn't enthrall me the way Green's earlier work did. I missed Jemima as I read about Alice. Perhaps Jane Green's earlier novels were lighter and more simplistic, but they had a naivete quality to them that is missing in her most recent novels. And, as mentioned earlier, this new novel lacks Green's sharp narrative and crisp dialogue. All in all, frustrating heroine aside, To Have and to Hold failed to spark my interest. I couldn't wait to finish it up. In a nutshell, this is a disappointing read from one of my favorite authors...

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars somewhere in the fair to poor range, June 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: To Have and To Hold (Hardcover)

I bought this book while on vacation in London back in March (it's titled "Spellbound" in the UK- wierd!) Just finished reading it. I agree that it was pretty intereting 2/3 of the way through, but I definitely began to lose interest towards the end. I was rooting for Alice, but she became so DUMB about what was going on with her husband that it began to annoy me. As a married woman myself, it was hard to read some (ok many) scenes where her husband was cheating on her. Disturbing.
I would suggest reading some of Green's other novels first, they are much better. Hope this helps.