Beyond Ivy Walls + Giveaway

Beauty and the Beast meets A Light Between Oceans in historic small-town America where a wealthy reclusive bachelor and an unlikely ally join forces to solve a family secret and inadvertently find belonging along the way.

Early 1900s. When an accident leaves Sadie West’s family in dire financial need, she nervously leaves the land she loves to work in the Hoag duster factory. But sending all her money home means that she has nowhere to board, and she’s forced to take up residence in an abandoned building–a choice that throws her in the path of the town’s mysterious bachelor.

Recently returned from exile, and determined to keep his arrival a secret, Otis Taylor makes the impulsive decision to hire the woman he finds hiding on his family’s property with the strict instructions she tell no one he has returned. The dark halls of his boyhood flood him with memories he’s long tried to forget. The only bright light is the woman he has hired. Can the optimistic Sadie teach the wounded Otis to trust again? To love? Can the pair unravel the family secrets that have long cast a shadow over the mansion and those who reside within?

With the same heart as Rachel Fordham’s fan-loved previous historical novels, Beyond Ivy Walls takes readers on an emotional journey full of character development, historical nuance, and a deeply satisfying happily ever after.

My Review:

Picture me happy dancing all around my bookshelves in a bibliophile victory dance because…..Squuuueeealllll!!!!!….This book! These characters! Their story! The fairy tale connections! The swoon factor! My brain is in an overdrive kafuffle of post readerly daze so excuse me if this review resembles a jumble of disjointed thoughts. Here we go!

Fairy tale retellings are a favourite, especially when an author can spin new in with the old like Fordham did with ‘Beyond Ivy Walls‘. This is very much an original story, but there are nods to the familiar ‘Beauty and the Beast’ tale as well and it was so much fun making those connections! Beautifully and imaginatively done.

Love the ‘real life’ historical midwest setting – such a juxtaposition from the classic fairy tale.

And the grumpy/sunshine romance (eeeeeepppp!!! one of my favourite tropes) is written so well. Nothing keeps our sunshiney heroine down for long. Love Sadie’s persistence in helping her family and in making the most out of a desperate situation. She’s not perfect by any means, but she tries. And her intentions are always good…though sometimes the execution leaves something to be desired which just makes things all the more interesting.

I’m still swooning over our beastly hero! Otis has reasons for being a brooding grump and he is splendid at wallowing…until Sadie begins to work her magic. The romance develops in true fairy tale fashion, with humour and banter and annoying misunderstandings to overcome.

I listened to the audio edition which has dual narrators which is always fun. I enjoyed Em Eldridge’s and Jason Keller’s interpretation of these characters. Their performance helped bring this story to life and made for a memorable listening experience.

My thanks to Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio and Net Galley for providing me with an audio edition of this book.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY

ebook copy available to anyone with a US Kindle account (.com) 

Canadians will have a choice of receiving an Amazon.ca gift card towards the purchase of an ebook OR an audible copy. Winner’s Choice.

If you would like a chance to win an ecopy of Beyond Ivy Walls, leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you add an email to your comment, remember to use AT and DOT instead of @ and . in order to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email, please add the title to the subject line so it’s easy to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Saturday August 17 2024.

51 thoughts on “Beyond Ivy Walls + Giveaway”

  3. Lovely review, Kav! I love Rachel’s books, and she’s such a sweetheart! Don’t enter me in the drawing, as I already have a NetGalley copy. I’m just starting to read it!

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  6. Rachel Fordham was a new to me author so I wasn’t sure I’d like this one as much as I did. I loved it so much I snagged The Letter Tree which just so happened to be on sale!! Your review is delightful! Don’t enter me, just thought I’d stop by & put in my 2 cents worth.

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  10. This one has been on the top of my list. I’m hopeful that my library will get it in soon. Your review tells me it should be on my keeper shelf too!

    Sandyavery at comcast dot net

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  11. This was an interesting pick for our last Reader’s Choice week, I hadn’t heard of it until then. Beauty and the Beast has been one of my favorite fairy tales as a kid, so it would be fun to see how it plays out in a historical novel. Rachael Fordham is a great writer!

    teamob4 (at) gmail (dot) com

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  12. P.S. Kav, did you get my email the other day about winning Sarah Ladd’s book this weekend and provided my address? I hadn’t gotten an email back so I wanted to be sure. Thanks!

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    1. I love seeing the way the fairy tale elements play into a retelling. And, yes, sorry, Trixi, I did get your email. I thought I replied. I got hit with the flu at the beginning of the week and am just starting to feel like myself again….in time for another heat wave…grrr. So I won’t make it to the post office until early next week. I usually reply to emails right away (or I’ll forget) which I guess is what happened here. Good luck, Trixi!

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  17. Ooh, I LOVED this book😍 I agree with your review and will add that I loved how, whenever they argued or disagreed with one another, the hero and heroine never let it last long and continued to foster their relationship even through the disagreements and tiffs.
    (Don’t enter me, as I have a copy😉)

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  20. Beyond Ivy Walls sounds so so good! You definitely have peeked my interest with your review, Kav! I’m really looking forward to reading this story! Thanks for the chance to win a copy!
    Alison Boss nj(dot)bossman(at)gmail(dot)com

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  21. I’ve been following Rachel since her debut, The Hope of Azure Springs (which I highly recommend as my favorite) and I love the warmth of her novels. This is actually the only one of her books that I don’t have a copy of, so I’d be quite happy to have an e-book.

    i hope you are feeling better!

    perrianne (DOT) askew (AT) me (DOT) com

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  22. Ive read almost every one of her books and I love how sweet they are😍 lady in attendance is my fav songs but this one sounds really good! Thnx Kav!

    sarahdar0801ATgmailDOTcom

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  24. I enjoyed The Letter Tree so much and I’m definitely putting my name in the hat for this one! I just started to read your review on Goodreads and realized I forgot to enter! Eek! I love your reviews! Thanks, Kav

    tam – appletamoATYahooDOTca

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