Ivory White

A House of Misfits Standalone

By: Cambria Hebert

Narrated by: Stephanie Dillard, Eric Michael Summerer

Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Once upon a time....

There is a girl with skin as fair as ivory and hair as black as night. She was the apple of her father's eye, but now that he has died, someone wants to dip that apple into poison.

Advised to flee, Ivory escapes her elite world in New York City and stumbles into a place she didn't know existed.

A modern-day princess, afraid and lost on the dark streets, running for her life. Ivory White has no one to call, nowhere to turn. All she has is a random number scrawled on a torn napkin. She calls. He answers.

Ivory is thrust into a house filled with misfits - a band of completely untrustworthy men. But can this group of men keep her safe?

Contains mature themes.

©2020 Cambria Hebert (P)2020 Tantor

Clever Modern-Day Retelling of Snow White

A clever take on Snow White set in modern-day NYC, with a surprise twist at the end! Thoroughly enjoyed both the story and narration. The "Ivory" character is a good-hearted snob who falls for a rather rough Prince Charming. It's a fun and well-paced romance with a whole lotta heart.

such an entertaining read

This book was witty, funny, surprising and charming. I'll be honest, at first Ivory seemed to just be another spoiled rich girl and she kind of grated on me. But very quickly she won me over. Her naiveté about the world outside her bubble was endearing. She is pure and innocent in her heart, and means no harm to anyone. And Neo is the stuff that book boyfriends are made of. Strong, kind, loyal and a little bit bad. All of the side characters are so vivid and wonderful. I definitely have a soft spot for Fletcher. I loved him so much! Both narrators were perfect. Eric Michael Summerer did a fantastic job of giving the four men very distinctive voices. And Stephanie Dillards voice IS Ivory White. It's exactly the way that character should sound. This story was so original and different. I adored this spin on a classic fairy tale.

Guilty Pleasure?

I like the couple, and I like the story...but the writing can be pretty cringe. I think the phrase "storybook looks" was used to describe Ivory like 10 times. This author uses flowery language more than i wish, which results in people speaking oddly. like, rather than calling the person who tried to kill her an assassin, or a killer, Ivory decides he's a hunstman, to make it fit with Snow White. I wish this was set in an unnamed city, rather than specifically New York, because then somehow trying to incorporate fairytale elements like "the grims" into a city that has specific names for different areas wouldn't feel so awkward. I'm fine with this being a fairytale retelling, I just think it could have been done a bit more elegantly.
That being said, I enjoyed the story and just kind of cringed through bits. I actually read the second book first and liked it a lot and read this one as well to get more of the lore.

A totally awesome revamping of snow white’s story

The audio version of Ivory White was so great I don’t know if my words will do it justice. With most audio books, for me anyway, the narrators voice makes a huge difference. I was a little put off on the female voice at first but then I started to feel that she was Ivory White. I loved Neo and his narrator was just so great and I enjoyed listening to him speak.

About the story itself. I really did enjoy this version of one of my favorite storybook princesses. Cambrias imagination flowed through every page and the characters just came to life for me. I fell in Love with Neo and his band of misfits. Fletcher was my favorite. He was just so adorably cute.

Ivory white was an upper east side girl who has an attempt on her life. Not being able to go home she stumbles upon a group of 4 misfits. Life as she knows it has been turned upside down but she makes the most of it and her surroundings. I enjoyed her. She was a “princess” for sure but she was still caring and non judgmental. Then there is Neo. The boy from the Lower east side. He’s rough and unkempt but he has a heart of gold.

This story was fun, and exciting and I’m so crazy excited for the next book in the series.

4 stars

*spoilers*


This isn't the first time I've read - or tried to read and listen to this book - but it is the first time I've completed this book with the audio book, and probably the second time I've completely read the entire book. I've struggled a lot with this book. For one, I've tried reading and listening to this book so many times that I literally had some parts/events memorized, which didn't help with drawing my interest to the book. With this read through, I did like it a bit more than the past, but I still have mixed feelings about this book. In the past, I didn't exactly like Ivory as a character, mainly because she was the rich girl who was very naive of the world around her and was kind of whiny, rude at times, and a bit arrogant. I found it a bit cringe worthy how dramatic she was. Her character kind of rubbed me the wrong way. With this read through, I felt like I could go past her flaws because she has them due to her upbringing, and she isn't at fault for that. Her reactions were mainly because of how traumatic the events towards her were and with how scared she was, anyone would feel this way in this situation and I had more sympathy towards her. She definitely grows as a character and begins to flourish with her new friends and lover by the end of the book.
Another thing that I struggled with was the fact that this was a really long book. Some portions I felt like were kind of filler or unnecessary? I'm not exactly sure. It could have just been me, as I have struggled with reading other long books in the past.
I did find that even though this book was so long, the passage of time and how quickly they fell for each other was quite fast, but not too fast. I was relieved that there wasn't many bedroom scenes.
I felt like there was a couple things that could have been explained in more detail. Like, what exactly caused the car accident Neo was in? Was it because he was a young driver and had glanced away from the road for merely a few seconds? Or was it the fault of someone else not paying attention along with Neo? I felt like a simple sentence or two of explanation for what caused the accident after the flashback would have helped, as I don't think a car accident happens for no apparent reason. I found the plot and end result with the stepmother to be rather confusing and kind of a let down. I didn't exactly understand her motive or on why she wanted more power. Why was this woman around or involved with the White family? Since apparently, Ivory knew the woman as a child and by name, even though what she had told Neo and the original flashback didn't exactly match up word for word. It didn't exactly make sense why she was around and eventually married Ivory's father. Was he having an affair despite this action not really matching his character from the little we know of him? How did he die? Was the stepmother behind his death? We never even hear what happened to her in the end. From the flashback, I got the sense that Ivory's mother knew exactly what was going on and what might potentially happen (with the car crashing), it makes me question on if there was more to the situation between her, the soon to be stepmother, and Ivorys' father. What does the company her father founded exactly do? Was her father actually involved with the underworld/mafia (since Ivory has pretty much no involvement in the company, she wouldn't exactly know what the company is involved with, would she?) Or was the stepmother just crazy and power hungry? I just wish there was a bit more background to her character and more of a reason for her existence in the story besides the fact that there is a stepmother in the original Snow White story. It didn't exactly make sense how she'd gain power from owning two major companies.
I thought that since Ivory seemed to love her father so much, that we would learn more about his character as well, but he wasn't really mentioned a whole lot. Maybe he'll be mentioned more in future books?
I also thought Earth was a bit more involved with Ivory's father than he actually was, like he had worked for him and even met Ivory as a child, but I must have been remembering wrong.
The one character I am most intrigued by throughout this book was Earth and I'm really looking forwards to finally reading his book. I was actually tearing up a bit in chapter 64. My thoughts on the other characters: I thought Neo was interesting, but I am not sure what to think with how quickly he became attracted to Ivory despite her actions and some of the things she'd say. They were pretty cute as a couple, and her reliance and trust she had towards him was quite endearing. Fletcher....I am not sure what exactly to think of him either. He is definitely quite innocent and naïve, but his character was kind of....odd in a way? Or maybe I found Ivory's treatment towards him to be rather odd, as she treats him like he is an overgrown puppy who can do no wrong. His character is kind of on the more fantasy and whimsical side of things compared to Neo or Earth in mannerisms. Or maybe it's because he puts more trust in his intuition than they do. Beau...I felt like I didn't exactly get to know enough about him to really get much of an impression of his character, besides the fact that he is basically a hermit who barely leaves the apartment, he cares and is protective towards his brothers and friends, and seems really focus driven towards his work to the point he gets lost in his own world at times. Virginia seems like an interesting character as well and I'm hoping she will be able to get out more in the future.
I did find some parts of this book to be pretty amusing, such as the exploding shower and some of the banter. Other parts I found a bit more...cringe worthy or cheesy? I honestly had been debating throughout my read through on how to rate this book, because I was stuck between 4 to 4.5 stars. I ended up sticking with my original 4 star rating because it was a good book but not my favorite that I have read by this author. That doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend this book to other people, as I'm sure other people would enjoy this book.

*Narrative*
I thought the narrative really enhanced my enjoyment of the book. I thought both narrator's did a wonderful job with expressing emotion. Despite one of the narrators being present in one of this authors past series, there was plenty of differences between how this book was narrated and how the previous work was narrated that I wasn't getting them mixed up. Which is always a plus (positive note), since sometimes a narrator can embody a character so much that that specific character is the only one I think of despite narrating a completely different book with different characters. I really enjoyed the work of both narrators and would highly recommend other people to listen to this audio book.

Overall, despite everything I had said, I think this is a book I will listen and read many more times in the future.

Snow White < Ivory White

For all the Disney retelling lovers out there, this book is for you. It has all the vibes of Snow White but with a twist. I just know the next book on this series will be amazing.