The Book of Ivy

De: Amy Engel

Narrado por: Taylor Meskimen

What would you kill for?

After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual.

This year, it is my turn.

My name is Ivy Westfall, and my mission is simple: to kill the president's son - my soon-to-be husband - and return the Westfall family to power.

But Bishop Lattimer is either a very skilled actor or he's not the cruel, heartless boy my family warned me to expect. He might even be the one person in this world who truly understands me. But there is no escape from my fate. I am the only one who can restore the Westfall legacy.

Because Bishop must die. And I must be the one to kill him...

©2014 Amy Engel (P)2014 Listening Library

Why?

Any additional comments?

I did enjoy most of this book. But I do not relate to thinking one thing and doing another. Could not get past that in the main character!! Got tired of her thinking things in her head and making a problem bigger. She could have stood up for what was right. Thinking her family would stop. stupid.

Loved this, looking forward to more from Engel!

Wonderful and entertaining story, not just for young adults!

The narrator was spot on, her delivery was smooth and believable, and easy to listen to (I'm INCREDIBLY picky about narrators and will avoid books I have been lusting after if the sample narration is unbearable). Looking forward to more from both Engel and Meskimen, and going to start the second book in the series now..and already wishing this were a trilogy.

Thumbs up for the first book!

I thought the first book of Ivy was very good. The narrator, not so much. My only complaint was that the males voices sounded bizarre for their characters. Maybe a bit too feminine for the prince..? and just really weird for the rest! Story was great though!

Great 2-book YA series!

I was intrigued to read because Ivy was being forced to marry the president's son. Her intent to eventually kill him. I was hooked from chapter one. Worth the credit!

A thrilling dystopia...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

4 Stars

THE BOOK OF IVY was full of love, betrayals, murder plots, deception, and the courage to do what is in your heart, no matter the consequences...

I've had THE BOOK OF IVY on my radar for a while now, but since it sounded vaguely familiar to another book I read, ABERRANT, I was reluctant to pick it up. But my curiosity won me over and I finally decided to give THE BOOK OF IVY it's fair shot regardless of the similarities I thought they had. But I am pleasantly surprised to admit that was not the case and the similarities were very minor, and it was definitely worth the read.

THE BOOK OF IVY was very slow paced with hardly any action, but that was strangely okay with me. I still enjoyed the drama and suspense of it all. There were a lot of layers and plots and schemes and tons of betrayals that kept this story interesting enough even without the action and adventure. And the world-building was a little different then what I excepted, but still interesting enough. Though I would of liked to have more history on the war and conflict between the families, but I'm hoping we'll get more info in book two, THE REVOLUTION OF IVY.

THE PLOT

After the war, Ivy's ancestors founded Westfall Community, a place that the people could rebuild and start anew. But their was disagreement about how to keep things up and running, and who should run them. The Westfall's and the Lattimer's went head to head for the position, and as fate would have it, the Lattimer's were the ones who seized control of Westfall Community. But instead of killing the rival family, they made the Westfall's the lowest citizens of their Community, and forced them to marry off their future children to the future Lattimer children, and thus seizing even more control of the Westfall's and the Community.

And then the murder plot begins...

Ivy Westfall is on a mission, one that could change the world as they know it. One that could bring her family to their rightful place in power. One that could bring freedom back to their people. One that could save their women from marrying monsters. One that will turn her into, a murderer...

For the mission she must complete is simple:

"Marry the enemy, make him trust you, find the codes and guns, wait for the order, execute on site."

Easy right? To save her people Ivy must kill the only person that might really want to save them all—Bishop Lattimer, the enemy and the presidents son, but also the love of Ivy's life... She must kill the man she's grown to love if she's to change their world...

So to sum it all up, THE BOOK OF IVY was way more then I anticipated. I reveled in this story and the slow paced plot with strong characters and a slow burning romance that made me want to stay up late for just one more chapter!!

Overall, THE BOOK OF IVY is definitely a must read for dystopian fans out there. It's not your gritty, face-paced, action-packed dystopia, so if that's what your looking for you won't find it here. But if you want a slow burning romance, with a slower pace plot, fleshed with rich developed characters, with spunk and determination, and a desire to set what's wrong right, and to avoid the dirtier methods to get it, then THE BOOK OF IVY is something I'm sure you'll enjoy. I am soooo eagerly waiting for book two, THE REVOLUTION OF IVY. I can't WAIT to see what happens next, because that ending was a KILLER!!!!

NOTE: I received a eARC from Entangled for reviewing purposes! All opinions express are my own and are not influenced in any way!

Excellent female lead

Strong female role Ivy and themes of feminism throughout the novel. The male lead Bishop is a teacher and partner not a enforcer as the two figure their way through an arranged marriage at the age of 16 and 18 respectively.

The leads fathers are the political leaders on opposite sides of the fence. If the law is broken you literally are thrown outside the fence that surrounds the only town that is known to the survivors of an apocalypse. We know at some point our heroes are going to end up there because Bishops dream is to see the ocean and that definitely is not inside the fence!

Be ready for a sequel, I am!

Nasal, monotone narrator

By the end I was okay with the narrator but it took me a while to get into the book with how strange the narrator sounded.

I got really into it. Good, not great.

The narrator was pretty good. The audio quality was a little off, but I think she was a great choice herself.

As for the story, I have so many questions about this universe. I'm glad it's a series because I hope to learn more about this world. I'm not optimistic I'll learn what I'm interested in, but I'm sure I'll have fun anyway now that I've endured the boring beginning and gotten to the more tense parts. (I'm really hoping the pacing doesn't return to that of the beginning because that was not fun for me. It's almost worse hearing it than reading it because speeding it up isn't the same as skimming. I have hope that the writing will improve.)

I was fine with the romance. I didn't realize how much I'd gotten into the story until the end, let alone gotten onboard with the romance. It definitely helps to have lots of questions that I hope will be answered, but the emotions got across to me and carried me through some parts. I think their connection was believable enough. I've been a teenager. (Probably would have been a little scanalized by the steamier scenes, but I wouldn't have related to the reckless main character from the start and probably moved onto another series.) The YA tropes made me laugh, but that's how it goes in this genre. I'm fine with them.

If you like the premise, check this out. It's not amazing, but if YA is your thing in general and you are willing to deal with a slow start, I think you'll like it. I'm a very persistent reader, so I don't regret continuing the story. We'll see what I think after the next book.

A BOOK LONG PROLOGUE

Any additional comments?

I love this book and can't wait for the sequel!

SPOILER WARNING

It's all told from Ivy's point of view. So just a word of warning. You might get frustrated with the main character. But at the same time, feel a lot of compassion for her. I do think that Ivy's father did a disservice to her and her sister by pretty much indoctrinating them with his own ideals and beliefs. Not even allowing them to make friends and make their own choices and opinions.

Pretty ironic given how Ivy's father is supposed to want democracy.

Halfway through the book, I already had a feeling that Ivy's father and sister are more in it for the power rather than democracy. And, I was right.

Poor Ivy had no one to trust outside her family until Bishop came along. And her eagerness to belong and be given her family's approval in contrast to truly starting a life with Bishop is (to my opinion) the main conflict of the book. Yes, the main premise is about government enforced arranged marriages and lack of democracy. But it feels to me that it's secondary. Unlike books like the hunger games where you really see the widespread devastation and poverty, inequality and suffering of the people, this book doesn't show that. Or at least, it is not as hungry for a widescale revolt as the Hunger Games. The supposed enemies (the Lattimers) are not even the President Snow type characters.

Ivy pretty easily found the access code to the guns. And the Presidential family (the supposed enemies) never even expected Ivy's family of wanting to revolt. Again, it seems that only Ivy's dad and sister are the only ones who want a revolt.

In fact, the book even shows that people are even ok with the arranged marriages (most of them anyway). While of course, the book is realistic enough to show the perfectly arranged marriage,the very dysfunctional and the in-between. But the point is, (the presidential family aside), the matching process isn't as rigged as one might expect from a dystopia. I mean, sons from the winning side marry girls from the losing side. While girls from the winning side marry sons from the losing side..It seems like a good idea to create unity at a time when you also want to grow the population

Of course, it's always better to have choices. But I think majority of the population in the book is of the "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" type of mindset.

But just because it doesn't seem as bad as the Hunger Games scenarios, this book does make us forget that it is still about a dystopia. I must warn that there are parts that are dark. It doesn't give any graphic depictions. But if there are any readers who are even the tiniest bit triggered by the mention or implication of rape, this might not be for you.

As for the ending...some readers might prefer waiting for the second book to come out before starting on the first book.

All I will say is that I'm comforting myself with the saying: "Throw me to the wolves and I'll come back leading the pack"

Wow! Loved and hated this book!!

I love this book, but to me it seemed like the author tried to sum up all the events way too fast! I guess I don't know how else she could have written it. It just didn't seem fulfilling enough... I just listened to "The Partials" so maybe that is clouding my view. I like detailed books but this just seemed all about what Ivy had to do and how she can't do it, like a one track mind??? There didn't seem like a bigger purpose... Idk... I do like this book, amazing ending! Not crazy about the reader, but not the worst I've ever heard.