The Bride of Ivy Green is the final installment in the Tales from Ivy Hill Trilogy, and a part of me is sad that’s it’s over. But the other part is happy to see the resolutions.
Spoiler alert
Before I continue with my review, let me first warn you that if you have not read The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill and The Ladies of Ivy Cottage, you may prefer to click off this page. Maybe go read another review, like the one for Romancing the Bride by Melissa Jagears or 12 Days at Bleakley Manor by Michelle Griep. But if you like spoilers, carry on.
Book Overview
Mercy has lost her school and the child she had hoped to take into her care. She has her eye on Mr. Kingsley, but she thinks he is courting a beautiful woman named Esther, a woman Mercy fears she cannot compete with. Her brother, George, and his new bride, Helena, move into Ivy Cottage with Mercy and Matilda, and Helena makes her displeasure of the circumstances fairly obvious. When James Drake decides to hire a governess for his daughter, Alice, who Mercy had hoped to raise, Mercy takes the position and moves into the Fairmont, which places her in close quarters with Joseph Kingsley.
Jane is trying to decide whether or not to marry Gabriel Locke, the handsome horse farmer who helped her save her coaching inn. She doesn’t want to subject him to a childless marriage, but she truly loves him. Then someone from her past returns: her father. I had wondered if he’d show up at some point, and he did. But he comes with a little surprise that Jane wasn’t expecting.
Rachel is aglow and enjoying married bliss after she FINALLY weds Sir Timothy. Goodness gracious, that was a long time coming. And Lady Brockwell (or the former Lady Brockwell, I should say) is actually getting along pretty well with Rachel. But Rachel’s mother-in-law is pressuring Timothy’s younger sister Justina to marry Sir Cyril. Still out for that suitable match. Timothy is oblivious to Justina’s hesitation. Since Justina hasn’t protested, she must be okay with it. But Rachel suspects Justina’s admiration may lie with another man. Rachel begins playing matchmaker, but unfortunately, more than one person is disappointed in the process.
And then we have Madame Victorine, or at least, that who she claims to be. Victorine takes over Mrs. Shabner’s shop, but it soon becomes obvious to the ladies of Ivy Hill that Victorine may not be who she says she is. But Victorine’s past is the only one exposed. She unknowingly has a connection to someone else in Ivy Hill.
My Thoughts
Mercy’s story arc was my favorite, and not just because I also became slightly enamored with the carpenter. I appreciated Mercy’s refusal to settle for a marriage that wasn’t based on affection, if not love. So many people were pressuring her, but she sticks to her principles. Her arc in itself has a wonderful lesson: trusting God with your future. Even today, so many are in a hurry to get married, and they don’t trust God to bring them their spouse in His timing. They’re too concerned with their own timing.
Jane’s arc is enjoyable as well. I don’t want to give anything away, but her arc has a similar lesson as Mercy’s: trusting God with the future. She worries about relegating Gabriel to a childless existence, and then there’s the future of her inn. If she marries Gabriel and join him on his horse farm, she’ll have to give up the inn she fought so hard far. She doesn’t realize God already has a plan in motion, as He always does.
I didn’t feel like Rachel had much of a story arc, besides being curious about the dressmaker and trying to help her sister-in-law without ruining the tenuous relationship with her mother-in-law. It was mostly Justina’s story, and I would have loved to have seen it from Justina’s viewpoint. But I understand that Rachel has been a large part of the trilogy. And there is a bit of anticipation, wondering what Justina will do and who she will choose. It was nice to see Rachel and Timothy so happy.
Final Thoughts
The Bride of Ivy Green, and the whole series, is a great read, and I highly suggest it. I enjoyed reading the series and seeing how the characters’ problems worked out. The series, but especially the last installment, reminded me throughout that God is always at work, and we should trust Him instead of fretting over our future. But, when we’re in the moment, we’re so focused on the present and our own abilities that we sometimes forget that God already has it in hand.
You can grab a copy of The Bride of Ivy Green at Amazon, Books-A-Million, Barnes and Noble, or Christianbook.com.
Want more Regency romance? Check out my review of Kristi Ann Hunter’s Hawthorne House series here.
