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Ivy Lane
Ivy Lane
Oct 11, 2024 8:25 AM

Author:Cathy Bramley,Colleen Prendergast

Ivy Lane

From spring to summer, autumn to winter, a lot can happen in a single year . . .

Tilly Parker needs a fresh start, fresh air and a fresh attitude if she is ever to leave the past behind and move on with her life. As she seeks out peace and quiet in a new town, taking on a plot at Ivy Lane allotments seems like the perfect solution.

But the friendly Ivy Lane community has other ideas and gradually draw Tilly in to their cosy, comforting world of planting seedlings, organizing bake sales and planning seasonal parties.

As the seasons pass, will Tilly learn to stop hiding amongst the sweetpeas and let people back into her life – and her heart?

A charming and romantic story certain to make you smile - perfect for fans of Carole Matthews, Trisha Ashley and Katie Fforde.

Ivy Lane was originally published as a four-part serial. This is the complete story in one package.

Your favourite authors have loved Ivy Lane:

‘Delightfully warm with plenty of twists and turns’Trisha Ashley

‘A perfect blend of the two greatest pleasures in life – love and gardening!’ Fern Britton

'A witty, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy' Miranda Dickinson

Reviews

Beautifully drawn characters, with love and humour across four seasons. I fell in love with this book

—— Rachael Lucas, author of Sealed with a Kiss

A perfect cup of sunshine on a cold and dreary day . . . a beautiful way to escape from the world

—— Josephine Moon, author of The Tea Chest

A fantastic read filled with laugh-out-loud funny moments. A lovely, heart-warming story – highly recommended

—— Compelling Reads

Like a warm rug to wrap around yourself in winter and picnic on in the summer. It has a delicious warmth, optimism and sheer lust for life

—— Sue Watson, author of Love, Lies and Lemon Cake

Filled with friendship, humour and genuinely loveable characters of all ages, shapes and sizes

—— One More Page

Wonderfully witty . . . I easily fell in love with Tillyand her world. I couldn’t put it down

—— Jenny Hale, author of Love Me for Me

Satisfying, dreamy and delicious – leaves you wanting just a little bit more . . . Roll on July for part two!

—— Crooks on Books

Such a charming, feel-good story

—— Carole’s Books

Wonderfully warm and cosy. The perfect comfort read to curl-up with and enjoy

—— Ali McNamara

This is one juicy read

—— Now

Must read

—— Sunday Mirror

You're The One That I Want is a gorgeously tender, funny and big-hearted novel with wonderful characters you'll fall in love with

—— Miranda Dickinson

Brilliant story about love, secrets and lies

—— Heat Magazine, Top Five Books

An easy, relaxing read, perfect for a sunny afternoon

—— Daily Mail

Fans of Marian Keyes and Cecelia Ahern will love Lucy Robinson's giggle-inducing humour, relatable characters and her ability to tackle tough topics in the most engaging way. With a twist that will leave you speechless, The Day We Disappeared by Lucy Robinson is a must

—— Glamour

Magnificent…a luminary of historical fiction…writing history from the margins, the personal stories behind the era, she delivers profound, poignant stories that stir the emotions.

—— Press Association

All the intensity and lyricism of Hope’s debut, Wake

—— Daily Mail

The Ballroom confirms her as a novelist of immense power...Exquisitely good. Sensitive, engrossing and highly recommended

—— Metro

The Ballroom is a beautiful, gripping, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking book. I was so enthralled, I read it in an evening, unwilling to put it down.

—— thewritesofwoman.wordpress.com

An atmospheric and thought provoking love story

—— bookslifeandeverything.blogspot.co.uk

An absorbing read from beginning to end . . . I'm already excited to see what Anna Hope does next.

—— thetattooedbook.blogspot.co.uk

This novel is at once romantic, thought-provoking and extremely poignant, with a rich narrative and an ending that moved me to tears

—— culturefly.co.uk

Gripping final chapters ramp up the suspense towards a hearth-wrenching conclusion ...explores the tensions and trials of the human condition with grace and insight.

—— New York Times

Absolutely fantastic . . . I'm in real awe of her writing.

—— Elizabeth Macneal, author of THE DOLL FACTORY

Fates and Furies is a dazzling novel, its people and its prose wondrously alive from page one. At once intimate and sweeping, this is the story of a marriage as parallel myths-- flaring with passion and betrayal, with redemption and retribution, with the sort of heart-breaking, head-slapping secrets that make you want to seek out someone else who's read it. Lauren Groff is a powerful and graceful writer, one of the best of her generation.

—— Jess Walter, bestselling author of BEAUTIFUL RUINS

Audacious and gorgeousDeliciously voyeuristic but also wise on the simultaneous comforts and indignities of romantic partnership…In her previous work Groff proved herself a deft prose stylist, translating the familiar into the remarkable and transcendent. Fates and Furies further showcases this talent…In Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff has taken the struggles and pleasures of marriage and turned them into art, and in that artfulness she reminds us of the dangers and omissions that any storytelling requires.

—— Los Angeles Times

Fates and Furies is devastatingly good, with the most satisfying ending I've read in a long time. The writing is gorgeous, the plot twisting, and the characters are almost too real – the only thing that keeps it from being the Platonic ideal of a novel is that it can only be read for the first time once. The only response that seemed sufficient in the hours after finishing it was to send several dozen roses, a cake, and my heart to Lauren Groff.

—— Sara Taylor, author of THE SHORE

[Fates and Furies is] an engrossing portrayal of a marriage and of life – or how a marriage impacts a life – and is packaged into a deeply poetic and engaging novel of two halves… With frequent asides and a love letter to literature, theatre and art in its pages, Lauren Groff has created something truly incredible… It’s a clever, thought-provoking novel that questions the very notion of how possible it is to ever know someone entirely, all told in such a beautifully crafted way that I’m sure many new readings will be found with each much-deserved re-read.

—— Culture Fly

In a swirling miasma of language, plot, and Greek mythology, Groff weaves a fierce and gripping tale of true love gone asunderGroff's prose is variously dewy, defiant, salacious, and bleak – a hurricane of words thrown together on every page. Yet so much of the power in this book lies in what's unspoken…It's an intoxicating elixir.

—— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Fates and Furies will keep you gripped until the end. It’s a fascinating study of how relationships are sustained and sacrificed…it is sumptuously written at every turn. For an autumn read to get firmly stuck into, look no further.

—— Running in Heels

An absorbing story of a modern marriage framed in Greek mythology. Groff’s sharply drawn portrait of a marriage begins on a cold Maine beach, with newlyweds “on their knees, now, though the sand was rough and hurt. It didn’t matter. They were reduced to mouths and hands.” This opener ushers in an ambitious, knowing novel besotted with sex – in a kaleidoscope of variety – much more abundant than the commune-dwellers got up to in Groff’s luminous Arcadia (2012). The story centers first on Lancelot “Lotto” Satterwhite, a dashing actor at Vassar, who marries his classmate, flounders, then becomes a famous playwright. Lotto’s name evokes the lottery – and the Fates, as his half of the book is titled. His wife, the imperial and striking Mathilde, takes over the second section, Furies, astir with grief and revenge. The plotting is exquisite, and the sentences hum; Groff writes with a pleasurable, bantering vividness . . . An intricate plot, perfect title, and a harrowing look at the tie that binds.

—— Kirkus (starred review)

Fates and Furies captures the vagaries of passion and marriage in ebullient prose.

—— Arifa Akbar , Independent (Best Fiction of 2015)

Like a classic tragedy, Groff’s novel offers high drama, hubris, and epic love, complete with Greek chorus–like asides. A singular and compelling literary read, populated with extraordinary characters; highly recommended.

—— Library Journal (starred review)

Comparisons to Gone Girl seem on the surface to fit perfectly. We have a golden couple, Lotto and Mathilde, we have a dark past – like Amy, Lotto is an heir to a large fortune. Yet Fates and Furies is far more subtle – Groff is considering the very nature of story-telling itself… I was reminded more than anything of Macarthy’s The Group... The fates and furies who narrate the novel are never intrusive, their interventions are rare and they pass on the whole unnoticed, but I felt that this worked better than a more grandiose presence might have done. Through them, Groff channels a grace for her protagonists – this is not a story of heroes and villains but rather of humans who long to be better than they are.

—— Nudge

An exploration of marriage that turns expectations upside down, all told through the snarkiest omniscient narrator since Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.

—— Guardian (Readers' Books of the Year 2015)

A really powerful novel

—— President Obama

Fates and Furies is a lyrical and, at times, astonishingly beautiful account of how little it is possible to know about those closest to us

—— Financial Times

[An] edgy symphony.

—— Independent Magazine

[An] ingenious novel…buttressed by real emotional power.

—— Mail on Sunday

There are two sides to every story and the author delivers both of them with brilliant authenticity. A must read.

—— Town and Country (Christmas List)

My favourite book of 2015 was Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies (although I’m sure lots of people will pick this one!). I was given it by a friend and devoured it in two days. I felt as though I could have gone on reading it forever.

—— WH Smith (Books of the Year)

Fascinating...a joy to read.

—— SavidgeReads

A truly brilliant book which I completely fell in love with.

—— Vogue

A forensic dissection of marriage, lyrically told.

—— Alexis Zegerman , Jewish Telegraph
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