REVIEW: Tangled in Ivy is sure tangled up! I loved this book by Ashley Farley. This was my third book by Ms. Farley and I fell head over heels in love with each of them. If you haven’t read any of her books yet, what are you waiting for? She is a wonderful story teller and I have been totally entertained by the three books I’ve read and plan to keep reading more of her creations.

Her characters come alive and practically jump off the page into your heart. You instantly care for them and feel like you are part of the story. Her descriptions of the Lowcountry make me feel like I am back there once again. Her descriptions of surroundings are not boring and over the top. You get just enough to be able to picture the setting. I love the old homes in Charleston and enjoyed getting a glimpse of what life might have been like living in one of the grand dames.

Wow, and speaking of tangled up, this book will keep you on your toes. I promise you bored won’t be a word used to describe this story. There is a lot going on and because part of it is Lillian’s father’s memoir, it feels like it takes place during two time periods. Ivy is the name of Lillian’s mother. Life revolved around Ivy. She was a whirlwind and she kept it that way. Life was on her terms no matter what anyone else thought.

If you love a story with great characters, a little angst, a lot of love, some scandal and seeing how old money lives, you will enjoy this book. 

I received a copy of this book from the author and publisher for a fair and honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review an early copy.

Synopsis: From the bestselling author of Sweet Tea Tuesdays comes a story of true love that spans decades.

Lillian Alexander’s father is dying of cancer. When he rambles on in a morphine-delirium, Lillian can’t ignore the feeling he’s trying to tell her something. At his funeral days later, she encounters ghosts from her past who stir long-suppressed memories from the day her mother died twenty-seven years ago. Why, if her mother’s death was an accident, does Lillian harbor guilt, as though she were somehow to blame?

When Lillian and her twin sister, Layla, learn the Stoney family fortune is gone, Lillian fights to save her ancestral home on Charleston’s prestigious East Battery. Desperate to resolve her money problems and get answers to her questions about the past, she tears her father’s study apart in search of clues. She discovers a thumb drive in a hollowed-out hardback copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls. The thumb drive, marked For Lillian in his handwriting, contains her father’s memoir. Secluded in the family’s cottage on Wadmalaw Island, she immerses herself in her father’s account of his stormy relationship with her mother. What she learns sets her on a journey of self-discovery.

Tangled in Ivy is a tale of tortured souls and southern family dysfunction.