5
  • Remembering Ivy by Claire Kingsley
5
Remembering Ivy
Claire Kingsley
Romance
January 5, 2018
259

After putting her life on hold to care for her dying father, Ivy Nichols feels stuck. Alone and disconnected, she’s struggling to pick up the pieces and move forward.

The mysterious William Cole walks into her life, like a beacon of light in a fog. He’s sensual and captivating—awakening Ivy in ways she’s never experienced before.

But he knows things about her—deeply personal things—that he shouldn’t. His explanation is impossible, but the alternatives are worse. Her friends insist he’s either a con artist, or he’s crazy.

With her heart on the line, Ivy has to decide who—and what—she believes. The rational explanation from her trusted friends? Or the impossible story from the man without a past? The man who swears he will do anything to protect her.

One thing she is sure of—William doesn’t just know facts about her life. He knows her, inside and out. He knows her as intimately as if he’d spent every moment of his life loving her.

And, according to him, he has.

***Remembering Ivy is a stand-alone contemporary romance with a hint of mystery, and ends with a HEA. Contains mature language and content and is intended for mature readers.***

“You’re my Ivy. Did I save you?”

I am accustomed to Claire Kingsley writing romance with a twist of comedy. Friends to lovers? Yup, she’s a master at that. Enemies to lovers? She has that down pat. Second chance, return to a hometown and single dads? She does them perfectly. She even delved into more angst and the darker side of romance in her last book, and it was amazing. So it’s fair to say I trust her and her writing choices pretty implicitly. Yet, I admit that I did start reading Remembering Ivy with expectations that it would fall into one of these tropes. And although there were hints of several, this book is something completely different. And I don’t want to risk any spoilers at all. But I will say that this book had me questioning what I believed- about love, about coincidence and connections, and about the very universe.

Have you ever felt that you just knew something, or someone, but you had no clue how, or why? Ever experienced deja vu, or recognized a place when you were certain you’d never been there before? Do you sometimes dream an event before it comes to pass? Or just have a deep gut feeling but no evidence, as of that moment, to back it up? And when these things occur, do you write them off? Do you chalk it all up to happenstance? Or do you wonder if there is something bigger at play? If there are unexplained phenomena within the universe, invisible and silky threads, that bind us to one another and we are only just aware at some basic subconscious level?

Ivy Nichols lives a relatively simple life. And a pretty solitary one. She’s a professor at a nearby college, and often speaks in Austen quotes and obscure literary references. And since the father she gave everything up to take care of passed away, she spends the majority of her time at home, with her dog Edgar, reading, or doing puzzles. And though she isn’t necessarily upset with the state of her life, there is a very small piece of her that wonders if there is something more in store for her. And then one day, at coffee with her best, and possibly only, friend, Jessica, a handsome man walks into the shop, and her life. And he’ll cause her to reevaluate all that she once knew about how things come to pass.

William Cole is an enigma. Strikingly handsome, he is simultaneously innocent and yet constantly aware of everything happening around him. Every task he does is completed with purpose and focus. And for some reason, that even he is uncertain of, his purpose seems to be finding Ivy Nichols and once he does his focus is entirely consumed with saving her. And unintentionally, falling in love with her.

To explain any more would give away some of the absolute magic of this story. For that’s what it is. Magic. When two souls find each other, and are able to look past societal norms, and beyond reason, and recognize something in each other, it is magic of the purest kind. And although the story will take a twist that you definitely will not anticipate, trust that the magic is still there. It may have taken on a different form. But it is no less spectacular.