An Ivy Hill Christmas
Series: Tales from Ivy Hill Novella
By: Julie Klassen / Narrated By: Elizabeth Jasicki
Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
The main character? A guy. But the agents of change? Why, the women of Ivy Hill!
I’ve loved the Tales from Ivy Hill series, so when I saw An Ivy Hill Christmas for sale at audiobooks.com, I snapped it up, like, posthaste! The series, my love of the Holidays (Sometimes during the year, when I’m down in the dumps, I grab onto a Christmas audiobook to lift my spirits), well, it all came together quite well.
And I imMEDiately felt a flat Ker-THUNK. Because, you see, as opposed to the previous books where women take center stage, with their friendships, their strengths on display, here we have a Hero in the opening, one Richard Brockwell, younger brother to Timothy, the man who married Rachel. Okay, so no problem…
It’s just that right off the bat, we see him for the urbane swine he is. Okay, so no problem, a character has to start from square one, especially if we’re to see a change in him that Christmas brings about.
But what I didn’t like is that author Julie Klassen puts him smack-dab in an opportunity to give to the oppressed for Christmas, and his smooth and cold response is soooo reminiscent of Ebenezer Scrooge heartily telling people NO, that I felt ripped off. And then throughout the book, there are more Scrooge moments, plus lines that seemed lifted from Jane Austen, and I was feeling mightily rueful indeed.
But then the guy is inside his London townhouse, looks outside to where it’s cold and stormy, and he sees a scraggly dog all woe-eyed and miserable, and this young buck about town takes the dog in.
He had me at the dog.
When he names the dog Wally and starts matching outfits for the little bit, and he takes him home to Ivy Hill with him for Christmas (Along with his publisher and friend, a human guy no less!), I was all in.
Richard has spent far too long away from his country family, but now his mother says that his funds will be cut off if he doesn’t come home for Christmas. Ticked and self-centered, he begrudgingly makes the journey home, along the way meeting a young man, boy really, who’s fallen from atop the coach, who’ll come up later in the story. Once at home, he discovers he’s to meet and eventually marry Arabella, and that’s just NOT to his liking. As such, he plots to be his most detached and crude self in order to cut Arabella, but it turns out she finds him to be completely and unutterably disgusting (She has the goods on him, but overhearing him make unfeeling remarks about her much-loved yet ungainly sister is just toooo much).
Also while home, the past starts resurfacing, memories of a cold father who made him keep a ghastly secret, memories of another family who took him in and treated him as one of their own but who’ve now fallen upon very hard times, elder brother Timothy always doing things so very correctly just put Richard out of sorts.
Christmas keeps cropping up, however, and with Arabella PLAINLY showing she’s noooo feeling for him, he starts loosening up. And Wally just likes everybody, so the little dog is quite the icebreaker. Richard starts, why, what’s this? He actually starts wanting to do things for people, as much as he can with what he can. That young man he met on the way over? He’s been horribly mistreated, and danged if Richard doesn’t want to protect him (There are laws, however, strict laws governing apprenticeships, and there’s only so much Richard can do). And there’s Arabella. And there’s his mother’s loneliness.
And there’s the horrible, horrible secret his long dead father has made him keep, even unto this time, this place. Can Richard learn to live with it, make peace with a despicable man? Can he overcome his rakish past, his bad reputation?
Only with the help of Jesus Christ and God, or so Arabella tells him, or so his crotchety valet would have him believe. And it turns out, that’s the only thing I myself would think would really change a man. Many is the romance book I’ve listened to where I think: Oh sure, he loves her now, but the guy’s a jerk, and he’ll sooner or later go back to his old ways. So there’s that, and I dunno why I do so love a reformed-rake tale, if that’s what I believe. Fortunately, Klassen has all her characters living their faith, and making real changes along the way.
Nope, no Ghosts of various Christmas times here, just good old-fashioned soul searching, and good deeds galore. Which is a relief, cuz really, narrator Elizabeth Jasicki had me LOATHing Richard with the way she had him sneering at the beginning. It was nice to hear the warmth creep into her voice as Richard began his transformative Holiday. And yes, this particular novella within the series is about a dude for cripes sake, but there’s the formidable Arabella to root for, and Jasicki makes her cold and unyielding on the one hand, a staunch reformer on the other. To add another hand (Wha? Threeee?!?), Arabella is also a confused and ardent young woman we feel for.
So yeh, a dude at the center of this Christmas tale.
But HUZZAH for the Ladies of Ivy Hill! Merry Christmas!!! There are sooo many amends to make, so many dreams to work for, so much happiness and so many Happily Ever Afters to be had. What’s not to like?!?
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