Lush descriptions and strong emotions fill Where Ivy Dares to Grow, a debut gothic fantasy by Marielle Thompson about the imperative of self-love. Saoirse Read is engaged to wealthy British aristocrat Jack Page--not that she cares about his money or status. She only cares that Jack shows her the attention and love she never got from her own family back in the United States. Jack's parents, on the other hand, never approved of Saoirse. When she falls victim to a disorder that plays tricks on her mind, her relationship with Jack starts disintegrating as he deals with her illness by trying to mold her into the wife his parents want her to be.
With Jack's mother on her deathbed, the couple heads to Langdon, the Page estate in the English countryside. There, Saoirse struggles to find her place in the estate, in her life, and in her own body and mind. When Langdon mysteriously sends her from 1994 to 1818 and she meets Jack's ancestor, Theodore Page, who sees her and loves her for who she is without trying to change her, Saoirse begins to see the world--and herself--in color again.
Thompson's writing style echoes a mind in the thrall of mental illness and allows readers to see events from Saoirse's perspective. Though Langdon's time-slips are the catalyst for Saoirse beginning to believe that she deserves unconditional love and isn't hopelessly flawed, Saoirse rescues herself from the doomed relationship she has found herself in. Where Ivy Dares to Grow, an immersive debut, does a great deal to counter the stigma of mental illness. --Dainy Bernstein, literature professor, University of Illinois