To Have And To Hold - Softcover

Green, Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0767912276 ISBN 13: 9780767912273

Publisher: Broadway Books, 2005

Synopsis

Setting aside her dreams of living a grass-roots life in the English countryside, Alice accepts the proposal of wealthy man-about-town Joe, who shatters Alice's romantic ideals by criticizing her looks and cheating on her before an indiscretion forces them to move to a country house in America. Reprint. 125,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Jane Green's sixth novel has a touch of Pygmalion about it. Alice Chambers, the heroine of Spellbound was known as "wallpaper" at school a "shy, mousy girl" who tended to disappear into the background. As an adult she runs a successful catering company but things remain pretty much the same. That is until Joe Mitchell, a crush from Alice's teenage years, decides to make her his fair lady: "with a diet, a decent hairdresser and a new wardrobe she'd be a whole new woman by the time he'd finished with her"--and, yes, you can grit your teeth at this very un-feminist idea! Joe works hard and earns lots of money, Alice has a lovely house and enviable clothes, and they both live happily ever after.

No of course they don't. Alice soon realises that "Joe is not the knight in shining armour she had once thought", largely due to his serial philandering. When his affair with a coworker is discovered, he is forced by his company to move to New York, and Alice goes too. It is at this point, in their new country home, that Alice is forced to face up to all that is wrong with her life. Feeling "quite happy" is no longer good enough, nor is staying with a man who "loves his wife", but who "is addicted to having affairs". It's time for Alice to pursue her own dreams, no matter how painful the process. Spellbound is an old fashioned story of metamorphosis, but told with the modern economy and wit that is Jane Green's trademark. --Eithne Farry

Review:

Simply the highest quality a chick can get...Spellbound will have you hungrily turning page after page...So delicious you'll want to wolf it down in one go (Heat)

Green whips up a sparkling morality tale that points the finger at bad boys and low-rent romance (Independent)

Compulsively readable (Sunday Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Broadway Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0767912276
• ISBN 13: 9780767912273
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 342