The Ivy Chronicles

We get by with a little help from our friends has never been portrayed with such an ingenious mixture of passion, humor and what could only be defined as sheer female empowerment. Author Karen Quinn takes us inside one woman’s journey from the top, to the bottom and back to the top again.

Ivy Ames…devoted wife and loving mother of two, was living “the good life.” With a combined annual income of two million plus, the Ames’ family had all the luxuries and perks of the social elite. Eight months ago, Ivy’s husband, Cadmon, lost his job and instead of cutting back on expenditures, they continued to revel in the lavish lifestyle they had grown so accustomed too. On a typical, all too hectic morning, Ivy had barely managed to get show more herself to the bank on-time, when she is caught off guard by a note summoning her to the boss’ office. You could have knocked her over with a feather when she heard him say “human resources has your package, a car will take you home…” The words kind-of-faded into a blur. After a day filled with indignities and humiliation, she longed for the warm, sympathetic embrace of Cad’s arms. But that was not to be…As the smell of orange bubble-bath was wafting through the air, she opened the door to the bathroom, only to find her husband bathing a naked woman. It was Sassy! The wife of the man that had caused her to lose her job! Enraged, embarrassed and deeply hurt she ordered Sassy out of the house, threatening to drop a hair dryer into the bath water if she did not leave immediately. Refusing to let Cad she her cry, she turned and with all the strength she could muster, she gave him his walking orders as well.

It is this one devastating day that lays the foundation for the rest of the novel. With her life in shambles, Ivy embarks on a new career, setting up a business that caters to parents that want their children in the most elite kindergarten programs on earth. A wonderful idea that just needed a boost to get off the ground. Her best friend, Faith, was wealthy and more than willing to help in any way possible. With a few well placed phone calls to her high society acquaintances, Ivy’s referral box began filling up. There’s a host of outlandish, colorful personalities that make up Ivy’s clientele, each adding their own unique flavor to the story. There’s a single father with mob ties; a mixed religion couple; a mom who tries to bribe the board at every school; a gay couple with a wheel-chair bound adopted son; etc. Ivy endures an ongoing cycle of nerve-racked parents having mental-melt-downs during the application process and crazed parents bombarding her with verbal assaults. She quickly discovers these parents do not recognize the morally accepted boundaries of right and wrong…when it comes to securing a slot on the kindergarten-roster of their choosing, anything goes!

Snooty, snobbish, egocentric and over-the-top, Karen Quinn’s novel “The Ivy Chronicles” is a tongue-in-cheek read that delivers exactly what was promised…a light hearted read, filled with quaint characters and quick wit. While criss-crossing moral and ethical boundaries in hopes of being accepted to an elite kindergarten is wrong on so many levels, it it is the catalyst propelling the humorous insanity. Putting the idea of elite, prep-style kinder-care into perspective for these folks would be impossible. But then again so was the concept of downsizing for Ivy, as she continued to carry her Barney’s shopping bag everywhere, hoping to portray that up-town image she missed so desperately.

If you’re looking for a Saturday afternoon read that doesn’t require a lot of thought…that you can just read for the light and fluffy experience…The Ivy Chronicles is a good choice. Fun and seemingly far-fetched, I couldn’t help but wonder with Quinn’s insider knowledge, how far did she stretch the characters, if at all? I am anxious to see what Warner Brothers does with this zany cast of characters, as the book has been optioned and Catherine Zeta-Jones will be starring in the movie!

Happy Reading! show less

One of the more refreshing "chick lit" books I've read recently. Instead of much whining and chocolate eating (although there is some, inevitably), Ivy pulls herself together to focus on her admissions consulting firm. The situations are burlesque and original with moral undertones for a bit of substance. Furthermore, the main character does grow and while the end is predictable, it is charming and not too idealized.

What happens when a New Yorker loses her job, her husband, and her ritzy Park Avenue pad and is forced to carve out a new niche for herself and her two private school-educated daughters?

After transferring the girls to public school and renting a shabby-chic (at best) flat upstairs from a knicherie (her rich friends thinking she chose to live next to a crack den), Ivy Ames takes her billionaire friend Faith's advice (now that's somebody who married up---unbelievable as the specifics of her prenup may be) and starts a consulting business to help privileged pre-schoolers get into the city's premier kindergartens. Even as Ivy comes to understand that her former life among the ultra-rich was absurd and shallow at best, she continues to hope show more that she'll snag a new husband so rich that she'll never have to work again.

For those of us who are in need of a quick laugh (coupled with your eyes bulging out at the outrageous reality of applying to the so-called Baby Ivys of NY) and have a few hours to spare, The Ivy Chronicles promises to entertain and amuse. At least it's not written as saccharine sweet like most chick lit books flooding the bookstores. It was dragging towards the end; I was disappointed at how things seem to "work out" quite nicely towards the conclusion. Deux et Machina, anyone?

Book Details:

Title The Ivy Chronicles
Author Karen Quinn
Reviewed By Purplycookie show less

This was a pretty good book. It was yet another book that I had never heard of before spotting it on the bookshelf at the local library. It was quite a bit better than many of the books I find that way, and many that I've heard of beforehand.

The characters are interesting, though many aren't sympathetic. Of course, I don't think that they're supposed to be considered sympathetic, since this book is clearly pointing out the spoiled nature of the private school system and what a life of privilege is like in New York City. Most of the characters that I was turned off by when they were introduced turned out to be the schmucks that my gut had been telling me they were.

There were times when unimportant parts of the book seemed to drag on, show more but there were also times when it seemed like some (more important) things were just skipped over completely. I guess that inconsistency is part of why I didn't give this book more stars. It was a bit of a sloppy story, which is something that I don't enjoy.

The best way to describe this story is that it is basically a grown-up Clueless, moved to the Upper East Side from Beverly Hills, and dealing with spoiled socialites (and wannabe socialites) getting their kids into private school school to gain the approval of their peers, as opposed to socialites in the making trying to gain the approval of their peers at their high school. The same conniving and petty crap that you would expect from high school students is exhibited in so many of the characters. Most, if not all, of the characters are willing to sacrifice any sense of morals to get ahead. While that made some of it humorous, it also made it a bit disturbing.

If you enjoy random chick lit, you will probably enjoy this book. It's also possible that if you like stories about sociopaths, you will enjoy this book. show less

Okay, wow, can one woman be so self-absorbed and in complete denial of what life is really like? I don't think I can say it any better than this reviewer on amazon.com: While the premise of the book was intriguing (an insider's view into the cut-throat world of the Manhattan elite), my antipathy for Ivy overroad any hopes of my giving this book a good review. She continually baffled me with her amoral stance and her ability to turn everything into a one-woman whine-fest. There was almost no one to cheer for, save some of the stereotypical "underclass" children.

She gets fired by the butthead husband of the woman who is sleeping with her husband and all she can worry about is that her psychic said she was about to get hit by a bus - show more metaphorically or not, she wasn't really sure.

Usually I can get a giggle out of books like this - but listening to her whine about money and then spend $1500 on a fish surgery so her daughter's fish wouldn't have it's boyancey problem.

I'm at the end of disc one now and I won't be listening to the rest. What trash. How self-absorbed and utterly useless. show less

Oh my gosh, is this really what New Yorkers go through to get their kids into a decent school?
A woman, Ivy, is screwed out of her job, finds her unemployed husband naked with her now ex-boss's wife and this is on Park Avenue in NY.
Ivy must cut costs and make a new life.
She does so by becoming a preschool advisor for parents, because everyone in NY knows if their child doesn't get into a top tier preschool, they won't go to an ivy league college.
A good beach read.

I nearly stopped reading this after the first few pages as I found it hard to care about Ivy and her privileged lifestyle. I'm glad I kept going though as I ended up enjoying reading about Ivy's schemes and actually cared what happened to her.