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The Ivy Chronicles [Paperback]

Karen Quinn (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Book Description

Release Date: Jan 31 2006
When turbocharged Park Avenue mom Ivy Ames finds that she?s been downsized from her platinum-card corporate job and her marriage, she swiftly realizes that she?s going to need a whole new way to support herself and her two private-school daughters. So she dreams up a new business?helping upscale New Yorkers get their little darlings into the most exclusive kindergartens in the city. What begins as one woman?s bid to earn a living becomes an everywoman?s tale of midlife reinvention and unexpected romance, set in a looking-glass world where even tots have résumés.

?If you think you may be a neurotic parent, read this and feel sane.?
?Allison Pearson, author of I Don?t Know How She Does It

?Entertaining . . . Picks up where The Nanny Diaries left off.?
?The New York Post

?[A] ferociously funny tale.?
?Us Weekly

?Hilarious.?
?Child magazine

?Tales of Manhattan?s elite trying to get their tots into private schools is sure to make you smirk condescendingly . . . The Ivy Chronicles delivers.?
?Boston Herald

?The brilliant, witty, and ultimately soulful heroine is a perfect tour guide who will leave you laughing up your latté.?
?Jill Kargman, author of The Right Address and Wolves in Chic Clothing

?With humor and heart, Karen Quinn brilliantly skewers the insanely competitive world of wealth we love to hate. Readers will cheer for Ivy!?
?Leslie Schnur, author of The Dog Walker

Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

When 39-year-old Ivy Ames loses her corporate job, her big-shot husband, Cadman, cheats on her and she's too poor for her pampered Upper East Side lifestyle, she finds herself creating a new life for herself and her two young daughters on New York's exponentially less tony Lower East Side. Ivy hammers out a living helping the city's elite nab spots in the most exclusive private kindergartens in town, but first-time author Quinn's book isn't a feel-good tale about realizing money isn't everything. Even as Ivy comes to understand that her former life among the ultra-rich was absurd and shallow at best, she continues to hope that she'll snag a new husband so rich that she'll never have to work again. Quinn's characters are unapologetically shallow, two-dimensional cartoons designed to affably lampoon the silliness of New York's elite, giving readers ample opportunity to snicker at people like a newspaper mogul willing to pay off the FDA to get her demon child into a "baby Ivy" league kindergarten and other wealthy, overly successful parents who use their kids to channel ambition and perpetuate elitism. It's good fun in small doses, but lengthy exposure to the cotton candy plot and caricaturish characters may leave readers with the zombie-like feeling produced by watching too many reality TV makeovers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This superficial first novel is full of two-dimensional characters and exaggerated plot devices trimmed liberally with humor. It's difficult to sympathize with turbocharged Park Avenue-mom Ivy Ames after she loses her high-powered executive position to a backstabbing coworker, and her husband to the coworker's trophy wife. Ivy turns her life around by moving her two spoiled daughters into an apartment above a kosher deli on the Lower East Side and opening a business that helps wealthy social-climbing parents get their resume-toting tots into the "Baby Ivies." The breezy plot is full of camera-ready scenes and characters: the lovable mobster with an aggressive daughter, the odious yuppie--father of an awkward child, the industrious yet destitute maid with a brilliant son, and the requisite love triangle made up of Ivy, the cute-and-comfy deli owner, and the adorably aimless novelist. There's plenty of screwball scenes involving children, dogs, and lovably gruff New Yorkers. By turns heartwarming and schmaltzy, this novel begs to be filmed instead of printed. A guilty pleasure worth indulging. Kaite Mediatore
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Detailed Romance July 13 2005
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
She had it all and lost it. She finds more than she could ever imagined she would find. A romance that is sweeter then any power or money could ever offer. Lovely work! Read Fire In The Ice and Impossible too. Excellent works.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 3.3 out of 5 stars  112 reviews
33 of 41 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars I know I SHOULD hate this book Feb 5 2005
By Tina - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I know that I should hate this book. Ivy is shallow, shallow but she somehow manages to attract love and attention by EVERYONE in her surroundings. She is a minimal mother (at best), she is manipulative and a liar.

Yet, I enjoyed this book. I think this book is just so over the top that its enjoyable. I laughed in a few spots and basically just enjoyed this thing.

Who knew?

Is it great lit? NOPE, but if you are looking for a lightweight but fun read, buy this.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars What would you do to get your child into kindergarten? Nov 11 2005
By Tonya Speelman - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Well these parents top it all! They lie, cheat, threaten, bribe, and the list goes on! Not only are the parents doing it, but Ivy who has had the worst luck with her job and husband and needs money to support her own children is involved.

Although I do agree she didn't redeem herself fully, this book was entertaining and laughable. I don't live like them, so I have no clue about that kind of lifestyle. It seems none of them appreciate what they have, or realize that these are CHILDREN but it was entertaining and I did enjoy it. Isn't that what a book is sometimes? Away from the world, a place to escape and fantasize?
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Skip it. Nov 3 2008
By Lois Lain - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
It's been a long time since I've disliked a protagonist as much as I hated Ivy Ames. 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. I almost quit reading several times, but somehow convinced myself to carry on.

It's unfortunate, because Quinn is a talented writer. She just needs to work on creating some likable characters -- maybe some with morals.
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