To Have and to Hold Book

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 FarryRead More