Title: The Book of Ivy
Author: Amy Engel
Publishers: Entangled Teen
Page Count: 280

After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual.

This year, it is my turn.

My name is Ivy Westfall, and my mission is simple: to kill the president’s son—my soon-to-be husband—and restore the Westfall family to power.

But Bishop Lattimer is either a very skilled actor or he’s not the cruel, heartless boy my family warned me to expect. He might even be the one person in this world who truly understands me. But there is no escape from my fate. I am the only one who can restore the Westfall legacy.

Because Bishop must die. And I must be the one to kill him…



I have been excited to read this book for such a long time so when I finally got it I was pumped to start reading it and although I did enjoy this book it was not what I was expecting. I was expecting something action packed and heart breaking but instead what I got was a book full of secrets and politics which happened to be somewhat interesting too.

I started off by not really liking the main character Ivy. She seemed at the start like a very basic YA heroin with no real personality and although I feel she didn't really develop too much throughout the book I did start to like her more because of her views. In this book she is forced into an arranged marriage to Bishop who is the president's son and Ivy has all of these views about how it's not fair and I really agreed with her. As for Bishop who is the love interest in this book, again at the start of the book I did not really see the hype for him and I didn't care for him much as a character but as the book progress and we got to see more of his personality and views I started to like him more and it was him I was sad for at the end rather than Ivy.

As for the plot of the book, it was not what I was expecting but I still found myself enjoying it. Ivy was constantly looking for things and sneaking around which was fun to read because sometimes the intensity in this book was very good because you find yourself constantly worrying, 'Is someone going to find her' or 'Is she going to mess up'. As for the romance in this book, it was very important to the plot because it leads to where the book is supposed to end but I feel like the romance sometimes took too much of a back seat and I think I would've liked to see more of it and maybe then I would've felt more empathy for all of the characters when the book ended.

The writing in the book was easy to read and quite enjoyable. I liked the  way Amy wrote in this book and I feel like she intertwined the plots of this book well and I enjoyed the ending she chose for this book. The ending could have been seen as maybe predictable in some ways but nevertheless I did enjoy the ending and it made me excited for the next book in this series.

I am excited for the next book not only because of the ending but I feel like the plot of the second book will be just as interesting as the first and I want to know what happens to Ivy and Bishop!

Overall I enjoyed this book but it was not what I was expecting and there are some things I'd change but nevertheless I gave this book...

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