![]() | |
Author | Jane Green |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Chick lit |
Published | 2003 Michael Joseph |
Pages | 448 |
ISBN | 978-0-7181-4464-7 |
Spellbound is the British title of a 2003 novel by Jane Green, which was published in America under the title To Have and to Hold.
Alice is a formerly mousy and high-strung London girl who marries Joe, a wealthy business executive whom she had a crush on as a girl. It is revealed that Joe is a serial philanderer who, in spite of his best efforts, is unable to avoid chasing women. He married Alice because he viewed her as a compliant "project" he could craft into the perfect trophy wife. In this, he succeeded. As Alice intermittently suspects Joe is having affairs she becomes unhappy with her marriage, which is blessed with enormous wealth and prestige but has no warmth or passion.
Joe becomes increasingly involved with a new business executive named Josie, and their relationship is discovered. Joe is forced by the company to relocate to its New York office or lose his job. Desperate, Joe convinces his wife of the merits of moving to the United States and she agrees to the move on the condition that they have a house in the country as well as their original apartment in New York City.
After the move Alice becomes increasingly invigorated and secure with herself as she takes on the project of restoring an old country home to immaculate condition. Joe, a fastidious urbanite, dislikes being in the country and the couple begins growing apart from one another: Joe spends more and more time in the city alone, but Alice no longer misses him as much because she feels increasingly fulfilled with small-town life and her new friends.
Alice's longtime best friend, Emily, visits her and brings along her boyfriend, Harry, whom Alice and Joe met back in England before the move. Emily reveals that she no longer thinks Harry is "the one" and is instead enamored with a man named Colin...who has a girlfriend. Alice is aghast that her friend would consider infidelity and advises her to give Harry a chance.
As the lengthy visit continues and Emily and Harry share Alice and Joe's country home with them, Alice and Harry grow close. Eventually, on the night Joe is finally rejected by his latest extramarital pursuit and all four are at a local party, Alice and Harry kiss under the stars while intoxicated. Emily sees Alice and Harry kissing and renounces her friendship with Alice. She and Harry return to England the next day as planned, where they promptly end their relationship.
Days later, Josie has moved to New York as well and contacts Joe, who immediately falls for her once more. They continue their extramarital relationship, but Alice quickly discovers it by checking Joe's e-mail accounts. Alice separates from Joe, who suffers a nervous breakdown in his New York apartment while Alice remains in their country home.
In the end, Alice and Emily reconcile and Emily encourages Alice to start a relationship with Harry, whom she obviously fancies. She does so.
Emma Hagestadt of The Independent said that the book "gamely subverts the [chick lit] genre by looking at what happens when Mr Right turns into Mr Wrong and when the heroine finds unexpected redemption in natural hair colour and orthopaedic shoes." [1] Deirdre Donahue of USA Today commended the book to single women envious of their friends wedded bliss with the observation that "marriage to Mr. Apparently Perfect has rarely been so deliciously depicted as a very unwise concept." [2] Spellbound topped the Original Fiction section of the Daily Telegraph's best-seller list on 26 January 2003 [3] dropping to third place by 2 March 2003. [4] To Have and to Hold was placed 29th in the Hardcover section of the New York Times Best seller list for 25 July 2004. [5] In 2008 Spellbound was voted 16th greatest holiday read of all time by 2,000 female customers of Play.com. [6]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the fifth novel in the Harry Potter series. It follows Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious return of the antagonist Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic. The novel was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada. It sold five million copies in the first 24 hours of publication.
Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament is a contemporary fantasy novel by John Crowley, published in 1981. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1982.
Spellbound is a 2002 American documentary that was directed by Jeffrey Blitz. The film follows eight competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The film received positive reviews and won several awards, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Diana J. Gabaldon is an American author, known for the Outlander series of novels. Her books merge multiple genres, featuring elements of historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure and science fiction/fantasy. A television adaptation of the Outlander novels premiered on Starz in 2014.
Jane Green also known by her married name, Jane Green Warburg, is an English-born American author whose works of fiction are American and international best-sellers. As of 2014, Green's books had sold in excess of 10 million copies globally, with translations of them appearing in thirty-one languages, making her a leading author, globally, of commercial women's fiction. With regard to genres, she has been described as "[o]ne of the first of the chick lit" authors, and as a founding author of the form of fiction sometimes referred to as "mum lit."
Karrine Steffans, also known as Elisabeth Ovesen, is an American author, most notably of the Vixen series of books. She has worked as an actress and as a video vixen, having appeared in more than 20 music videos. In 2007 and 2008, Steffans visited a number of college campuses to speak about her involvement in the hip hop industry and its expectations of women.
The Koala Brothers is a British-Australian stop-motion animated children's television series, created by David Johnson. It features the adventures of two koala brothers named Frank and Buster, as they seek to help their friends in a sleepy town in the Australian outback. The series was narrated by Jonathan Coleman. 78 episodes were produced over 3 seasons.
Castle is an American crime mystery/comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC for a total of eight seasons from March 9, 2009, to May 16, 2016. The series was produced jointly by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios.
The Last Song is a 2009 novel by American author Nicholas Sparks. The Last Song is Sparks's fourteenth published novel, and was written specifically as the basis for the film adaptation by the same name. It was released on September 1, 2009, by Grand Central Publishing. The story revolves around the summer of Veronica “Ronnie" Miller's seventeenth year, during which she is sent to stay with her estranged father. Through their shared love of music, the duo reconnect.
Susanna Mary Clarke is an English author known for her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), a Hugo Award-winning alternative history. Clarke began Jonathan Strange in 1993 and worked on it during her spare time. For the next decade, she published short stories from the Strange universe, but it was not until 2003 that Bloomsbury bought her manuscript and began work on its publication. The novel became a best-seller.
Lady Gaga x Terry Richardson is a photo-book by American singer Lady Gaga and American photographer Terry Richardson, released on November 22, 2011, by Grand Central Publishing. The book features more than 350 pictures of Gaga as taken by Richardson during a ten-month period from Gaga's performance at The Monster Ball Tour until the 2011 Grammy Awards. In addition to photographs, it includes a foreword written by the singer about her relationship with Richardson. The duo had already collaborated on other projects prior to the book.
Melanie Benjamin – is the pen name of American writer Melanie Hauser.
Through a Glass Darkly is a 1986 historical fiction novel by American author Karleen Koen. A former magazine editor, Koen had never before written a novel and spent four years developing it while living as a housewife with her family. She sold the hardcover rights to Random House for $350,000, which was then a record for a new novelist. The circumstances behind the work's publication led to Koen becoming the subject of much media attention in the late 1980s.
I've Got Your Number is a 2012 British romantic comedy novel written by Sophie Kinsella that was a New York Times Best Seller.
Mudwoman is 2012 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. The novel is a psychological horror and campus novel, which follows the experience of a university president, M.R. Neukirchen, "haunted by her secret past as the child of a poor, mentally ill religious fanatic who tried to drown her in a riverside mudflat".
Mr. Peabody's Apples is a picture book written by American entertainer Madonna, released on November 10, 2003, by Callaway Arts & Entertainment. The book contains a moral tale, inspired by a 300-year-old story by Rabbi Baal Shem Tov, that Madonna had heard from her Kabbalah teacher. Its main protagonist, Mr. Peabody, is subjected to rumors spread by a young boy and teaches him a lesson. Mr. Peabody's Apples is illustrated by Loren Long who took inspiration from American regionalist painters, and modeled the characters after real-life people.
Yakov and the Seven Thieves is a picture book written by American entertainer Madonna. It was released on June 21, 2004, by Callaway Arts & Entertainment in over 110 countries and 38 different languages, including a Braille edition. The book contains a moral tale and was inspired by a 300-year-old story by rabbi Baal Shem Tov, that Madonna had heard from her Kabbalah teacher. The premise was set in a small, 18th century town in Eastern Europe, and the story talks about how everyone has the ability to open the gates of heaven, however unworthy one is deemed to be.
18th Abduction is the eighteenth novel in the Women's Murder Club novel series by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.
To Paradise is a 2022 novel by American novelist Hanya Yanagihara. The book, Yanagihara's third, takes place in an alternate version of New York City, and has three sections, respectively set in 1893, 1993, and 2093. Though a bestseller, the novel received mixed reviews from critics.