The women in Ivy Rowan's family have long been gifted with being able to see the dead. The ghosts are heralds of death, warning the women that someone they know has or soon will die. Ivy has long viewed her gift as a curse. One evening in October of 1918, Ivy sees the ghost of her grandmother, the same night her father and brother have beaten and killed a German businessman in town.

At that time in American history, as the Great War rages, hostilities are high against all people and things German. The death of the German is not looked into too closely--he must have been deserving after all. Perhaps he didn't donate enough to the War cause or failed to turn his back on his own heritage completely. In another town, a German had been hung without trial or good cause, and the jury acquitted the mob who murdered him--believing they had done their patriotic duty.

As anti-German sentiment flourishes, so does the Spanish Influenza, a deadly virus which has taken the lives of many. Ivy caught the bug early on and finally feels herself coming around when her father and brother burst into the house with the news of the German's death. Ivy cannot take it anymore: the drunkenness of her father, the influence of her father on her young brother, and the violence. And so she sets off on her own at the age of twenty-five to make a life for herself.

Ivy has been a recluse for the past several years, rarely venturing out of her house. She has made a living giving piano lessons to area children. Ivy has neglected her childhood friendships and really has no one, outside of her mother. Still, she is determined to do what she must. The feeling and need to make restitution to the murdered German's brother is strong, and that is how, one evening, she finds herself at Daniel's doorstep, unsure what to say and how to act.

I went into The Uninvited with high hopes, I admit. The description lured me in immediately. I wanted to know more about this woman who could see ghosts, about the time period she lived in and everything else the story might hold for me. I was swept into the story right away and curious about Ivy. She's very naive in her own way, but also very smart. Even despite her fears, she takes what comes her way and makes the most of it. There was instance in which I questioned Ivy's judgement, but given the times and the sentiment of living in the moment, I suppose it wasn't that farfetched.

The novel has a host of interesting characters. There is May, a war widow, who has had her share of people looking down on her because she is beautiful and from somewhere else. There are the Red Cross women, Addie and Nella, who cannot drive an ambulance to save their lives, but who are determined to help victims suffering from the Spanish Influenza. Then Lucas whose loyalty to the American Protective League is unwavering, always with an eye out for those who might be unpatriotic. There are the ghosts, of course, relatives of Ivy's, including her brother, Billy, who lost his life in the War. There are the folk in the club, drinking despite the Prohibition, playing jazz and dancing as they try to forget the world outside. It is hard not to be caught up in the times, feel the tension and helplessness, and yet also taking joy in the moment.

I really liked Daniel, the brother of the German furniture store owner, the more I got to know him. He holds his secrets close to his vest. He has had a difficult time of it, not just in the United States, but in his home country of Germany as well. Daniel is full of anger, especially towards Ivy's family. And yet he has a definite soft spot for Ivy herself.

While everything about this novel is fiction, from the setting to the characters and their stories, there is truth in the history. Cat Winters does a good job of capturing the mood and desperateness of the times, including the horrors of war, the effects of fear and ignorance. I was really drawn into the time period and into the lives of the characters the author has created. I especially loved how everything came together in the end.

The Uninvited is not just a ghost story, but it is also one about redemption and hope. It is about missed opportunities and love found. As well as about finding one's way and letting go of the past. Was The Uninvited everything I hoped it would be? Yes and No. It wasn't, in the end, quite what I expected, but that was okay. In many ways, it was even better. ( )

I actually can't remember where I bought this book but I'm glad I did. I wanted something spooky for October and here this book was on my shelf, set in October 1918 and full of spookiness.

Cat Winters has a lovely writing style. I found myself floating along her prose, wanting to read more and more.

The protagonist of the story is Ivy Rowan, a young woman in her mid-20s who awakens to her father and brother returning home, drunk and bloody, after murdering a German man in town. The violence of it all snaps something inside Ivy and she decides to leave her home forever. She stays with a war widow school friend, befriends brave teenage girls ferrying dying people to hospitals or sick houses, and falls in love with the murdered German's younger brother, all to the backdrop of WWI, America's xenophobic authoritarianism on home soil, jazz, and the Spanish influenza. Oh and there's ghosts. Women in Ivy's family have always seen harbinger ghosts before someone dies, and this often preoccupies Ivy.

Winters merged all of those well, creating characters that feel real as their world falls apart around them. They're not on the frontlines, where young men are dying en masse, but are fighting a different sort of unwinnable war - one against illness. The Spanish influenza pandemic in 1918 killed somewhere between 50 million and 100 million people, most of them young healthy adults.

I liked so many of the characters, especially Addie, a Black teenage girl desperate to save lives after her sister died of the flu, and Nela, a Polish immigrant. Ivy comes across their ambulance stalled on train tracks and helps them out, becoming their ambulance driver. The non-white and immigrant populations are not welcome at the town's normal hospital, so the girls borrow the ambulance and drive it at night. I just really liked scenes with them in it because they were so earnest and lovely.

There is romance, as Ivy engages in an illicit affair even while the overbearing American Protective League threatening all on every corner, but Winters gives Ivy many female friends and makes their interactions significant. ( )

The women in Ivy Rowan's family has always had the gift to see the dead. But the ghost of loved ones always heralds impending death. On an evening in October 1918, 25-year-old Ivy sees granny Letty just for a moment, but an hour later her father and brother killed a man. Ivy then decides to leave the farm and move to the city...

The Uninvited is a book that took me completely by surprise. The cover and blurb made it out to be a much darker story than it was and I was in the beginning disappointed that it just seemed to be about Ivy breaking away from her old life, beginning a new life away from the farm and starting to see the brother of the man her father and brother had killed. Nothing bad with that if that's what you're after. It was just not that I wanted. I wanted ghosts and creepiness. I wanted to Ivy to see ghosts, but the only one she seemed to see now and then was Billy, her brother that died in the war. I did enjoy ivy's relationship with Daniel.

But then something happened. I quite enjoyed the story as it was thought that at least it was enjoyable for the moment when WHAM everything was turned on its head in a twist I hadn't seen coming and then a page or two later WHAM twist number two happened. The book went from good to freaking great in just a couple of pages. I mean the last 20% was brilliant. And the ending was perfect...



It's hard to rate this book since the book, for the most part, were good, but not great, that is until the last 20% when everything just went fantastic. But in the end, I gave it 4 stars and I'm looking forward to reading more from Cat Winter.

Thanks to William Morrow and Edelweiss for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

The women in Ivy Rowan's family has always had the gift to see the dead. But the ghost of loved ones always heralds impending death. On an evening in October 1918, 25-year-old Ivy sees granny Letty just for a moment, but an hour later her father and brother killed a man. Ivy then decides to leave the farm and move to the city...

The Uninvited is a book that took me completely by surprise. The cover and blurb made it out to be a much darker story than it was and I was in the beginning disappointed that it just seemed to be about Ivy breaking away from her old life, beginning a new life away from the farm and starting to see the brother of the man her father and brother had killed. Nothing bad with that if that's what you're after. It was just not that I wanted. I wanted ghosts and creepiness. I wanted to Ivy to see ghosts, but the only one she seemed to see now and then was Billy, her brother that died in the war. I did enjoy ivy's relationship with Daniel.

But then something happened. I quite enjoyed the story as it was thought that at least it was enjoyable for the moment when WHAM everything was turned on its head in a twist I hadn't seen coming and then a page or two later WHAM twist number two happened. The book went from good to freaking great in just a couple of pages. I mean the last 20% was brilliant. And the ending was perfect...



It's hard to rate this book since the book, for the most part, were good, but not great, that is until the last 20% when everything just went fantastic. But in the end, I gave it 4 stars and I'm looking forward to reading more from Cat Winter.

Thanks to William Morrow and Edelweiss for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

I'm a sucker for historical fiction. Especially if there's a bit of romance involved. Add a hint of the supernatural to the mix and I'm sold.
The Uninvited wasn't quite what I was expecting. The cover makes it seem as if this is going to be a scary read. It's not. While Ivy sees ghosts there's nothing terrifying about them.
What's truly horrific is all of the death. It's everywhere. The death toll continues to rise not only due to the war but the recent outbreak of the Spanish influenza.
To balance out all of the darkness, there is some romance thrown in. I adored the romance between Ivy and Daniel. It's bittersweet. Ivy is American and Daniel is German. A relationship between them would certainly be unacceptable and yet Ivy is continuously drawn to him.
To the people in her town, Ivy is considered a bit of a recluse. Over the course of the book you see her change as she begins to come out of her shell and finally starts to live.
Toward the end there's a twist that I did not see coming. I had my suspicions about some of the characters but I was not expecting Cat Winters' big reveal. It makes you re-evaluate everything you've read up to that point.
Beautifully written and definitely worth reading! ( )