Although I enjoyed the setting, many parts of the story fell flat for me. What can it all mean? Cat Winters's first adult novel, The Uninvited, left me feeling rather unsatisfied.

To top it off, the American Protection League (sort of like a racist town watch) is on to Ivy and doesn't take well to her hanging out with a German. As their relationship progresses, Daniel, the grieving brother, introduces Ivy to jazz as well as love, but he is hiding a secret. Even though at first their relationship isn't a strong one, they can't deny their attraction to one another. While in town, Ivy feels compelled by guilt to seek out the brother of the man her family killed, hoping to help him out in some way. Many of the women in her family can see ghosts, so keep this in mind. She heads into town to find a room and comes across May, a recent war widow, and May takes Ivy in.

Ivy is disgusted by their blatant racism and violent acts, so she finally gains the courage to leave her family's house. Ivy Rowan, a twenty-five year old piano teacher, just recovered from the flu and has come to find that her brother and her father confess to killing a German. Plus, this small town is dealing with a dangerous strand of influenza. But as her ‘uninvited guests’ begin to appear to her more often, she knows her life will be torn apart once more, but Ivy has no inkling of the other-worldly revelations about to unfold.'īuchanon, Illinois is a quiet town, but it's filled with people who hate Germans, thanks to World War I. Ivy is drawn into this new world of jazz, passion, and freedom, where people live for the day, because they could be stricken by nightfall. Horrified, she leaves home, to discover the flu has caused utter panic and the rules governing society have broken down. An hour later, she learns her younger brother and father have killed a young German out of retaliation for the death of Ivy’s older brother Billy in the Great War. On that October evening in 1918 she sees the spirit of her grandmother, rocking in her mother’s chair. For she sees the uninvited ones-ghosts of loved ones who appear to her, unasked, unwelcomed, for they always herald impending death. But Ivy’s life-long gift-or curse-remains. Goodreads says, ' Twenty-five year old Ivy Rowan rises from her bed after being struck by the flu, only to discover the world has been torn apart in just a few short days.

The uninvited a novel cat winters