What do you do when your five-year-plan explodes in your face a few months before reaching term?  What Ivy Winters, a college senior poised for a career in the Memphis marketing industry, does is disastrous. 

Along with graduation, Ivy is planning the biggest wedding of the year, hers. Her fiancé, Grey Henderson, one the most eligible bachelors in Memphis, is surrounded by riches and power.  Son to the city's mayor, Grey wants to be the next congressman of their district.  The wedding will help position him politically.  But, marriage is a big step, and since Grey is feeling neither the engagement nor the impending marriage, he breaks it off.

On the rebound, Ivy dates one of Memphis' finest law enforcement officers, Italian-born Nicola Agosto, another man living on the edge of commitment. Nicola helps Ivy realize her life has been missing excitement, but her one night of reckless indulgence will cost her dearly.  When Grey decides he wants Ivy back, the wedding is on again.  Then, Ivy learns she is pregnant and is not sure which man is the father.  As they wait seven months for the paternity tests, each must face some hard truths.  Grey knows a paternity scandal is the last thing a politician needs, but he still wants Ivy.  Nicola knows his position on the mayor's project, a drug bust on Memphis' biggest dealer, could be compromised, but he also wants Ivy.  And Ivy must face the toughest truth of all; she must choose either the love of her life or the man of her dreams.  'OH what a tangled web she's weaved...'

Ironically, IVY'S TWISTED VINE runs parallel with truths, in Memphis politics and law enforcement, today.  So readers, especially Memphis' natives, will question how fictionalized this story really is.  But for captured readers, Latrivia Nelson offers a renaissance storyline, strong characters with many faults, steamy unconventional relationships, and an age-old problem.  This book was lengthy, but it held my interest.

Reviewed by aNN Brown
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers