Olivia and Jai

by Rebecca Ryman

Book Overview

A first novel set in mid-19th-century colonial Calcutta, by an author who was born and lives in India. It tells of a tormented romance between a spirited young Englishwoman and a mysterious, ruthless... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312041462
• ISBN13: 9780312041465
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 644 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A fabulous tale of star crossed lovers in 19C India

The story begins in Calcutta in 1848 as Olivia O'Rourke arrives from California to spend time with her mother's sister, Lady Bridget Templewood. Used to the freer life she shared with her father, Olivia chafes under the rigid morals of British Society, but then she accidentally meets a man reviled by her family, Jai Ravenstone. Jai is a Eurasian with a mysterious past who against all odds built up a successful shipping empire. Despite her family's hatred of Jai and his attempts at destroying her uncle's competing shipping business, Olivia cannot overcome her overwhelming attraction to Jai and sees him at every opportunity, even though Jai himself warns her of the dangers of involvement with him. Just when it seems Olivia and Jai may be able to surmount the problems of his past and find love, Jai's obsession with destroying the Templeton's takes him on a path that utterly destroys Olivia's love for him and sends her on a path of building her own business ventures to enact her revenge against Jai. This was a wonderful tale of love and revenge that will have you reading well into the wee hours of the morning, by page 250 or so I literally didn't come up for air until I finished it. There are many twists and turns and quite shocking surprises that will have you guessing and turning the pages until the very end. It's not quite up to the standards of The Far Pavilions, but for those seeking a well spun yarn set in 19C India during the British Raj this is one worth checking out. Five Stars.

Superb historical love story fiction

I can't say enough about this book. It is one of my absolute favorites. My favorite historical fictions alway seem set in India. I call it a love story because one of the central themes is love but its not very "romancy." This novel is set in 1848, prior to the Sepoy Mutiny. Olivia is an American girl sent to Calcutta for 1 year in the hopes of her Aunt to find a proper husband. Of course, Olivia being a brash American is not at all interested in that but in the India that none of the English want to know. She meets the engimatic Jai Raventhorne, who is of mixed blood, an "Eurasian". He has pulled himself out of the gutter to become a wealthy, yet bitter, businessman. She soon falls in love while secretly meeting him. I don't think I'll give much away by saying there is a huge betrayal that sets the tone for the rest of the book. Revenge is probably an even more important theme than romance. The book is one that you don't want to end. You really fall for the characters. The book does have a sequel, "Veil of Illusion" which is good (because you love the characters so much) but not nearly as good as "olivia and Jai." If you like this type of book, my other absolute favorites in the Indian historical fiction that are first rate include "Zemindar" by Valerie Fitzgerald and "Shadow of the Moon" by M.M. Kaye. Those do revolve around the Sepoy Mutiny of the late 1850s. Rebecca Ryman is a penname for someone who has been born, raised, and lives in India. The background touches really make India come alive for me. Highly recommend this book!!!

Olivia and Jai

Not quite the romantic but an avid reader of anything historical I picked up this book just two days ago and has not set it down until I read the last page aching for more. Rebecca Ryman has written the novel in such a way that you cannot but imagine yourself in that era. With characters so believable and detailed you get to know them, grow with them and find it hard to leave them. You cannot but try to compare youself to Olivia and to want a Jai(Jeye - is the Indian pronounciation)in your life.This love story will be hard to top.

a heart-stopping favorite

I had to take three days off from school a couple years ago, just so i could finish this book. I'm an avid reader, but I usually only get to half an hour a night. With Olivia and Jai, after half an hour, I told myself, just another chapter. An hour later, I decided I didn't really need to go to school the next day. Three days later, done with the book and filled with a brand new, completely romantic schemata that hasn't left me to this day, I was done with the greatest work of fiction I have ever encountered. Olivia and Jai combined an intricately constructed romance with a superb mystery and wonderfully accurate history. It can be read as a pure work of fiction but also a cultural commentary on British Imperialism. The first time I read the novel I didn't realize that Rebecca Ryman is actually a pen name for an Indian Woman. I read it again with this in mind and caught a thousand nuances and subtleties about the colonial mind that I had missed before. This novel began my captivation with colonial works. Through Kipling, Forester, Toer, Seth, Hall, and Said, I still find Olivia and Jai the most enthralling story of colonial life- its pleasures and malfeasances together in reality. Nowadays, I only fall for the Jai type. What a brooding, intriguing, volatile, magnetic character! Olivia devotes her life to understanding Jai. I think I'm devoting my life to finding myself a Jai! I definitely can't figure out why this book went out of print I've read this book six times in four years, and I even xeroxed copies of all 600 something pages for my friends and english teachers. This is the best of all Ryman's novels, though A Veil of Illusion and Shalimar are lovely works as well. Olivia and Jai is most certainly a must read.

Olivia and Jai took my breath away...

There really should be a category for rating books that's called "Infinite Stars." "Olivia and Jai" would fit in that category for me. It goes there with "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon and "Gone With the Wind." Those would be the only ones in that category for me. Which should tell you how well-loved this book is.This is a book that took my breath away, broke my heart, then put it back together again. The characters are very complex, and I cared for them so much that at times it seemed as though they couldn't just be fictional. I come back to the book and re-read it every couple of years just to get that feeling in my chest where it feels like I can't breathe because I am so enthralled by the love story.It's a rare gift, this book, and I hope that you'll enjoy it as much as I have. And it is most definitely worth the effort to have it ordered from somewhere. In fact, I think I found it hidden away in a used bookstore myself. I can't imagine selling this book, but I thank my lucky stars that someone did and that I was direced to it that day. I hope that other people have the same chance to read it and soak in the story as I have.