Quick-take: Good start. Weak middle. Good finish.

Dan's Review

The time and place is Rhode Island around the mid-1800s. Merritt Fernsby receives a surprise inheritance of a house that has been abandoned for a hundred years. As a moderately successful writer, the idea of living in seclusion to focus more on his work with a paid-for house sounds very appealing. Upon moving in, he finds the house is enchanted and not very welcoming to Merritt. Fortunately, Hulda Larkin arrives from an agency that specializes in magical houses. She offers to tame the house by moving in to serve as housekeeper while tracing the history of the magic in between those duties. The story of the house, Houlda, and other magical tales unfolds.

I would classify this book into 3 parts. The book is not that long and flows as a single piece. I'm mostly dividing the book into 3 parts by entertainment value.

The first is the character introduction, the magical system, and house shenanigans. It was all quite entertaining. I think Merritt has a bit of a plot contradiction. He claims he is not wealthy yet he can afford 2 additional live-in staff on top of Hulda (though he isn't paying her, he is feeding her)? I sorta explained it to myself in that he is no longer paying rent. If the book was all about house weirdness and efforts to tame it, I would have liked it more.

Unfortunately, we get to part 2. Merritt and Hulda are both single and about the same age. They also both have contrasting personalities. I predicted what was going to happen within just a few pages of their introduction. The romance was painfully predictable and consumed nearly the entire middle of the book. Maybe the dating process was different in the 1840s, but it was hard to overlook the modern references going through Merritt's head. I did not enjoy any of it.

Once we got over the bad romance, onto the 3rd part: wrapping up the plot and big reveals. There were plenty of surprises. Plenty of action. Some good suspense. Well done. My advice to the author: Less romance. More surprise calls to actions.

Score: 4/5. Part 3 saved it. This seems to be a series, but I have no interest in continuing the story. Though Hulda is interesting, Merritt is boring.