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The Housekeeper of Thornhallow Hall is Lotte R. James’ debut romance for Harlequin Historical, and it has more than a touch of the gothic about it. Rebecca Merrickson becomes the much needed housekeeper for Thornhallow Hall, an estate without a master… until William Reid, Earl of Thornhallow, decides to return home after years away. Rebecca is running from a man who paid her uncle in order to have her as his mistress, and William has been running from his grief over his sister Halcyon’s death and the accusation he caused it. I found both characters, especially Rebecca, to be very compelling. This title is both character and plot driven throughout, despite a short slow spot.
Rebecca Merrickson arrives at Thornhallow hall and finds the staff rather complacent and content to allow the house to fall into disrepair. They instantly dislike her, as she expects them to begin doing their jobs again, but she slowly begins to earn their respect by showing she is prepared to undertake menial jobs herself. In the meantime, William (who usually goes by Liam) meets with his solicitor in the hopes he can be free of the earldom, as he doesn’t feel he deserves the responsibility and wants to be rid of Thornhallow Hall itself. He is surprised to find his new housekeeper fast asleep in his library, and even more surprised to find she is attractive. He leaves her to sleep in peace, but is outraged the next day to find she has been cleaning parts of the house he had decreed off limits. He confronts her and is again taken off guard by her ability to stand up to him. He is even more intrigued by her.
Rebecca later finds Liam in an odd mental state in the library, and he nearly attacks her after having destroyed furniture and other things. She is able to calm him, however, and he apologizes for his behavior. Shortly after, Liam finds out Rebecca has been cleaning the East Tower, which he had decreed off limits because it contains the rooms inhabited by his deceased sister. The same sister that Liam is thought to have murdered. Rebecca gets Liam to open up about his sister, whom he affectionately calls Hal, by telling him why she took the post at Thornhallow Hall: her abusive uncle sold her to an evil man and she fled before he could collect her. She has been running from him for fifteen years. Liam and Rebecca profess their love for one another as her past finally catches up with her.
As I said, I found both main characters compelling, and I especially enjoyed Rebecca and her determination to improve her life and the lives of those around her. She is not afraid to upset the staff or even Liam to do the job she’s been hired to do. She is also not afraid to give Liam a piece of her mind and let him know when she believes he’s wrong. Speaking of Liam, he is exactly the brooding type of hero that I adore. He definitely has more growth as a character throughout the story as he is forced to deal with his sister’s death while falling in love with someone unsuitable for his station. He fled his home shortly after Hal’s death, and was unable to process his feelings before coming back.
This is not an action-packed romance, but there is still plenty going on in the story, which is well-paced, apart from a brief slow spot shortly after Liam and Rebecca become intimate – but it wasn’t enough to detract from my enjoyment of the rest of the book.
With engaging principals and a nicely-moving plot, The Housekeeper of Thornhallow Hall is a delight. I will certainly be on the lookout for the next book from Lotte R. James.
Buy it at: Amazon or your local independent retailer
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Grade: A-
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 28/07/21
Publication Date: 07/2021
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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I wanted to love it!
But… for me, this was a mess. I have a soft spot for the old-fashioned housekeeper or governess gothic romance. Sadly, THTH didn’t live up to its “Jane Eyre-esque” promise.
For one thing, in terms of vocabulary, there were a lot of words that had me scratching my head, page after page. The author said “x”, did she really mean to say “y”? Because “x” doesn’t exactly work here, but “y” would work. Why are the sentences so overwrought, with what seemed to be lots of unnecessary descriptors, when simpler and more straightforward language would move the story along faster?
And seriously, what is the last word of the following sentence from the book even doing there, given that the story takes place in the 1800s: “Tall and lithe, fine-featured, his appearance was effortlessly but carefully curated.” (Oh, and I’m not even sure what effortlessly curated actually means. See? Unneeded descriptors.)
I also wanted to understand what Rachel did for birth control. She easily disposes of concerns about a potential pregnancy by telling Reid she knows what to do to prevent it. But we never see Rachel leave the house to purchase any sort of supplies, nor are we told, even vaguely, what she does–or whether her personal effects include some sort of contraceptive device or potion–to prevent pregnancy. Would it have hurt the author to include a sentence or two alluding to Rachel’s method of preventing conception? It just struck me as sloppy writing.
Also: Rachel has several tattoos–to symbolize important moments or things in her life–and I asked myself how likely it was that an Englishwoman (moreover not an aristocrat) would have a number of tattoos in the early 1800s. I researched a bit, but I ended up unconvinced that the tattoos would have been likely (or that Reid would have been okay with them).
Also: I’m still not exactly clear what it was the villain did (or wanted to do) to Rachel. Things were so vague, I got confused as to what he planned to do when he finally showed up.
Protagonist Reid’s own issues regarding Thornhallow are dragged out and yes, a bit overwrought. (We get it, Reid–you’re tortured by the past and want to be rid of Thornhallow.)
I wish this book had worked for me, but it was just too problematic for my tastes.
This really sounds interesting – I began much of my romance reading with gothics like Victoria Holt, etc, and have a soft spot for them still. Shades here of Jane Eyre perhaps? Thanks for a great review, Jessica.
Another winner for Harlequin Historicals! Gonna read this soon.
Thank you for the review; I’ve put this on hold at my local library.