KEEPER OF ENCHANTED ROOMS - Charlie N. Holmberg

It is the mid-1800's and Merritt Fernsby has inherited a family estate in remote Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. No one has lived there in at least a century, but Merritt, happy to have something of this magnitude, is ready to move in.  But once he's in he can't leave ... the house is holding him there.  Literally. The home on Narragansett Bay, known as The Whimbrel House, is haunted and holding Merritt captive inside.

Hulda Larson has seen this before.  She's an agent with the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms and she's tamed homes before.  It's her advice to Merritt to first try to get on the house's good side.  Make it an ally rather than an enemy, and then the two can work together to understand where the haunting has come from and how to correct it.

That's easier said then done, though, given the house's penchant for throwing tantrums, and so Hulda moves in to the house as well to help. The secrets of the Whimbrel House are deep and it takes a lot of unravelling and Hulda and Merritt must work together regularly to make the investigation work. In working so closely together, Hulda and Merritt develop some (very casual, very polite) romantic interest in one another.  There's no time for romance, though, when there's a entire house trying to kill you!

It's no secret that I really enjoy a lot of Charlie N. Holmberg's work.  Right off the bat I noted how much I enjoyed the concept here and, frankly, I think concept creation is one of Holmberg's greatest strengths. This was, to me, a very original idea and presented in such a way as to really hook me into the story.

The characters (there are pretty much only three: Merritt, Hulda, and house) are rather generic. I didn't really find anything remarkable or interesting about Merritt and Hulda is only remarkable for her skills in understanding magic.  But even this doesn't really stand out.  The house, on the other hand, is quite interesting, and more so when a discovery is made about the haunting.

The blossoming romance here is, well, not particularly enjoyable to this reader.  And there's a lot of it. It's almost as though this is intended as a cozy romance but the fantasy got in the way and took over.

Looking for a good book? Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg is a light fantasy and a quick read. The concept is fun though the characters are a bit unremarkable.

3-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms

author: Charlie N. Holmberg

series: Whimbrel House #1

publisher: 47North

ISBN: 978-1662500343

paperback, 347 pages

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more