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ClareR (5911 KP) rated The Housekeepers in Books

Aug 4, 2023  
The Housekeepers
The Housekeepers
Alex Hay | 2023 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Ok, so full disclosure: this WILL be in my top reads this year. I loved every page. Every page that I would have turned much quicker if I hadn’t been reading on The Pigeonhole!!

Mrs King, the housekeeper of a Mayfair house, is sacked when she is discovered trying to access the male servants corridor at night. She recruits a group of women to exact her revenge: a woman who runs a black market business; an actress; a seamstress; and Mrs King’s predecessor. They all have more in common than you’d think, and they all have scores to settle.

I loved everything about The Housekeepers: I felt that the historical details were spot on, and I really wanted the women to come out on top. This is a really audacious plan, and I’m sure that anyone else reading it would want them to succeed as well.

And the secrets within the walls of that house!! The women want to expose this family just as much as they want to completely clear out the house.

The night of the party is a wondrous thing: even the Princess comes along (and with a warning!). There are acrobats, gentry, amazing costumes, and the most startling way of removing artwork from a house that I’ve ever heard of!

But of course there’s much more to this than meets the eye, and Mrs King has a bone to pick with the lady of the house.

Honestly, this is a wonderfully imaginative book - you should read it!!
  
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Hazel (1853 KP) rated Spilt Milk in Books

May 30, 2017  
Spilt Milk
Spilt Milk
Amanda Hodgkinson | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Not about milk
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Spilt Milk is the second historical novel by Amanda Hodgkinson, award-winning British author of 22 Britannia Road. Split into two parts it follows the lives of two sisters over several decades during the first half of the twentieth century. Set in Britain, this is a novel about relationships, family, secrets… and illegitimate pregnancies. Lots of illegitimate pregnancies.

The first part spans from 1913 until 1917 thus covering the First World War period. The second part picks up the storyline in 1939 and continues until the novel’s final pages set in 1965. So yet another world war is included, although it has little impact on the plot. The first chapter is almost like the calm before the storm. Everything appears peaceful and happy until everything spirals out of control. Vivian and Nellie Marsh (aged twenty three and twenty two) have been raised by their older sister Rose in a small farmhouse since the death of their parents when Nellie was a baby. We first meet Nellie rinsing chamber pots outside where she has a feeling that something is going to happen; something good, she hopes. Alas, it turns out it was a bad feeling after all as floodwaters rise and Rose dies. The only apparent good thing is the arrival of a hired farm hand, Joe Ferier. But no, that is also a bad occurrence that leaves one sister pregnant and the other temporarily homeless.

Over the years we see how the sisters deal with the way in which their lives have drastically changed up until Nellie has a child with her husbands brother. Luckily her husband is willing to pass the child off as his own, and so Nellie, unlike the other secret pregnancies in this story, actually gets to keep her love child.

At the start of part two, Nellie’s daughter Bertha (commonly known as Birdie) is eighteen years old and finds herself – can you guess? – pregnant after a one night stand. So that it can remain secret she goes to live with her Aunt Vivian until the baby is born and adopted. Vivian ends up housing many girls including a couple of minor characters who have got themselves in a similar way. I did say there were a lot of illegitimate pregnancies! It also comes to light that supposedly innocent, spinster Rose had not one but two babies during her teenage years.

The remainder of the novel shows us how the girls: Nellie, Vivian and Birdie; get on with their lives under the burden of their personal secrets and emotions. It is Birdie who struggles the most with the knowledge that her daughter is growing up without her but to talk to anyone about it would have deep consequences.

The size of the time period means that the reader can become attached to certain key characters and feel their pain as they struggle with their emotional afflictions, however each scene passes quickly as time goes on which means we do not really get to appreciate the minor characters.

Overall it is a good, reasonably quick read which many women would enjoy, particularly those who appreciate historical fiction and may have sisters of their own and therefore understand what the power of keeping secrets can result in.