Desert Isle Keeper
The Widow of Rose House
Diana Biller’s The Widow of Rose House is a wonderful gothic romance with a sense of humor that pits a skeptic against a scientist with a love for the paranormal.
Alva Penrose Rensselaer Webster is still battling a society that prefers to penalize her for leaving her husband Alain while ignoring the fact that he was abusing her physically. Three years of scorn and gossip have passed by, and now Alain has been murdered, allowing Alva the possibility of a new life. Thus, she’s trying to clean up her image by planting herself in New York. Alva’s plans include publishing a guide to etiquette as Mrs. Webster, which will help fund her plan to refurbish Liefdehuis in Hyde Park, a dilapidated mansion with a negative history that she buys because she pities it.
While lunching at Delmonicos, Alva is approached by the awkward inventor, Professor Samuel Moore, creator of the Moore Lantern (and conduit, and rail system), an expert in engineering who comes from a gregarious family of accomplished scientists. Sam also has a penchant for the paranormal, and he approaches Alva with a proposition; he wants to find out if the hauntings reported at Liefdehuis are genuine and examine the house’s metaphysical energies. Alva considers those rumors simple gossip, the result of people trying to scare her off thanks to her reputation, but Sam will not give up and starts interviewing the house’s former employees in order to obtain evidence. Alva gets her own when multiple builders she’s hired to restore Liefdehuis flee the place and refuse to return, claiming they’ve seen a ghost. Eventually Alva lets Sam try to examine the place – against her better instincts, but desperate to have a livable home. Together, Sam and Alva research the history of the house to get a bead on their ghost and clear its energies for once and all –and they also begin to fall in love. But will the ghosts of the pasts – Alva’s, in the form of her dead husband’s just-as-abusive twin, Alfred, and the house’s – part these two for good?
The Widow of Rose House is a great little romance. It’s heartbreaking, feminist, filled with romantic life and touched with a sense of the utterly creepy and spooky. Its sense of humor is a surprise which colors all of the words between its pages.
Alva is smart and indomitable, and has developed an outer shell that’s hard to crack, although she does have have her weaknesses, of course. And creative, loving Sam makes a good foil for her with his happiness, his intense affection and his expansive sense of wonder – something that needs to be awakened in Alva.
The romance between them works because of the delicious banter and the fact that they make each other better but don’t disappear into one another. They’re both dedicated to the mystery and to helping one another grow, and the reader’s reward is their success.
The solution to the ghost plot is fairly unexpected and interesting (and plants some unique red herrings in the reader’s path), although I have to say that I liked the book’s ghostly antagonist much better than I did its human ones.
The book’s only real flaw is its pacing. The conclusion runs a little too quickly and is rather too pat, speeding things to a comfortable conclusion that doesn’t take the time to smell the roses its richly earned. But the epilogue’s content is perfectly sweet and romantic, which makes the rushed conclusion worthwhile in the long run.
The Widow of Rose House is a wonderful romance with a warm heart – and chilly extremities – that will win it many fans.
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Book Details
| Reviewer: | Lisa Fernandes |
|---|---|
| Review Date: | October 8, 2019 |
| Publication Date: | 10/2019 |
| Grade: | A- |
| Sensuality | Warm |
| Book Type: | Historical Romance |
| Review Tags: |
Just finished reading last weekend and Lisa did a great job reviewing this debut novel. I’m looking forward to more writing from this author. Alva was terrific and I really liked her story. I just hope the author can find her way to creating a foil for just such a future protagonist who is NOT quite so perfect.
Sam is one of those MCs whose only flaw is that he fights too hard for the heroine. I particularly liked Sam’s flights of fancy onto the next thing that catches his attention – but which should have some sort of downside. Instead, it charms everyone he meets. Sam made no mistakes and paid no price (he’s brilliant, he’s well-funded, he has a fabulous family, he’s adored by one and all, and he’s always in the right place at the right time) and that made him (and the book) a little less interesting.
This is such an interesting issue to me. On the one hand, we know we are all flawed and we’d like to see ourselves replicated in romance. On the other hand, we live in a world that, at least online and in print, is exceedingly unforgiving of flaws and flawed behaviour. I too find perfect heroes/heroines less interesting than those who struggle but I have empathy for author who feel pressure to have leads that are inoffensive.
Yep, yep, yep . . . but some authors can pull it off, and others can’t (flawed characters). I hope this author finds the confidence and skill to pull it off, given that it the time period is potentially more interesting for heroines imho.
I clearly liked the book better than chrisreader and eggletina – although they both raise interesting points and I appreciate their following up here for future readers. Clearly I was in more of a mood to “roll with it” on this book.
My problem with Sam is that (apart from being perfect) he gets a glimpse of the heroine at a restaurant and from then on decides she is brilliant and perfect. It’s like instalove (or infatuation). His entire purpose in the story is just to give approbation to the heroine. He sees none of her completed work, just some sketches and declares she is a “genius”. He’s so supportive and positive and automatically assumes she is right about everything (for no real reason). He is allowed no dark side or for the idea to even cross his mind that she is anything but perfect. If she is prickly or does something that doesn’t make good sense, well then he’s just not being sensitive enough. It’s one thing to have a supportive hero but he’s so self effacing and deferential he was more like a butler than a partner.
For me there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense about the book. The heroine is an heiress being held prisoner by her husband with no work experience or reputation as a designer, yet she secretly gets a paid column under an assumed name that allows her enough money to escape her husband. How does that work? It’s never explained. Why would someone hire her?
The whole novel is full of these over the top happenings. The hero’s father takes a look at one thing the mother (who was his assistant or secretary) did at work and completely rebuilds his lab and all his work based around her as his partner…in the 1840’s. The heroes entire family seemed straight out of a 1940’s movie rather than people of the 19th century. I had to keep reminding myself what time frame it was supposed to be.
I had the same issues with this book. Reviewers are going to have to work hard to show me the author has curbed her OTT enthusiasms to persuade me to try another.
Honestly, Sam’s Wife Guy behavior is part of his charm, but that’s IMO.
I really liked Sam too, and maybe that is why his “perfect-ness” stood out for me? He reminds me of Cletus Winston in Beard Science (a character and book that really worked for me) . . . except Sam doesn’t have Cletus’ blind spot about his own fallibilities.
Is that too weird an example?
Nah, I understand what you mean!
I just started this and I have high hopes as people have liked it and the reviews seem good. Unfortunately I’m only a few pages in and the anachronisms are already piling up. Sam has already mentioned a “casual dress code” which didn’t exist in that usage until the 1960s. He asked his partner for a pen so he pulled one out of his coat pocket- at a restaurant table in 19th century New York. Unless he had an ink well in his other pocket how was he writing? Ballpoints sure didn’t exist then. I’m hoping things pick up but I’m really surprised no one caught these really blatant errors.
I used to be an aficionado of fountain pens as a teen, but late 19th century Gilded Age dip pens, the fountain pen predecessor, were portable and children even took them to school with them. They were cheap too. I think people carried small vials of ink with them. I just assumed as a scientist, carrying a dip pen wouldn’t have been much of an issue for Sam.
I have to admit though that any anachronisms that may appear in this book did not impact me at all. I’m not terribly bothered by them in general in historical writing though.
#co-sign
Depends on the book for me. I have a sliding scale on authenticity. I think had expected it to be more researched and specific based on the cover, reviews and price point.. If it’s more modern/wallpaper but still a cute story I will probably still like it but I’m adjusting my expectations accordingly.
I had a hard time figuring out exactly what era it was set in at first. From the cover I had assumed late 19th century but based on the dialogue, vocabulary and some of the anachronisms I thought maybe I misunderstood because it felt almost 1950’s to me until Alva mentioned carriages. Their first meeting had a very golden age of Hollywood meet cute style to it that would have worked for a 1940’s comedy. Since it’s roughly Edith Wharton’s time and setting it’s hard not to notice how informal and modern sounding it is even compared to other historical romances.
Finished this last night. Fun characters and the ghost story is really imaginative. I hope to read more about Sam’s family — they are awesome characters.
I LOVED Sam’s family, they were so lively! Glad you liked it.
Your review really makes me want to read this soon. I think it won’t escape my next shopping day…
I really hope you like it!!
Yes, I agree that this is a great review and makes me want to read this one. It’s the perfect month for a ghost story too.
Thank you so much! I hope you like it!
Oh, this sounds great! And Lisa, I love your observation that “they make each other better but don’t disappear into one another.” That’s such a good encapsulation of my favorite pairings (in life as well as in books.) Thanks for this!
I really hope you like it!