This book was recently on sale, and I was instantly curious about the cast of characters who all work and live on or around a British Heritage Trust estate in Yorkshire. The people who live in or work in historic buildings are fascinating, I think; one of my favorite segments of a documentary titled Windsor Castle: A Royal Year was when the filmmakers followed the castle timekeeper as he walked all over the estate changing the clocks for daylight savings time. I figured that history contained and continued within the people who keep a historic site running behind the scenes would make for really interesting reading. I was not wrong!
Amy lives with her grandmother and works in the tea shop inside Monkpark Hall estate. Her grandmother had worked there as well, and though Amy has a business degree, she returned to care for her gran and bake in the teashop. Every day she makes more pastry, serves tea and coffee, and meanders through her life in a sort of static misery. Her grandmother isn’t terribly kind to her and neither is her best friend and coworker Julia. Life has not been kind to Amy in general, really.
Then there’s Josh, who lives in a dilapidated camper van on the estate. He’s the falconer, showing visitors birds of prey and demonstrating how falconry works. His birds are kept in a barn on the estate, but Josh keeps very much to himself. Trigger warning for the slow reveal of Josh’s history, which is terrible, painful, and sad.
When a new administrator comes to Monkpark Hall, the staff are curious and concerned, especially Amy. Edmund, said new administrator, is as sleazy as they come, and targets Amy in a number of revolting ways. First he threatens her livelihood in the tea shop, then threatens her home and her grandmother, as their cottage is rented to them at a reduced rate by the estate because they are current and former employees. If there’s no job for Amy, she and her grandmother will be kicked out of their home, and Edmund knows it, so he blithely uses that threat to keep Amy in line and in fear of him.
I enjoyed this book but while I was reading it, I kept saying aloud, “This book is lovely but it is so sad.” It was making me a little morose, what with Amy’s being stuck in her life, the little needles of abuse from her grandmother and Julia that pile up inside her, the ways in which she’s ignored and taken advantage of by Edmund, and the daily crumpling of her feelings were part of her daily existence – it was tough to read about.
And the alternating chapters from Josh’s point of view were even more painful: his story moves from a sort of stream of consciousness style that is laden with pain and alienation to a more coherent narrative as he grows closer to Amy, and as they help one another enjoy their daily existence more and more. But Josh’s life before the start of the book and during the first half of the novel were cold and bleak.
If I had to describe my experience reading this story, it would be, “Bleak and lonely, then better at the end.” If you’re familiar with my reading tastes and dislikes, you know trauma involving children is something I can’t read about. With this book, I was so invested in Josh and Amy’s eventual happiness, I was determined to keep reading, even when it was terribly wrenching. Something good had to come out of the despair they were living within at the start of the book and I was going to get to that part. Then, as the sadness of their individual backstories was revealed, I was even more determined. They were going to be happy, dammit. So I kept going, though at times my eyes were stinging and my younger son had to put up with a lot of hugs from me.
If I diagrammed this book, it would be a long, slowly descending line going lower and lower until at the end it zooms back up to a happier level. There is a marked and somewhat abrupt turning point in Josh’s narration where he gets a lot more coherent, self aware, and verbally expressive in a hurry, largely due to his having hope and something to look forward to in his time with Amy. I wanted him to receive some serious counseling and help because the residual effects of his abuse endangered him several times, and I wasn’t entirely confident of his continued recovery from the anxiety, depression, and emotional trauma that he managed each day.
One aspect of the ending bothered me a little, too:
It reminded me of Buford from Phineas & Ferb, in the Christmas special when he discloses his plan for getting off Santa’s naughty list: each year he does one big generous act at the very last minute so everyone will forget all the crapful things he did the rest of the year. And it works.
In this story, many of the people who made Amy’s and Josh’s existence miserable in a zillion tiny ways pull a Buford: they perform that one big act of generosity toward the end when it doesn’t cost them much, but I wasn’t willing or able to entirely forgive them for everything else they’d done prior, nor was I convinced they’d really redeemed themselves.
That said, I highlighted so many passages that underscored the loneliness of the characters, the bleakness and limited freedom of Amy and Josh (neatly paralleled through Josh’s birds, who are free to fly into the cold sky and choose to return to him), and their way of seeing their world.
For example, Amy puts up with a lot of crap, but she also has a deep fondness and respect for the estate where she was brought up, and now lives and works, and I could see it in the way she thinks about her home:
The few inches of snow that had accumulated over the fields and gardens evened out the humps and bumps of the landscape and made everything look level and neat. It tidied the usual ragged edges of the yew walk under a neat surface and made the house look like an iced biscuit.
Josh’s continued bafflement at the superficial small talk of people who see each other every day at work charmed me with his curmudgeonly honesty. From the start of the story I was behind Amy and Josh, wanting them to finally win a small, then larger victory over the circumstances that keep them confined to damaging habits, wanting them to find a way to be together and bring one another some well-deserved and long overdue solace and happiness. Their romance was mostly obstructed by their own pasts and the damaging autopilot they’d set themselves within, and, as I said, I wanted them to overcome all of their internal challenges to find a way to be together safely and happily.
Despite the very rushed ending and my wish for more health intervention for Josh in particular, the elegance of the writing and the hard-won happiness of the ending combined to leave me sad but mostly satisfied. I recommend this book with reservations, though: anyone who would be traumatized by reading about abuse should skip it.
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Yay! Finally a book I’ve actually read. I’ve read so much romance with dukes lately that this was a breath of fresh air even if the book wasn’t exactly an easy read. I agree with you on all of your points. I really wished Amy would get some backbone and stop bending over backwards for the people in her life. And the spoilerish part about the ending you mention, couldn’t agree more. The book didn’t make me want to read anything else by the author though because this wasn’t exactly a feel good story.
Great review! A definite one click for me.
It’s worth knowing that nothing else by Jane Lovering is this bleak, so you can read them and enjoy the excellent writing and interesting characters without having to deal with super horrible backstories.
@Susan: I’m really pleased to hear that – thank you. I loved the characters, the writing, and especially the uniqueness of the setting and the subtle way class and history influence one another, and would love to try more, but wasn’t sure if I could handle the bleakness. Do you have any specific recommendations that you’ve enjoyed? Thank you!
This sounds right up my alley, apart from the sad bits, although I do appreciate when authors don’t pretend to us that everyone’s life is sunshine and roses.
However, do you know if it’s been issued in hard copy? I can only find e-books, and I find that reading on paper somewhat reduces my participation in Bad Decisions Book Club.
@No, the Other Anne: I can’t find one, alas. If I see one for sale, I’ll link to it!
SBSarah– Can’t Buy Me Love/Reversing Over Liberace and Star Struck (set at a SF TV show con) both end with jerks getting their comeuppance, which is always satisfying! Please Don’t Stop the Music (first Lovering I read) is great. Vampire State of Mind is a fun take on urban fantasy.
A caution for I Don’t Want to Talk About It– the heroine’s way of dealing with the events of her past (trying to be non spoilery here) and what happens to change her can be hard to take.
Thank you, Sarah, for such a thoughtful review. It’s good to read about something that’s different from the norm.
I’ve read HUBBLE BUBBLE and PLEASE DON’T STOP THE MUSIC, both excellent. CAN’T BUY ME LOVE is lying in wait. I think Lovering’s characters have to deal with realistic situations, but don’t recall either of the two I’ve read being bleak.
This book was my introduction to Jane Lovering as well. Not my usual cup of tea, so to speak, but I liked it enough to pick up some of her other books. So, having read about 5 or 6 of them, here’s my brief assessment of them all:
By far the strongest point in her favor is that she portrays disabled characters — physically disabled as well as those suffering from emotional trauma — in a refreshing way. No insta-fixes. Mild criticism would be that some of the heroines are pretty spineless, and (as mentioned above) the “bad guys” tend to be forgiven easily — even those that have engaged in horrendous criminal conduct and belong in jail.
this maybe is wierd , but i just like to say im glad that you hid the triggers , that is a good way to review books i think,one can uncover what the triggers are and not give away more about the books.
What confuses me is that the marketing for this book seems really bent on misleading the reader about what it is. The cover is whimsical, the title would make me assume it was some sort of fun light horror read, and the full title on Amazon is ‘Little Teashop of Horrors: A wonderful funny, uplifting romantic read, perfect to escape with’. I guess you don’t have to score books on a sadness scale when you’re marketing them, but misleading this far seems unhelpful to both the reader and the author.
@mamxnb: That’s not weird at all! It’s difficult sometimes to explain what happens so that potential readers are forewarned without spoiling important details that are revealed at a particular point for a reason that is important to the narrative. Spoiler tags help a lot with that, and I’m very glad we have that ability.
I liked that there was no insta-fix to the hero’s problems.
As someone else mentioned here, this is far darker than most of Jane Lovering’s other books. I’ve read all of them (I think). My favourite is the novella, The Boys of Christmas – another book with an unusual setting. That one makes me laugh.
I also love Vampire State of Mind. It’s a very different take on vampires. The heroine works for the local council rounding up vampires and werewolves who are breaking the law. It’s set in York, which is close to where I live, so I recognise the places mentioned in it.