REVIEW: Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering

JayneBook Reviews / C+ ReviewsContemporary / Fiction / Womens-Fiction / YorkshireNo Comments

Andi Glover loves nothing more than a good book.

Any book in fact because when you’re raised by unconventional parents who think school’s for squares, alongside a deeply conventional sister who escapes home as soon as she can, fiction is eminently preferable to reality.

The only problem is that fiction isn’t the best way to learn about the real world. When Andi starts her new live-in job at Templewood Hall for the eccentric Lady Dawe and her enigmatic son Hugo, it’s tempting to think she’s fallen into the pages of one of her favourite gothic novels.

But the plot twists at Templewood Hall are stranger than fiction and it’s not long before Andi questions if she’s living in a romance novel or a whodunnit. Bumps in the night, a missing heir, ghostly apparitions and secrets that have been kept for generations – the mysteries mount up. Then there’s the inscrutable gardener who seems to appear when needed – is Andi right to hope for a happily-ever-after end to her story?

Dear Ms. Lovering, 

Hmmm, I’ve noticed that the last few books of yours I’ve read have been more fiction/women’s fiction with less romance than I’m used to. In this book there are a few possibilities for heroine Andi, that is if she is actually going to get a romance and not just live in her book induced fantasy dreams. But for the longest time, I didn’t know if Andi was going to pull her head out of her book-induced expectations or not.

When Andi arrives via taxi at the grand estate where she’s been hired to catalog a library of books, she realizes a few things: the estate is a crumbling mess, the “library” is full of merely old, dusty, spine cracked books, and her employer, Lady Tanith, is as bonkers as the taxi driver told Andi she would be. With no other options due to her own family issues, Andi begins to make the best of things even as she daydreams about the son of her employer. After all, in romance books, the handsome man always marries the woebegone heroine. Meanwhile the gardener has Andi thinking Lady Chatterley thoughts. Yet what will Andi do when she finally discovers what Lady Tanith is looking for and sees the pitfalls waiting to trip up any decision Andi makes?

I can see that with her #VanLife and #LivinginaCaravan upbringing, Andi has turned to books to be both her friends and her source of information given that her parents don’t believe in standard schooling. Andi arrives at Templewood with stars in her eyes and dreams of the son of the house falling for her, marrying her and then living her romance book dream best life. As Jay the gardener says during one of their conversations, life isn’t like that. Thank goodness that Andi quickly realizes that one potential suitor just won’t suit no matter who is pushing the relationship.

Still Andi’s head remains in her daydream clouds for a long, long time. She does quickly stop kowtowing to batshit Lady Tanith and while not actually flipping the woman off, Andi makes it that clear. That Lady Tanith’s son Hugo likes her is one point in Andi’s favor. That the Master likes her is probably several points in her favor as Lady Tanith seems to believe that the overweight Siamese cat, who usually smells of fish, is the reincarnation of the man Lady Tanith loved and lost but whom, even fifty years after his death, Lady Tanith still loves with feelings that border on obsession. As the taxi driver said – bonkers. 

Once most of the main plot points got laid out, the book sort of repetitiously circled around on itself, spun its wheels in the mud and didn’t go anywhere for a while. We read the story through Andi’s first person POV and there is a lot of telling here. So much telling. It’s also hard to tell exactly what the book is supposed to be – mystery, romance, gothic, women’s fiction. There’s a touch of all of that. 

After a slow middle, the finale picks up its pace, guns it, and charges to the end. Andi finds her future albeit, yes, after a man suggests it and offers it to her. Other characters discover a new way forward as well and this part sort of charms me, too. Who knew the secrets a family can have? I certainly hope, though, that one person will remain in a better headspace. But I do love the cat. C+

~Jayne       

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Related