Christmas Spirits at Honeywell House

You should read this series in its order to really understand the town, how humans and ghosts live together here and also to understand some of the relationships, how things belong together. In this book we concentrate on the ghosts Aubrey and Agnes, who live in Harling Hall, and Clara and her family. We learn how Clara met her husband Jack and about their live with their sons in Rowan Vale. Clara is struggling with her live as full time mom of three very active sons and with the hormonal changes she is going through. All this is taking its toll and the relationship with her husband becomes increasingly strained. That Clara kept right from the start a huge secret from Jake is not making it any easier to finally come clean. Aubrey is not visiting the town for several years yet as Agnes is not willing to hear any more bad gossip about them living in sin together in Harling Hall. Now that Christmas is close and Rowan Vale planned to have a Dickensian themed weekend and also the ghosts decided to do a play of the Christmas Carol he wants to see all this for himself hence wants to find a way that they can go into town again. Soon it is revealed that Agnes has kept a huge secret from Aubrey which could affect their relationship. I love this series and really like the ghosts but also everybody living in Rowan Vale. To combine this with a wonderful Christmas spirit in the perfect surrounding of Rowan Vale it is a wonderful, cosy and again a lovely read. I love that on the one hand we have the storyline of Clara and Jack, on the other hand the ones of the ghosts Aubrey and Agnes and both get wonderfully woven together. Clara is struggling with her live. Being since years a fulltime time taking care of the house and the dog and now that the kids are finally old enough to start working again is for me well described. On the one hand she wants something for herself, on the other hand she is scared as she is off work for so many years already and the working hours would need to fit around the time she can take off while the kids are at school. I really liked that we have the review how she and Jack met back then and fell in love with each other. I really liked to read how they struggle as couple but still love each other so much and how Jack reacts to some of the secrets which get revealed. Aubrey is one of my favourite ghosts so far and to learn more about his past I really enjoyed. It showed what a wonderful character he is and why I like him so much. Also to learn more about his relationship with Agnes was nice and I think I start to like her now much better even so I don´t like how she reacted so far when she feels the need to keep everybody she loves close to herself and what actions she thought were appropriate. I won´t spoil here but I loved how their story developed here. I fall more and more in love with Rowan Vale and all the wonderful characters in it.

This was my second Ghost of Rowan Vale story and I had really enjoyed the previous installment. I must admit, it took me a bit longer to get into this one. We follow our main character Clara, who in the middle of perimenopause is overwhelmed with her life and her hormon-driven emotions. I was quite excited to have a MC that is in perimenopause, as I think it's a topic that isn't often discussed in fiction. However, Clara focussed a lot on her outer appearance and how she felt useless, fat, and not attractive anymore. Which are absolutely emotions a person in perimenopause can feel, but it was seldom challenged by the people around her. Eventually, the solution was pregnancy, which kind of felt like the "easy way out" explanation for her weight gain. Additionally, I am not a big fan of the "we've been keeping this secret for so long that now we can't even think about saying it out loud" trope. Neither for Clara and her husband, nor for Lawrie and Agnes. I wish their "secrets" had come out a bit earlier, because we spent a lot of the book wondering about what is actually going on and pottering about, and it made the first half of the book drag along a bit. Still, I loved diving deeper into the town's history and the lives that some of the ghosts have lived. Prejudice can sit with a person for a very long time and on top of that said characters are from the Victorian and Regency Eras, which certainly placed different expectations on a person than nowadays. As it so often is, communication is key and the solution to many problems. All in all, it was a comfy-cozy read for a winter evening with a cup of tea, which I certainly enjoyed. Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!