Review + Giveaway + Extract: The House at Ladywell by Nicola Slade

The House at Ladywell by Nicola Slade

Release Date: 14th November 2017
Publisher: Crooked Cat Books

Genres:  Contemporary Romance / Historical interludes

A hare carved in stone and the scent of flowers in a house full of echoes – can Freya’s inheritance help her to leave the past behind? 

Had I gone completely crazy that first day? To open the door, take one astonished look round, and decide on the spot that I would live there? 

To fall in love with a house?’ 

When Freya Gibson inherits an old, run-down property she has no idea she is the last in a long line of redoubtable women, including the Tudor nun who built the house. Unknown to Freya these women, over centuries, fought with whatever weapons came to hand – deception, endurance, even murder – to preserve their home and family. 

Freya falls in love with the house but her inheritance includes an enigmatic letter telling her to ‘restore the balance’ of the Lady’s Well. Besides this, the house seems to be haunted by the scent of flowers.

In the past the Lady’s Well was a place of healing and Freya soon feels safe and at home, but she has demons of her own to conquer before she can accept the happiness that beckons.

EXTRACT

 ‘Something I’d failed to mention to anyone: not to Louise, not when I was enthusing to Patrick, and certainly not to the helpful solicitor, was the letter that had been waiting for me on that first day.

Beside the front door stood a small table on which sat an old walkabout phone in a base station, and two envelopes, one large and the other letter-sized. The smaller envelope was addressed to me.

The handwriting straggled shakily across the page and the contents of the letter startled me.

‘When you were born I knew you were the one. Before anything else you must go into the garden and pick some flowers. It doesn’t matter what you pick: in winter look for leaves, rosemary or winter jasmine, but if it’s summer pick simple flowers – a rose, a sprig of yellow broom, nothing fancy. Pick what you can and weave them into a wreath made from the rowan tree – you’ll know it by the wooden bench underneath. Hang it on the hook inside the front door.

When that’s done, say the words written below, making sure you’re alone. My grandmother had the verse from her own grandmother and so on. I expect the words have altered over time but the spirit remains the same. Show reverence when you do these things but do this first of all. You must not delay.

You must restore the balance.’

It had been a sleety February day, with flowers few and far between but I persevered, driven by the sense of urgency in the letter. I found secateurs in the kitchen. The rosemary was easy, a great, straggling bush standing sentinel by the path, with yellow winter jasmine spread against the wall. In a sheltered spot I found a clump of snowdrops and, to my delight, a primrose or two.

I had to stand on the bench to snip a couple of pliable twigs from the rowan, and back in the house I bent them into a makeshift circle and threaded in the flowers and leaves. Still under the compulsion I’d felt on reading the letter I stood on a chair to hang my creation on the waiting hook.

Saying the words Violet had written made me pause.

‘It sounds like a spell,’ I half-whispered, hushed by the strangeness of it all. Was Violet a witch? Wasn’t this all complete nonsense? I read the words again and summoned up my rusty Latin vocabulary, almost forgotten since ‘A’ Level. ‘Domina means lady; something about water? And leporum – rabbit? No,’ I corrected myself. ‘Lepus is a hare, and benedic – any kind of blessing can’t be bad.’

There was something about the place that I couldn’t explain. I felt safe and – odd as it sounds – wrapped in loving arms. The house was filled with a friendly silence and I felt comforted for the first time in ages. What harm could it do to obey Violet’s last instructions when she given me this precious gift?

I took a deep breath and bowed my head before the ring of twigs and flowers, not in prayer but in a kind of grateful submission, as I quietly murmured the Latin words, stumbling over a rough translation in my head…’

The minute I see a book with a house at its core almost as one of the main characters, I just jump at the chance to read it. The house lives and breathes life into the story and the characters and its almost as though it senses when Freya needs help and guidance. This book did not disappoint and exceeded my expectations. When author P.A Freya Gibson inherits a house from a relative she has never heard of, she just knows this is the chance to start afresh. Despite initial reservations, Freya is drawn to the house immediately and the history behind it left through some incomplete notes and articles. The reader learns of the rich and varied history of the house through a series of historical flashbacks and we discover that the House at Ladywell has an amazing and intriguing story behind it. 

During the first half of the book we also get hints at Freya's own past and her need to forge ahead with a new life despite her fears that her boss Patrick may not be happy with the move. His behaviour towards her has changed and Freya is unsure of how to handle this. There seems to be so much going on for Freya. Not only is she learning about the history of the house but she is also learning some secrets about her own past. Can the healing powers of the house and the well heal Freya's past?

Nicola Slade has managed to create a wealth of interesting characters both from the past and present. The house itself seems to cast a spell over not only Freya but over the reader too. I became just as interested in the history of the house as Freya and loved all the mystery and magic that surrounded it. I loved the historical flashbacks and the richness of the language used. These scenes instantly transported me to another time and place and I found myself lost there. The dialogue flows easily and book is perfectly paced. This is a wonderful story about new beginnings and how the influences from the past can shape our future. Its got mystery, suspense, magic and love. Up there on my list of recommended reads.

 

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ABOUT NICOLA SLADE

 

Nicola Slade had her first short stories published in her early twenties and wrote for children and for women’s magazines while her three children were growing up.

Nicola’s books are all set in Hampshire and include the romantic comedy, ‘Scuba Dancing’, and two cosy mystery series. The Charlotte Richmond books set in 1858 feature a young widow with a shady past and a habit of stumbling over the occasional corpse and the contemporary Harriet Quigley mysteries, featuring a retired headmistress and her cousin and sidekick, the Rev. Sam Hathaway.

Nicola lives in Hampshire with her husband, and as well as writing she belongs to a local art workshop; among other things she has been a Brown Owl and an antiques dealer.

 Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/nicolasladeuk/

Twitter:  @nicolasladeuk

Blog: www.nicolaslade.wordpress.com

Website: www.nicolaslade.com