Title: The Widow of Rose House
Author: Diana Biller
Series: n/a
A humorous debut romance—and a ghost story too
I would like to thank Diana Biller, St. Martin’s Press/Griffin, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I devoured this book. Started it late in the evening and would have had it finished before noon the following day if other obligations hadn’t demanded my attention. I still finished it within 24 hours. Loved it!
First I need to clarify the tone and genre of this book. I went in thinking it would be a dark, serious, spooky gothic that focused on a mystery surrounding a ghost and with a subtle romance building between the characters. No, no. Those elements are there—but this is primarily a romance packed with humor. Humor! And it was well written to boot. I was absolutely delighted.
Yes, the main plot was definitely about Alva and Sam; in the course of falling in love, Alva had to learn to trust and Sam had to face reality. They were brought together by an old run-down house Alva had recently bought, as she was writing a book about interior decoration; a house Sam, an eccentric scientist, wanted to study the moment he heard of it and the lore surrounding it. In other words, the house gave them a reason to interact at all. Studying and exorcising it required them to spend time together. Add a dash of natural attraction, stir the pot, and you’ve got yourself a romance.
As for the tone, the story had its dark corners and lurking shadows; don’t let my excitement over the romance make you think it’ll be silly and light. There’s weight to the tale and maturity to the characters. It’s simply not as dark and serious as I expected.
Most of my notes aren’t notes, they’re funny bits I highlighted. The first funny thought Sam had—“The old man’s mustache had…things…in it.”—startled me a bit; I figured it was an anomaly, a case of the author not being able to resist the opportunity for a gag even though it didn’t suit the character’s mentality. But a few pages more and I realized humor not only suited Sam’s mentality, but that humor was organically inherent in his absent, utterly irreverent manner and glass-half-full outlook on life.
Sam was the first thing I fell in love with in this book and was easily my favorite part of it. He was like a cheerful, friendly, loving mash-up of Sherlock Holmes and Sheldon Cooper with the added bonus of actually being interested in sex. It didn’t escape my notice, however, that he lacked flaws. Rich, famous, successful, intelligent, handsome, charming, physically fit, family-oriented, kind, optimistic, a happily considerate lover—the list goes on. Maybe we’re supposed to consider his easily diverted focus, absentness, and irreverence as flaws, but if that’s the case, Biller messed up because those traits came across as absolutely adorkable to me, especially the absentness. To be fair, though, if I had to deal with him in real life, my infinitesimal capacity for patience would be depleted real fast. And I’d never be able to live with him, unless he kept his hurricane-aftermath level of tidiness confined to his lab. Just imagining the mess made me shudder.
The book gave him the flaw of selfishness in that he didn’t truly appreciate his good fortune and was somewhat naive. It was reaching, because he was more than willing to meet dark reality head-on, and he was conscious of taking his good fortune for granted. He thought he was terrible because he still took it for granted even though he was aware that he was taking it for granted. See what I mean by reaching? Rather contrived. Honestly, I’d give him points just for being aware of it. No one who met him would believe he didn’t thank the powers that be for his life.
Alva was a good character, very sympathetic, but I didn’t become as enamored of her as I did of Sam. She was the straight man to his funny man, and she played her part well. I liked when she would forget she was supposed to be dour and forlorn and get caught up in logistics and calculations with Sam. Watching her become accustomed to his quirks and personality was heartwarming. Her resisting and refusing him got pretty old, but it wasn’t annoying enough to cause me to dislike her.
The ghost story wasn’t exactly disappointing, it was again a matter of not being what I expected. It wasn’t the most intriguing or spookiest ghost story I’ve read, but Biller executed it well enough. Some readers may get confused trying to sort out reality from illusion; I got turned around a bit myself, but I kinda just plunged ahead and gradually understood what was going on.
The only other thing I noted was the unnecessary setting stamps that began four or five of the chapters. Except for perhaps the first one, to let us know exactly where and when in history the story was unfolding, we didn’t need them. Changes in setting happened quite often and I followed those as well as the passing of time easily; Biller did a good job orienting us within the narrative. I’m not sure why they thought a few of the chapters needed it stated. Maybe they removed them in the final copy.
I eagerly anticipate Biller’s future work. I have no idea if she intends to tell the stories of the other characters in the book—namely Henry, Benedict, and Maggie—all wonderful and endearing, along with Sam’s parents—or if she wants to continue giving Sam and Alva mysteries to solve, or if she means to leave this as a stand alone and write something completely new and unrelated. Whatever it is, I’m game.
….Not gonna lie, though, I’d love to see more of Sam and Alva. I want to see them with a baby or small child. I bet I’d bust a gut at the mischief Sam and his progeny got up to. I’m sure the kid would be blowing things up before they were two. I’d be happy with a short depiction of Christmas with the Moores. It doesn’t even have to have a plot. I just want to see Alva finally have a great Christmas with a big, loving family. She so deserves it.
My favorite funny moment:
“…Maisie said love was more important than food, and Cook screamed and threw a pan at her, which missed but upset the cat, and then the cat tore up onto the counter and knocked off the sauce Cook’d just finished, and so they were all in a right fuss when I left, ma’am.”
…Alva eyed [Liza] with respect. She’d only counted three stops in the entire monologue… “I hope the cat has recovered from her shock.”
“She was faking, if you ask me,” Liza said darkly. “Lickin’ her paws when I left ma’am, lickin’ the sauce right off her paws.”
