Book Review: Keeper of Enchanted Rooms

Title: Keeper of Enchanted Rooms
Author: Charlie N. Holmberg
Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Historical Fiction

What It’s About: In 1818, Silas Hogwood is brushing one of his horses, when his father returns extremely drunk and informs him that he’s been let go from the King’s League. His father lashes out at him, angered that Silas has a bit more magic than he does, and after being severely beaten, with broken ribs, Silas’s own magic unleashes—a mix of necromancy, luck and chaocracy. It knocks out his father, and then he also is unconscious. When he comes to, he feels more magic coursing through his veins, only to be snuffed out when he uses his magic on his father to kill him silently. He realizes that he had pulled in his own father’s magic somehow, but decides no one would lord over him. Eventually, after his 18th birthday, Silas receives the invitation to the King’s League, but decides to burn the invitation as he does not want to be controlled in any way. Then his own mother is dying, so he goes to visit her—sending away all the different staff members, and then he uses his own magic to carefully pull the magic from his mother, while also preserving her. Before anyone comes by, he goes and hides her withered body in a metal coffin in the cellar. Not too long after, his own brother, Christian, comes flying through the door, demanding to know why Silas is selling their family estate, and that he gets a say in it. Silas tells him about Gorse End, a home that Silas has determined has a lot of magic that he could siphon. The argument heats, and Christian lashes out with his own magic, which triggers a reaction in Silas that has Christian flying back, and hitting his head. Silas worries that his brother might be dead, or dying, so he decides to preserve his magic and his body, putting Christian into the same metal coffin as his mom. He then proceeds to throw up. Sometime in the 1820s to 1830s Silas is in possession of Gorse End, when a new housekeeper is sent in by Londons Institute of Enchanted Rooms—LIKER—by the name of Hulda Larkin. Silas finds out that she has augury, which could prove to be a problem, but he determines that he will have the cleaning ladies keep this house spotless so that Hilda’s augury will not be triggered, which will enable him to continue to take magic from the house into himself—a tricky endeavor considering that the house is under the Institute’s watch and care, which does not allow for this type of action to happen as it must be preserved in its original state. One day, he comes home, and tells Hulda that he will be having guests—he had found out that one of the neighbors has a unique magic, and he wants to get close to her, having no issues in using the woman’s daughter to get close to her to get the magic. He figures that if he marries this daughter, he could dismiss Hulda and then do whatever he wishes to the house. He goes down to see the bodies of those he had preserved—there are several of them at this point, some that he keeps on a shelf, and some that are in a vault—when police come including the King’s League, and they take him away, arresting him.

In 1846, Merritt Fernsby travels to Baltimore meet with a lawyer to read the will of his grandmother—Anita Nichols. In the reading of the will, the Lawyer tells Merritt that he has inherited a house in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, and Merritt is over the moon as he would not have been able to afford a house unless he moved west, which would cause problems for him as a writer—his publisher is in Boston—and he was soon going to be out of a space to live in as his landlord was refusing to renew his lease so that he could give Merritt’s apartment to a family member. The lawyer informs him that there hasn’t been a tenant in the house for over 100 years, and that supposedly the house is haunted. Merritt travels to the bay, avoiding magical modes of transportation like the Kinetic Tram, because they are costly, and finds a home that looks like it was freshly painted and taken care of, which he thinks is unusual considering that no one has lived here in over 100 years. He enters the house, and soon enough discovers that the house will not let him leave.

Hulda Larkin returns from Canada to the Boston Institution of Enchanted Rooms—BIKER—and meets with her boss, Myra Haigh, who in turn tells her about Whimbrel House and asks her to take a look. Hulda makes haste there, and arrives at the house, finding a stressed out Merritt Fernsby. While getting a tour around the house, they experience cobwebs, dripping paint that looks like blood, a lavatory that grows spikes and nearly impales them, and dead rats in the kitchen. Hulda does manage to get him back his wallet, but tells him to leave the notebooks alone for now—they are underneath the carpet. She gives him some wards that help to keep the rooms stable for him. They talk, and she tells him that she has to leave to get her personal effects, and seeing as he cannot leave, she will have his personal belongings sent from his home in New York. He looks desolate, so she tells him that she will return the next day. He asks her to send a letter on his behalf, and is resigned to staying in the house as it let Hulda leave, but refuses to let him leave.

The day that he’s alone, Merritt tells the house he wants his notebooks back. He cuts the carpet open to get them, but then a drawer from his dresser steals the scarf—the one his sister made him, which is all that he has to remember her by—so he chases after it, all the way to the kitchen. The windowsill swallows it, so he grabs a mallet and hits it doing a fairly good job of harming it, but then decides to go for matches and fire. The fire quickly gets put out by the house, but he ends up in a pit beneath the floorboards, which he is unable to get out of. Hulda returns and is unable to help him either, but then she has a vision that someone is coming—Fletcher Portendorfer, who is Merritt’s best friend. Fletcher gets him out of the hole, and they talk, while Hulda sorts things out. The next day Merritt gets busy with fixing up the floors and ultimately, he goes up to his room while Hulda and Fletcher are talking, and talks to the house—asking it if it doesn’t feel lonely, because he sure does. From there on, the house appears to do a better job of working with him.

Eventually, a maid joins the staff—Beth Taylor—and starts cleaning around, and Hulda has figured out that the house’s magic comes from a ghost of a wizard. She does see a wolf in the bay, but thinks she’s made it up, and Beth brings letters from Boston, one of which is an offer to buy the house from Merritt by a Mr. Watson. But Merritt puts that aside, even though he feels like he would much rather get rid of the house or exorcise the ghost to have this house. Beth does say that there is something weird about the letter—based on her own magic, which is clairvoyance.

Silas Hogwood finds himself in America, enjoying the freedom—there are no kings or queens here, so that means that he will not have to deal with anyone trying to lord over him, and he might be the most powerful magician in America. He stops by at BIKER, and gets his hands on information on different houses—including Whimbrel House—that may have magical elements that he can siphon off of them.

Hulda and Merritt try looking through the library to figure out who owned the house and lived there, but to no avail, so they venture out to Boston. While they are walking, Hulda notices a man who looks to be Silas Hogwood, but she is certain that it could not be possible. Still it leaves her shaken enough that Merritt offers to help her walk to the Tram to take her to BIKER, while he goes to city hall to try to find out who owned the house. Hulda goes to speak with Myra, telling her all about the house and asking for an extension to stay on as Merritt would not be comfortable changing housekeepers so quickly. She also brings up what she saw—Silas Hogwood—and Myra is able to take a look into her vision (that is her magic) but then assures her that it’s not possible that it is Silas, as he was arrested, and it’s been several years. She advises that maybe Hulda should sleep on it. Hulda also receives a letter from the Genealogical society that wants to meet with her in order to make her a match and strengthen magic in their society—magic is only strengthened through blood, and through two parents with magic having a child. She considers this option, as she is not getting any younger.

Merritt finds the books that he is looking for but is told by the documentarian that he is unable to leave with the documents, and must copy them by hand. He starts doing it, but his hand keeps cramping up, and seeing a man passing by, he calls out to him, asking if he knows how to write. When the man says yes, he offers to pay him to help copy. Then, he finds out that the man, Baptiste, is from France and use to be a chef, so he offers to employ him as a chef as long as the man isn’t bothered by ghosts, which he is not. When Hulda returns to Whimbrel House, she is scared by Baptiste as she was not expecting him. Beth comes and tells her that the house had made another room for Baptiste, off the kitchen so Hulda does not have to give up her room at this time. She goes to bed that night, and thinks about how she had feelings for Silas’s steward, but that it never worked out, and now she may be developing feelings for Merritt, so she needs to resolve the matter and move on. The next morning, Merritt wakes up and finds that the house had basically shifted everything around—and his half of the bed and room is meshed with Hulda’s half of the room and bed, which made it seem like they were sleeping together. He tries to get out quietly, but then yelps at the door which wakes up Hulda and she shrieks as well. Merritt runs off after saying that he just found out, and then they do not mention that again. Hulda comes by later and tells him that the house is rearranging itself, and they talk about who may have lived there and Merritt makes some comment about bodies under the house, to which Hulda exclaims that there might be some unmarked graves around, and that is what they have to look for.

The four of them—Miss Taylor, Mrs. Larkin, Merritt and Baptiste—went out onto the island, and started looking. Twice, Merritt’s attention was silently tugged towards the Northwest part of the island, so he headed that way, and discovered four stones—one belonging to Horace Mansel, one to Dorcas Catherine Mansel, one to Elizabeth Mansel, and one belonging to Horace unnamed wife as the headstones were too weathered for them to see the names and the dates of birth/death well. Hulda decided to make a call to the Genealogical Society as they would have all of the information on magical bloodlines, and in her initial conversation with Mr. Elijah Clarke—the president of it—he wants to discuss her potentially arranging a marriage with men that would help strengthen the bloodline. Hulda brings it back to her research, and Elijah has Gifford—his secretary—take her down, where he pulls the boxes on the information. Hulda is able to find information on Thomas Horace Mansel, his wife and his three daughters—Crisly (who had moved to Baltimore upon marriage), Dorcas and Elizabeth. She gets the information, and then checks on the Hogwood family line, which does nothing to assuage her fears around Silas Hogwood. As she heads out, Elijah follows after her, and again brings up her potentially finding a beau that she could pass on her line with and strengthen the magic in humans. As she leaves, she thinks she sees Mr. Portendorfer, Merritt’s friend.

When Hulda returns to Whimbrel House, she prepares the items she needs to create the exorcism of what she believes is Dorcas’s ghost. Merritt helps her and doesn’t feel good about the choice to exorcise the ghost. But then her exorcism fails, so she tries each family member that they know of from the Mansel family line, but it does not work either. They begin the search again for other headstones, and Merritt finds the headstone of Owein Mansel—a twelve year old boy, who was born after the youngest daughter, Elizabeth, and died when he was older. He realizes it’s him that is haunting the house, and puts the headstone back by the family. When Hulda tells him that they will then exorcise the ghost, Merritt tells her to leave him—and reveals that he had been disinherited by his father at 18 after getting this girl pregnant. He had proposed to her, and was going to do everything right, but she ended up leaving him and apparently the pregnancy was a lie. He walks away from Hulda then.

Days go by, and Hulda tells Merritt about Silas Hogwood in the living room of the house. During this conversation, Beth walks back in but is unable to get into the house, and they realize that there is a second source of magic in the house that is doing wardship spells, so Hulda sets out to figure it out. Owein seems to be very much engaged and ever since they’ve figured out his name, he’s been extremely helpful and even less antagonistic towards the inhabitants of the house. Hulda and Merritt keep flirting, and Merritt continues working on his book’s manuscript, of which Hulda reads a portion when she comes across it while looking for a pencil sharpener. She also notices that Beth has a look one day while staring out into the horizon, and when she speaks with Beth, Beth tells her that she had a vision of a wolf. This is what Hulda had seen in her vision in the library when she visited Biker, and even she saw the wolf herself on the Island. Hulda receives responses to letters about Silas Hogwood, in which one says that they don’t have any records of him leaving the country, and the warden tells her that Hogwood died in prison, though he had been healthy so it is a mystery as to why he passed away, but the warden is unable to give her more information. Myra sends her a request to return to BIKER offices to do paperwork twice, but Hulda postpones them twice. And she even teaches Beth how to dance one late evening, which results in the girls falling over something in Hulda’s room, and in turn Baptiste runs into the room to see if they needed any protection, but they were nearly naked, causing an awkward moment. Beth does go to the dance, and upon her return, they have letters, including one from Merritt’s friend that he will be coming to visit.

Silas had turned into his wolf form twice, and visited Whimbrel House twice—the second time he was able to note that they have a psychometrist (Beth) which would be problematic. He is certain that she had seen him long before he could counter her magic, and it could pose a problem. He returns to the boat, changes himself back into a man, and sets sail for his own location. Silas cleans out his home, and knows that he is looking forward to seeing the light of day where he no longer has to hide himself in this underground lair that he’s created, with some of his precious items—those that feed magic to him, and he knew that those at Gorse End were safe because he had found them, the ones that the Kings League did not get to.

Hulda tries to find the second source of the magic, and the house helps her—where she finds tourmaline deposits that help keep the wardship spells. Fletcher comes, and they all hang out and have a good time even with the house acting up upon Fletcher’s arrival, but Fletcher tells him that he saw Hulda speaking with the Genealogical Society about matches, so he tells Merritt to take care of his heart. After Fletcher leaves, Hulda busies herself cleaning and doing all those things to figure out how to tell Myra that she wants to stay in Whimbrel House, despite Myra’s insistence that she return to the headquarters. She decides to walk around the island, and during her walk, Silas Hogwood attacks her, starting to drain her from her magic. She screams, and Merritt hears the scream through the communion stone, so he and Baptiste go out to find her. Merritt shoots at Silas and scares him away, before taking Hulda back to the house. She begins her recovery there, and Merritt stays by her side as best as he can during her recovery; Myra finds out about the attack, and is besides herself, telling Hulda that she needs to return. Once Hulda is much better, she takes a walk with Merritt around the island.

The next day, Merritt and Hulda head over to the city, and Merritt asks to speak with her later that day. Hulda goes to speak with Myra, who continues to be adamant that she return to the headquarters, but Hulda manages to convince her to let her stay in Whimbrel House, after giving in her report and telling Myra what happens. Merritt goes to speak with his publisher, leaving behind the portions of the book that he had finished with Hulda’s help in refining the story. When he comes to meet her at the suggested location, he is talking to her, when he finds a poster with the name Ebba C. Mullan—the woman that had jilted him, and over whom his father had disowned him. He is panicking and tells Hulda that he needs to go speak to Ebba, so he tells her to use the communion stone when she gets home to let him know that she arrives safely. Hulda keeps her facade up, but then once she’s away from him, she starts crying—she was so sure that he was going to tell her that he had feelings for her, and that he wanted to give them a try, but now she cannot imagine being in the same house as him, when he brings back his lady. She even cries in her bedroom, where Beth comforts her.

Merritt goes all the way to Pennsylvania, but he cannot see himself through the orchestra and the music, so he walks around the house, and then finds out where the coaches are for the musicians. He waits there until Ebba comes out, and then asks to speak with her. She stares at him in horror. At first she refuses to tell him why, which is why her friends in the orchestra try to push him away, but after hearing him plead, she changes her mind and talks to him. She tells him that his father had paid for her schooling at Oberlin College for flute, but in exchange she had to act like she had gotten pregnant by him, just so that his father could disinherit him at the age of 18, all because Merritt is a bastard and not his father’s son. Merritt returns home all in shock, only to find out that Hulda’s packed her stuff and is leaving. They get into an argument, where he basically tells her that’s a bastard and to get out. Hulda heads back to BIKER, and the assistant there finds her, telling her that the Tourmaline could not possibly be the source of the wardship. That along with her realizing that there was no way that Owein could be the source of the voice that Merritt heard while searching for her during the attack by Silas, has her running back to the Genealogical Society. There, she finds out that Owein is related through Crisly—the only surviving sister—to a man named Nelson Sutcliffe. This same man was the one who owned the house before losing it in a gamble to Merritt’s maternal grandmother, Anita Nichols, and the man’s family line is full of Communion, Wardship and Chaocracy magic, so it fits. She runs back to the house.

By this point, Merritt had been wallowing in all the revelations, when Beth says that she has a bad feeling. Suddenly, Silas breaks in and hurst both Beth and Baptist, and counters Merritt’s wardship magic. He has a dog with him, and tells Merritt that he has known Merritt has magic since the night he came for Hulda, now he will get two for one. By the time Hulda arrives at the house, Merritt is gone and the house is quiet—Owein is not responding. She makes sure that Beth and Baptiste are fine, and then heads back to BIKER to ask Myra for help to figure out where Silas Hogwood is. Myra reveals that she was the one that freed him—she had gotten sick, and he is the only man who could save her, so she made an agreement with him to save her, and her sister and someone else. The agreement was that Silas Hogwood would cure them, and then would work on creating more enchanted houses across the US to keep them employed, because they were running out of money. Hulda realizes that Maurice Watson—the man who had asked to buy Whimbrel House from Merritt, and the one who had asked for an appointment with Myra—was Hogwood, and Myra was going to give him Whimbrel House, which is why she was adamant about getting Hulda out of the house. Myra ultimately reveals to Hulda where Silas is living, and Hulda tells her to find the police and get them there, while she runs ahead on Myra’s horse.

She arrives at the old, destroyed home and it’s surrounded by a ward, so she has to go through the water and through the grate to get inside. She first finds and frees Merritt, and he tells her that they need to save Owein, who is in the dog’s body. A fight ensues, and Hulda does not have the capacity to fight Silas magically, while Merritt’s magic is spotty at best as he had just discovered his capabilities. Ultimately, they stab the dolls—the withered human bodies—that take away the magic from Silas, and end up killing him. Myra arrives with the constables, who question them, and take care of the body. When they are finally set free, Hulda tells Merritt that she best stay away from Whimbrel House, because Myra was behind freeing Silas and there are a lot of other issues with BIKER, so she’s not sure what kind of spillover effect that would have. She does hand him the file on who she thinks is his father. Merritt takes a look at it in the silence of his home once he’s back at Whimbrel House without Hulda, and he knows Sutcliffe—he’s the sheriff of the town, so he wonders if Sutcliffe knew and on purpose lost the house in a gamble as a way of making it up to him.

Hulda is living at her sister’s house, when she receives a letter from Merritt—it’s been a while since they talked, and neither have used the communion stone to communicate with the other, though things on Merritt’s side are going well. In the package, is the remainder of the book that Merritt had written, though after the first page, the story changes to be a story about the two of them, in which he tells Hulda that he cares for her and would like to see where this goes if she will have him, signing off that he’s forever hers. Hulda runs through the house and has her sister take her to the tram, then makes her way back to Whimbrel House. There, they make up, share their feelings and eventually share a kiss.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed Charlie N Holmberg’s Paper Magician series and this book is in the same vein. It very much takes place in a historic time and place, like the other series, and the characters are aware of the world of magic—it’s not hidden or secretive, but out in the open and seemingly accepted. Where it divulges from the other series is that in this one, Magic seems to be dying out as generations go by due to the dilution of magical bloodlines. I enjoyed this book because it is part fantasy, part mystery, set in the early 1800 in Rhode Island, and involves a charming house that is inhabited by the spirt of a 12 year old boy. I also love the subtle romance that is developing between Hulda and Merritt—both characters that I’ve come to enjoy throughout the book in their own way—which also seems to be in line with the norms of that time period. It is clear that the author did their homework on the customs of the time period, and how relationships would develop if they were falling in love, keeping in mind that courting was different at that time. Overall, I enjoyed this book, and how the author connected the past to the present for both Hulda and Merritt, and I cannot wait to see what happens next in the series.