12 Days at Bleakly Manor
Michelle Griep
This book absolutely stole my heart! I passed it
on the end cap in our library for several weeks before and during National
Novel Writing Month but never picked it up. Then, at the last minute, I
realized I did not have anything at home to read for the holiday theme. Shock
of all shocks, my husband suggested reading the same one I read last year for
the December theme - gasp! (Seriously, ten years together,
and he doesn’t know me better than that by now? Tsk, tsk!)
Anyway, I decided to download a sample on my Kindle
to see if I would like it. For the first two pages, it seemed to hold my
attention, but I am not usually one to read and have it keep my interest for
long on my Kindle, so I decided to go to the store and see what other options
they had before committing to buying the book. The store had one last copy of
it on their shelves in paperback with deckled edges, for that added charm. I
stood there reading the first chapter again and well into the second, falling
in love with the writing style and the characters from the beginning!
There is so much I loved about this story that
it’s hard to know where to start. The writing style is easy to read, but the
author makes you feel as if you are reading something that truly is in the
style of Charles Dickens without having purple prose. There is just the right
amount of description without it bogging down the story. The writing style makes
the story flow incredibly well with nice pacing!
I loved the characters in this story! In my
own stories, I am character driven but my favorite character in this book actually
was not the main character, Clara Chapman, but another lady by the name of Ms.
Scurry, who has eight pet mice. Clara finds that absolutely appalling, but
still manages to choke down her disgust every time she is around Miss Scurry in
order to find friendship.
Ah, now we come to the plot. Miss Chapman is
summoned on Christmas Eve to leave her dying aunt’s bedside to attend a
traditional, yet peculiar, 12 Days of Christmas holiday. If she stays the
entire 12 days, she will be awarded a monetary sum of five hundred pounds. This would enable her to take care of herself
after her aunt passes, as she has no husband or potential suitor. She does not
have a husband, though she should have, because a year previously, she was left
at the altar, turning her heart hard against the man she once loved who
betrayed her.
But the mystery deepens and her shock and
anger get the best of her when he is one of the guests invited to stay for the
12 days at this mansion known as Bleakly Manor. With all honesty, I don’t blame
her for her reaction at all. I probably would have done the same.
There is a lot at stake for the several
different characters, of diverse personalities, that come together under one
roof for 12 days. They, of course, are allowed outside the manor, but not
allowed off the manor grounds. If they leave the grounds, they forfeit the
prize.
It was days later, after looking at the bottom
of the back cover, that I noticed the book is listed as
Fiction/Christian/Historical/Holidays. Fiction, check. Historical, check.
Christian? Huh. Now, I usually do not read Christian fiction as I find it often
lacks in well-developed characters, a steady, exciting plot, or any real
tension or problem that the characters have to overcome. I have only read one
truly phenomenal Christian Fiction book, until now. The author also does not
bash the reader over the head with the ideology of Christianity. She has
constructed a wonderful story with realistic characters in a time frame that I
adore. There is mystery, mayhem, tension and characters that I want to strangle!
(Don’t worry, I can’t because he’s fictional! I never would strangle anyone
anyways.) But isn’t that the mark of a great writer, someone who can get you
not only interested in the characters but be invested in them? Feel
empathy/sympathy for them?
Will all the characters get what they came for during their stay at Bleakly Manor? Will they all survive against each other? Will they survive at all?
Overall, the last chapter and a half did feel
a bit rushed, and the very ending itself was the only thing that did not feel
true to character for either of the two characters that are conversing, but the
rest of the story more than makes up for an ending that is a bit lacking. I
still give this story 4.5 stars.
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