REVIEW: Christmas Spirits at Honeywell House by Sharon Booth

Christmas Spirits at Honeywell House by Sharon Booth - 4*

Well Sharon Booth, you’ve done it again. The latest instalment in the cosy ghost series ‘Ghosts of Rowan Vale’ is a delight, and I already can’t wait for the next. So much so that I had to check whether I could pre-order the fourth, but sadly this is the problem with reading the book on pub day- I’m too ahead of the curve. Now at time of sharing my review, the fourth instalment has been revealed so expect another Booth review in April!

For a relatively spoiler-free rundown of the first two novels, Kindred Spirits at Harling Hall and Loving Spirits at the Vintage Teashop, please check out my review by clicking the link here. Also, Sharon Booth herself saw the review and replied which genuinely made my day - thanks Sharon! 

So, in the same vein as the prior novels, we experience a small time skip and a new character to follow around; it’s like we’re the true ghosts in these novels, watching on unnoticed in the background. Here we get to know Clara and the Milsoms, her husband Jack and three boisterous boys who live in the eponymic Honeywell House. We have briefly been introduced to the Milsoms, who have a scale model of the village in their back garden built by Jack’s grandfather, in the earlier books, but now it’s their turn to face the spotlight (and all the minor trauma that entails). 

Clara is not having the best of times, bless her. It was great to see an example of perimenopause in the novel and how dreadful it can make people feel, and that honest depictions of things many of us have, or will, experience at some point are needed to help lessen the stigma surrounding them. She’s struggling with her physical and mental health, and from the first few pages, you can tell she’s looking for something to change. Something to remind herself of who she was, is, and will become. 

Change never comes in the places we expect or necessarily want. It may ultimately be to your benefit and positive in hindsight, but change doesn’t always feel like the blessing it is at the time. Clara is on the receiving end of one of these hidden blessings, and it comes as… quite the shock to say the least. Let’s just say, if I was in her position I would also not be positively beaming about it. 

While Clara and her family are coming to grips with the news and all it entails, we fly across the village to Harling Hall and dive into the lives of Aubrey and Agnes, who we got to know quite well in the first novel. This beloved grumpy-sunshine pair have rarely, if ever, left the manor, but Aubrey is tempted by the Dickensian Christmas that village owner Callie and partner Brodie are throwing to attract more visitors to Rowan Vale. Of course, there’s more to their self-imposed isolation than meets the eye, and we get a front seat view as the story unfolds. 

Of course, we bump into our favourites from the series too. Aunt Polly, Shona, and Max pop up doing well following their exploits in the second novel which was lovely to see. Also, no-one’s favourite character, the unreasonable reverend Silas Alexander has a bit more of a starring role in this story, and gosh what a delight that is. I think Silas may be one of my new favourite characters in fact, and hope to see much more of him in future novels.

As with the previous novels, Booth kicks off a storm that characters have to ride out. The focus here is on secrets, love and all its complications, and getting there in the end. A departure from the mystery-style second novel, this feels more of a return to the first, where it’s all about the wonderful characters navigating life (or the after-life) and making mistakes which they eventually learn from. 

I’m a sucker for a happy ending, and this one really cheered my soul. It is a Christmas novel after all, and though it was still way too early for me to be thinking about the upcoming festivities when I read it, it’s always a pleasure to feel that flood of warmth in ‘all’s well that ends well’ when a novel so tidily and lovingly ties up the strings in a bow. 

I encourage everyone who needs to reaffirm their faith in life and humanity to read Sharon Booth’s series. Her characters are so well-rounded and appealing, and they show so much strength and growth that it helps remind us readers that we can make it through and be better for it in the end as well. 

I’ll leave you with two gorgeous poems Booth selected for a very special moment in the book. P.S. to all authors who include poems in their works- I see you and I thank you. More poems please! 

‘I fear not all that Time or Fate

May bring to burden heart or brow,

Strong in the love that came so late, 

Our souls shall keep it always now.’ 

- Elizabeth Akers Allen

‘I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, 

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and if God choose, 

I shall love thee better after death.’ 

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning