The Cheesemaker's House by Jane Cable
First Published 1st October 2013
Published by Troubadour Publishing Ltd
My thanks to Rachel Gilbey for the opportunity to be part of the blog tour for this unusual novel with a wonderful historical note running through it.
Book Description:
Just think, Alice, right now Owen could be putting a hex on you!
When Alice Hart’s husband runs off with his secretary, she runs off with his dog to lick her wounds in a North Yorkshire village. Battling with loneliness but trying to make the best of her new start, she soon meets her neighbours, including the drop-dead gorgeous builder Richard Wainwright and the kindly yet reticent cafe´ owner, Owen Maltby.
As Alice employs Richard to start renovating the barn next to her house, all is not what it seems. Why does she start seeing Owen when he clearly isn’t there? Where - or when - does the strange crying come from? And if Owen is the village charmer, what exactly does that mean?
The Cheesemaker’s House is a gripping read, inspired by a framed will found in the dining room of the author’s dream Yorkshire house. The previous owners explained that the house had been built at the request of the village cheesemaker in 1726 - and that the cheesemaker was a woman. And so the historical aspect of the story was born.
Jane Cable’s novel won the Suspense & Crime category of The Alan Titchmarsh Show People’s Novelist competition, reaching the last four out of over a thousand entries. The Cheesemaker’s House can be enjoyed by anyone who has become bored of today’s predictable boy-meets-girl romance novels.
My Review:
I have to say that this novel was not at all what I was expecting when I signed up for this tour. I was expecting there to be a lot more focus put on the history of the house itself due to the title but as someone with an interest in genealogy I did enjoy the concept of how echoes of the past can influence the present day occupants of a property. If you aren't keen on supernatural things, don't let this put you off the book as it is more of an undercurrent to the story than the main component.
Alice is a newcomer to the area and is finding loneliness an issue as she has no friends to call on as she settles in to her new life as a single woman following her break up of her marriage. She clicks with local man Owen and thinks she has found someone she can spend time with however Richard, the builder she has signed up to convert the barn in the grounds of the house, warns her off Owen - but what are his motives?
As Alice settles in to village life she gradually gets to know more people and learns more about the history of her home and possible thoughts as to why Richard has warned her off Owen. A chilling and unsettling find during the conversion of the barn forces Alice to take a trip to the local records office where she uncovers some interesting facts from the village's past.
I found the relationship between Alice and Owen extremely frustrating at times and just wanted to sit the pair of them down and make them talk through their issues. I would have liked a bigger part in the story for Owen's business partner Adam - I loved his character and would have liked more from him. Also Margaret from the church who took over Alice's greenhouse and garden could have been developed more, I think there was far more to her story than we were given.
I found this to be a steadily paced, unusual novel with threads of the tale which kept me turning the pages to find out which direction the book was heading. I am not a great fan of paranormal things but the theme worked really well in this book as it was grounded well in the history of the family who previously owned the house. I also found the herbalist aspect was well researched and put into context here when it could have been given a sinister twist which would have spoiled the spirit in which it was being presented.
This was a step out of my usual reading zone but one which captured by interest and kept me intrigued right through till the last page.
Purchase from Amazon - viewBook.at/CheesemakersHouse
I have to say that this novel was not at all what I was expecting when I signed up for this tour. I was expecting there to be a lot more focus put on the history of the house itself due to the title but as someone with an interest in genealogy I did enjoy the concept of how echoes of the past can influence the present day occupants of a property. If you aren't keen on supernatural things, don't let this put you off the book as it is more of an undercurrent to the story than the main component.
Alice is a newcomer to the area and is finding loneliness an issue as she has no friends to call on as she settles in to her new life as a single woman following her break up of her marriage. She clicks with local man Owen and thinks she has found someone she can spend time with however Richard, the builder she has signed up to convert the barn in the grounds of the house, warns her off Owen - but what are his motives?
As Alice settles in to village life she gradually gets to know more people and learns more about the history of her home and possible thoughts as to why Richard has warned her off Owen. A chilling and unsettling find during the conversion of the barn forces Alice to take a trip to the local records office where she uncovers some interesting facts from the village's past.
I found the relationship between Alice and Owen extremely frustrating at times and just wanted to sit the pair of them down and make them talk through their issues. I would have liked a bigger part in the story for Owen's business partner Adam - I loved his character and would have liked more from him. Also Margaret from the church who took over Alice's greenhouse and garden could have been developed more, I think there was far more to her story than we were given.
I found this to be a steadily paced, unusual novel with threads of the tale which kept me turning the pages to find out which direction the book was heading. I am not a great fan of paranormal things but the theme worked really well in this book as it was grounded well in the history of the family who previously owned the house. I also found the herbalist aspect was well researched and put into context here when it could have been given a sinister twist which would have spoiled the spirit in which it was being presented.
This was a step out of my usual reading zone but one which captured by interest and kept me intrigued right through till the last page.
Purchase from Amazon - viewBook.at/CheesemakersHouse
About the Author:
No wonder that I have always scribbled. But it took me until I was in my forties to complete a full length manuscript. And then another, and another... Writing stories became a compulsive hobby. I could lose myself in my characters, almost live their lives, and I started to long for readers other than my mother and a few close friends to be able to do the same.
It was reaching the final of The Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist competition in 2011 which made me take my writing seriously. The Cheesemaker’s House, a gripping romance-suspense, saw the light of day in September 2013 and I was delighted when it received great reviews from book bloggers and, just as importantly, from the people who bought and read it. My second novel, The Faerie Tree, came out in March 2015 and is a suspenseful romance about the tricks memory plays.
Shortly afterwards The Cheesemaker's House won the independent novel of the year prize awarded by Words for the Wounded and as a result of this I was signed by the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency and then by Endeavour Press who published Another You at the end of 2016.
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I loved this book, and i loved the echoes of the past resonating. I didn't know what to expect when I read this and thought it was a little hidden gem
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