A historical heist of epic proportions and one of this years most dazzling debuts!

As soon as I saw The Housekeepers announced I knew I wanted to read it. When I saw it was being pitched as Ocean’s 8 meets Downton Abbey, I was hooked! I wanted to see how two such juxtaposed worlds could melt together and all I can say is that Alex Hay has done it to perfection. This book combines all the best elements of a classic heist caper with the human aspects of costume drama. It’s a book that is multi-layered, giving readers different ways to read it and find enjoyment. I was absolutely obsessed with the audacity of the plan to rob the de Vries house, but as the novel progressed it is fair to say that the lives and relationships of the protagonists became equally (of not more so) engrossing. Hays expertly transports readers back to the turn of the century and this novel is both evocative in time and location, as well as authentic in the characterisation. I really felt that I knew the women behind the narrative and Hays has created a cast of characters that are so three-dimensional they leap from the page. I loved spending time with them and was fully invested in every aspect of the narrative. This is no small feat either, as this book is resplendent with characters!

Whilst the intricacies of the heist and the rationale and mystery behind it are certainly gripping, The Housekeepers is ultimately about female relationships. Hays explores this through the life of these women, looking at friendship, rivalry, a variety of bonds, romance and family. The relationships at the heart of this story are as complex as the dress design Alice creates for Miss de Vries’ ball. They are simultaneously beautiful, powerful and salacious, giving Hays a spectacular platform by which to explore womens’ place in society at the time. It also allows for an unsettlingly dark subplot to emerge as the narrative progresses, helping to bolster the reader’s allegiance with the housekeepers.

I was very fortunate to receive both a proof copy of this book, but also early access to the audiobook, so I took a blended approach. The audiobook is wonderfully narrated by Jasmine Blackborow, who imbues each woman’s unique character into her narration. I particularly enjoyed her dialogue as Hephzibah, which frequently made me chuckle! Blackborow really got to the heart of the story though and all of the emotion of Hays’ words was expertly transcribed to the audio. I had to force myself to pause the audio and pick up my proof to read, because I was enjoying listening to this so much. The audiobook cemented my opinion that this story would make an excellent television series. I hope we see it on our screens soon!

If you love a historical novel, a heist novel, a story of female empowerment, a narrative that sticks two fingers up at the patriarchy, or just a beautifully and engagingly written story, make sure you pre-order The Housekeepers immediately.

THE HOUSEKEEPERS is out on 06/07 from @headlinebooks. Thank you so much to the publisher for my #gifted copies.

Upstairs, madam is planning the party of the season.

Downstairs, the servants are plotting the heist of the century.

They come from nothing, but they'll leave with everything.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I received a copy of The Housekeepers by Alex Hay, as an audiobook from NetGalley, in return for an honest review.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I liked the blurb and couldn't wait to get started on this book. However, throughout the story I kept losing track of the characters, and found myself getting a bit bored. The story could have been more precise, and I think there were unnecessary parts to it - dare I say 'fillers'. I imagined it to be a cross between Downton and Oliver Twist, and I could see the characters and the locations, it just lacked a bit of oomph, a bit of suspense. I liked the idea of the story ulitmately being about girl power, it just needed more POW!

An intriguing premise, several great subplots to the story and best of all several strong female main characters.

I really enjoyed the audiobook of The Housekeepers. Set in London at the turn of the 20th Century, this story follows a variety of women from 'below stairs' and the leader of a London crime family as they plan a heist during a ball in the home of a wealthy heiress.

While the heist planning takes up a good part of the novel, it's also the character backgrounds, separate sub plots and world building that make this story.

The slow burn plan, several twists to the story and multiple POVs in this female dominated historical fiction make this an enjoyable read.

While dealing with some sensitive subjects and the treatment of women at the time this debut novel was interesting and well put together.

This audiobook was well narrated and really helped keep track of the multiple characters and themes running through the story.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story. It wasn’t what I was expecting from reading the description but I was gripped throughout. The reader was really good, to start with I thought she was speaking too slowly and it did take a while to get used to her tone but her accents and voice brought the novel to life. Would totally recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early release of the audio book.

I listened to the audio version which was well narrated by Jasmine Blackborow (although the older women's voices did wander into Barbara Windsor "Get outta my pub" territory on the odd occasion). Otherwise it was clearly read with no problem figuring out who was who.

The story is quite unusual. Rather than your run-of-the-mill upstairs downstairs we get a revenge story. And this is one revenge thats served very cold. Right that's enough waffle.

The housekeeper of the largest house in Mayfair, Mrs King, has been kicked out after canoodling with another staff member. She decides that the time is ripe to take revenge for a historical wrong done to her mother by the house's original owner, Mr De Vries (aka Danny O'Flynn). She needs help and money to pull this off and turns to Danny's sister. The two (plus a small army of helpers) decide to pull off the heist of the century by divesting Miss De Vries (Danny's daughter) of all her wordly goods - in one night - while the lady of the house is still in it.

Okay, I admit that the storyline does wander into the utterly fantastical at times (and occasionally unbelievable) it us nonetheless a good, fast-paced tale that has some interesting characters, a few twists and an interesting denouement.

I enjoyed it. It would certainly make a good holiday read. You even get a princess thrown in for good measure. The plot is clever and a little crazy. What's not to like.

While I enjoyed this it's not one I consider particularly memorable. The characters weren't introduced in depth and I felt we didn't really get to know them that well. I did like the storyline, the heist was pretty good fun. But yeah just not overly memorable.

The audio narration was really enjoyable though

Headlines:
Upstairs-downstairs
Heists like you've never thought of
Double-tripple crossing

This was such an interesting concept for a historical fiction read. I am drawn to the upstairs priviledge of a house contrasted with the downstairs help. The Housekeepers really pitched two camps that seemingly stayed in their lane but secretly were in opposition.

All that above and a twistly plot rolled out that came from great planning and execution. A heist, a virtual house clearance, debt collectors, sex trafficking, family complexities and all kinds of shenannigans.

I was impressed by how this was written because there is a vast cast of characters, some by first name, others by Mrs/Mr/Miss and somehow I was able to keep pace while identifying the who's who; that has to be down to the writing.

I appreciated the later down the line perspective we got towards the end.

Audio wise, the narration was single narrator with great tone and characterisation.

Thank you Wildfire Books/Headline for the review copy.

Yeah, loved it mate!

Why? Because it was delightful, easy and had enough mystery and scheming to make it a total page-turner.
Yes, there were many different character sublots but it was something I enjoyed because of how intertwined everything was.

If you fancy a book that features:

- Edwardian London
- Corruption
- Betrayal
- Social Class systems
- Mysterious characters and unbelievable connections
- Decadence
- Family drama

Then this is the book for you.

Out July 2023
Enjoy!

The Housekeepers is delightful historical fiction, full of fascinating characters who all have their own secrets. Mrs King and her team of looked down upon and outcast women orchestrate a heist to clear out an entire house of all its grand belongings, in the midst of a party.

It's a classic premise of corruption and revenge, kept all the more interesting with plenty of twists and slowly revealed secrets. I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Jasmine Blackborow, who brought all the characters to life with lots of personality. I definitely recommend picking it up as an audiobook.

🎧4.25⭐️

I love the cover.

An historical fiction debut with mystery, suspense, action and a heist, set in Edwardian London.
I had the audiobook read by Jasmine Blackborow, who does a good job at keeping the interest while the scene is set.

Mrs King is no ordinary housekeeper, she comes from a family of con artists and thieves. When she loses her respectable job she recruits a group of women to join her in her revenge.

I love that it’s a bit different. The main characters are all strong women. There’s plenty going on throughout, there’s a good mix of plot and character development. I did like Mrs King, for her clever scheming, Mrs Bone seems to be hard as nails but has a heart. Alice was my favourite for personality. What a cleverly devised and executed plan., ok it’s off the wall, but that’s what makes it interesting. They are thieves with a dollop of morality. I didn’t have any sympathy for Miss de Vries, she had her own agenda going on, I was firmly on the side of the housekeepers.

I found it very enjoyable and entertaining.

Hell hath no furey like a woman scorned. That saying is definitely true in this book. When housekeeper Mrs King is fired from her job she comes up with a plan for revenge. She plans to rob the house of her employer.

This fast passed book kept me gripped the whole way through. I love a strong female character and there are so many of them in this book.

I would describe this book as Downton Abbey meets The Great Train Robbery. If you liked Lynda La Plantes The Widdows you will love this.

When a housekeeper is dismissed from a nouveau riche household, the life upstairs goes on as usual. A ball is being planned, the dress for the heiress is being made, and there are servants coming and going. But outside, the wronged women are planning their revenge.
The Housekeepers is a thrilling caper set in the upper and lower echelons of the early 20th Century society. The story concentrates on a heist but it also reveals a darker, grimmer side of life for those from the low margins of society, especially vulnerable women and young girls. Opulence and privilege contrast with the poverty and disadvantage of women and poor – maybe it’s nothing new but the author clearly had so much fun writing it it’s a joy to read.
I loved the sheer audacity of the plot, which is revealed in stages and glimpses. And it was great to read about such a great cast of female characters that would usually be omitted and ignored. I did not care if the heist was realistic or not, I just wanted them to succeed.
I loved the audiobook itself too (I part listened part read it) and Jasmine Blackborow's narration is spot on (I'm a fussy listener, so I know what I'm talking about!)
I hope that Alex Hay produces another novel soon – he’s a new author to watch out for.

In 1905, a pair of disgruntled former housekeepers gather an all-female gang to pull off an ambitious heist. The plan is to steal the entire contents of the house they used to work in, right under the nose of the mistress. It's a bit like Downton Abbey meets Ocean's 11. Mrs King, the ringleader, brings in former servants, two professional thieves, her own sister, and a tough gangland matriarch to form the core 'crew'. It's a seemingly impossible task, and her motives (other than greed) are not immediately clear. Like all heist stories, the central plot pivots on whether they can pull it off, with side plots around why they want to.

It's a good idea, although the execution could be better. There are some well drawn and interesting characters (I particularly liked 'the Janes') but the central characters are not very likeable. To make a heist novel succeed you have to find a way to make the readers root for the criminals, despite people generally being hesitant about that. They have to be loveable, the people they're stealing from have to be awful, and there usually has to be a nobler motive than just wanting to get rich quick. Although Hay does provide that, to some extent, she doesn't do it strongly enough or soon enough. Whilst a noble non-financial reason does emerge later in the story, it's also clear it is not the motivation of the characters as it only comes to light after the plans are all well in place.

The backstory elements are a bit weak in that a lot pivots on the sharp-eyed and capable Mrs King not having spotted something fairly large and obvious happening right under her nose. That doesn't ring true to me at all and undermines the credibility of the whole story. The heist itself is less exciting than it could be because I wasn't really invested in the characters. And perhaps because the items they are stealing are so numerous and dispersed, it lacked the focus and drive of most heist action sequences. For me, a heist novel has to be primarily fun - you can forgive people being thieves if it's clear it's all a fictional caper for entertainment. 'The Housekeepers' is not fun, and so it doesn't hit the mark.

It's not a book I would greatly recommend, as I think there are many better heist novels out there. But if you particularly enjoy them then it's harmless enough. The audiobook is very well read, the narrator having a range of good voices that really brought the story to life. It's easy enough to follow as audio as well.

Servants are doing it for themselves.

It's a big con/magic trick of a plot: revenge on the wealthy by attempting to empty the house from around them during a party.

A housekeeper is dismissed from a very well-to-do Mayfair property. Mrs King is not about to take this lying down, no matter how quietly she leaves. With contacts, promise of payment and organisation, she's going to surround herself with allies, infiltrate the house, and hopefully steal every single item from her employer during the ball of the season.

Can it be done? And just what does everyone have to hide, or seek vengeance for?

A small group of strong female characters, with backstories and pluck. A gradually revealed set of motivations brings empathy, and every reader will want to know just how the women are going to achieve their ambitious endgame.

Very enjoyable as an audiobook, clear demarcation for characters and tension abounds as the night of the ball draws ever closer. One I'd want to see on a screen.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

Set in 1905 in Mayfair, London, Mrs King, has been dismissed from her role as Housekeeper in a grand house. The Master of the house has recently died, and his daughter intends to throws the ball of the season whilst still grieving.

This gives Mrs King and her close friends an opportunity to get revenge by planning a heist on the house during the ball.

This was an enjoyable heist tale which was fun to read - both on audio book and ebook but at times I was a little lost in the narrative.

This wasn’t really my kind of book. I wasn’t really bothered about the characters, I felt that I didn’t know enough about them to really ‘get’ them.
I can see why so many people enjoyed this but it just wasn’t for me.

I absolutely loved everything about this book! From the setting and atmosphere to the stunning characters and intricate storylines. I could have kept reading way beyond the end of the book!

After holding the position of housekeeper at one of the best houses on Park Lane for many years, Mrs King is let go from her role and sets about forming a plan of revenge.

So often in this era, we focus on those upstairs and those downstairs are kept quiet and in their place. Here, however, we focus very much on the voices of those below and we see how the underdogs can rise up and work together to get what's owed to them.
Mrs King starts to recruit a concoction of colourful characters to help her implement a devious and complicated plan....but is it all just about revenge?

There is a big cast involved in this book, but I totally loved every single character, personality and their roles in the plan. Each of them just jumped right off the page and although set in the Victorian era, this was so relatable and utterly believable. As the storylines develop, more and more connections are revealed and more secrets surface.

The storylines weaved beautifully around each other for a fair part of the book but as they came together and the plan is executed, we see how truly genius the whole plot is.

The writing style was so easy to read and had me racing from chapter to chapter, I could not put this down. I also haven't stopped thinking about it since.
Alex Hay has catapulted onto my auto buy list - I am obsessed!

This book combines historical fiction and a mystery so is perfect for me.

I complex tale of women who are determined to better their lot in life. I love the complex relationships, the secrets that are revealed and the themes of violence against women and women’s rights.

The narration is clear and the voices distinct.

A tale of determined women.

3.5 / 5

"The Housekeepers" is a fun, fast-paced story about a heist in an Edwardian household, taking place during the party of the century. Led by Mrs King, who is supposedly just a former disgruntled employee (we will later learn that's not the whole truth) a rag-tag gang of women plan to liberate the grand house - and its current mistress - of all its belongings. Sounds complex and detailed, right? Well, I think it got a bit too complex and detailed, so much so that rather than getting a grand, intricate, tight story, we got a chaotic, skimming-the-surface-of-the-iceberg one.

There are positives. A fantastically original plot with some really terrific characters - particularly Mrs Bone, Mrs King and Miss De Vries. As more was revealed about their backgrounds and the ways in which they operated, they became far more fascinating to me as a reader. Though I didn't find the heist particularly clever in a way one would expect for a heist novel, the back and forth was well written and there were some really funny moments within it. The audiobook is also great - the narrator did a great job differentiating the dozens of different characters and her accents were spot on.

I think where this book suffers is trying to cram too much into one book. Most of the supporting characters were rather unforgettable (save the Janes and Hepzibah) to the point where I was getting thoroughly confused trying to work out whose story was whose. There are a number of twists in the book and I felt only a couple really worked. The connection between Mrs Bone, Mrs King and Miss de Vries worked really well, but there were others I found myself actively annoyed by. They seemed to just be there to try and give the characters a reason for existing, rather than holding up the core themes and ideas of the book.

There is also a subplot involving - as insinuated - the purchasing / sexual assault of vulnerable women within this house. It serves as motivation for one character and the evil backstory of another and gave me an enormous ick. I'm immediately wary when male writers put female characters at the forefront of their novels and, whilst it was generally alright, I didn't feel this plotline was needed. There were other routes the writer could've taken that weren't 'a bunch of women are being actively violated upstairs' - especially as it wasn't explored very deeply.

Structurally, things also start to fall apart around the third act. The heist starts at the 50% mark - and I was wondering where on earth things were going to move or develop considering we still had half the book left. I also found the ending wholly unsatisfying - things are pulled off with remarkable ease and for about 10% of the book, we just get additional tags that mean very little. In fact, I wonder if the last 20 pages or so could have been rolled up into one epilogue. The energy and pacing dips. The ending does a disservice to the rest of the novel - indeed, it's pacing and snappy writing are on of its highlights. I kept waiting for a twist or an 'a-ha' moment - and I was either too dense to get it or there wasn't one. For my self-esteem, I lean towards the latter.

It reads like a debut; trying to do a lot and just not quite hitting the mark. The writing is strong and it's an interesting concept - it's by no means a bad book. But, it's trying to do too much. In fact, it feels like it started life in a different format (screenplay more specifically). But, it's enjoyable.

This was fun! Different to anything else I've read. A kind of upstairs, downstairs who dun it with gentle villains and over the top gentry. Its not a comedy but has a humorous edge to it. It would make a really good film; I can picture the sumptuous setting and vast cast of guests and rogues arriving for the ball. It would be quite a spectacular movie!