Set in 1847, Stacey Halls has adapted the real life event of Charles Dickens and the wealthy benefactress, Angela Burdett-Coutts, establishing Urania Cottage, a home for so-called ‘fallen’ Victorian women. This is clearly a meticulously researched and fascinating insight into social reform of the time, combined with Stacey Halls riveting writing style. I was gripped from start to finish and it reminded me in parts of Sarah Waters ‘Fingersmith’, which is one of my all time favourite reads. I’m now inspired to find out more about Urania Cottage (while I wait for Stacey Halls next fabulous slice of historical fiction to be published)..

Thank you to Netgalley and Manilla Press for my advance review copy.

I love Stacey Halls. She is just a brilliant Historical Fiction writer. She find stories to tell and tells them with such passion. This book was no mean feat. There were so many characters and angles of the story to tell and Halls did it perfectly with strong writing style. The characters were well developed despite there being quite a few.
The story itself is a heartwarming one. A venture set up by a committee of benefactors to rehome and re-educate young women who have fallen on hard times and have recently got out of prison. One such benefactors is Charles Dickens, the great writer, who isn't prominent in the book by plays a certain part. The main benefactor, Miss Burdett-Coutts is a kind-hearted but lonely woman, who in her 30s and despite her large wealth, has noone to share it with but close family friends and help Dr and Mrs Brown. Throughout the novel, she is plagued by a stalker who had made life hard for decades because she refuses to marry him. His obsession ends up effecting the girls at Urania Cottage, whose lives and outlook drastically change due to the love and care or Mrs Holdsworth (the matron), her son Frank and Mrs Burdett Coutts herself.
The girls were also wel developed, focusing mainly on two of them whose choices effect everyone.
A scandal ensues and its up to everyone to protect the girls at Urania Cottage before they embark on a life changing adventure to foreign lands to work and start fresh.

I find Hall's books easy to read so I had no problem going back to it. The ending felt a bit rushed and was tidied up a bit too quickly for me. I would have liked to delve into the stalker a bit more and would have liked to read about a more pronounced comeuppance.

That being said, I'm a Stacey Hall's fan and will always be reaching for her new books when they arrive.

I've read Stacey Halls previous book with varied enjoyment.
This one just didn't grab me. It was slow going, the characters lacked depth and the social injustices of the time were not explored in any meaningful way.
The ending was nicely tied up but it didn't leave me wanting to find out what happened next for the characters.

I knew nothing of the history of Urania Cottage before reading this book. It seems to be a great warning against people trying to make the world better for others but having absolutely no idea how to do this. I had great sympathy for Angela Coutts and the stalking that she suffered in Victorian Britain. I’m not sure why I imagined that to be a modern problem when it clearly isn’t. Overall, I enjoyed this but didn’t love it. Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC.

A thoroughly good read, beautifully written and with a cast of interesting and endearing characters - an absolute joy, even the villain of the piece has redeeming qualities! Based on the philanthropic attempts of a high born, rich lady and her friend Charles Dickens, to rescue and reeducate fallen women, they establish a house just outside London for this purpose. There will inevitably be dramas, friendships won and lost, unrequited love and unwanted romantic attentions. The journey is bumpy, but not without humour and very clever, beautiful storytelling. I want to read it again.

Firstly, thank you Netgalley for the advance copy. Secondly, thank you Stacey Hall for your exquisite, engrossing prose once again.

I really enjoyed this, as I've enjoyed all Stacey Hall novels, although I didn't find it quite as tense or atmospheric as its predecessors.
I did love the characters, their friendships, and loyalty to one another, and was glad of the  (**SPOILER ALERT**) happy ending.

Definitely worth a pre-order!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Manilla Press, for the opportunity to read The Household by Stacey Halls before published. Stacey Halls is one of my favourite authors, having read all of her books and having the pleasure to say this is now the third book I have had the opportunity to read in advance. I cannot express my love for this book enough. It started off slow at first but I now understand that Stacey Halls had to really delve into each characters story to make it unique and personal. I felt really moved by the characters and I wish we could find out more from Josephine, Martha & Emily now they are in Australia. The book ended off in a nice resolved manner but I still want more from the characters as I felt so moved by their story. Stacey has a brilliant way of connecting factual information to fiction which I absolutely love, you can really tell she does her research and puts her all into her books and it shows. Thank you again for this opportunity, I can't wait for the book to be published so I can have my copy and also so others can read this spectacular book!

This book has everything you’ll ever need from a classic Victorian novel. Mistaken identity, opium dens, thievery, debauchery and a group of women trying their best to forge their way in life. The streets of London are so vivid in this novel you’ll feel like you’re striding the pavements too. All of the characters have something different to offer and it kept me hooked from chapter one. Urania House was a place of wonder, as were its inhabitants. I’ve been a Stacey Has fan right from The Familiars and this hasn’t let the side down at all.

Stacey Halls has done it again! Her classic style of combining real events with fiction never disappoints, and The Households presents a host of beautifully fleshed out characters living against the backdrop of late 1800s London. A must read for any lovers of period dramas. It is a beautiful story of friendship, sisterhood and new beginnings.
With many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, who provided an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

A Victorian philanthropic initiative sees young ‘fallen’ women who are considered worth saving, shipped out to the rural Urania Cottage away from temptation, to be retrained and hopefully given a fresh start in Australia, Canada or South Africa. But these women have pasts, families and complications.

I have loved and enthused over all of Stacey Halls’ books, and this one is every bit as good as the rest. Her characters are so alive and so wonderful. I think one of the things I really appreciate is that there are no unimportant or filler characters, even the slightest of them has a backstory and a reason for being there. This might be why they feel so realistic. I particularly loved Martha, desperate to find her younger sister who has disappeared, and Frank, a young policeman with morals and a determination to do his job.

The Household is based on fact, and I looked it up because I had no idea about this particular initiative involving no less a person than Charles Dickens. To the modern eye it perhaps feels a little condescending, but in Victorian times the idea of giving these women a new beginning must have been groundbreaking. The extras that Dickens insisted on – reading, playing the piano and colourful clothes, must have seemed very unusual at the time, and that is reflected in the novel. The matron definitely feels that it is a waste of money!

I would not say that there was a happy ending, but perhaps a hopeful one, which is all you can ask for sometimes.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Household, I will buy it when it’s released and add it to my shelf of Stacey Halls books to reread in the future.

The Household by Stacey Halls

It feels like we've waited a long time for her next novel to be published , but 10 times over , it's been worth it .
The Household has everything you wish for in a good read , a great plot to keep you turning the pages , strong characters and left feeling bereft when it comes to the last page.

Brilliant , brilliant , brilliant .

Stacey Halls has written an epic and very readable novel about the fate of women in Victorian London. "The Household" is set in around 1850, when Shepherd's Bush was in the countryside. There are a smattering of real historical figures, including Charles Dickens, who was known for reporting on the less well off and campaigning for better conditions for them. The household of the title is what would now be known as a half-way house for women (mostly ex-prisoners), which provides a safe environment for the learning of new skills. The aim is ultimately for these women to emigrate to the colonies, and become the wives of settlers.

The women of the household had become criminals out of necessity and are not used to being treated as individual human beings with wills of their own. As they settle in new friendships are made and mutual support is provided. At the other end of the spectrum we find Miss Coutts, who is very rich but single, and therefore able to be more of a free agent. However, this does not mean that she is free of stress and she is troubled by a persistent stalker.

The tales of the various female characters are complex and interwoven to provide a wonderful glimpse of life at this time. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

I absolutely loved The Household, the fourth novel from Stacey Halls. Her books - while set in differing historical eras and places - share some key themes in common: poverty and working class life before the existence of any social safety net (and how support systems based purely on the beneficence of the rich are inherently unstable); female friendship; the restrictions and risks faced by wealthy women who push the boundaries of 'polite' society.

The Household is based on a true story in mid-19th Century London, and about a woman I knew nothing before picking up the book. Angela Burdett-Coutts was one of the richest women in England and a keen campaigner for social justice who, in the late 1840s established Urania Cottage - a home for fallen women - with her close friend Charles Dickens. While Dickens appears only as a background character in The Household (and not a blameless one: the detail about him regularly visiting the girls at the cottage to probe them about their lives, taking copious notes - the implication being that he will mine their lived experience for his books - is troubling), Angela is one of a four main characters who we follow through the novel, alongside two of the girls, Martha and Josephine, and the matron, Mrs Holdsworth.

The problems of a paternalistic philanthropy which assumes that wealthy and educated men can presume to know what is 'best' for the fallen women, is deftly handled and the thriller aspect to the story - as Angela attempts to escape the attentions of a man who has stalked her for years - is well done. I devoured the book in a day: highly recommended

Before reading this I believed Stacey Halls could write no wrong and after reading this, my opinion is confirmed. I wish I hadn’t read it so quickly…This story has a fascinating ensemble of characters, flawed and developed. It even has Charles Dickens flitting about in the background! Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

This is yet another stunning and well-researched historical novel by Stacey Halls, and a great read. The novel is set in Victorian London, and features numerous strong, well-drawn fictional characters, and historical characters including Charles Dickens and millionaire Angela Burdett-Coutts who together set up Urania Cottage, a home for fallen women, in Shepherd’s Bush in the mid-nineteenth century. The plot follows the lives of several women before and during their time in Urania House, and involves several mysteries, a lot of crime, and a hint of what their future will hold. In common with other books by the author, the prose is excellent and the book reads very well.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I've read and enjoyed a couple of books by this author now. I thought this one was a little slow going at first and wasn't sure which direction it was going to take. It picked up though, and I definitely didn't see the twist coming. It was interesting to read about the house as I had no idea until reading this that Charles Dickens had even helped set this place up.

I have read and enjoyed all of the author’s previous books so I was excited to read this one.

I found it quite slow going to begin with, but it did pick up during the second half. If you haven’t read any of the author’s work before, I would recommend you start with one of her previous books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers.

Many people’s worlds collide at Urania Cottage, a home for fallen women in The Household by Stacey Hall.

The cottage is remote and its residents are initially unknown to one another. However, they have one thing in common, each is desperate to change their life.

Angela Burdett-Coutts, a wealthy heiress is a benefactor of this unique venture. She is no stranger to feeling a lack of freedom in life, having been stalked for the last decade.

Among others, Josephine and Martha take refuge and work in the countryside home. They soon become friends in their quest for rehabilitation. However, they’re both looking for someone and the temptation to escape the confinements of the cottage appeals to many.

Mrs Holdsworth manages the home, trying to keep the women content and safe.

As their lives become entwined, the cost of freedom is high and each woman must navigate her circumstances.

The Household by Stacey Halls is a wonderful novel focusing on female characters in Victorian England.

Told from multiple perspectives, the novel slowly explores these main characters and their differing personalities and troubles.

It illustrates contrasts between the social classes and the female experience and is inspired by Dickens’ House for Fallen Women. It features the famed novelist in a cameo alongside the reimagined Angela Burdett-Coutts. It’s fascinating how Halls brings these inspired and complex characters to life.

Among other things, it explores poverty, prison and prostitution and ultimately, the desperation for freedom.

This novel draws you in with interesting female leads and well-researched historical fiction. You cannot help but empathise with these characters’ tumultuous lives and personal woes.

I thought this was a fascinating take on the lives of very different women in 19th century England. One woman - the most privileged in the story - has to deal with a persistent (unhinged) stalker while managing her fortune, maintaining her position as an unmarried society woman and negotiating her love for an older man who won't marry her. The other characters are all engaging in their own way, although some are more finely drawn than others. The ending feels a little rushed, as if there were too many strands to tie off all at once, but I greatly enjoyed the book as a whole and, in particular, its loving portrayal of women's experiences at a time when many of them had very few opportunities in life..

I have enjoyed Stacey Halls previous novels and this one was no exception. Taking its inspiration from real historical events and figures, andded another level to my enjoyment.

This novel set in London 1847, lets the reader glimpse how life was in those times Centred around Urania House, a home set up by Charles Dickens for a group of fallen women .. It was a place of second chances, where its residents learnt skills which would enrich their lives in preparation for a new life overseas.

Angela is one of the wealthy benefactors who on the surface has a charmed life but in reality is struggling with unwanted attention from a stalker. Her relationship with the woman in the home shows her compassion and I was hoping for not only a happy ending for all the wonderful woman in the novel but for her as well.

I loved getting to know the fallen woman each with their own unique backstory. The resilience they demonstrated in a time when our modern day liberates were unheard of was astounding.

This novel kept me page turning, entertained and educated. I would wholeheartedly recommend it.