Halls gets better and better: this is a lovely novel. It's particularly interesting in the way that a good way - possibly more than two-thirds - through the narrative, different strand twist together in a quite unexpected way. It's a risk, and with a less assured and talented writer might have gone badly wrong, but here it *works*. I hugely enjoyed it.

Stacey does it again but somehow even better than before! The writing from Halls in this novel seems to have come on leaps and bounds from her already great previous work, and if you were a fan of any of her back catalogue you will surely not be disappointed with The Household. Gripping, heartfelt and warm, you will fall in love with the characters and be thrilled with every twist and turn they’re taken on.

After The Familiars' I did wonder if Stacey Halls could do it again!
The good news is, yes she has and maybe this is even better. There is suspense aplenty, twists and turns and lots of interesting historical little asides where you find yourself thinking - wow, really? But yes, really!
I enjoyed it very much - the wind blew hard against the windows while I read this and somehow, it seemed to be the perfect read when the lights flickered and we might be left in the dark!

Stacey Halls' books are always such a treat, and this is no exception. Her biggest yet in terms of scale - encompassing the lives of multiple women as they battle through stifling expectations of life in London in 1847. Such immersive storyline, with all the varies plots and woes so wonderfully interwoven. Such a treat to read!

This was a cosy tale and it really reminds you how poorly women were treated in a different time. I really admire Angela for being so supportive to the women of that house and truly wanting them to succeed.

It was abit slow paced in parts but i really enjoyed Martha & Josphines characters. Their stories really captivated me and I really wanted the best outcome for them.

Stacey Halls novels are always a cozy read. This one focuses on the fallen women of Urania House - a charity set up by Charles Dickens to take women from difficult situations and prepare them for new lives in service in Australia. I enjoyed this one — a slower pace than I’m used to, but it allowed me to get to know the cast of characters well enough to root for them. Out in April.

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I absolutely loved The Household. What a beautifully written, harrowing and emotional story. I loved the multiple POV's, and felt such a big emotional connection to both Josephine and Martha and their stories. There are some darker subjects covered, and triggering content for some so I think warnings are potentially needed. It's such an eye opening look into what the lives of women were like in that time period and so sad to see and read about the challenges they faced as women. I loved the found family and strong characters this book gives us. I'm excited to read more from Stacey Halls!

Thank you for my copy of this book to read and review.

I have read all of Stacey Halls previous books and would class her as one of my favourite authors...therefore I was really happy to see she had a new one coming out.

I was drawn to the setting of this book with the home for fallen women...it sounded very intriguing and in a setting I knew little about. I liked that it was based on fact as I enjoy learning things from the books I read too.

It had me gripped from the first chapter and kept my interest til the end.

At this point, I will pick up a Stacey Halls book without having to know what it's about. I know it'll be written with compassion for her characters, sensitivity, and outstanding research. This one is no exception.

Angela Burdett-Coutts was a philanthropist in the Victorian era with a passion for education for all. This fictional story involves her, alongside the more well-known Charles Dickens. Stacey Halls weaves a compelling narrative which entwines real places and people with fictional characters and situations, to create a book which both enthralls and encourages compassion for those in different circumstances.

I admit I wasn't a fan of The Familiars but Stacey Hall's narrative in The Household is captivating and I had difficulty putting it down. I'm also now further intrigued by Angela Burdett-Coutts and will be seeking out more about her.

In 19th century London, Urania House, a home for reformed female prisoners, is founded by Charles Dickens and other supporters.

These “fallen women” are impoverished women driven to theft and prostitution, fleeing from abuse or carrying the guilty secret of a past illegitimate child.

The hidden cottage is a strict and restricted life, too quiet for some despite the warm beds and regular food.

Meanwhile, rich benefactor Angela Burdett-Coutts discovers that her stalker of ten years has escaped, forcing her to look around every corner again.

Initially neglectful of her pet project, Angela begins to find she has more in common with these women than any of them could ever have suspected.

Told through the eyes of a wonderfully varied range of characters – Martha, Angela, and Josephine – Stacey Halls treats us to another heart-wrenching and compelling historical novel with the hard reality of women’s lives at its very core.

This book was fabulous. I really enjoy the timeline and how the book centred on a few different characters who ultimately had a link somehow. Stacey Halls is at her best when she’s writing about strong female characters.

When I hear Stacey Halls is publishing something new, I do a wee jump for joy. She is one of those authors whose latest releases I eagerly anticipate, and I’m so thrilled to have this chance to review an early copy of her most recent work.

True to her niche, and living up to my expectations, Halls delivers another plush Historical novel of the Victorian era, and with ‘The Household’, Halls masters what A. K. Blakemore, in a comparable ilk, achieved beautifully last year with ‘The Glutton’ (comparable mostly in that I’m an avid advocate of both!). That is, specifically, blending actual historical figures with fictional narratives, as Halls did with the Pendle Hill witch trials in ‘The Familiars’ in 2019. But the difference here is that with the inclusion of Dickens, Halls calls upon a readymade backdrop of Dickensian London and announces ‘The Household’ as a palimpsest of that vast ouevre, fashioning this latest novel as expansive in a way that her previous novels haven’t been – employing a subtle metafictional self-consciousness.

Even though ‘The Household’ did evoke scenes from ‘The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep’ (H. G. Parry) for me now and again, Dickens, in fact, plays a purely figurative role in this novel.

Other reviewers, no doubt, will give succinct synopses of Halls’s plot, so what I’d like to spotlight is the author’s superlative writing style. There is such self-possession in her craft: ‘[now] it is November, the infirmary is full, and the morgue waits below like a baby bird with its beak open.’

Numerous times in a chapter, I’d catch my breath at Stacey Halls’s poised similes and imagery, the way she conjures life in such fine detail, her writing so overfull with vitality:
‘The day after Josephine left, Martha and two others did the laundry. She washed Josephine’s raspberry dress, plunging it again and again into the hot water, watching its sleeves struggle to the surface like a woman drowning.’

The characterisation in ‘The Household’ is magnificent; though all of the characters engender emotion. I cared deeply for Josephine, Martha, and the sympathetic main characters:
‘Her mother she misses dearly, but there was something about being the youngest and a girl that made her feel like a Christmas present to her father.’

Pacing is different than I remember from any of the author's previous novels: when things speed up, they really do speed up, and it feels like we are truly hurtling toward the end, when the story reaches its last few movements. I can see, though, how it might dishearten some readers. Nevertheless, I felt myself enormously invested in the tension between protagonist and antagonist. In fact, 'The Household' reminded me, to a slight extent, of Laura Purcell’s ‘The Silent Companions’. If you love Purcell, you’ll love this!

Many thanks to Stacey Halls, Bonnier Books UK, and NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my review. Hopefully, publisher and author will pardon me for citing from a pre-publication copy:

‘[Urania Cottage] reminds Martha of a doll’s house, of a staged domestic life where, upon closer inspection, the fire is a pile of ribbons and the windows are pasted shut.’

As an avid fan of Stacey's other works I was so excited to get an ARC of this!

The premise was very intriguing. Following the lives of 'fallen woman' set up by Charles Dickens and Angela Coutts. The idea was to educate them and give them a second chance at life.

There were certainly very dramatic elements. But overall the pace was a little too slow for me. Very day to day living without much progression.

With lots of main characters and sub plots branching off from them, the story got a little muddled.

But overall I enjoyed the book. And I'm definitely going to be doing some research on the real life Urania Cottage!

Stacey Halls can so wrong.

I would read her shopping list. What a writer! The way she writes draws you in from the second you pick up one of her books. The Household is equally as brilliant as everything else she has wrote.

I enjoyed this. It took me a little while to get all the characters sorted out in my head at the beginning - there are a lot, and some aren’t evoked in detail. Before reading, I didn’t know anything about the historical basis for it, or about Angela Burdett-Coutts (who is a great character), and doing some quick googling enhanced my enjoyment, but it definitely wasn’t necessary to follow the story. Really glad that Stacey Halls kept Charles Dickens on the edges and chose to focus on the lives of the women. I think if she’d brought him more central, he would have overpowered the whole thing.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.

This is the first book that I have read by Stacey Halls.
This story is based on fact which I believe makes it even more interesting.
It follows the journey of a group of young women on leaving prison to a house (Urania Cottage) in the countryside which is at a secret location. This house offers refuge for the fallen women,giving them a second chance at life.
It also follows millionairess Angela Burnett-Coutts ( a benefactor of Urania Cottage) who has been stalked for 10yrs and he is now being released from prison. Angela is very worried as she knows that this man is extremely dangerous and will be out for revenge.
I would thoroughly recommend this book especially if you enjoy reading books in the dickensian era.
An exceptionally well written book and it shows that Stacey has done a thorough research of the subject.

The Household by Stacey Halls. I have a very love hate relationship with Stacey, I love the concept of her books but they have been a bit wishy washy, this is the best she’s written though. A little house is set up to reform women who need reforming, Charles Dickens is a patron, he doesn’t turn up though. The girls who end up in there are lost souls and you can’t help but feel for them and want them to do well. Angela is a very rich woman who turns up to help them and she has a stalker and it’s said stalker where I feel like Stacey did her wishy wash thing. Give me a bit more background on this please. It was a good book, I really enjoyed it but I just needed a smidge more back story. My take away from this is men are weird.

Historical fiction at its very best! In the 1840s a group of women who have done what they must to survive are offered the opportunity to transform their lives at Urania Cottage, a home set up by philanthropists including Charles Dickens. The aim of the home is to train the young women in the niceties of society and to send them to Australia to begin new lives where their pasts will not follow them. The girls have committed various crimes, but must not tell each other about their pasts. They are confined to their new home, but inevitably they begin to drift away, often back to the streets of London, where their unsavoury pasts catch up with them in various ways. This is a very fine story indeed, with convincing characters and settings and plenty of twists and turns as the young women find the places where they belong, and those who support them have their own views challenged beyond endurance.

A thoroughly enjoyable read about a a period of English history that I knew little about. It feels very well researched. The main characters were very well drawn and I was engrossed in the plot to the end.