The House of Velvet & Glass by Katherine Howe

I finished listening to the unabridged audio version of The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe and narrated by Heather Corrigan this past weekend.

This was my first experience with anything written by Katherine Howe and I am unsure at this point in time whether or not I'll try reading another novel written by Ms. Howe as I wasn't very impressed with The House of Velvet & Glass. 

I did think, however, that Heather Corrigan did a splendid job narrating The House of Velvet & Glass and will look forward to hearing her narrate other audiobooks in the future.

The House of Velvet & Glass by Katherine Howe falls into the historical fiction genre. The setting of this novel primarily takes place roughly a century ago on the East Coast of the USA in Boston, Massachusetts. Topics/themes for this novel include the Titanic, the sinking of the Lusitania, World War 1, Spiritualism, Scrying/Divination, family loss, and also a family scandal to name a few of the topics touched upon in this novel.

I liked the premise of The House of Velvet & Glass and many of the themes/topics touched upon within it, as I do enjoy reading historical fiction. I thought, for the most part, that The House of Velvet & Glass was a very slow novel overall.... Some of the scenes did pick up and were interesting, but for much of the novel, I felt it was boring/slow and it felt disjointed as it moved between time periods. I also felt that the ending of The House of Velvet & Glass was very flat. There is an abrupt gap of two years where the novel goes from 1915 and then jumps to 1917 in the next chapter. The novel ends in an unexpected way that wasn't fulfilling to me. The ending was very anticlimactic to say the least. The House of Velvet & Glass just didn't resonate very well with me.

The following is a summary for The House of Velvet & Glass by Katherine Howe from Amazon's website:

Still reeling from the deaths of her mother and sister on the Titanic, Sibyl Allston is living a life of quiet desperation with her taciturn father and scandal-plagued brother in an elegant town house in Boston's Back Bay. Trapped in a world over which she has no control, Sybil flees for solace to the parlor of a table-turning medium.

But when her brother is suddenly kicked out of Harvard under mysterious circumstances and falls under the sway of a strange young woman, Sibyl turns for help to psychology professor Benton Jones, despite the unspoken tensions of their shared past. As Benton and Sibyl work together to solve a harrowing mystery, their long-simmering spark flares to life, and they realize that there may be something even more magical between them than a medium's scrying glass.

From the opium dens of Boston's Chinatown to the opulent salons of high society, from the back alleys of colonial Shanghai to the decks of the Titanic, The House of Velvet and Glass weaves together meticulous period detail, intoxicating romance, and a final shocking twist in a breathtaking novel that will thrill readers.

I am giving The House of Velvet & Glass by Katherine Howe a rating of 2 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!