Publisher: St. Martin’s Press,  August 13, 2024

Format: ebook

Pages: 368

Rating: 5/5 stars

Summary (From Goodreads):

Duty, desire, and deception reside under one roof.

Standing in the remote windswept moors of Northern England, Coldwell Hall is the perfect place to hide. For the past five years, Kate Furniss has maintained her professional mask so carefully that she almost believes she is the character she has created: Coldwell’s respectable housekeeper.

It is the summer of 1911 that brings new faces above and below the stairs of Coldwell Hall―including the handsome and mysterious new footman, Jem Arden. Just as the house’s shuttered rooms open, so does Kate’s guarded heart to a love affair that is as intense as it is forbidden. But Kate can feel her control slipping as Jem harbors secrets of his own.

Told in alternating timelines from the last sun-drenched summer of the Edwardian Age to the mud-filled trenches of WWI, The Housekeeper’s Secret opens its door to a world of romance, the truths we hold onto, and the past we must let go.

My Review:

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for the copy of this book.
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Read if you like: WW1 fiction, Downton Abbey vibes, historical mystery, and forbidden romance.
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The book focuses on two perspectives: Kate, the housekeeper of an estate in northern England just before WW1, and Jem, who shows up at the estate as a new footman. Each has different reasons and secrets for being at the estate, and neither can afford the forbidden romance that they embark on.
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This book had many things that I love in a historical fiction book, and I liked how the book was told through alternating perspectives and timelines so that the reader could piece together what happened. Overall, I was fully immersed in this book and loved it!