Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Debbie and Alan Windsor’s life parallels that of the British royal family, specifically Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Debbie and Alan marry around the same time as the royal couple, Debbie is also pregnant during both of Diana’s pregnancies and unfortunately, both marriages crumble simultaneously. Thus, Debbie’s lifelong affinity for accumulating royal collectables leading to a hoarding compulsion. Present-day, Debbie lives in the US with her three grown children nearby, while Alan has stayed in London. Various professional decisions lead the children to convince their mother to participate in a hoarding reality show, which leads her on a journey to not only clean up her house, but the various “messes” in her life.
Part love story, part royal memories, I enjoyed this touching story. It was heartwarming to watch the Windsor’s come together, unearth Debbie’s secrets and ultimately choose to walk through the royal mess together while encouraging each other to embrace who they really are – individually and as a whole.

A House Full of Windsor by Kristin Contino was full of fun! Contino tells the story of a family trying to help their mom sort through her stuff by getting her on a tv show about helping hoarders. I loved getting to be a part of this family the dynamics are so well written.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.
As a lover of everything London and England, the cover of this book immediately appealed to me.
This is an endearing story about mom Debbie who collects all things English to the point that she cannot even sleep in her own bed anymore as the house is too full with stuff.
Her adult children, Sarah, a tv presenter, Anne, a mom of two and Will, a producer at a tv show about hoarding, make sure she gets help by being on Stuff the show Will works on.

In order to make piece with her past, Debbie has to fly back to England to talk things over with her ex husband but will she be strong enough to do this?

I really enjoyed reading this book and all the Princess Diana memories that were in there. This is the second book about hoarding I’ve read in a short time and although the topic can be quite dense, the story definitely isn’t.

A House Full of Windsor is a fun and light-hearted story with lots of added frivolity and hilarity making this British/American rom-com a hit in my book. A self proclaimed Anglophile, I particularly loved the many references to all-things-England (especially the royal wedding of 1981) making this an endearing tale of family love and loyalty. I enjoyed the author’s style of storytelling....flashbacks and “Sarah Says” segments accompanying most chapters. The characters were likable and the storyline of hoarding and reality television was current and enjoyable. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced eCopy in exchange for an honest review.

With A House Full of Windsor featuring a compulsive shopper, it's fitting that I found myself as a compulsive reader. It's a real page-turner and I enjoyed my time spent with both Sarah and Debbie. In fact, I found nearly every character in this book endearing and charming. I was rooting for the whole lot of them. The themes of family and forgiveness (of yourself and of others) are strong and I'd definitely recommend this novel for anyone in search of a satisfying, feel-good quick read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Get Red PR for the advanced copy!
I really wanted to enjoy this but unfortunately, I just couldn’t connect with most of the characters. I really didn’t find any of them really all that likeable. I thought the story was just ok.

I enjoyed A House Full of Windsor. It was a different take on being obsessed with Royalty. I think it handled Debbie's hoarding in a way that made you completely understand why she needed all this stuff and why it was important to her and her life and also showed you how it impacted her relationships with her ex and her children. I really wanted more from the Sarah and Pierce romance and feel like it was rushed at the end. It was a fun read, definitely could see myself laying on beach with the book.

Being completely honest, the cover of this book is what drew me in - I loved the whimsical drawings on the white background. The plot of the book ended up being the real draw. Debbie, a middle-aged divorced mother of three, is faced with overcoming her hoarding problem when her kids sign her up to be part of a reality show about hoarders. As we get further into the story, we realize that Debbie's habits go much deeper than just "stuff," but reflect a time when she was struggling and didn't have an outlet to cope.
I thought this story was a good balance between lighthearted and serious. Debbie's 3 kids each had their own burdens to deal with throughout the book, and the host of the reality show provided a sweet little romantic twist. But I feel like the core of the book was really digging deep into the hoarding issue that Debbie was dealing with, and the memories she was trying to hold on to, from a time in her life that she was struggling to get through, and the connection she felt to the Royal Family.
Overall, this book was a really good read!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this one!

This was a fun quick read! I loved reading about Sarah and Debbie while the drama over Prince Harry/Meghan’s Oprah interview was occurring. I’m not fully royally obsessed but I know people who are and could have been characters in this book. What I loved was getting the perspective of both Sarah and Debbie. Hoarding is a manifestation of mental illness and I like how this topic was handled in this book. It was easy to see how this addiction spiraled out of control. Also that it could be any of us that go over the edge into compulsive behaviors when life knocks us sideways. This was an enjoyable read! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book and provide my honest feedback.

This was a cute enjoyable book. I just felt like there were slightly too many story lines. I also didn’t really understand Sarah and Pierces relationship. Overall I thought it was a fun story and I’m glad I read it.

I thought this book was charming, funny and a great escape from life's current reality. Debbie was such a loveable character and who doesn't relate to her love of British culture at least a little bit? I definitely camped out at the TV for all of the royal weddings so Debbie, I get it! The hoarder's plot was also so fun and gave the family so much more density than what you typically get in a story involving divorce and I loved how we were able to see all of the characters develop with the show, especially Debbie with her flashbacks.

However, I was really hoping for more romance! I did not love how sloppy and thrown-together Sarah's relationship felt. It did not feel very realistic and it was hard to tell who's romance the book was really trying to capture--Sarah's or Debbie's.

Overall, I really enjoyed that it was such a light and easy-to-read book and I definitely recommend it to others who may relate to Debbie and her love of British culture.

I received an advanced copy through NetGalley for review.
#ahousefullofwindsor #NetGalley

From the first page I was in complete shock about the essence of this story. It involves Debbie Windsor and her hoarding of Royal family memorabilia or as she calls it her "little collection". Her house is stacked floor to ceiling with boxes and boxes of stuff and she has to sleep on the couch because her bed is piled with stuff. She is convinced that because her stuff is in plastic bins that are labeled and organized she does not have a problem. Her son has taken a job at Stuff a show about hoarding and helping people get rid of their stuff and have a clean house. Her son has decided that he is going to clean up his mother's house once and for all and he needs his sisters on board for it to happen. Her hoarding cost her marriage and she had to move back to America with her kids and try to start a new life. She initially started shopping because she was lonely and bored and it snowballed from there. Debbie felt that if she got rid of anything all her memories would be lost due to the fact that she assigned memories to each item she owned. She refuses to admit that her hoarding had an impact of her kids. Her oldest daughter Sarah becomes a lifestyle blogger and TV host with her "Sarah says and Sarah don't sayings. Everything in her house is color coordinated and in its place and her mother feels that her house is to sterile and not homey, and her twins Anne and William have similar lifestyles and neatness tendencies.

I never realized the emotional impact hoarding can have on a family and this story opened my eyes to that fact and I would highly recommend this book.

A sweet read about a divorced expat who makes her way back to the states with her three children, but just can't stop collecting all things Royal! She ends up on a hoarding show with her 3 children and has to go through the pain of reliving her past and forgiving. While I really enjoyed this book, I felt like I wanted more information about all of the characters as I really liked them all. Overall a fun, quick read!

I really enjoyed this book. It was a story spanning 3 decades of a woman’s past with England and current life in America. It gave an interesting perspective and look into hoarding and why someone may pick up the habit. There are great lessons in the book and I would certainly recommend.

A House Full of Windsors follows the story of Debbie Windsor (no relation), a hoarder coming to terms with her desire to collect British memorabilia as a throwback to her time abroad, where she met, married and had three children, and finding closure around her failed marriage (which was, in part, due to the hoarding). The story is told in alternating points of view and backtracks, but the consistency of the narrative's layout makes it easy to follow when we are and who is speaking.

Debbie's eldest daughter Sarah has a successful television spot and social media presence as Sarah Says, offering etiquette tips and life hacks to a following that would be shocked to learn her desire for control, order and propriety comes from growing up with a her mother's hoarding. When Sarah's younger brother Will, also in the TV industry, lands a job on STUFF, a reality television program on, what else, hoarding! he becomes the instigator behind getting his own mother featured on the show. Debbie needs some convincing, as does Sarah and Will's twin, but the handsome host turns on his Southern charm, Debbie slowly comes to disassociate things with memories, seeks out her ex-husband, and Sarah may just be embarking on a love of her own.

Well-plotted, House Full of Windsors is clever, but I found a bit a slow and couldn't figure out if it wanted to be a romance novel, or not, and whose story it really was (Sarah, or Debbie's). It's okay that is was both, but I'm a romance lover and prefer straight romance to novels with strong romantic elements.

I read this on NetGalley.
#ahousefullofwindsor #NetGalley

Five Queen Elizabeth coronation teacups for A House Full of Windsor by Kristin Contino.

What an entirely charming story. A House Full of Windsor features double points-of-view: mother Debbie and daughter Sarah, as well as Debbie's flashbacks to her younger years. Rarely in a book do I enjoy all POVs and timelines equally, but in this story I did. Nothing felt forced and the author went from one POV to another seamlessly without ever taking the reader out of the flow of the story. Both main characters where entertaining to read about and the supporting characters where captivating as well.

The premise of the story, with Debbie being a hoarder, how that effects the entire family, and how to got to her current point is so unique to the genre. It was a total joy to read and so refreshing. The story isn't inundated with British royalty (if that's not your thing), but we get just enough to make it very fun for readers who are royal-philes.

This is a touching story complete with family drama and dynamics, self-discovery, a home renovation, and just a splash of a sweet romance or two.

"Anne, always queen of tact, looked at the frock, then back at Mum. "So you bought a dress that's way too small just because Kate Middleton wore it?"

We follow both Sarah, a TV host, and her mom Debby struggling with a hoarding desorder.

I must admit I am myself a bit of a Debbie (in love with the Royal Family, not the hoarding part) so I could rely on her will to stick to all the magazines, plates and teddy bears... and being born in the 80s, all the Diana and Charles references reminded me a lot of my own childhood.

A House Full of Windsor is a romance (just a little bit) and a behind the scenes TV show but mostly the story of a family and how relationships between parents can impact on their children.

It was a fun read but, truth be told, something lost me sixty pages from the end and I struggled to finish the book. I can't grasp what didn't work for me : is it Alan ? Anne ? Were they too many characters ?

I really, really wanted to love this book, but I just didn't.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an eArc in exchange of an honest review.

So I really wanted to like this book. I just couldn’t connect with most of the characters. I really didn’t find any of them really all that likeable. I thought the story was just ok and the book was almost a DNF for me.

The premise of “A House Full of Windsor”: a middle-aged woman is a hoarder, with a house full of British Royal Family memorabilia. Her three adult children convince her to go on a reality hoarding TV show to clean up the house. In the process, she’s forced to confront issues in her past that led to the hoarding.

You all know how I love the British Royals. I also am a big fan of hoarding TV shows. So this book was a natural draw for me. I really related to Debbie, the central character, who is just a little older than me. She was in London going to college when Charles and Diana married, and while there she met a British bloke, fell in love, and got married. She and Princess Diana were pregnant at the same time, and she developed a bond with the princess. Throughout the book, she mentions identifying with Diana as both of their marriages deteriorate. Various bits of royal mementoes spur memories for her. This part of the book was fun, because each royal vignette or photo she mentions was familiar to me. There honestly isn’t much about the Diana era that slipped past me 🙂

Less endearing to me were the parts about Debbie’s three adult children, now in their thirties. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but they mostly came across as whiny and annoying to me. I found myself skimming their parts of the story so I could get back to Debbie’s narratives. There are a couple of issues, like a woman who just found out she was pregnant mentioning multiple trips to the bathroom that morning and swollen ankles (I suspect the author hasn’t been pregnant), and a mention of the character Sarah being named after Sarah, Duchess of York — although she was born in 1982, which was several years before Sarah DoY was a thing.

Other “wins” for this book, to me, are the cover (I absolutely love its look), and its title — very cute. I also appreciated the lack of profanity. I would have loved more royal talk in the book, but it’s a fun lighter read.

Daft & fun, this is the story of a woman going through a professional crisis and of her mother being a out of control shopaholic who hoardes all kinds of memorabilia about the royal family until the situation starts running out of control....
We follow them over the last 40 years with their ups and downs, their family secrets and resentments until the day that the mother's obsession really runs amok and her family starts to get overwhelmed....
Eventually they will manage to iron out all their differences on a TV hoarding show. Perfect summer reading!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Wyatt Mackenzie for giving me the opportunity for the read this book prior to its release date