Brontë Ellis lives in two worlds. In the first, he’s the abandoned child raised in an all-boys boarding school where he has no friends, no particular academic skills, and even fewer social skills. But, in his head, in his imagination, he’s the much maligned heroine of a gothic novel — like in his favorite novel, Jane Eyre — just waiting for the Byronian hero of his dreams to whisk him away to a mysterious manor where he can fulfill his fantasies. (Note: Bron is genderfluid and uses terms like governess and heroine to describe himself, while also using he/him pronouns. As such, I shall refer to Bron as he/him in this review.)

When Bron sees the advert for a position at Greenwood Manor to be the tutor and caretaker of a young girl, Bron can’t help but think it’s perfect. Why, it’s just like Jane, heading off to Thornfield Hall! However, Jane didn’t have wifi, an accepting Mr. Edwards who encourages and spoils his daughter at every turn, and a laptop where he can pirate movies to watch at night before bed. Jane also didn’t have a Mr. Darcy, the prodigal son who comes home to visit, a man as arrogant as his namesake and utterly disinterested in on Brontë Ellis. Or is he?

The more time Bron spends with Darcy, the more Bron feels as though there might be something there between them, a spark of kindred spirits. But Darcy is keeping secrets from him; in fact, it seems like everyone is! When the library catches on fire, Bron sees this for the chance it is, to find out the deep, dark family secret and bring it to light!

First and foremost in this book, I loathed Bron. The character feels unpleasant, shallow, unkind, selfish, and very much has main character energy (I know, I know, he is the main character of the book, but Bron takes it way too far). Frankly, I found him insufferable. Bron is always living in his own world, a world in which he is the poor and impoverished, long-suffering victim who can’t get into the school he wants because of his station and his class (not his grades or lack of tuition), who looks down on tourists who — like him — wander cobbled streets and take pictures of locations from their favorite films, and who loves to feel the breeze in his hair as he romps about on his very high horse. On his first meeting of Mr. Edwards and his daughter, Bron can’t help but notice the two don’t closely resemble each other the way he thinks parents and children ought, and so pointedly reflects that the Mr. Edwards’ daughter can’t possibly be related to him, she must be adopted.

He had a friend at his old school, St. Mary’s, and thought to put Harry into the same position as Jane Eyre’s best friend … despite the fact that Harry wasn’t interested in that role, any more than he was interested in being in a romantic relationship with Bron. When Harry’s parents pulled him out of the school, after pointing out the mildew and the dead rat on the stairs, among other sub par living conditions, Bron saw this as Harry betraying him and choosing to run away because Bron had kissed him as a confession of his feelings. Because yes, everything has to be about Bron.

When Bron discovers that the family he works for has family secrets that they’re daring to keep from him, he’s offended! When he discovers that Darcy, the gallant figure he wants to have fall in love with him, had a life prior — and lovers prior — he’s miffed, and then spends a great deal of time imagining Darcy and Giovanni together, their romance, their conversations, how they might touch one another, kiss one another, and how all that makes Bron feel. And it gets worse. Mr. Edward dies, and his loss takes a heavy toll on the family. Ada, the girl Bron tutors and babysits, has lost her father, the light of her life; her brother Darcy, the only other constant in her life, the only family she has left, goes from being indulgent and present to being an angry and sad ghost vanishing in the mornings and not returning until evening, as Darcy must now deal with the business of his father’s death, the business affairs, the house, the paperwork, and his own grief for having lost his father, his stability. And Bron’s upset that he’s being ignored. He then uses that as impetus to snoop in Darcy’s room to find a missing photo album — someone else’s photo album — and read Mr. Edward’s private final letter to his son and the will. Because in the end, it’s all about Bron.

Yes, this is simplifying it, but it’s the essence of the situation. Bron feels like he has no sympathy for other people and no empathy for anyone but himself, as is made even more clear when, upon learning Darcy has been disinherited by his father — the man who just died — his first, giddy thought is: Now he’s just like me!

To his credit, when Bron hears that Giovanni — during his relationship with Darcy — outed him to their friend group, and then to Darcy’s father, Bron takes a moment to be offended on Darcy’s behalf, calling out that sort of behavior for the vileness it is. It feels like one of the rare times where Bron thinks about someone else’s feelings, and stood out because of that.

That’s not to say the book isn’t without some merit. The writing is its strong suit. The author has written this book in a style reminiscent of Jane Eyre or Northanger Abby and keeps it consistent through the whole book. On the whole, the book is easy to read with a languid pace, however, every single character feels like they have the same voice. They speak with the same cadence, the same grand deliveries, and during some conversations, I found it hard to decipher who was talking without tags, as they all sounded exactly the same to me.

While, for me, this book is a pass, that’s purely due to my absolute dislike as Bron as a person. I was caught enough by the book that I will be keeping an eye out for more from this author, but this book in particular for me is a pass, as I found Bron an unpleasant character to have to spend time with and the plot gives him no growth or character development. It just reinforces all of his bad traits and none of his very few good ones.

(copied from my audiobook review): Loved this book, would definitely be interested in reading more from this author. Perfectly captured the vibes of classics but without being boring. My only complaint is I wish we saw more of the romance and that the "twist" was either better done or less spread out because the biggest part was pretty easy to guess.

I felt the inner dialogue of gender spectrum enjoyable and somewhat fluid.

After a couple of rejections from Cambridge, Bron finds himself becoming the live-in tutor at a manor house, which suits his love of 19th century literature. However, the family he finds himself working for is not what he expected with his employer Mr. Edwards and his daughter Ada welcoming him and Ada's brother Darcy keeping him at arms length. While Bron sees himself as the governess in his stories, Ada is largely self-sufficient and Darcy rather aloof and perplexing. Bron finds himself attracted to Darcy although he can't quite grasp the dynamic between Darcy, his friends, or his family. Bron tries to put the pieces together to figure out what Darcy is hiding and how it relates to Ada and what it could all mean for a relationship between Bron and Darcy. Overall, this novel is part character study, part Gothic romance, and part family drama. Much of the dialogue is centered around Bron's view of genderfluidity and his experience growing up, although part of it is also Darcy's own journey. While the setting was really well defined and set up, sometimes the characters themselves fell a little flat and it was not clear what their motivations were.

A wonderfully sweet, sharp, clever and unique spin on Modern Gothic, and easily one of my favorite reads of 2023.

Bron is a lonely, genderfluid orphan obsessed with Gothic classics heroines who suddenly finds himself with an opportunity to live out his own version of Jane Eyre. Or so he hopes.

In reality it’s of course a lot more complicated than that, and all the gothic tropes are turned slyly upside down and sideways in this terrifically clever and unusual story.

I’d call this a light gothic, but the atmosphere and slow build are wonderfully done regardless, and the story plays on traditional genre themes while spinning them into something entirely new.

I absolutely adored the characters. You’ll never root harder for a protagonist than you will for Bron, and also for the found family he wants so badly to build. I love a book that hits you in the feels without being manipulative or saccharine, and this book does that brilliantly. Absolutely loved this story.

Bron grew up in a boarding house due to not having family stayed on after he was done to work there but when he got a job being a governess for a little girl name Abba he is excited about his new prospect when he needs the family he gets along with everyone except the older son Darcy and then something horrible happens and the romance becomes a mystery I really thought I would love this book or at least like it a lot I mean Braun is obsessed with the old Regency Classics but I didn’t found the integration of those books and the sentiments giant with the storyline and I thought is if the book wanted to be a Gothic town but that was just something that caused it not to be. I cannot think of the last time I DNF the book but almost did it with this one I feel bad saying this because I know writing books is hard but I really didn’t like this book but due to the subject matter I would get the authors books another chance. I want thank the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review

Despite the disparagement toward Austen in favor of the Brontës within its pages, kind of a modern(ish) retooling of Northanger Abbey. Very poetic, if largely predictable.

Castle's novel is ambitious in its scope of trying to use classical literature, Gothic and otherwise, to examine genderfluidity and modern culture. In the end, I feel it wasn't fully successful -- but I applaud their effort.

Bron, the main character, is a queer, genderfluid individual who uses he/his pronouns throughout. His character, like much of the book, flip-flops between being intriguing and overwrought. When Bron ruminates on his struggles as a genderfluid person or discusses his passion for Jane Eyre or gender fluidity, he's engaging. Otherwise, he is a mish-mash of both overly shy and overly antagonistic, wanting to shrink away unless it is to bite back. Perhaps this is intentional, and perhaps it is indicative of Bron's other experiences and struggles, but I found it jarring.

Likewise, I felt that the sumptuous descriptions of places and objects (especially clothing) and little nods to modern tech here and there that were woven in well didn't mesh with the dialogue. The dialogue is purposefully appealing to an older style, but why would anyone talk like that except for Bron himself? Even the idea of hiring a governess, using that term and not the more modern equivalents, feels weird. Again, Bron could himself make those parallels but to expect everyone in the world of the novel to do the same feels like too much.

A queer coming of age debut story featuring a gender fluid MC, perfect for fans of Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen.

This was a heartfelt modern reimagining of classic English gothic romances that sees orphan Bron, a young, lonely youth taking up a position as a tutor in a remote English manor house where they meet a love interest who projects tons of Fitzwilliam Darcy vibes.

Great on audio narrated by Cloud Quinn, I really enjoyed this story and can’t wait to read what this author writes next!! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

⚠️CW: transphobia/queerphobia

The Manor House Governess (pub. November 7, 2023) by C.A. Castle is a unicorn--a novel that feels like a classic with the writing, the setting and the plot, but is supremely modern with its genderfluid protagonist named Brontë--shortened to Bron.

Orphaned young, Bron lives at boarding school, where they don't fit in with the other boys because of the femininity at their core. They want to attend Cambridge, but their grades aren't enough for a scholarship and, as an orphan, there is no money to attend. So instead, they answer an ad for a live-in tutor for a young girl, Ada.

Ada's father, Mr. Edwards, is welcoming to Bron and their genderfluid presentation, lacy scarves and all, and Bron comes to truly love Ada. Bron has the freedom they never had at boarding school to truly express themselves. The problem is Ada's older brother, Darcy, who Bron is attracted to, and who seems to perhaps be attracted to Bron as well?

With a gothic mystery at its heart, and veering from quiet nights under the covers with their laptop to brisk country walks and manor house parties, I thoroughly enjoyed The Manor House Governess. I love modern retellings of classic stories, and this book was like a mashup of several Austen and Brontë favorites, with a queer storyline. I loved the writing and saved many quotes.

Also, I'd argue that it's fat positive, as Mr. Edwards, one of the most beloved characters, is described with a large stomach, "straining against his waistcoat" but it is a completely neutral description. And Mr. Edwards is the first person to really give Bron a place to be themselves, and he entrusted his daughter to Bron's care and attention. While there aren't really any other characters described as fat, the fact that Mr. Edwards had such good qualities and was so important to the rest of the characters, while he is fat, qualifies it to be fat positive.

Unfortunately this book didn’t work for me and was a DNF but I am sure other readers will feel differently! Thank you for the ARC!

(DNF at 35%)

Perhaps if I had read Jane Eyre, I would have appreciated this queer, gender-fluid retelling more. I found the prose rather clunky, the dialogue confusing, and the plot meandering. I enjoyed Ada, the young girl our protagonist tutors. I enjoyed the Cambridge setting. But I could not grasp the dynamic and relationships between the characters. It felt very, "this happened, then this, then this..." Maybe I gave up too soon, and the conflict was yet to come. But by 35%, I should have felt drawn in and invested. Sadly this one was not for me.

[Review by a nonbinary reader] DNF at 25%.

I somehow missed that this was a 21st century retelling; as soon as our genderfluid protagonist scrolled through an email on their phone, I felt out of it. And the retelling aspects were shoved at the reader like a sales flyer, there was no craft to the story.

The attempt at Victorian prose amid emails and wifi - I couldn't deal with the anachronistic style. The protagonist's introduction read extremely clunky, too - I think their gender fluidity could have come out more organically through the story, but no, several awkward paragraphs try to get that out of the way and lay out a...wardrobe manifesto? for the character. The extremely randomly placed illustrations added nothing to the story, either, and I gave up in dismay at the quarter mark.

Bron’s life has always been steeped into classics and especially 19th-century English literature. Reading helped him through boarding school and now he’s ready to embrace his Jane Eyre fantasies and take on a job as a tutor for a child in a Cambridge manor house. As a genderfluid person using masculine pronouns, Bron has always felt a closer connection to the female heroines of these books, hence the title of “governess” he takes on. What he wasn’t expecting was for the web of secrets underlying his favourite Gothic novels to follow him at Greenwood Manor.
Here is a very earnest debut novel. The author’s love for literature, and especially English classics, permeates each page of this book. And yet it’s not a pastiche or a pale comparison, first of all because of Bron, our main character, whom I felt very attached to. It was a privilege to be privy to his innermost thoughts, and I often felt like it was extremely important and personal for the author to be writing this particular story. Admittedly, some passages felt a bit lengthy to me, as if I was drowning in Bron’s thoughts just as he was drowning in his. At other times I felt like the author had a list of items to put into his narrative and worked hard to make them appear in as fluid a manner as possible, but it worked.
On the whole, I really enjoyed this queer spin on beloved stories. The way it included many tropes of Gothic novels made me think of the way romance novels mostly follow the same plot but have thousands of readers enjoy them anyway. The Manor House Governess felt both familiar because of the classics it drew from, and new because of the unique perspective of its endearing protagonist.
Rep: genderfluid MC, LGBTQIA+ secondary characters.
CW: fire, outing, queerphobia, mention of terminal illness and abandonment.

Bronte Ellis is a gender-fluid person who just got a job as a tutor for a nine-year-old girl in an elegant country manor near Cambridge. Bronte loves classic literature like Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. The book is written nostalgically, slow-paced, and focused on descriptions just like the classics Bronte loves. When a mysterious fire breaks out in the mansion, Bron is suddenly caught in a story like the classic novels they know and love.

The atmosphere of the story in the beginning was very interesting as was Bron as a character. I enjoyed the parts about gender fluidity and discovering one’s sexuality. However, the mystery went on too long for me. There were also a lot of parts that I found unnecessary to the storyline. Overall, I enjoyed the story. I would recommend it to those who enjoyed Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. I give it 3/5 stars.

DNF 70%

The writing couldn’t keep me interested, and there wasn’t much of a plot to follow. And I really did not like the dynamic of the romance

The Manor House Governess was a difficult work to dive into. The novel requires more than surface level reading as does the main character Bron. Being a fan of both Austen and Bronte, I understand the blending of past fiction to make a storyline for Bron. I also empathize with his character as he struggles to self-identify.

Bron uses male pronouns, he/him, however he feels most comfortable when expressing his femininity in dress and coiffure. He has accepted a job as a governess to 9-year-old Ava in an affluent country home. The lifestyle of the residents as far as wealth, dress, presentation, and gender pronouns differ vastly from Bron’s. The story progresses through a series of secrets, disruptions, misunderstandings, and romance. I did enjoy this story overall and championed for Bron’s success.

On the one hand I think it’s neat that a book with a gender queer main character doesn’t fall neatly into a specific genre box. But on the other hand I feel like the fact that I couldn’t quite pin down what type of story this was held me back from getting fully sucked in. It has elements of mystery, elements of gothic romance, elements of a coming of age in your 20s story, and looking back on childhood experiences. All of those things are interesting, but they also all ended up feeling a bit surface level.

I liked the characters and the writing. There was an interesting style which made it feel like a classic, gothic story even though it was set in the modern day. Overall I came away from this book just feeling like it was fine. It was a quick, easy read but I don’t think it’s one that will stick much in my mind.

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for allowing me to read an advance copy.

I loved the premise of this book and think that with more editing and work-shopping it could have been great. I really tried to finish this, but I ended up DNFing at around 80%. No matter how hard I tried I could not get invested in plot (especially the mystery/thriller aspect) and I found there to be too many things in Bron's past that were somehow both under-explored and lacking in relevance to the story.

The language also felt a bit too pretentious for something that lacked scholarly substance. The academic setting and vocab along with the often overindulgent use of literary figures (the Brontes, Austen, etc) did not flow like I believe was intended.

I really wanted to like this, I did, but I found myself wrapped up and frustrated by the names of the characters and the references to various parts of novels by Austen and the Brontes. I applaud the effort Castle has put into this and the representation but I DNF. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. If only the characters weren't all named for characters in the novels of others....

The Manor House Governess follows the story of Bron (short for Brontë) who is recently employed as a "governess" for a young girl named Ava, who lives in a large manor with her father, only known as Mr. Edwards. Bron is enamored with classic novels, especially the Brontë writings. To be clear, this book takes place in present time, so it has the vibes of these classic books, but time has moved forward. This lays the major issue I had with the book-- in theory I'm all for a modern retelling of a classic, but outside of occasional references to current times (social media, television, etc.), one would think this is taking place in at the turn of the century. It does not commit to the modern telling and so the major premise here did not work for me. Perhaps because the overarching theme of this novel has to do with acceptance of one's gender (and/or fluidity) and sexuality, placing it in a more tolerant (somewhat) time helps, though I feel like this could have still been told in the past. As with Jane Eyre (the book this story nods to), there is a mystery that Bron becomes involved in solving, which is not very difficult to suss out, and the romantic connection was lackluster (did not get the attraction). This was a frustrating read, as it had potential and just did not deliver for me.

Thank you to Alcove Press for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.