I had been intrigued by the synopsis of Talland House but the writing and the story fell flat to me.

Lily Briscoe is an inspiring artist, she meets Eliza Stillman and they become best friends as both like to sketch and paint. Lily’s given the opportunity to stay the summer with the Ramsay family at St. Ives in Cornwall and this is the link to Virginia Woolf and her famous novel To the Lighthouse.

Mrs. Ramsay is like a second mother to Lily, she offers to paint her portrait and unfortunately she doesn’t get to finish it. The Great War starts and Lily and Eliza decide to train as nurses at the Queen Alexandra Hospital. Lily is working on Ward C, treating men with gas gangrene, trench fever and shell shock. Mrs. Beckwith comes out of retirement to run the hospital's pharmacy and Lily’s her new assistant.

In 1919, Lily is now a flourishing artist and her paintings are on display at the Royal Academy in London. She has lost touch with Mrs. Ramsay and she’s shocked when her ex tutor and first crush Louis Grier informs her she passed away. Lily reflects on the summer she spent with the family, Mrs. Ramsay the mother of eight children looked to have a wonderful life from the outside and did she? Lily noticed Mrs. Ramsay slipping something into her drink when her husband wasn’t paying attention, she looked pale and at times the atmosphere was tense, due to Mr. Ramsay’s angry outburst and Andrew the eldest son’s fondness for knives.

Lily travels back to Cornwall to investigate the circumstances around her matriarch’s death, Talland House has been closed up for years, and Lily discovers Mr. Ramsay wouldn’t let anyone prepare his wife’s body for burial and he emptied her room of all her clothes and belongings. While helping Mrs. Nash clean the holiday house, Lily tries to piece together the possibilities of what happened to Mrs. Ramsay, using her medical and pharmaceutical knowledge.

I received a copy of Talland House by Maggie Humm from NetGalley and She Writes Press in exchange for an honest review, it’s about Lily’s experiences in the early 1900’s, from her crush on her Australian art teacher, to being a suffragette and working as a nurse during WW I, the unexpected passing of Mrs. Ramsay and of course hindsight. Four and a half stars from me and you don’t have to read To the Lighthouse to enjoy this work of historical fiction.

This book was archived before I was able to download it. I appreciate the opportunity to review though!

Talland House by Maggie Humm is a beautiful piece of women fiction and historical fiction. It revolves around Lily Briscoe, a budding painter who has come to the island of St. Ives, in Cornwall, to complete her student days as a painter. There she meets Louis Grier, her tutor, whom she starts developing feelings for. As her days in the picturesque island pass, she meets the Ramsays who live in Talland House, their summer house in the island. The Ramsays were an odd pair of couple - Mrs. Ramsay being the one emanating motherly affection for Lily, whereas Mr. Ramsay being a stone-cold patriarchal head. The story spans across 1900 to 1919, wherein, it traces Lily's journey from a student to one of the renowned artists in the country.

The story starts of in The Royal Academy, London, where Lily's painting of the dahlias she painted at Talland House, is being exhibited. Her ex-tutor comes to see her work, and to Lily's shock, it is revealed that Mrs. Ramsay has met death under mysterious circumstances. Lily decides that she must discover why and how Mrs. Ramsay, who had always treated Lily as her own daughter, died.

The story fluidly goes to and from different phases in Lily's life - her life as a student in Cornwall, her life as a renowned artist, her life as a nurse during the WWI and her life after Mrs. Ramsay's death when she goes back to Talland House to investigate her death. Maggie Humm beautifully captures the life of a struggling independent woman in the 1900s through Lily's story - her heart-flutter infatuation for Loius, contemplating the missed opportunity of a possible love affair, and her time as a student who fought to stand out amongst her male peers. The author also showed the dynamics of a married woman with her husband, though Mrs. Ramsay's story.

An air of mystery hangs around since the first page itself. The story grips you and puts you under a spell of lyrical writing and a picturesque setting. I loved how the author explores the intricacies of a young woman in love and a woman in a man's world trying to make a name for herself. Even though the mystery aspect of the story is not the driving factor of the plot, Lily's adamancy to unearth the mystery surrounding Mrs. Ramsay's death, highlights Lily's sheer determination. Her relationship with Mrs. Ramsay as a mother-daughter bond stands out in the book as Lily reminisces about her dead mother, and Mrs. Ramsay in turn takes Lily under her wings.

At this point I'm running out of words. All I can say is that you need to read the book. It's not a light read exactly, you need to read every inch of this book, but I promise you are not going to be disappointed. This book is like a pleasant breeze, like an evening walk on the beach. It's meant to be enjoyed at its own pace.

My thanks to She Writes Press and NetGalley for the ARC of TALLAND HOUSE.
I was not very fond of this book, mainly due to its wording and narrative style. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with it, but it definitely affected my reading experience.

Grief is not a prerequisite for reading, Talland House by Maggie Humm; neither is Virginia Woolf’s, To The Lighthouse for that matter. The reader does not have to suffer parental loss to identify with Lily Briscoe’s character or friendship with Mrs.Ramsay which triggers reminders of her own deceased mother. Even though Lily is mourning her dead mother during her visit to Cornwall, it is her surprising brief friendship with Mrs.Ramsay that pulls Lily out of her sadness, that is until her unexpected death which leaves Lily with an unfinished portrait painting of Mrs.Ramsay to complete.

I felt as if I was meeting Lily for the first time. She was free spirited and carefree when painting as a part of her group while in St.Ives. The juxtaposition when she would visit Talland House and her conversations with Mrs.Ramsay were fascinating.

The novel itself is filled with wonderful art scenes as Lily Briscoe becomes a professional artist. I really enjoyed Lily and Louis possible love story carrying through to London, World War I between 1914-1918. Nothing is predictable in Talland House; not the parental themes of death and grief, not the love story and especially not the constant friendship between Lily and Emily. Talland House is an absolutely beautifully written refreshing story of love, life and grief.

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley
Thank you for the opportunity.
This book has an interesting premise and build up to it. The writing is lyrical and has some really well written parts.
However, it felt over-romanticised at times to the extent that it became unrealistic. It was a shame as it draws the reader away from the character and what could be an interesting story.
On the whole, an OK book.

Thank you NetGalley and She Writes Press for providing me with an ARC of Talland House in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Gist

Almost three years ago I took my mother on a holiday to England. We visited St. Ives for a few days and I became enchanted with Cornwall. It was beautiful, magnificent and charming.

I had a wonderful time there. We were very lucky with the weather and ever since then I have used Cornwall as my mental happy place, especially during this terrible pandemic.

So, when I received a copy of Talland House from the publisher I was excited on embarking on a mental holiday to one of my new favourite spots in this world. Throw in some historical fiction and a suspicious death and I’m your gal.

Now I’m sitting on my couch, a Hallmark Christmas movie playing in the background, because it’s October and Halloween does not exist in the Hallmark Universe, and a Scotch neat in easy reach. All to ease the agitation I’m feeling right now.

I’m asking myself “It all sounded so promising. What went wrong?” Isn’t it always the case, though?

The Details

Let me begin with the protagonist. I know, I know. I always start with the protagonist, but it’s a good way to start this hopefully mild rant.

Lilly is entitled, arrogant and cocky. Traits that I personally don’t find too amiable in a main character, but they could nonetheless work, if the story itself is well crafted and executed.

I just find it doesn’t encourage a reader to continue with a story when the protagonist keeps comparing everything that they think is better.

Lilly, from what I gathered, had a great opportunity, hence her move to Cornwall, yet her internal thoughts make it sound like she much rather be back in Paris.

Or is this just a way to establish a very snooty character, whom I don’t really care about? And if so, why would that be the object of this story? It puzzled me, but I was willing to give it a try.

What really irked me to the point of almost tearing my hair out was the writing style. For the love of everything a person may find holy, this could have benefitted with a little more patience during the writing process.

I completely understand the excitement and enthusiasm coursing through a writer’s veins as they have this great story in mind and they want to get it down on paper as quickly as possible, but the jumps in times were seriously driving me insane.

One sentence has Lilly talking with her landlady and the next she is standing inside the painting studio. No Paragraph break and no warning of the abrupt scene change.

It kept pulling me out of the reading flow, so to speak.

In addition to the quick jumps in time, the writing style couldn’t decide if it wanted to be more descriptive and verse-like or quick-acting prose. The constant switches were just as tiring as the jumps in time and space.

It became exhausting to read. And what frustrates me the most is the potential this story had. I could see it shimmering right beneath the surface of whatever the narration tried to do. It was right there, yet so far away.

The Verdict

Overall, I must say I gulped my Scotch too fast in order to numb the sadness in my heart. Talland House could have become one of my favourite reads of 2020, but it just fell a little too short on a lot of aspects.

This just wasn’t for me. And I’m very gloomy about it.

This book of historical fiction will be welcomed by those who enjoy stories about women trying to find their way in the world. The main character, Lily is an artist and a product of her times; she is aware of the expectations for women and what she wants for herself. Given the time frame of the story, readers learn more about nursing during the Great War and the movement for women’s right to vote.

With a bow to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Ramsay, Lily becomes involved in wanting to understand what led to her demise. Mrs. Ramsay was a key figure to Lily who painted a portrait of her that was not completely well received by its subject. In addition, the reader watches Lily as she falls in love with her tutor, Louis.

There is a lot going on in this well-told narrative. I enjoyed the book’s Cornwall setting, the characters and the insight into women’s lives at that time. I also admire the author’s understanding of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and how this was incorporated into the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Excellent book. Couldn't put it down! I enjoyed the historical details and also loved the mystery aspect. Will be recommending this book.

I read this for a blog tour.

Inspired by Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, and partly set at Talland House, which Woolf's family rented when she was a child, this story fleshes out the details Woolf left out of her own narrative - primarily the death of Mrs Ramsey.

A beautifully written, lyrical meditation on art, the particular light of St Ives, families, women, war and love.

Following Lily Briscoe from her days as an art student, then as a Queen Alexandra's nurse in WWI (as was my own great-grandmother), we encounter the seismic changes in society in the early years of the 20th century. Lily is present when a suffragette slashes a painting in protest of the government's treatment of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Her fascination with Mrs Ramsey never really wains, she thinks of her often, even though years pass by without them meeting. I was reminded of the similar relationship in Howards End, where Margaret is fascinated by Mrs Wilcox.

The novel evolves in its final third into a investigation of Mrs Ramsey's death. Lily suspects foul play, the suddenness of it seems suspicious, and she enlists her pharmacist friend after the cleaner and cook give her a small bottle found among Mrs Ramsey's things. Shades of Agatha Christie, herself a pharmacist in the war.

I found this book deeply fascinating and strangely moving. St Ives is a place I've visited and I could picture it in my mind as Lily painted on the quayside and strode around the town with her friends.

Even if you're not a fan of Woolf, this is very enjoyable and readable, Woolf isn't present in the pages and the author really makes the characters her own

London 1919. Lily is a very mixed up woman. Torn between her love for her tutor Louis and then her love for the lady whom she considers a mother Mrs. Ramsay, she is heartbroken to overhear that her half done portrait of the lady is not pleasing to her. For Lily has put her heart and soul into this painting and this almost destroys her.

The story with its strong connections To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf draws its world from St Ives in Cornwall and London and the ten missing years of the story. Lily Briscoe was very much part of the Woolf scene visiting the Isle of Skye before the War, then during the War and then after the War returning to Skye after the death of Mrs. Ramsay.

The feeling of such a close connection between Lily and Mrs. Ramsay - almost spiritual despite the aggressiveness of the Mr. Ramsay in the story. Lily's unfortunate love for Louis which was never reciprocated because as she discovered at the very end that he was gay are very well enumerated in the story.

The book mixes historical fiction, as well as actual history with a lot of imagination and combines all the elements to give you a very factual story.

This book is full of artistic descriptions and lots of colors. This takes place when the women of the world are beginning to realize that they should have a say in their lives. This book shows how Lily learns to become an artist and she grows as a person over the years. I enjoyed all the characters and the way this was written. This shows how these women blossom. I received a copy of this book from Smith Publicity for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Talland House takes inspiration from Virginia Woolf's, To the Lighthouse. You will also be surprised to know that Talland House is also where Woolf spent 13 summers with her family.

Centering on Lily Briscoe’s coming-of-age and offering a plausible resolution to one of the twenty-first century’s greatest literary mysteries - the sudden death of Mrs. Ramsay - Talland House partly follows the time structure of Woolf’s novel, but weaves into this frame a prequel, and many fictions of Woolf’s life including her family, the artists and friends she knew, and Lily’s fictionalized life and career outside of the novel.

The book was a beautiful description of the town of St. Ives and the life of the protagonist Lily. The entire story revolved around Lily, Mrs, Ramsay and of course the Talland House. It's a very slow paced book going back and forth between the present day life of Lily and the of her time before and during the first World War.
Many a times you may almost feel like Lily thinks too much but I feel that is an apt depiction of her artistic mind. The character development of Lily is also appropriate to a time when women in the western world were trying to become independent beings.

The book will take you through her journey as a student in Paris, to a student in St. Ives where she first meets Mrs. Ramsay, to journey of coming back to Talland House as an artist, as a suffragette, as a nurse during World War 2 and finally having her artwork being displayed at the Royal Art Gallery being almost lost and clueless through it all.

The story carries with itself the mystery of Mrs. Ramsay's death and Lily's determination to complete her portrait as well as figure out the reason behind he sudden untimely death which gives you something to look forward to. If you have an interest in art, you'll also be in awe of the artistic descriptions in the book because I sure was.

I rate the book 3.5 bookmarks out of 5 because of the slow pacing of the book, of course the book has instigated and even inspired me to look into more of Virginia Woolf's works, but this title itself could've been slightly fast paced as some details felt unnecessary.

I found that not remembering a lot was actually a great thing because I could fall in love with these characters all over again. I loved the dynamic between Lily and Mrs. Ramsay, the way that their relationship developed throughout the novel. Lily is vibrant and Mrs. Ramsay is wise. They balance each other out well. The only thing I would say, is that their relationship as painter and model is sort of taken for granted, which makes sense as Talland House is based on/develops from To the Lighthouse. Without this prior knowledge, things might feel a bit rushed for a new reader, however, I found them both precious and loved re-learning their connection.

One thing I absolutely adored is Humm’s prose. The way she wove art and the artist’s eye into the narrative was beautiful. My favourite scenes were those where Lily takes in the surroundings, for example, Lily looks at Mrs. Ramsay’s dining room, ‘…The dining room filled with mauve. It was the boundary of evening, the moment when things change, colours become deeper and the future denser but somehow more tantalizing’. These are the strongest parts in the novel, and I felt like it was gesturing towards Woolf’s narrative style. Whether this was intentional or not I’m not sure, but I felt like this was part of the beautiful and subtle nod towards the original story.

This was not a book for me i am sad to say. The language was for me too "cultural'. Maybe i should read more about the book before i requested it. Thank you to netgalley for letting me read this e arc in exchange for an honest review

Talland House by Maggie Humm landed on my to read list well before I was given the opportunity to read an advanced copy from NetGalley and from Smith Publicity, Inc. I was attracted to the cover--the historical feel--and the the subject--the story of Lily Briscoe outside the pages of Virginia Woolf's novel To The Lighthouse, that made Lily Briscoe a character in literary history. I love historical fiction, and thought Talland House would teach me a bit more about the essence of Virginia Woolf and this particular story. I remembered an article in the New York Times a few years back about Talland House, the home in St. Ives, Cornwall where Virginia Woolf spent a few summer months each year. I was enamored with the way that the freedom of open space affected Woolf, swimming, running through the gardens, spying stars in the night sky, mirrored her freedom of thought as an adult and member of the Bloomsbury Group. This summer life was so much an opposite of Victorian life in London.
First, if you haven't read To the Lighthouse, it is perhaps the most autobiographical novel Woolf authored, taking place over the course of ten years and spanning the Great War. Part One has the Ramsays and their 8 children going to Hebrides on the Isle of Skye for the summer, and enjoying several visitors, including Lily Briscoe, a young painting student determined not to marry. Part Two sees the Great War break out and Mrs. Ramsey's death, and Part Three finds the Ramsays and some of their guests returning to the Isle and sailing for the Lighthouse.
Talland House tells Lily's story outside the pages; Humm imagines her role and gives us Briscoe's perspective. Humm introduces us to Lily the student, the painter, the friend, the lover, the daughter grieving her mother's death and finally the detective trying to solve the mystery of Mrs. Ramsay's death. Talland House doesn't just fill in the gaps; it tells a new story in the context of one that is likely familiar, giving the reader a more complete frame of reference and deeper understanding of the characters. It is almost like joining new friends on a vacation and sharing a vacation home. You will know your friends differently after sharing a home; you will know Lily Briscoe and Virginia Woolf differently after reading Talland House.
I am a volume reader, closing one book and opening the next in the same breath. Talland House slowed me down, pushed me to match the pace of the novel and to savor the writing. Maggie Humm is Emeritus Professor at the Univeresity of East London in the UK, and a respected Virginia Woolf scholar. Her talent for mixing academic knowledge with compelling historical fiction is impressive.

Historical fiction is something that I really,really enjoy,and a historical fiction related to Virginia Woolf?...*chef's kiss*
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Talland House is the house where Virginia Woolf spent many a summer in her childhood. In the book,we read about Lily Briscoe and her journey through love and life. The book is based on times were women and freedom were not associated together, and in such a world,Lily searched for empowerment.
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The book is slow and dreamy,it reads like the golden sunlight of the afternoon feels. The plot flowed smoothly,the characters were interesting,and the romance was perfection. I'm so glad I got a chance to review this beautiful, beautiful novel.
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Talland House is my first introduction to Maggie Humm writing. I thought it was a pretty good piece of historical fiction. The historical details were so vivid, I felt like I was transported back in time living among the characters. I enjoyed the mystery and suspense involved in it, as well.

I am giving Talland House four and a half stars. I recommend it for readers who love historical fiction, particularly World War I era England. I would love to read more like this one by this author in the near future.

I received this book from the publisher, but was not required to write a review. This review is 100% my own honest opinion.

This is a great novel of a woman that tries to live an independent lifestyle in a time when women were expected to leave their parents' home and get married and start their own families. Lily's journey is full of love and loss, but her strength keeps the reader rooting for her to succeed in her dream of being an artist.