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.

The Manor House Governess is a charming read. The main character, Bron, is a feminine, queer orphan who is obsessed with Jane Eyre. After accepting a job as an in home tutor for a wealthy family, Bron is swept up in the mystery and intrigue of the manor in which he lives and the secret life of the oldest so , Darcy.

This book reads very much like a gothic novel. The setting here is just as important as each of the characters, and each character feels fully rounded. Even Ada, the eight year old girl Bron is meant to tutor was written in a very real way (something some authors struggle with when writing children). It was jarring in an interesting way to read a classic style prose and then have the characters reference something modern like Facebook or Netflix. I think this is to the books credit as it illustrates Bron’s state of mind, trapped in the past while living in the future.

[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.

The Manor House Governess offers a 21st Century homage to and disruption of the novels of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. The novel is set our present. Our central character, Bron, was orphaned young and has spent most of his life as a student, then instructor at a boys' boarding school. Bron, who has male genitalia and uses he pronouns, feels most comfortable when he can express femininity, mixing male and female apparel. His hair is long. He's slightly built. He's been consistently bullied at the boarding school that's become his de facto home. He's survived there by reading and rereading Austen and Brontë novels and watching and rewatching film adaptations of those novels.

[Aside: this is a hard review to write because of the charged nature of gender and sexual identity. We all have preferred terms. We all have preferred pronouns. I'm trying to write using the terminology I think Bron would use. If it isn't the terminology you prefer, please be forgiving.]

However, everything is about to change. Bron has been hired as a live-in tutor (a governess) for nine-year-old Ada, the only child in a manor house, which is shared with her father, a housekeeper, and—occasionally—her adult brother Darcy. From the beginning, the members of the household are comfortable with Bron's nonbinary expression. Ada does get a bit frustrated early on and pesters Bron about his pronouns, but the pestering originates in her desire to respect his identity as he defines it. The only member of the household is uncomfortable with Bron is Darcy (the name is no coincidence).

You can imagine the kinds of things that follow. Bron and Ada grow deeply attached to one another. Ada and her father including Bron is household events, which he finds uncomfortable, coming from an utterly different economic background than theirs and existing in the no-person's land of not-family, but more-than-servent. There are balls. Cricket matches. A breakfast room where breakfast is eaten. A remarkable library holding generations' worth of treasured volumes. The only person present who treats Bron critically is Darcy. Everything each one of them says to the other is perceived as an insult or provocation.

If you've read any Austen or Brontë, you can predict much of what will happen. Poor, not-quite-a-girl governess meets arrogant rich man and they despise each other. The family has secrets, lots of them. Some of the family's closest friends may not be as well-disposed as they seem. The housekeeper may be up to no good. There's a fire. There are fights, misunderstandings, and moments of deep distrust.

I absolutely love what this novel did in modernizing a well-worn trope. Characters can easily be matched with their equivalents in Austen and Brontë's work. But here's the thing of it: I've just wearied of novels where the driving question is "will these two wind up together?" If you enjoy romances and comedies of manners, The Manor House Governess will delight you. If you're more ambivalent about such things, you may feel less emotionally engaged, but you will definitely take pleasure in this twisting of the genre.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

A love letter to literature wrapped around a modern tale of growing up and self-actualization. The illustrations were a pleasant surprise! It only lost points for me at the end—the emotional resolution seemed a bit rushed and left with unanswered questions. But the novel holds a lot of heart and honesty, particularly about the experience of living outside the gender norm.

"With a genderfluid protagonist and 21st-century twist, this spirited debut pays homage to the British classics while joyfully centering an LGBTQ+ point of view, perfect for fans of Emily M. Danforth.

Orphaned young and raised with chilly indifference at an all-boys boarding school, Brontë Ellis has grown up stifled by rigid rules and social "norms," forbidden from expressing his gender identity. His beloved novels and period films lend an escape, until a position as a live-in tutor provides him with a chance to leave St. Mary's behind.

Greenwood Manor is the kind of elegant country house Bron has only read about, and amid lavish parties and cricket matches, the Edwards family welcomes him into the household with true warmth. Mr. Edwards and the young Ada, Bron's pupil, accept without question that Bron's gender presentation is not traditionally masculine. Only Darcy, the eldest son, seems uncomfortable with Bron - the two of them couldn't be more opposite.

When a tragic fire blazes through the estate's idyllic peace, Bron begins to sense dark secrets smoldering beneath Greenwood Manor's surface. Channeling the heroines of his cherished paperbacks, he begins to sift through the wreckage. Soon, he's not sure what to believe, especially with his increasing attraction to Darcy clouding his vision.

Drawing energy and inspiration from Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, E.M. Forster, and more while bowing to popular fiction such as Plain Bad Heroines, The Manor House Governess is destined to become a modern classic."

I mean a Bronte and a house fire? I have to read this!

This book is by far one of those books that will stay with me. It was my first with a non-binary leading character and it just felt so right. The story is one where you can’t help but turn the pages. The setting brings you into those classic novels like Jane Eyre. But the queer representation is what gets you staying. It is also refreshing. Somehow I felt comforted in the pages.

3* This book is a little surreal and left me with mixed feelings.

I would describe it as a kind of modern gothic novel, with a huge english mansion, a fire, plenty of old family secrets, hidden passages and feelings.
Sometimes I had an hard time coming to terms with the fact that the characters were using modern tecnology, because it all felt kind of set in past times.
It''s definetly intriguing, what I didn't like was mostly Darcy behavior.

Thanks Netgalley for providing this book as an Arc in exchange of an honest review.

I could not stay engaged with this book. I really wanted to love it--it was a collection of topics that interest me and the gothic feel should have been my thing. I just didn't like any of the characters, including--unfortunately--the protagonist. The dialogue was stilted. I wish Castle had had a better editor. There's an idea here, the germ of something, but for me, it just didn't hit the mark.