This is brilliant and heartbreaking and a wonder. Saika and Oli are fantastic (and Oli is the definition of hilarious).

This was a story that I know is going to sit with me for a long time!

I absolutely loved the author's writing. Found family is one of my favorite tropes in books and oh, this book had so much of that! This story, while dealing with more serious aspects of life such as loss and grief that made me cry more than once, still felt like a warm cozy hug overall! What a perfect fall read!

I will definitely recommend this to others.

4.25 ⭐️

When powerless witch Saika arrives at the magical Ash Gardens to lay her sister to rest, she’s offered a role as caretaker by Frank, the sanctuary’s mythic, cardigan-wearing owner. Struggling to hide her grief and her severed connection to magic, Saika bonds with the estate’s whimsical inhabitants, from bickering cherubs to a mute ghost. In the process, she learns that healing can coexist with sorrow, and that love—even when lost—remains a powerful force.

I’ve been crying for the past 30 minutes. This story is one of the most profound explorations of grief I've read. It reminds us that grief is, at its core, an intense form of love—a reflection of what we lose when we part from someone we deeply cherish. Watching Saika grapple with Fiona’s absence, constantly feeling her presence and recalling her love, is a journey that’s both heart-wrenching and beautiful. Through her encounters with her new found family, reunions with old friends, and a newfound love, Saika learns to carry her grief differently, to hold it with both sorrow and gratitude.

CAWPILE Ratings:
Characters: 7
Atmosphere: 7
Writing: 8
Plot: 8
Intrigue: 8
Logic: 8
Enjoyment: 8

This is a story that sits with you, holding you close as you feel the ache of loss and the quiet joy of love renewed.

4.5/5 ⭐️

This was such a beautiful story about grief and the long journey it can take to come to a place of acceptance (or not and the impact that can have on a person). I loved all the characters and their interactions with one another, especially the relationship formed between Saika and Oli. While this book was heavy it was also so cozy, a perfect book to curl up with and read.

I would recommend this and I can't wait to read Synclaire's next book!

Thank you to NetGalley, Kay Synclaire, and Bindery Books for my early access to this.

If I didn't know this was a debut novel, I wouldn't have guessed it was debut novel. The world created was beautiful and magical. The story and all its mysteries were well paced and wonderfully written. I enjoyed this book so much.

Saika still feels close to her sister, Fiona, though Fi had passed years ago. Her last wish was to be buried at the Ash Gardens. When Saika finally brings herself to go to the gardens, she finds a house of found family with a variety of mythical beings that welcome her in and give her sanctuary while she's readying for her sister's burial. While each being helps in the house and most have some form of magic, Saika is separated from her magic but has a unique perspective that allows her to see what is making the house stand, crumble and its owner, Frank, changing under the strain. As some of the mysteries become clear, it is a race to save the house, save the garden and save themselves.

#arc
#netgalley
#houseoffrank

A cozy fantasy cross between Howl's Moving Castle and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches with a magical group of characters and sapphic love interest

The story revolves around Saika, a young woman witch who is dealing with her grief over the loss of her sister. She arrives at Ash Gardens, a magical house with an arboretum where trees grow from people's ashes, to plant her sister in the arboretum. At the house she meets a group of magical characters and slowly finds her place while dealing with her grief. Although her struggles with her sister's loss is constantly present through the book, it was done in a way that was incorporated into her thoughts without being overly heavy. There is also always stromy weather at the house so it had the perfect fall atmosphere.

Similarities with Howl's Moving Castle: <spoiler> A witch who gains powers by catching a falling star, making a deal with a demon/death, a curse that makes you age, an enchanted house that is held together with magic, hair turning silver via magic </spoiler>

Similarities with The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches: A young witch shows up at a house and meets a cast of magical characters including a potential love interest, and while working and living in the house realizes she must protect it from outside dangers.

Thank you to Bindery Books for the ARC

It was an absolute joy to read about the lovely set of characters in House of Frank. They are a diverse set of characters that make their own quirky found family. I think it's great how the romance was made into a side plot. It added just a bit of sweetness without distracting too much from the main plot.

Although I did find myself transported to the world, I didn't find myself feeling what the characters felt. The book is an exploration of grief and where it does have some moving scenes, I didn't find myself feeling sad.

Thank you NetGalley and Ezeekat Press for giving me access to an e-arc for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This a a sweet comforting fantasy about grief, and the support of a found family.

To be honest though, it just couldn’t keep my interest. The plot moved at a very slow pace, and the characters and their relationships were not fully fleshed out or believable.

It was an ok book, but not a great one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery books for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and review.

The perfect witchy spooky season read! Cozy fantasy world, diverse characters, and some beautiful themes around grief and healing. Thank you to Net Galley and Bindery Books for the chance to read this e-arc!

The book sucked me in and I couldn't stop reading. A very unique and enticing story.
Higly recommend

A cosy about a witch with no powers in a house that is falling apart
Saika, on her late sisters request, has brought her ashes to the Ash House to have her ashes planted in the arboretum to grow into a tree but she isn’t quite ready to let her sister go yet so frankly lets her stay
It’s a found family magical cosy fantasy with dragons and cupids (cherubs??) fairies etc
The whole way through the book saika talks to her sister so it reads in second person a lot it was a little slow paced as Cosys can be. I wasn’t keen on the message throughout kinda being thrown out at the end and saika is a bit of a hypocrite so she wasn’t my favourite but overall it was cute enough

Thank you to Bindery Books, Ezeekat Press, and NetGalley for the chance to review this book, all opinions are my own.

House of Frank is a very interesting kind of cozy fantasy and an incredibly moving one. It reminded be a lot of Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune and I think fans of that book will really enjoy this one.

House of Frank is a book about Saika, a woman who is fulfilling her dead sister’s final wishes and is bringing her ashes to be planted in a magical arboretum. The book deals with grief and loss and how we move on after those things and how they shape the rest of our lives.

I’ll admit it took me a little while to get into the writing of the book. It is written in first person but Saika is also addressing a “you” throughout the book, the you being her dead sister. Sometimes this writing style would flow easy and other times I would find it very jarring and it pulled me out of the story. I struggled with this for most of the book.

It also took me a while to actually like and enjoy reading about any of the characters. All of the characters Saika meets (and Saika herself) are secretive and cold and often combative early on. But slowly as Saika got to know everyone and you got to see all of their personalities come through, you realize that all of these people have been suffering great hurts and loss and grieving people are not always fun and easy to be around. By the end of the book I actually loved them all and totally found myself crying multiple times.

The setting of this story is truly the most unique part of this book. A magical arboretum where your loved one's ashes get to nourish the trees and plants is really beautiful. I also found the types of magical creatures interesting and unique and I really wanted to know more about all of them and how their society worked. It was kind of hard to figure out about the world outside of the arboretum. I couldn’t really tell what kind of technology they had or how big the world was or what people did outside of the magic arboretum. There was mention of going to sea and traveling and I really wanted a bit more depth to that kind of thing. But as with a lot of cozy fantasy the focus is on the smaller scale and I do think the world of Ash Gardens was very well developed and interesting.

I think for a debut novel that really wanted to explore grief and how to continue on when the person you love most has gone, it was a really beautiful story. And I would really love a sequel with everyone just living their best life at the arboretum!

What a wonderful gem of a book about love and grief, learning how to handle the grief and how to let go and say goodbye. Saika was talking to her sister but it felt like she was talking to me, she talks to her sister the way I talk to my mom. Thank you netgalley for an e-arc, this may be one of my favorite reads this year.

I love a found family, especially when they are healing each other. So not only do we have a lovely found family that are there for each other, but we also have a house that is cozy and a garden that is magical. The grief is not too heavy, but it is not treated lightly either.
The POV is first person and sometimes second person. I think it makes sense and it is used well, but not everyone is going to love that POV.

This was such an amazing debut novel that is so grief centered and full of the found family. I laughed, I cried and I even swooned.

4.5 stars

Oh how this book HURT me. My grandpa passed away from Alzheimer’s earlier this year, so this was an incredibly tough read at times and I can’t seem to stop crying. I really appreciated how this book tackled grief in its many stages. The characters were all very well fleshed out and the magic system was so interesting. Frank literally broke my heart. The middle of the book felt a little bit dragged out, but I didn’t mind too much. While this book was cozy, it was *very* heavy. There is a lot of discussion on death of loved ones and grief. This one hurt, but it was a beautiful book.

I'd like to thank Bindery Books, Ezeekat Press, NetGalley, and Kay Synclaire for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

The House of Frank felt like an empty one; despite the various mythological beings this story contained, little was there about the world in which they inhabited. Saika is unlikeable, which doesn't mean a book is for me, quite the opposite when balanced with redeeming characters, but I found the miscommunication and barbs caused a disconnect. I'd be interested to read more from this author to see how they take feedback and round out characters should there be more books in the future!

When I think of a cozy fantasy read. THIS. This is exactly what I envision. It’s like a magical warm hug that you don't know you need until you are submerge into its story fully invested in it’s characters and nestled into that hug not wanting to let go. What stood out to me the most what this story’s perspective on grief and how it is looked at from an individual approach and as a collective group. It was beautiful. It was refreshing. It was heartfelt. I look forward to reading other stories from this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Bindery Books for this eARC.

I had such high hopes for this one since the premise sounded amazing but unfortunately it did not quite live up to my expectations. Most people seem to love this book though so it is very much just a me thing. I did like the setting and some of the worldbuilding (like how witchcraft works) but overall I found myself hoping for more. Before I go on to the rest of my thoughts I'll just say that although it is heavily marketed as a cozy fantasy, it does deal with some heavy topics like grief that may push it out of the cozy category for some readers. This did not impact my experience, but it could affect how others experience the book.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with this book, there were a few small elements (no, not the heavy themes) that came together that made it difficult for me to read. Although some of the writing was beautiful, I wasn't a big fan of the combination of first and second person narration. I tend to struggle more with first person narration than third person narration in general though. A combination of first and second person narration is even more difficult to get right so it was a very ambitious choice, especially for a debut novel. There has to be a kind of connection with the character that third person doesn't quite require to make it work. And I just didn't feel that with Saika. Although she had her moments, I wish we had gone a but deeper into who she is (especially since she can come across as harsh at times). It is possible that some of this is explored later on but I need a bit more earlier on in the book to make it work. I would also have loved to have more information about the other characters. Again, it might have come later but for a book that relies so heavily on characters over plot it felt like it was developing very slowly. Unless all of this was intentional (and it's just a me thing) I feel like a lot of the issues could have been improved on with some extra editing/expanding on some of the interactions and the like. But I do seem to be in the minority with most people rating it highly so there could be something happening that I just wasn't "getting".

This could also be a matter of the wrong book at the wrong time and I might pick it up and try again in the future, but looking at how slowly I was getting through the book (and having to reread sections I apparently glossed over) now was clearly not the right time.

I got about half way through this and it just is not keeping my attention. Beautiful cover but I find myself struggling to connect to the story and the characters, DNF