Henderson House

Caren Simpson McVicker’s Henderson House is a charming novel about real people, flawed but loveable. You’re hooked by the characters’ perfectly calibrated, down-to-earth but delightful, maxims. Before you know it, you find yourself sitting in one of the comfy chairs on the house’s front porch, listening to amusing, if revealing, family stories, while digesting a scrumptious meal. (The kitchen scenes are guaranteed to make your mouth water!)

Henderson House is set in Oklahoma in the early 1940s. While our compassionate landlord feeds, counsels, and coddles her lodgers, we rock in our armchairs and come to know them, especially the middle-aged Blackwell sisters, Florence and Bessie, who together are raising Florence’s son, Johnny. When a divorced engineer rents a room, Bessie, a reconciled spinster, feels a tingle. Romance follows, but the family’s history gets in the way. The deal-breakers—promises, heartbreaks, and betrayals—are tenderly rendered, always with a dash of humor. The entire cast of characters plays a part—each one has a story—but taken as a whole, Henderson House is an enjoyable and rewarding tale about the saving grace of faith and community.

a boarding house in the 1940's, you will love the characters, and the setting. very good read. my first read by this author will definitely look for more.

(book for review courtesy of NetGalley)

The word home conjures up many images - safe haven, family, food, laughter, but home can evoke past trauma and buried secrets. Author Caren Simpson McVicker's novel Henderson House involves all of those things with a dash of romance thrown in to create an engaging portrait of family, both blood and chosen.

Mrs. Henderson runs a boarding house in the quaint town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma just before the beginning of World War II. Amongst her boarders are the Blackwell family, sisters Florence, Bessie, younger brother Eddie, and Florence's young son Johnny. Florence is a widow, having lost her husband to World War I shell shock. Bessie is a spinster, an copy room manager at a prominent company in town. Eddie is a cabbie, and Florence is a clerk at the town department store. The family dreams of better opportunities and the chance to purchase their own home, but when new boarder Frank Davis moves in, he and Bessie fall instantly head over heels for one another, and for the first time the family's happiness seems doomed. Florence becomes desperate when her plans of a promotion to the Tulsa store are interrupted by Bessie's sudden romance. Both sisters have secrets that they are willing to keep for the sake of family togetherness, but keeping those secrets become less important to Bessie as she realizes her future just made may bewith a man she never expected to meet.

Mrs. Henderson, owner of the house, loves her tenants like family, but feels it's time to move on. She has a romance of her own, though the plotting seems a bit rushed. Eddie is not well fleshed out and seems to serve as an echo of Johnny's reaction to one of the family secrets. Still the book is a heartwarming look at family and love.

Henderson House is a relaxing respite from the busy world we live in. Caren Simpson McVicker’s debut novel is a flashback to 1940’s Bartlesville, Oklahoma and the simpler life of Wednesday night church suppers, Saturdays at the local cinema, and Sunday walks in the park after church. Based on family history and stories, Caren’s main character, Mildred Henderson, turns her grand home into a boarding house after the unexpected death of her husband. Mrs. H. and her beagle, Louie, captivate readers as she uses her special gifts- sensing houses and seeing a person’s color along with an interview checklist to choose her tenants. Frank Davis, a newly hired petroleum engineer at Philips Petroleum, checks all the boxes, changing the lives of the other boarders, the Blackwell family. In a few weeks’ time readers fall in love with Mrs. H.’s wisdom and Frank’s mild-mannered, genuine interest in the family, but most importantly his attraction to spinster Bessie, and where their friendship might lead.
Our group especially enjoyed the storytelling Caren weaves into the plot, along with the suspense of family secrets and sister loyalty. One of the threads in the novel is women in the workplace in the early 1940’s. We discussed jobs women from past generations have held, from millinery shops in south Texas to restaurants in Germany! We shared our own versions of “self-talk,” kitchen ladies from church, and the supporting roles of the “menfolk” and their impact on the story. Dinners around the table with boarders recounting the day’s activities, special recipes shared, and even cooking lessons, make food and conversation a tantalizing feature.We unanimously loved Henderson House and are anxiously awaiting the sequel.
A Delectable Recipe for Summer Reading: A copy of Henderson House by Caren Simpson McVicker, two shortbread cookies, one cup of tea. Timeless storytelling perfection

What a simply delightful first novel by Caren Simpson McVicker! I was lucky enough to receive an ARC ebook edition from Netgalley. Set in Bartlesville, OK, this is the story of a widowed woman, Mrs. H., who runs a small boarding house and the six interesting people who reside there with her. Three of the residents, Florence, Bessie, and Eddie are siblings and Florence's 14-year-old son, Johnny, lives there as well. There's a former professor, and then a new resident, Frank Davis, who came to Bartlesville to work for Phillips Petroleum. Florence, Bessie, and Eddie are raising Johnny together, but Florence and Bessie have been keeping an enormous secret that strains their relationship and threatens Bessie's new-found love with Frank Davis.

Told with warmth and humor, this is a novel of love and family in all its varied forms.