Top Ten Tuesday: Books where a house is a character

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books that Include/Feature [insert your favorite theme or plot device here] (for example: unreliable narrators, coming of age, darkness vs. light, time travel, metafiction, a specific romantic trope, good vs. evil. cliffhangers, flashbacks, plot twists, red herrings, loose ends, stories within stories, meet cutes, symbolism, etc.) (submitted by Alice @ The Wallflower Digest)

I have chosen to do books where a house is almost one of the characters

Recently I read Happily Ever After where a woman goes to work in Templewood House and steps straight into a gothic novel. I had already decided to do this topic ever before I read this book but it seemed like a good opportunity to share a passage. This is the section early on in the book where Andi is being given a tour of the house.

We mounted an enormous staircase, carved in twiddly dark wood, curving like an impressive eyebrow over the hallway and up onto a galleried landing which branched off in various directions. "This is the most haunted part of the house," Hugo said, leading me off to the right along an upstairs corridor. Occasional glances through the huge windows told me that this wing of the house looked out over the gardens.

"I'm sorry?" As I spoke, the sun went behind a cloud and the wonderful roseate light died to leave us staring down a wood-panelled box into a murky dimness which was giving off a distinct smell of damp plaster. 

"Oh yes. Whole place is riddled with ghosts of course, but this is the worst bit." Complacently Hugo set out, touching closed doors and naming as he went. "My room, the Green Room, Scarlet Room..." We rounded the end of the corridor and set out along another, which branched around to the left.

"Hang on, hang on, can we go back to the "ghost" thing please?" I'd stopped moving now, frozen into immobility on the landing. "The house is haunted?"

"Oh yes". Hugo sounded completely blase about the walking corpse potential. "Dreadfully, I'm afraid." Then he smiled. "No need for you to worry, though. Stay in your room after dark, don't go wandering around - it's all perfectly all right."

And then later when Andi asks what kind of ghosts

"And then there's the noises, footsteps and so on, occasional ghastly scream, that sort of thing, all very standard in a house this old. There's a ghost horse in the old stable block, but that's mostly disused now, and we haven't heard him for ages, and sometime something moans in the Morning room. I'll show you that in a bit."

Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering - I had to include this one seeing as I quoted from it above! Every chapter in this book has the name of a famous house from literature which is a fun feature! (my review)

Discovery of Witches series by Deborah Harkness - I am sure that the aunt's house is a bit magical! (my review)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." What an opening line!

Inheritance by Nora Roberts - There were a few different books I could have chosen but this it the most recent one I read.

Thornwood House by Anna Romer - This is a gothic story with an Australian setting. (my review)

The House of Light and Shadows by Lauren Westwood - This was a recent read which features a house that is slowly revealing it's secrets (my review)

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley - Never miss an opportunity to share a Kearsley book in these posts (link to joint review at Historical Tapestry)

The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell - Another house with secrets to be revealed!

Casa Paradiso by Francesca Scanacapra - This is a bit different in that the book tells the story of Casa Paradiso through a series of stories about the various owners. It covers several hundred years. (my review)

The Girl who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen - I feel like I could have chosen any number of SAA's books, but this one features wallpaper that changes according to your mood and baking! (joint review)

Can you think of any other books where the house is almost a character?

Blog Tour: Casa Paradiso by Francesca Scanacapra

This is the fourth book in the Paradiso series  by Francesca Scanacapra Now, I haven't read the first three, which tell the story of a family starting in WWII, then in the 1950s and then 1960s. Normally, I wouldn't read a series out of order, but this book takes place before the first book so I thought I would give it a chance.

I love it when a house plays a pivotal role in a book, to the point of being one of the characters. In this case it is not so much one of the characters but rather the main event! This book is almost a series of vignettes telling the story of the house itself, Paradiso, and its various owners through the years.  This starts with the man who built the house in 1637, Cristo Lovetta, who moves into the village of Pieve Santa Clara and falls in love with the location. He is a stonemason who builds a house where he raises his family. The main feature of the house are huge fireplaces and an impressive cantilevered staircase which show his skills as a stonemason. From there, we witness his children and their children as they live in the house. We read about tragedies, some fun stories, the changes in society such as the coming of trains, and more. Through each individual story, we see the house as it is changes hands, as it deteriorates over the centuries, falls into a state of disrepair, and is bought back to life. It is interesting to see that many of the chapters are focussed on the stories of the women who own the house.

We also see how several families in the town are tied together, and I suspect if I had read the first three books, these would all be very familiar names to me. I guess the question is, whether having now read about the house, am I interested in reading the rest of the series. And the answer is yes! I am looking forward to doing so.

It is amazing to me that you could follow a house's history for nearly 500 years. Bear in mind that I am Australian and therefore the oldest buildings you would see in my city would be late 19th century. One of the reasons I love to visit Europe is to see the history that is just visible everywhere. Walk down a street in Paris and there are houses from the 13th century. Head to London and see buildings that have been around for hundreds of years. Amazing!

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by me on this blog.  Be sure to check out other stops on the tour shown below. Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy.

About the book

Lombardy, Northern Italy, 1637

Cristó Lovetta, a skilled stonemason, arrives in the rural village of Pieve Santa Clara to work on a nobleman’s house.

Haunted by a tragic past, Cristó wonders if he will ever find happiness again. However, as he immerses himself in his work, the warmth of the community and the beauty of the landscape convince him to begin a new life there.

Cristó designs and builds his own house, which he names Casa Paradiso. Over the centuries, Casa Paradiso becomes home to many generations, standing testament to lives beginning and ending, and witnessing the everyday challenges and triumphs of its inhabitants – from love lost and found, to the tragedies of war, the far-reaching consequences of political decisions made by powerful men and the evolving role of women in Italian society.

Casa Paradiso – the fourth instalment of the Paradiso Novels – is a shining, evocative saga spanning three hundred years in the life of a very special house, and a book that explores the enduring strength of the human spirit, contrasted with the transient nature of life itself.

About the author



Francesca Scanacapra was born in Italy to an English mother and Italian father, and her childhood was spent living between England and Italy. Her adult life has been somewhat nomadic with periods spent living in Italy, England, France, Senegal and Spain. She describes herself as 'unconventional' and has pursued an eclectic mixture of career paths – from working in translation, the fitness industry, education and even several years as a builder. In 2021 she returned to her native country and back to her earliest roots to pursue her writing career full time. Francesca now resides permanently in rural Lombardy in the house built by her great-grandfather which was the inspiration for her Paradiso Novels: Paradiso, Return to Paradiso, The Daughter of Paradiso and Casa Paradiso. Her novel The Lost Boy of Bologna was also published by Silvertail Books.



​Social media links

Twitter @francescascana2
Insta @francescascana2

This week...

 I'm reading

There's nothing like a bit of plane time to help get through some reading! This week I had two four hour flights where the in flight entertainment was only available on your own device, so I decided to read for a fair portion of that time!

First up, I finished reading Crying at the H Mart by Michelle Zauner, which is the current Cook the Books selection. I will have my review up for that one on the weekend.

I felt like a change of pace was in order so I read the new festive short story from Jenny Colgan called The Christmas Book Hunt, which was available as an Amazon First Reads this month. It was a bit of fun. It has been an age since I read a Jenny Colgan book and I am not really sure why given that I do like them. 

The next book I read was Casa Paradiso by Francesca Scanacapra. This was an interesting read. It's the fourth book in a series that starts in WWII, but this book is actually the history of the house that features in the story starting a couple of hundred years earlier. I need to write the review for this one for Wednesday.

I then went back and finished The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kasiwai. I had started it a few weeks ago but had to put it down to read some other things, so it was good to be able to finish it. It did have me wishing that I could google a few things while I was reading it but I wasn't going to pay for plane wi-fi for that. 

And then, in a case of mistaken book identity, I intended to start reading a Madeline Martin book but instead started The Last Night in London by Karen White. I am really enjoying it so I am definitely going to keep going with it and hopefully get to Madeline Martin in due course.

I've also decided to join in on the 12 Books of Christmas Challenge hosted by Katie at Just Another Girl and her Books. I have read quite a few Christmassy books already and I am sure I can find some more without trying too hard.

Last week I mentioned that I have set up a specific Insta account for my book stuff. You can find me @intrepidreaderandbaker and I would love it if you added it, and I will follow back!

I'm watching


Being away for most of the week meant I didn't really get to watch much this week. I will need to catch up on the finales for both Great Australian Bake Off and Dessert Masters. I know who won one of those and I think I can guess who one the second but hopefully I will get to watch them both soon.

We did watch Greg Wallace's Christmas Escapes, where he spends a weekend in both Copenhagen and Vienna, visiting a few different places, but focusing mainly on Christmas Markets. We have watched them before but they are still lovely to watch and brought back memories of our own visits to Christmas markets a couple of years ago.

One thing we did do in Perth was go to the movies. My sister, my cousin and I went to see Wicked, which was fab. It was a bit long, but other than that I thought they did a great job. We now have a year long intermission to see the second half. 

Life


We went to Perth last week to spend some time with family and spread my Dad's ashes. He died just over a year ago, but with my sister and I living in a different state we needed to go back over there just to do this one final goodbye. I don't remember going to the place he had chosen before, but it was a lovely spot and very fitting for my dad who loved the land in WA and also loved water.

We visit Perth quite regularly, but I still like to find new things to do. I had not intended to visit Fremantle this time, although it is one of my favourite places, but in the end we went down there to see a digital exhibition that they have on called Empress Josephine's Garden. It was very interesting in that it spoke about the French exploration of Australia, including sending lots of plant and animal specimens back to Empress Josephine's chateau at Malmaison. She was a serious collector, and I was surprised by a couple of things I learned such as the fact that she had correspondence with Sir Joseph Banks for some time, until France (under Napoleon) and England went to war.

Given we we were in Fremantle I had to do my customary visit to the wreck of the Batavia, which is part of the Dutch related history of Australia, and then have some fish and chips.

Another highlight is that we did the Rio Tinto Christmas Lights Trail through Perth. We had dinner at a very cool Asian restaurant, and then we walked from one end of Perth to the other visiting 20 Christmas lights installations around the city. It was great to be able to do this with my cousin and her family, my aunt and sister. We definitely got our steps in. Now I need to find something Christmassy to do here in Melbourne

I will do a bigger post about this at some point in the next couple of weeks, but here was my favourite video which I managed to get completely by coincidence. I love that you can see that I am walking through the bubbles. It's very short at only 4 seconds! 

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Not New!

Weekend Cooking: A Recipe for Christmas by Jo Thomas



I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date