Although this cover is stunning and I eagerly anticipated the release of The Dutch House book, I don’t love this one! The Dutch House review gets 3 Stars from me.

This book follows the life of a brother and sister over the years as they struggle to come to grips with their dysfunctional upbringing. After the death of their father, the classic “wicked step mom” kicks them out, sends them on their way, and takes possession of the house. They seem to pine for the home & all that “could have been” instead of looking around them at all they have overcome.

I really wanted to like this book!! And I thought I would easily connect with the characters. But maybe that was the problem. I actually found myself thinking my own life was far more interesting than this book!

The problem is the first half to 2/3 of the book are very slow. There are many descriptions of the house and the people that work there. A lot of background is given to understand how the siblings ended up in the house in the first place and why it mattered so much to their father and so little to their mother. This allows the tensions and story to build and enables us to understand the hows and whys of the two siblings. But for me, it was like reading a grocery list. It was accurate and factual, but not very interesting.

The story picks up towards the end when a pivotal person returns and we wonder how it is going to change things. And it does!! All the relationships get tested at this point. And that’s when the fun starts. From then on out, I loved the book. Not enough to raise my rating, but enough to endear the book to me a little more.

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