Menna Van Praag

Distraught that her academic career has stalled, Alba is walking through her hometown of Cambridge, and finds herself in front of a house she's never seen before: 11 Hope Street. A beautiful older woman named Peggy greets her and invites her to stay, on the house's usual conditions: she has 99 nights to turn her life around.

The House at the End of Hope Street

Menna van Praag

Invited into a house where women are allowed to stay for 99 days while they turn their lives around, Alba, who has been struggling with a stalled academic career, learns about the refuge's famous past visitors while embarking on a personal journey of healing.

A Novel

Savindi Jinasena

Cover Gushing Worthiness: I think the cover of The House at the End of Hope Street is adorable. It reminds me of one of those Christmas Chick-Lit covers. Final Verdict: A cute cover.

Review: You know that feeling you get when you read a synopsis of a book and feel that you found it at the perfect moment in your life? That’s how I felt when I discovered this book. As soon as I read the synopsis I thought “A student experiencing an Academic stall?” I’m in a similar situation where I don’t know if I want to go to Grad School. Life throwing you a curveball? I’ve been thrown one right now and I’m figuring out how to deal with that too. So as you can see we’re a book/bookworm match made in heaven right? Well my feelings were left disappointed. In the end it’s probably a “It’s me, not you” book relationship.

The description of The House at the End of Hope Street gives this book so much potential to be great, in the end sadly it doesn't quite explore that promise. Personally I thought the book could have scrapped at least 60-70 pages or so because it wasn't helping to move the story forward. Because of the agonizingly slow pace of the story in the beginning, I stopped reading the book and left it for about two weeks. Not wanting to leave a book unfinished, I decided to give this book one more try and voila! I manged to finish it. That itself was no joyride, but the story did pick up the pace midway.

Like I said, the idea behind The House at the End of Hope Street was great; a house that will give you what you need and sometimes it can’t help all it’s inhabitants? That’s quite believable. My favourite part of the house was Alba’s bedroom- she’s surrounded by books! How can I not love that? However I felt like some of the magic House was lacking. The magical aspect could have been more prominent. There were bits and pieces of House Magic that was interesting, but other than that there was nothing really that made me go “Oh WOW that’s so awesome.” The end of The House at the End of Hope Street was satisfying, but I found myself not really caring by the end.

My main gripe with the book came in the form of Alba, the main protagonist. An intellectual prodigy, Alba’s academic career has come to a halt because of a painful secret she can’t bring herself to confess and probably because she seems a bit reluctant to accept it herself. As the story goes along you can guess what it is, but I was surprised at the twist. In the beginning as a reader you feel for Alba, born into aristocracy, but hated by her siblings, Alba’s had a loveless childhood. I could sympathize with Alba over her childhood, but I found her to be incredibly self-absorbed which drove me nuts. She looked down upon both Carmen and Greer because they weren't either intellectual prodigies or engaged in things Alba herself had no interest in. Basically I felt she had a lot of growing up to do and she was incredibly insecure. The insecurity is fine, but the fact that she had the audacity to look down upon others was bothersome to me. In the end while her story was interesting, I just could not bring myself to care for her and I couldn't understand the attraction her love interest saw in her. Therefore she kind of spoiled the book for me.

Carmen and Greer; the other two occupants living at Number 11 Hope Street have their own demons to confront. Carmen is a talented singer from Portugal who has a dark secret while Greer is suffering from a seeming loss of identity. Out of the three ladies I found Carmen to be the one I sympathized the most. I wanted to know what kept her from discovering her potential and why she was so afraid. In the end I’m glad she got her happy ending. I found Greer to be a rather whiny character. I felt like she didn't really try to make her life better until the very end of the book. Another thing that I really disliked was the love triangle involving the two women and Blake- their employer. I felt that it was just put in there to give some drama to the story and it wasn't developed.

Peggy Abbot, the landlady of Number 11 Hope Street was a sweet old lady. I liked her because she reminded me of a grandma who was always there when you needed a little push in the right direction. As for the secondary characters I couldn't stand Alba’s family;especially her father. I couldn't fathom how a man could do such despicable things to his own family. The only person in the Ashby family who had some heart was Alba’s brother Edward who seemed to have recognized the importance of being a good parent to his only daughter.

The redemption of this book lies with the women who were former inhabitants of the house such as Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, Sylvia Plath, George Eliot- these are just to name a few. I loved their little insights in to the lives of the women living at the house. I loved their encouragement, their sassiness and the fact that they valued life experience; something that youth may fail to understand.

Overall The House at the End of Hope Street was an ‘okay’ read. I was expecting so much more from this book because of its great synopsis. But it failed to ‘wow’ me in the way I hoped it would. Having an unlikable protagonist really doesn’t help. However the famous women were great and I enjoyed their conversations a great deal.

My Rating: 2.5/5

Would I recommend it? Maybe

The House at the End of Hope Street is published by Penguin Viking Group and will be released on April 4th 2013. This copy was obtained via Netgalley. Thank You Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jessica Ford

This was a very fun book to read. Loved all the characters and the little bits of magic.

Elizabeth Garza

A wonderful book that feels like a hug. After reading several books that had more grittier and serious topic matter this book was a nice break. It was interesting to see all the different types of women discover the courage to do what made them happy. 

This would make a lovely spring and summer read if you are into seasonal reading.

Kei demand 

Jacqueline Jordan 

Camilla Woodhouse

Lisanne 

Rebecka S.

After Alba Ashby suffers the Worst Events of Her Life, she finds herself at the door of 11 Hope Street, Cambridge. There, a beautiful older woman named Peggy invites Alba to stay, on the house’s usual conditions: she’ll have 99 nights, and no more, to turn her life around. Once inside, Alba sees that 11 Hope Street is no ordinary place. Past residents include Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Parker, and Agatha Christie, who all stayed there when they, too, had lost hope. With the house’s help, Alba decides to risk everything – and embarks on a journey that may even save her life.

Hannah

Invited into a house where women are allowed to stay while they turn their lives around, Alba, who has been struggling with a stalled academic career, learns about the refuge's famous past visitors while embarking on a personal journey of healing.

The House at the End of Hope Street

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