Keeper of Enchanted Rooms

Estranged from his family, writer Merritt Fernsby is surprised to inherit Whimbrel House, a remote estate on an island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, in 1846. He hopes for a quiet place to work. The house has other ideas: its doors slam and lock behind him, and it will not let him leave.

The Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms sends Hulda Larkin, a keeper trained to tame magical buildings and preserve their historical and magical significance. As she and Merritt work to make peace with the house and its dangerous quirks, they grow closer and uncover secrets deeper than either expected. Then something from outside, tied to Hulda's past, comes for the house's enchantments, and it proves far more dangerous than anything rattling within the walls.

This is a historical fantasy with a slow-building Victorian romance, a cozy, whimsical house at its center, and a suspenseful thread of danger. It is the first book in the Whimbrel House series by Charlie N. Holmberg, published by 47North in 2022.