Contino, Kristin. A House Full of Windsors. Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2021. 292 pp. ISBN 9781948018999 $15.95

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A House Full of Windsors follows the story of Debbie Windsor (no relation), a hoarder coming to terms with her desire to collect British memorabilia as a throwback to her time abroad, where she met, married and had three children, and finding closure around her failed marriage (which was, in part, due to the hoarding). The story is told in alternating points of view and backtracks, but the consistency of the narrative’s layout makes it easy to follow when we are and who is speaking.

Debbie’s eldest daughter Sarah has a successful television spot and social media presence as Sarah Says, offering etiquette tips and life hacks to a following that would be shocked to learn her desire for control, order and propriety comes from growing up with a her mother’s hoarding. When Sarah’s younger brother Will, also in the TV industry, lands a job on STUFF, a reality television program on, what else, hoarding! he becomes the instigator behind getting his own mother featured on the show. Debbie needs some convincing, as does Sarah and Will’s twin, but the handsome host turns on his Southern charm, Debbie slowly comes to disassociate things with memories, seeks out her ex-husband, and Sarah may just be embarking on a love of her own.

Well-plotted, House Full of Windsors is clever, but I found a bit a slow and couldn’t figure out if it wanted to be a romance novel, or not, and whose story it really was (Sarah, or Debbie’s). It’s okay that is was both, but I’m a romance lover and prefer straight romance to novels with strong romantic elements.

I received an advance reader’s review copy of #AHouseFullOfWindsor via #NetGalley