The Housekeepers: They come from nothing. But they'll leave with everything...

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But it’s a caper story, which means we don’t need to know their motivations, only whether they can make good on their ambitions. Which Mrs. King manages to do in spite of the odds against her and her gang as well as all the things that can go wrong and inevitably do. That being said, Alex Hay does a spectacular job of navigating sensitive issues and topics in his engaging prose without veering into an exploitative territory. Just as plans are put in place to host the ball of the season, the respected housekeeper of a sumptuous abode in Mayfair is suddenly fired after years of loyal service. Understandably disgruntled with the move, Mrs King enacts a plan of revenge to send a clear message to her previous employers. As Mrs King assembles a small army of worthy accomplices, the scene is set for plenty of trouble, along with secrets to expose. Will Mrs King’s daring plan work and mor

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay – Escape Reality, Read Review: The Housekeepers by Alex Hay – Escape Reality, Read

Enter Dinah King (or Mrs. King as she’s referred to throughout the story), housekeeper to the late Mr. de Vries, who has been dismissed from her position and seizes the opportunity to exact her revenge by planning the most daring robbery of the century under the very nose of Miss de Vries and her privileged invitees. That doesn't mean that the book is a disaster. It offers quite a lot of value to its readers. I enjoyed the planning put into the heist, and also liked a couple of the minor characters. (The two Janes were the best! They deserved a bigger role.) The grandiose ball also seemed true to the flamboyant extravagance displayed by the wealthy in 1900s London.Revenge is sweet and this group of eclectic women intend to get theirs. Mrs King was the housekeeper for William des Vires until the butler found her in the men's quarters after hours. Thrown out on the streets, Mrs King plans her revenge and calls in the favours she's owed to pull off the biggest heist - stealing all the contents of the grandest house on Park Lane while a ball is taking place. This is a historical work of fiction set in 1905. The author has definitely done his research on what it was like living below stairs in Edwardian London. The females are strong, likeable characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel.

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Replete with likeable characters, a winning plot, and a satisfying approach to both, Hays’ The Housekeepers is one of the year’s best summer reads, combining explorations of class and gender with the giddy thrill-ride of a well-honed heist adventure that, while rooted in the past, helps propel the genre into the future. Headline has pre-empted Alex Hay’s "extraordinarily entertaining" debut novel The Housekeepers for a six-figure sum.Fun, fast-paced and totally immersive, The Housekeepers is a rare jewel worth coveting’ Emma Stonex I enjoyed the writing, but the development of the storyline, regardless of its structure, was very slow and it failed to keep me interested or to make me connect with any character. I simply didn’t care for a single one. The focus of the first two-thirds of The Housekeepers is pulling together the operation to strip Stanhope House bare to the walls (Stanhope House really did exist although the O’Flynn/de Vries family did not). The final third of the story is, naturally, the edge of the seat thrill nail-biter of pulling off the meticulously planned caper. Characters - fabulous. Plot - fabulous. Attention to detail - fabulous. Twists in the tale - fabulous' ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ After being marketed as a cross between Downton Abbey and Ocean's Eleven, in which the servants pull off a heist and thwart their employers. I really wanted to root for the main character and while parts of this were fun and enjoyable for the most part it felt longer than it needed to be and I contemplated DNF'ing at multiple points.