With a genderfluid protagonist and 21st-century twist, this spirited debut pays homage to the British classics while joyfully centering an LGBTQ+ point of view, perfect...

With a genderfluid protagonist and 21st-century twist, this spirited debut pays homage to the British classics while joyfully centering an LGBTQ+ point of view, perfect for fans of Emily M. Danforth.

This charming, immersive read "reminds all queer people, now more than ever, we deserve to take up space and matter" (Kosoko Jackson).

Orphaned young and raised with chilly indifference at an all-boys boarding school, Brontë Ellis has grown up stifled by rigid rules and social "norms," forbidden from expressing his gender identity. His beloved novels and period films lend an escape, until a position as a live-in tutor provides him with a chance to leave St. Mary's behind.

Greenwood Manor is the kind of elegant country house Bron has only read about, and amid lavish parties and cricket matches, the Edwards family welcomes him into the household with true warmth. Mr. Edwards and the young Ada, Bron's pupil, accept without question that Bron's gender presentation is not traditionally masculine. Only Darcy, the eldest son, seems uncomfortable with Bron--the two of them couldn't be more opposite.

When a tragic fire blazes through the estate's idyllic peace, Bron begins to sense dark secrets smoldering beneath Greenwood Manor's surface. Channeling the heroines of his cherished paperbacks, he begins to sift through the wreckage. Soon, he's not sure what to believe, especially with his increasing attraction to Darcy clouding his vision.

Drawing energy and inspiration from Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, E.M. Forster, and more while bowing to popular fiction such as Plain Bad Heroines, The Manor House Governess is destined to become a modern classic.

Author: C. a. Castle
Publisher: Alcove Press
Published: 11/07/2023
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781639105601


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/15/2023
Booklist 09/15/2023 pg. 15
Publishers Weekly 09/25/2023
Foreword 10/27/2023

About the Author
C. A. Castle is a writer and editor. He holds a BA in English Language and Literature from King's College, London, and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, where he focused on nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, period adaptations, and queer studies. He is also a picture book author as well as an anthologist, where he contrasts the old with the new with a view to capturing the zeitgeist. He currently resides in Cambridgeshire.