Book Review: House of Roots and Ruin

About the Author

Erin A. Craig is a New York Times bestselling author. Her published titles include, “House of Salt and Sorrow”, “Small Favors”, “Together, Apart”, and of course this book, “House of Root and Ruin” which is the second book of the Sisters of the Salt series. Her bio mentions that she’s always loved telling stories, and that’s pretty clear based on the Sisters of the Salt series. I’ve not struggled to put a book down too often, but her books always hook me.

She’s an avid reader, who started in theatre doing the production and design for spooky operas. I guess her love of spooky things endured because she’s immersed her love of scary things right into her books.

To learn more about Erin A. Craig you can click HERE for her Author’s webpage, and HERE to connect with her Twitter.

Book Genres

Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult, Gothic, Romance, Mystery, and Thriller.

(Contains pornographic references, pg. 208-209)

Book Format

Unlike “House of Salt and Sorrows” I did not receive this book in an Owlcrate box. Nonetheless, the cover is stunning, the Hardcover has a beautiful burgundy hue and includes a beautiful pink leaf inlay featuring the words, "Welcome to Chauntlalie” which is the name of the Laurent Manor in the book.

It features a pretty green, with a white lining of peacocks and flowers on the end sheets. It’s a stunning book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book also sports no chapter directory with page numbers. It does have an epilogue at the end.

Book Details

Page Number: 534 (Not including the Acknowledgments) 544 Total

Published July 25th, 2023

Hardcover

Available in Kindle and Library Binding

There are covers with White wording on the front and pink wording. Mine has Pink Wording and I assume it's a special edition because of the hardcover details.

The Barnes and Noble Exclusive edition has Red ink edges, Golden Text, and purple edge sheets.

Fable Book Club

Interested in reading along to the books I review? Check out my book club on Fable, The Bookish Fae! I include the books I get in my Owlcrate boxes and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the books! There are other great book clubs on here too for a variety of different books you might be reading ATM.

(I put this here this time so you don’t have to read past the spoilers!)

The Story

Firstly, I would be remiss if I ignored telling you how truly devious this storyline is. I’m not one to step on toes lightly, but this book contains a fair bit of murder, hidden deaths, unethical experimentation, and unnatural genetic mutation. Consider this your warning, and your chance to decide if you want to purchase/read this book.

As always, Craig reveals a deliciously detailed scenery. We pick up with Verity the youngest of the Thaumas Sisters, however, it’s several years later and Verity is just turning 18 years old. For those of you who love Bridgerton, this has a lot of those sort of vibes.

Camille who is the oldest of the sisters that are left has become Duchess of Highmoor, the sisters' birth home and beloved estate. If you haven’t read the first book, I highly encourage you to do so before reading this one. However, it’s not required as this book can stand alone quite well. If you do read the first book, you’ll have better insight into why Camille is how she is and why Verity experiences things the way she does.

Camille has “control” over Verity and to be honest, has become really good at gaslighting the girl. Making her feel guilty for wanting to leave. The youngest sister has had it, and she’s ready to leave Highmoor behind and go on an adventure.

Opportunity knocks when she receives a letter from one Dauphine Laurent the Duchess of Bloem. She wants Verity to paint her son’s portrait, and Verity can’t help but be ecstatic with excitement. It’s a job, and it’s for a prestigious family but most importantly, it’s away from Highmoor.

Verity confides in her maid Hanna who implores her not to go. It’s here that fracture begins between Verity and Camille. After an argument, the older sister is forced to reveal that Verity can see ghosts. Worst of all, Verity doesn’t always know they are ghosts. When Camille reveals this secret all trust is broken between the sisters and now Verity doesn’t think she can trust anyone. She learns Annaleigh was also in on keeping this a secret, furthermore, the girls argue about Verity ever leaving Highmoor.

Camille is sure to mention to Verity how "damaging" it would be should others see her "madness" and how doing so could land her in the looney bin. Ouch!

Frustrated and furious Verity decides to leave in a less than ladylike way. The middle of the night. She arrives in Bloem at Chauntlalie Manor and decides there is no turning back.

She’s greeted with kindness from Dauphine, Gerard, and their son Alexander right from the moment she arrives. The Grandmere is less than pleased to have a cursed Thaumas Girl on the grounds and promptly leaves shortly after Verity’s arrival. It’s chalked up to Grandmere being an old lady, set in her ways; let me tell you I did not expect the twist that came from her.

For those of you who don't know, "Grandmere" is a French word for Grandmother. Based on the last name "Laurent" I assume that Craig had French inspiration for their name, family, estate, and how prim and proper they are, and Bloem. Even the "Town of Flowers" has a very French delicacy about it.

Verity gets to know Alexander “Alex” a little better over the next few weeks along with everyone else. She learns Gerard is obsessed with germinating, grafting, and creating new plants. He spends almost every waking hour in the greenhouse working on his experiments. He also has a poisonous flower section, which he shows Verity. She ‘accidentally’ inhales a poisonous flower which causes her to see horrifying hallucinations. Or she hopes they are because she doesn’t believe she can see ghosts. She thinks Camille was lying.

After she comes to, she finds that Gerard is far too persistent to know if she saw anything. He presses her quite firmly for an answer, even going so far as to take her hand and squeeze it hard before releasing and apologizing.

(After reading the book I now know this was his way of testing Verity. He wanted to know if she could see ghosts. To confirm that she had a "gift")

She shakes off the encounter and forgets about it. The more time she spends with Alex the more she begins to like him, then love him. Romance blossoms and the moments between these two are so sweet and kind. Alex is a lover of books and studying. He is well-versed in flower language. However, tragedy has him confined to a chair. That doesn’t matter to Verity though, she sees a wonderful man in Alex and soon they decide to be married.

Verity begins to feel an odd sensation from the family. The wedding is progressing too fast. Dauphine wants them married in a month! Verity is unsure about such a quick wedding, but she’s hesitant to make waves. She’s standing on the tip of a knife keeping her possible madness a secret.

It isn’t until she’s visited by the ghost, Constance, that a mystery begins to unveil. Constance leads her to a hidden nursery, turns out Chantilalie has hidden passageways everywhere. This is where this book is better off as an 18+ book. Verity finds a hidden library in the walls passageways and in those books are pornographic images depicting sex between men, women, threesomes, and same-sex couples.

Side Rant

This book is rated for 14+ and up and I’m sorry, this is not meant for the eyes of 14-year-olds. Worse Verity is appalled and at the same time intrigued. A certain level of intrigue is understandable, she’s young and she’s never seen sex, had sex, or been told about sex. However, the details it goes into are a little much. This is not an LGBT book, and Verity does fall in love with Alex, so in the end we can chalk it up to interest in the unknown. Still, heed this warning and make choices of your own about whether or not you let your young daughter read this book.

One thing I really liked about Craig's books was the lack of "sex" in them, or more so the old style of being a lady and waiting until you were married. It makes the romance between the characters much more whimsical. Your heart flutters because you know he likes/loves her only for her. Anyway, moving on.

... Continued

In the nursery are the ghosts of three horribly mutated babies.

All the sudden Verity is thrust into what is the most disgusting plot I’ve read. Gerard has been experimenting with women, hundreds of women over the years, all in an effort to create a God. He’s mixed animal and plant DNA with the babies and fiddled so much that they are born highly mutated and usually dead. Gerard always completes his experiments in threes. So there are three dead triplets with every experiment.

Even worse, Verity learns through a most unusual way that Alexander himself is a triplet and his two brothers Viktor and Julien reveal themselves to her with what seem like good intentions. I stress the word good.

The boys promise Verity that all they want is what they are owed from the inheritance at Chauntlalie and they want their Father to be charged with his crimes which include a lot of murder. However, the boys have powers of their own. Viktor can create fire and Julien can hear a person’s thoughts.

They bring Alex in on the news and together decide to take Gerard down. To bring him to the authorities so he can be held accountable for his horrors. When I tell you this book had me spinning, it’s the honest truth. The ending is one big curveball that you never see coming.

Characters

Verity Thaumas- Youngest of the Thaumas sisters, seer of Ghosts. The main protagonist and love interest of Alex.

Hanna- Hand Maid of Verity and has been since she was a child. Sweet, caring, and wants only the best for Verity. Oh yeah, and she's a ghost.

Camille Thaumas- Oldest Sister, snippy, sharp, bossy, and overall kind of a meanie.

Dauphine Laurent- Prim, proper and reserved.

Gerard Laurent- Occupied, distant, focused.

Grandmere Margarite Laurent- The old lady of the house. She’s mean.

Alexander Laurent- Sweet, kind, loving and caring. Love interest of Verity.

Constance- Murdered lover of Gerard, mother to the mutated triplets Verity meets in the hidden nursery.

Julien Laurent- Cold, Stern, Jealous, and unfeeling.

Victor Laurent- Hot-headed, Brash, Impulsive, and jealous.

Thoughts

I took two weeks to read this book. Mostly because I really wanted to enjoy it, but also because I had another book box coming on January 25th and I wanted to start reading that book when it came.

This book was amazing, and I had a really hard time putting it down to go do other things. “One more chapter” became my mantra with this book. Despite there being a few places where there were uncomfortable parts, the whole of the book is actually very good. Honestly, if you skip the whole R-rated, pornographic content of two pages, the book is completely fine. There are sex scenes in the book, but they don’t happen as they are Verity’s dreams.

I quite enjoyed the book and honestly, I just read past what I don’t like. However, if you have a younger daughter, younger than 17-18 years old you might want to pass this book for them. The first book is an excellent book with no explicit content in it at all.

I enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading her next book, number 3 in the series.

Spoilers

Right, well if you’ve been reading my reviews for long enough you know this is the part where I talk about and reveal some of the ending. I never give the whole thing away because there has to be some element of surprise, but we do talk about a good amount of the ending of the book.

So, make your choice! Turn away now or keep reading.

So, the ending of this book is crazy. I mean, crazy. First off, I didn’t expect the amount of debauchery from Gerard. The man is proud of his “achievements” and his failures. We later find out that Gerard has tried to replicate the results he got in Julien, Viktor, and Alexander multiple times, like, hundreds of times. He keeps the corpses of these mutated babies in Jars behind a hidden bookshelf in his study.

We also learn that Dauphine had full knowledge of what Gerard was doing. When she got tired of it, she started poisoning the women, killing them and their unborn children. Shocker.

The ability of these people to mask their horrors is truly Oscar-worthy. Dauphine who is so reserved, so prim, so proper, turns out to be a murderer in disguise. Gerard buries these women in the backyard, under the rose hedge. Thoughtful.

That’s not the worst though. The worst of it all was Gerard planned to do the same with Verity and Alexander. He deemed Julien incompatible, Viktor too volatile but Alexander was "perfect". Gerard had hoped through Alexander and Verity, he would finally create a God to lord over all the other Gods and Goddesses. The audacity of this man is truly a slap in the face.

It all takes a horrifying twist at the end, betrayal, more murder, pretending, and deceit. As always I won’t spoil the actual ending… teehee you’ll have to just read it!

Suffice it to say, I can usually call out how a book is going to go and this one hit me like a swinging door. Since Verity can see ghosts I initially assumed that everyone but Dauphine was a ghost, but then interactions between the characters threw that theory right out the window.

This is truly a wonderful book and I had a wonderful time reading it, and a horrible time putting it down. I cannot wait for Book 3# especially considering the finale twist!

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Happy Reading, and may you walk the road less traveled!