Keeper of Enchanted Rooms

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms (2022) is a historical fantasy written by fantasy and romance author Charlie N. Holmberg. First in the Whimbrel House series, the novel is set mainly in 1846 and describes how Merritt Fernsby, a man disowned by his family, comes into possession of the enchanted Whimbrel House, located on the fictional Blaugdone Island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. With the help of augurist Hulda Larkin, Merritt learns the history of his house. He is then challenged to defend his inheritance and his new circle of friends from powerful necromancer Silas Hogwood, who is intent on punishing Hulda and taking Whimbrel House—and its magic—for his own.

This guide refers to the trade paperback published by 47North in 2022.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss physical and emotional abuse and murder.

Plot Summary

In a Prologue set in London, England, in 1818, a young man named Silas fights back when his drunken father attacks him in the stables. Silas kills his father and vows that he will give no one the power to hurt him ever again. In chapters providing flashbacks that alternate with the current moment of the story, Silas, now Lord Hogwood, increases his magical abilities by overpowering and stealing spells from others, beginning with his mother and brother and moving on to neighbors at his new residence, Gorse End. When he steals the spells that someone was born with, Silas shrinks their body to a small, withered husk that he then keeps locked away—the source of his ever-increasing strength.

In 1846 in the US, a journalist named Merritt Fernsby learns that he has inherited Whimbrel House and the island upon which it stands in Rhode Island. Merritt sets out to inspect his inheritance and discovers that the house has a life of its own, playing pranks and not allowing him to leave. The Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms (BIKER) dispatches one of its investigators, Hulda Larkin, to help Merritt. Hulda has a magical talent of her own, a skill for augury that lets her occasionally see the future. She is also a determined, capable woman, with heartbreaks in her past that have led her to be reserved and scrupulously modest. She brings Whimbrel House into order, which includes rescuing Merritt when the house traps him in a pit in the kitchen and hiring a maid, Beth Taylor, who has experience working in enchanted houses.

Hulda determines that the source of the magic is a wizard whose spirit has become embodied in the house. Merritt decides that he wants to exorcize the spirit. As they set out to learn who the wizard can be, they discover that the likeliest candidate is a 12-year-old boy, Owein, who died over 100 years ago. Sympathetic to the way Owein was separated from his family and his loneliness, Merritt decides that Owein can stay in the house, and he and Hulda befriend the mischievous spirit. Just as things seem settled, Hulda discovers that the house holds a second source of magic. Solving this mystery allows her to stay longer, and her mutual attraction to Merritt grows.

Hulda is alarmed when she believes that she glimpses Silas Hogwood in town; Hogwood is supposed to be imprisoned in England after Hulda, who was his housekeeper at the time, found his collection of withered dolls and reported him to the King’s League of Magicians. Hulda’s supervisor, Myra Haigh, thinks that Hulda is seeing things and tries to place Hulda elsewhere, which would mean separating from Merritt. When Hulda is abducted by Silas, Merritt intervenes to rescue her.

As Hulda recuperates, she falls in love with Merritt. Her heart is broken when Merritt leaves town in pursuit of another young woman named Ebba, who left him without saying goodbye and who is now playing a concert in a nearby town. Merritt approaches Ebba to demand why she feigned a pregnancy and then left him all those years ago, and he learns that she participated in a ruse planned by Merritt’s father—who is not, after all, his biological father—as an excuse to disown him. Merritt is still reeling from this news when Silas attacks Whimbrel House, this time coming for Owein and Merritt.

Hulda, still investigating the house’s magic, learns that Merritt inherited magical talent from his birth father. She arrives to tell Merritt, only to find him kidnapped. Forcing a confession from Myra, who helped Silas escape from prison, Hulda finds the wizard’s hideout and intervenes as Silas is performing his ritual to steal spells from Owein. Attacking his dolls, Hulda destroys the source of Silas’s extra magic, while Merritt kills the wizard with Hulda’s crowbar.

After some time spent with her family to recuperate, Hulda is persuaded to return to the island by a letter from Merritt, in which he confesses his feelings for her in a short allegorical story. She finds the house in order, Owein now inhabiting the body of a small dog, and Merritt, welcoming her with open arms.