The Peacock Bottle by Angela Rigley

This story has been written in two time periods.  There is the story of the house's original family occupants mixed with the current family occupants.  Pay attention as you read or you'll confuse yourself.

BooksGoSocial and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published and you can get a copy now.

The story begins with a house fire that takes the life of the husband.  The stepmother and child survive and find the child has inherited another house.  They move and find the house has been vacant for a while.  There's a lot of cleaning and fix up to do.  They work on it day by day.  The daughter found a secret garden and she's attempting to clean that up, too.  They also meet two cousins they didn't know they had.

In between this tale comes an older story of how the family became what they are.  There is a sad part in this tale, too.  The historical account is very well done and was even more attention grabbing than the current tale.

But stepmom and daughter have some more obstacles to get over before the book ends.

This is a fascinating character study that was a good read.