BOOK TOUR STOP x INSTABOOKTOURS: Sitting Tenant by Rosie Radcliffe

After a breakdown and the loss of her job, Mattie moves into a house inherited from an aunt she never knew existed, hoping to find peace and stability. But the house holds more than she expected —it has a sitting tenant, and secrets that refuse to stay buried.

As Mattie unravels the tangled threads of her family’s past, she discovers the shocking truth about her mother, her birth, and the sister no one ever spoke about. Just as she begins to settle in, an unknown enemy launches a sinister campaign to drive her out of the home she’s grown to love.

With her past and present about to collide, can Mattie find the strength to rebuild her life.

Some houses are haunted, but not always by evil spirits.

The Sitting Tenant throws us right into the fray with Mattie as they're released from hospital and get a fresh start with a mysteriously inherited family home, a curiously eccentric late aunt to discover, family secrets to unravel and a new collection of worries to think about as the voices start again. But this time, they're different - everything is written in a way that creates this anxious irony where the reader figures things out much sooner than Mattie and we wait for them to catch up.

Mattie was honestly a delight; blunt and straightforward but funny and warm, talking to us in friendly, quick, but never rushed pace that flicked through with short chapters making it just so easily readable. Despite the excellent pacing, it was largely character-driven, with a large part of the book being about Mattie finding their footing, nightmare neighbours and CPN appointments which balances the strange voices and family skeletons creating a strange tableau of life at 47 Lodge Road.

The house itself was almost a character of itself, so vivid that it sprung to life on the page, painting colourfully perfect pictures of a truly enchanting, engrossing setting.

This was a solid 5 stars for me until around 75% when following a brilliant plot twist, the tone shifted quite a lot into a completely new vibe, a few plot devices used to explain felt a tad 'told-not-shown' in and the excitement kind of plateaued for me but I still very much enjoyed most of this book.

While we're solving old familial secrets, figure out what on earth is happening in the house and trying to remain sane, there was also some beautifully handled discussions about mental health, about the judgement and stigma even from those who claim to love you or protect you - and a moving story about chosen family and love.

⭐⭐⭐

I received a reviewers copy of this title in return for a review. Thank you to the IBT team for inviting me to take part in this tour.
This title contains potentially upsetting content including racism and mental health.

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