What an impressively mediocre book. 
 The description is a little misleading--it sounds as if Flora is somehow trapped in her mysterious house and needs to find her way out, which really isn't the case at all. It's hard to pin down what the main plot thread is, because it's almost like there are two or three episodes here that are tied together with "before we do X, what about Y?" and "I know I should be doing X, but Y is my priority right now." The bits where Flora performs magic seem like afterthoughts, bits thrown in to give the book some "magickal mishaps." 
 And speaking of that really long subtitle: glass-gazing sidekick? because he's vain, which comes up only rarely and isn't a plot point? Sure, okay. Two Ominous Butlers (one blue)? Someone's got to help me out, because I don't have a clue who Butler No. 2 (Blue) is. 
 Now I've read a fair number of books with misleading titles and episodic plots, and I'm fine with it. This one... the writing was fine, the plot oscillated nicely between build-up and climax, the characters were, for the most part, sympathetic and fully drawn. And yet this just didn't grab me. Maybe it's because the world-building was a little (okay, a lot) weak, so I never connected with it. 
 I'm leading the middle school book discussion on this tomorrow; I'll see how its intended audience feels about it.