The Secret of Pembrooke Park - Julie Klassen

Abigail Foster and her family have been accustomed to a certain quality of life, a lifestyle that may now be in danger due to a failed investment that Abigail herself recommended to her father.  With her younger sister's debut on the horizon, and their dowries in danger, Abigail makes some tough decisions for her family.  One of which includes moving to an abandoned house that belonged to some distant relatives, but that has a mysterious past.  What made the occupant of the house leave so quickly? Why has it sat abandoned for 18 years? Why do the townspeople look at them so suspiciously? And how much stock should Abigail put in the rumors that there's a secret treasure hidden within the house?

I have read several Julie Klassen books at this point, and they never disappoint.  Her settings are so fleshed out that I feel myself in the abandoned house, with tea still on the table, and hearing the noises in the hallways.  I can envision the walk to the groundkeeper's house, and the small church with its graves of relatives gone too soon. The author's setting of the scenes really serves to enhance her stories.

In the end, I did enjoy this book.  I am an impatient reader, however, and there was a large portion of the book where I was going, "alright, already, just answer the secrets!!"  There was an abundance of foreshadowing, and hinting at the past, and a lot of wondering whether the main character was actually listening to anything the other people were telling her.  I was satisfied by the conclusion that most of the questions had been answered and loose ends were neatly tied up.  It was a complicated story, but I think that it was done well.

I give this book 4 stars.  I can appreciate a story that takes awhile to bring everything together, even if it makes me antsy while I'm waiting for answers.  I also enjoyed the friendships that built over the course of the book, and the fact that the female characters weren't instant best friends, but that they kept trying.

You can find The Secrets of Pembrooke Park HERE.
You can find Julie Klassen's site HERE.
You can find an excerpt from the book HERE.

I am excited to have been invited to be part of a Pembrooke Park Blogger Bonus team, so look forward to some fun things regarding this book forthcoming!

I received a copy of this book from Bethany House Publishing, in exchange for my honest review.

The Dancing Master - By Julie Klassen

Julia Midwinter has felt unloved and out of place for most of her life.  Stuck in a small town that seems joyless, due in part to her own mother's influence that has driven dance and frivolity away for the past 20 years, she longs to explore the world, and dreams of marrying any man who might take her away.  When Alec Valcourt arrives, bringing with him his background of dancing master, tensions grow and secrets come out that force the people of the town to look hard at themselves and their pasts to determine what their future might be.

I was drawn into this book by the beautiful cover, and while I enjoyed it, I didn't love it.  The characters stayed stuck in their secrets and selfishness for a large majority of the book, with the only growth or change happening quickly, all at once, at the end.  The epilogue was nice to wrap things up, but even it felt abrupt, tying the loose ends together in just a couple of pages.  I didn't feel very connected to any of the characters, because the main ones weren't likable, and the interesting ones weren't featured enough to be drawn into.  Julia and her mother spend most of the book hiding things from each other and being upset at their lack of connection, without actually ever trying to connect to each other.  Alec spends much of the book only focusing on getting his career back in line, without examining his life or his father's mark on it.

There was enough secret and mystery that I did find myself wanting to find out how everything was to come together, and so I give this book 3 stars.  The humility and self-realizations that happened at the end of the book were vulnerable and refreshing, but I wish there had been more growth along the way.  I freely acknowledge that this time setting and style is not my cup of tea, so it is completely possible that if you are more of a Jane Austen fan, you may enjoy this much more than I did.

You can find The Dancing Master HERE.
You can find Julie Klassen's site HERE.

I received a copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers, in exchange for my honest review.

The Tutor's Daughter - by Julie Klassen

Emma Smallwood has helped her father run his school for boys since she was but a young girl herself.  Once her mother dies, she can't bear to leave him as he loses vigor for life and their enrollment dwindles.  She sees a chance for change and hope when she receives a letter from Sir Giles Weston, the father of two of their former students, inviting Miss Smallwood and her father to come live on the estate and tutor the two youngest Weston men.  Once there, however, the tutors find their presence is not altogether welcomed and there seem to be secrets around every corner.  What is going on in the manor, and which Westons are part of it, and which Westons can be trusted?

I think that this book could have been a good suspense story.  Or a good romance story.  However, it tried too hard to be both, and didn't really succeed at either.  The suspense aspects of the plot were so drawn out that it lost the on-edge feeling, as it tried to fit the love story in between the revelations of the family's secrets.  And there were so many attempts to put the reader off track about who loved whom, that it was hard to really care about most of them getting together at all.  Characters' personalities shifted so drastically throughout the story that it was hard to relate to them.  There were several small things about the plot and story that bothered me as well; for instance, if Emma grew up right next door to an all-girls' school run by her aunt, why did she not attend classes there?

That said, I didn't dislike the book; I just didn't love it.  The writing style was good, I just felt the plot could have been a bit tighter.  I still cared about Emma and wanted to see how the book would turn out for her; I enjoyed seeing her come a bit out of her tutor shell and be willing to stand up for herself and do what she thought right.

I give this book 3 stars.

You can find The Tutor's Daughter HERE.
The author's website is HERE.
Ms. Klassen is also available on Facebook HERE.

I received a copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers, in exchange for my honest review.