A Writer's Review of The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen

{My Review}

There are so many good things to say about Julie Klassen's newest book, The Tutor’s Daughter, which came out on the first of this month.

First of all, it takes place in a large English manor on the rocky coast of blustery Cornwall, England. Secondly, it’s set in the Regency Era—one of my favorite genres ever. Thirdly, in my honest opinion, Julie Klassen is one of the best authors out there writing for the inspirational market. And fourthly, it was absolutely perfect in every way.

Emma Smallwood is the tutor’s daughter. A good number of the characters in this book have known her since they were all adolescents together, she acting as her father’s assistant at his Smallwood Academy (a boy’s school) for most of her life.  With the death of her mother still fresh in her father’s heart, he hasn’t been as active in securing students for the school—so when he’s invited by the Weston family to come to their home in Cornwall to teach the youngest of their sons, he goes quite readily. Taking Emma with him, he springs her right into the lives of two of her father’s favored students from the past: Henry and Phillip Weston, the two elder sons. 
 
I loved that Emma was so prejudiced toward Henry because of the pranks he’d played on her during his time at her father’s school, and so very caught up in Phillips easily-offered friendship and flirtations. Of course, she knows she could never marry either one of them—not when their father is a baronet and she was merely the tutor’s daughter.

I loved the array of characters in this book. There were quite a few of them, but they each one of them were needed for the intense, mysterious story to play out to perfection. It was a very complex plot of characters and happenings which culminated into a most sigh-worthy end.
 
I was given a paperback copy of this book by Bethany House in order to read and give my honest review.

I give Julie Klassen’s The Tutor’s Daughter 5 Stars.

{About The Tutor's Daughter}

Filled with page-turning suspense, The Tutor's Daughter takes readers to the windswept Cornwall coast--a place infamous for shipwrecks and superstitions-where danger lurks, faith is tested, and romance awaits.

Emma Smallwood, determined to help her widowed father when his boarding school fails, accompanies him to the cliff-top manor of a baronet and his four sons. But soon after they arrive and begin teaching the two younger boys, mysterious things begin to happen. Who does Emma hear playing the pianoforte at night, only to find the music room empty? And who begins sneaking into her bedchamber, leaving behind strange mementos?

The baronet's older sons, Phillip and Henry Weston, wrestle with problems-and secrets-of their own. They both remember the studious Miss Smallwood from their days at her father's academy. But now one of them finds himself unexpectedly drawn to her...

When suspicious acts escalate, can Emma figure out which brother to blame and which to trust with her heart?

{Meet Julie Klassen} 

Julie Klassen loves all things Jane--Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Julie worked in publishing for sixteen years and now writes full time. She has won the Christy Award: Historical Romance for The Silent Governess (2010) and The Girl in the Gatehouse (2011) which also won the 2010 Midwest Book Award for Genre Fiction. Julie and her husband have two sons and live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota.  

Find out more about Julie at http://www.julieklassen.com/. 

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Books by Julie Klassen

   

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