Dawn Crandall's Review of “The Dancing Master” by Julie Klassen

{My Review}

Although there are quite a few characters who find their way to each other’s hearts by the end of The Dancing Master, this book is not so much a love story. Like the rest of Julie Klassen’s books, there is a lot going on, but instead of a majority of the focus being upon a love-relationship building between the hero and heroine, it is focused on the redemption of a town caught up in twenty years of mysteries, rumors and lies. 

The Dancing Master is also written primarily from the hero’s perspective instead of either a heavier heroine POV or an equal balance between the two... which sort of makes sense when you think of the title. Usually a book might lend to the heroine wondering a bit about the trustworthiness or caliber of character of the hero and have the reader be more sympathetic toward the heroine. This book does it a little backwards, having that the hero is the main character and trying to figure out these things about the heroine. Although this is quite backwards to how most "historical romance" books out there are written, it is still a very well written story.

It’s obvious from the differing reviews on Goodreads and Amazon that the average reader might not pick up on these things specifically and end up deciding that they don’t especially like it because it’s so different than what they expect after reading Julie Klassen’s other books. I hope in my explanation as to why they might be having these reactions to this book readers will see that it isn’t so much that the book/story is written badly, but that it is simply different. 

Julie Klassen’s The Dancing Master currently has a rating of 3.79 out of 5 stars (from 434 ratings) on Goodreads. I was given a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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{About the Book from Amazon.com}

Finding himself the man of the family, London dancing master Alec Valcourt moves his mother and sister to remote Devonshire, hoping to start over. But he is stunned to learn the village matriarch has prohibited all dancing, for reasons buried deep in her past.

Alec finds an unlikely ally in the matriarch's daughter. Though he's initially wary of Julia Midwinter's reckless flirtation, he comes to realize her bold exterior disguises a vulnerable soul—and hidden sorrows of her own. 

Julia is quickly attracted to the handsome dancing master—a man her mother would never approve of—but she cannot imagine why Mr. Valcourt would leave London, or why he evades questions about his past. With Alec's help, can Julia uncover old secrets and restore life to her somber village...and to her mother's tattered heart?

Filled with mystery and romance, The Dancing Master brings to life the intriguing profession of those who taught essential social graces for ladies and gentlemen hoping to make a "good match" in Regency England.

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{More About 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 www.julieklassen.com. 

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{Other Books by Julie Klassen}

     

  

A Day of Favorites

I'm guest-hosting about one of my favorite heroes on one of my favorite blogs today! Nancy Kimball asked me to make a quick appearance on her Fiction Hero Features blog to talk about the heroic attributes of Henry Weston, the hero from Julie Klassen's The Tutor's Daughter.  And if you've read my five star review of The Tutor's Daughter, you already know how I feel about that particular (and amazing) book! I hope you stop on by! It was so much fun to write!
 

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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My Top 12 Reads of 2012

Well, I did it.  

My goal was to read 48 books this year, and I have. There were a few in there I might have given up on before ACTUALLY finishing, but I did try. Here is a list of my Top Twelve  Reads for the year 2012.  

(They are listed in the order I read them with a link to my review)

 

The Accidental Bride by Denise Hunter

(Contemporary Romance, Thomas Nelson) 

I loved the love-hate tension Denise Hunter created between the two main characters of this book. I really didn't know which side I was on concerning the hurts they both caused one another in the past.

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The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by Julie Klassen
(Regency Historical Romance, Bethany House)

Julie Klassen always amazes me with her fleshed out characters and flawless plots.
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My Stubborn Heart by Becky Wade
(Contemporary Romance, Bethany House)

This book came out of nowhere and totally blew me (and all of my friends!) away. I'd never heard of Becky Wade before last spring, but I sure am going to keep my eye on her books in the future!

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Short Straw Bride by Karen Witemeyer
(Historical Romance, Bethany House)

Karen Witemeyer is another author I can always count on for true-to-life characters and plots that make me sigh all the way to her satisfying endings.
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The Messenger by Siri Mitchell
(Revolutionary Historical Romance, First Person, Bethany House)

Hannah Sunderland and Jeremiah Jones were, quite possibly, my favorite couple of the year. Which is funny, because the story is about so much more than them falling in love. I blame the fact that it was written from both of their perspectives in first person.
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Love Finds You in Mackinac Island, Michigan 
by Melanie Dobson
(Historical Romance, Summerside Press

Melanie Dobson was another new author for me. I loved the suspense in this book, even if part of it was not having the hero and heroine meet until close to the middle of the book.   

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The Rose of Winslow Street by Elizabeth Camden
(Historical Romance, Bethany House)

Atmosphere. Dark and gothic. And real.

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Unending Devotion by Jody Hedlund
(Historical Romance, Bethany House)

I blazed through this book so fast, I wished it was twice as long! Actually, I wish any of Jody Hedlund's books were twice as long.

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A Love Surrendered by Julie Lessman
(1920's Historical Romance, Revell)

AMAZING wrap up for the O'Connor Family. I think Steven was my favorite of them all... but that might only because his was the last book. I think that every time I read any of Julie's books. 

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Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin
(1920's Historical Romance, First Person, Bethany House)

This was such a touching story written from first person perspective about a young woman finding her true place in the world.   

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Against The Tide by Elizabeth Camden
(Historical Romance, Bethany House)

Translating foreign codes for the Navy, bringing down drug rings, and going undercover at a secluded, palatial mansion. Oh, and Alexander Banebridge. Lydia Pallas's heart never had a chance. 
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The Tutor’s Daughter by Julie Klassen
(Regency Historical Romance, Bethany House)

Oh, how I love a good, sigh-worthy Regency! And this one had it all! A Country House, masters and servants--and everyone in between, the sea-weathered cliffs and bluffs off of the coast of Cornwall, and a brooding hero who saves the heroine from certain death! (yes, I love the melodramatic...)
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I hope you enjoyed my list and will look these titles up in the coming months! I'd love to hear what you thought of them!
  

A Writer's Review of “The Maid of Fairbourne Hall" by Julie Klassen

 

It’s funny… I usually keep looking to the front cover of a book while reading it in order to better-picture the heroine throughout her times and trials—but not so with this book. While reading The Maid of Fairbourne Hall I kept looking to the back cover. For on the cover of the book, as well as throughout most of the story, Margaret Macy is disguised as a housemaid and going by the name of Nora Garrett. It was usually from the once-spurned, yet ever-loving, Nathaniel Upchurch’s perspective that I was trying to visualize Margaret as the blond beauty on the back of the book.        

I’ve been looking forward to reading The Maid of Fairbourne Hall for a very long time because I always enjoy reading any book by Julie Klassen. There were so many things I liked about this book; it might be difficult to remember to mention everything. The only thing that that only kind of bothered me was that it seemed to have a rather slow start. But I pressed on because of its high rating on Goodreads and the fact that many of my author/reader friends gave it such high marks. I liked that there were only two perspectives—Margaret Macy and Nathaniel Upchurch. No villains, no secondary characters—just the two people who the book was really about.

Julie Klassen is an excellent writer when it comes to writing the kind of book I love to read.... and write. It used to bother me a great deal when I would read books by authors who seem to be on the same wavelength as me. It’s happened before with Julie Klassen, as well as with books written by Elizabeth Camden, Siri Mitchell and Jody Hedlund. There’s just something sometimes that reminds me of the books I’ve written myself (although my agent and I are just starting our quest for a publisher for my first book this week). I try to see this as a good thing—that I’m thinking up the kinds of plots and situations that sell. But still, I don’t want anyone to ever read my book and think I took my ideas from them. My characters “tell me” what’s going on in their lives, emotions and circumstances... and I simply write them down in my writerly voice.

I can tell Julie Klassen is very in tune with her characters. They are very well-developed, very real-feeling people coming alive on the page. Her plots are full of hard decisions and difficult situations, all the while being believable, and as always, so incredibly interesting. I am so happy I decided to stick through the first few chapters. It was well worth it.

I borrowed Julie Klassen’s The Maid of Fairbourne Hall from my local library... even kept it days overdue in order to finish it... and give it 5 stars. I recommend all of Julie Klassen’s books, especially if you love books set during England’s Regency Era and anything Jane Austen-like (as I do).  

A Writer's Review of “The Girl in The Gatehouse" by Julie Klassen

I can always count on liking any book written by Julie Klassen. The first one I read was The Apothacary's Daughter. I bought it years ago using a gift card at Barnes & Noble, not knowing the first thing about the book or it's author. I don't usually do that. But boy was I pleased. As I was with her newest one, The Girl in The Gatehouse.

The Girl in The Gatehouse had a very complex plot. So much so, that if I even began giving you an idea of what the story was about, you really wouldn't have the first idea unless I went on and on and on. Most of the plot worked well together, but there were times when I thought so much "chance" between such a small group of people was unlikely. I also felt that because of this complexity, it seemed to go on for another sixty or so pages in order to tie up all the loose strings and getting everyone in just the right place for 'The End.' But I can understand how difficult it is to get characters in just the right place and frame of mind at the end of a novel - it's something I struggle with myself.

I really wish more authors of Christian Historical Fiction had the guts to write like Julie Klassen. Too many of them candy-coat what society was like in previous eras.. as if people in general only became sinful in the last fifty years. This world is a sinful place - and has been since Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in Eden. The controversial  issues we face today are not new and I think it's interesting to see the different ways society has dealt with them in the past.   

Even though there were a lot of them, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and the difficulties they were facing throughout this book. It was written primary through the eyes of either Miss Mariah Aubrey, who lived in the gatehouse or Captain Matthew Bryant, the young man who was leasing the estate the gatehouse belonged to. I think because of the personality and circumstances of Mariah, it would have been a good chance for the author to write a book from first-person point of view, though I did enjoy it very much the way it is.

I borrowed The Girl in the Gatehouse from my community library and gave it 4 STARS.