Abigail Foster and her family face financial ruin when a family investment goes wrong. Abigail, always the practical one, takes it upon herself to find a new, affordable home for the family and makes sure her younger sister can still have a Season. Then, a mysterious offer arrives: the family can live in Pembrooke Park, a manor from distant relatives which has been abandoned for 18 years. Abigail, not seeing a better alternative, takes the offer and moves to the village of Easton. She enjoys living in the large old house and makes friends with the local curate William Chapman and his sister Leah. But there are many rumours about the previous inhabitants of Pembrooke Park and a possible hidden treasure. Then,letters without sender reach Abigail and she becomes more involved than she bargained for.
Julie Klassen has been one of my go-to authors for the past years. She was one of the first authors who re-popularized Regency within Christian fiction and I was so pleased to find interesting novels set in one of my favourite time-periods. The Secret of Pembrooke Park is her 8th and last novel, but also unfortunately my least favourite so far.
This has nothing to do with the historical background, which is rich and well-researched as always. I follow Julie Klassen's blogposts and even had the opportunity to meet her once and it's clear she takes historical research very serious. Also Pembrooke Park paints an interesting picture of the everyday life and the social structures of the Regency.
No, what was dissapointing to me was how much this was a mystery/suspense story and how little character-driven. I see a trend that more and more Christian historical novels (and Regency especially) 'have' to have a mystery component. I'm just not a fan of this, especially when it takes over the whole story and gets 'in the way' of character and relationship development. What I would like to see in a Regency novel is balls and relationships crossing class-divides and young women learning to be themselves. What I got in Pembrooke Park was secret rooms and hooded figures in the night.... Also, one of the last chapters of this novel was just so typical of a mystery story (and remember, I've seen and read very few of those!) that I rolled my eyes and thought: don't tell me she's going thát route!
So in short, I'm sure there are many readers who will enjoy The Secret of Pembrooke Park very much as it ís a well-written novel overall. I just hope that Julie Klassen (and other authors of historical fiction) remember that not all their readers are fans of suspense. I'll definitely not stop reading Julie Klassen's novels, but I'll maybe be a bit more critical on which one I pick up in the future.
I received an ebook version of this novel from NetGalley and the publisher Bethany House in exchange for an honest review
I've never read a book by Julie Klassen. Which one(s) should I put on my TBR list? My library has 6 of her books, including this one.
ReplyDeleteI liked her first two the best: Lady of Milkweed Manor and The Apothecary's daughter. But her novel from last year; The dancing master was also quite nice, if you can handle an 'Emma-like' heroine, who is unsympathetic at first
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DeleteThe library has "The Dancing Master," so I'll put that on my list. They also have "The Girl in the Gatehouse," "The Maid of Fairbourne Hall," "The Tutor's Daughter," and "Lady Maybe."
DeleteAh, I haven't read 'Girl in the Gatehouse' yet and 'Lady Maybe' is her very newest, July 2015 release. 'Maid of Fairborne Hall' was okay, but for 'Tutor's daughter'I had the same feeling as this review, too much secrets and suspense for me personally
DeleteOh dear, so sad! It's always so disappointing when a favorite author fails to deliver.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm not a Klassen fan (read The Dancing Master and found it very distasteful), I may try again, perhaps one of her earlier works. Or maybe I will give The Secret of Pembrooke Park a try, although it sounds like the story is fairly predicable, which is unforgivable in a mystery.
Sometimes I think writers grow complacent in their success and fail to present their best work after several years of successful publication.
I think also that once a writer has become successful, there is less editing done of their work. Think of JK Rowling, who I'm sure was worked with to tighten her writing during her first few books, the way any emerging writer would be. Once she was a smash hit, she could do no wrong, it seemed, and by the final Harry Potter book, I feel like she really could have used some good editing, but she was "above that" by then. Same thing happened to Tom Clancy, I've heard. So it's possible that often publishers spend less editing man-power on established writers, even though they might still benefit from the help of a good editor.
DeleteSounds logical, though I never thought about it this way
DeleteI'm curious, how did you find 'The dancing master' distasteful?
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