Julie Klassen (1) (1964–)

This book is like a slow promenade down the beach; unhurried, reflective, and soothing somehow. It is at once engaging and tender, and is a storytelling style reminiscent of classic books.
📚
This book follows four sisters, Sarah, Emily, Viola, and Georgiana, as well as their mother. It talks about their reduced circumstances and how they have to figure out how to survive. They decide to turn their home into a boarding house of sorts, and Sea View is born.
📚
This book primarily follows Sarah and Viola, as they each try to figure out what their hearts wants. Viola especially goes through so much growth in this one, and I loved watching her confidence blossom, and her belief in her inherent goodness. I felt that Julie handled so well the situation with the Major and Viola, and their respective scars and the injuries that led to said scarring. And I loved how they taught each other just by being themselves around one another. It’s the sweetest story. I also loved the research Julie has clearly done into cleft palate/lip, and how it was treated and perceived during these times. It was so well done and such a good reminder that people are so much more than what has happened to them.
📚
I absolutely loved the elements each of the side characters brought to this story. They made me smile and added such a fun component to the overall book!
📚
I felt like Julie masterfully balanced heartache and hope, grief and gladness, friendship and love. It’s a wonderful story.… (plus d'informations)

I enjoyed this book so very much! This book primarily followed Emily, and her publishing aspirations and road to love. Honestly, I was kept wondering for a long time which direction she would go as far whom she would fall for. I would think I’d have it figured out, and then some new development would have me changing my mind. Even up close to the end I wasn’t sure how things would go. But oh, how I loved the romance in this one! There is longing, angst, second chance, rivalry, long lost love, and a couple of great kissing scenes.

We also got to see some more of Sarah’s story. I am so anxious to get more for her story! I don’t know when the next book comes out, but I am so curious as to know what happens next for her! And Georgiana too, of course.

The added characters in this one made it a really exciting and engaging story. There was even a moment of suspense and some intrigue, which was very exciting! I was engaged and entertained throughout the entire book.

If you enjoy historical romance, that has been impeccably researched, and includes independent women, themes of kindness, compassion, and honesty, and a healthy dose of the sea, and the royal family, and all kinds of delicious cuisine, I highly recommend picking up this one.

This is the second book in the On Devonshire Shores series. While it an stand on its own, I would recommend reading book one first, so you get to know these characters and their lives and circumstances before reading this one.

**thanks to Julie Klassen, Austen ProsePR, and Bethany House Fiction for the copy. It was such a pleasure to read!… (plus d'informations)

I haven’t read the first in the series (The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill), but I definitely want to go back and do that. It’s okay, though - she gives just enough backstory to catch you up. Still, I think I would understand the relationships on a deeper level if I had read the first one first!

Anyway, the older Brockwell son, Timothy, figures into this novel. (I read Ivy Hill Christmas, which focused on the younger brother, Richard, and it takes place after this novel, so I had to pretend I didn’t know how certain things were going to turn out.) Rachel, who Timothy once had feelings for, has lost the status she had enjoyed in her youth - before her father was ruined. She tries teaching, but decides she is not cut out for it. Her friend Mercy and some women at a tea convince her to open up a subscription library with all the books she inherited from her father and offer to donate popular books and novels for the cause - at a reduced subscription rate. She agrees… so she can survive without accepting charity - or a marriage proposal for any reason other than love. She also doesn’t think God is especially interested in her ‘inconsequential’ problems, so she hesitates to pray for help - will she learn to trust that God does care and He has a plan for her that she can rely on?

We also get Jane’s story and Mercy’s story. Jane is a young widow who runs her late husband’s inn. Mercy runs a girls’ school, having put aside notions of romance. I don’t want to give any spoilers… but I will say it is a much better idea to start a series at the beginning!… (plus d'informations)

In this Christian Regency Romance, Richard Brockwell is returning home from London to the country for the first time in years to celebrate Christmas with his family. Of course, he is not making the trip out of a sense of nostalgia... his mother has threatened to cut him off financially if he does not come home for Christmas. As the second son in his wealthy family, he has not inherited the family estate - or the responsibilities that go along with it. He is perfectly happy living his bachelor life in London where he has been writing. He brings his friend/publisher with him, as well as his newly adopted dog, planning to spend the requisite time at home before heading back to London. However, his experiences on the trip home and all he encounters once he arrives - including Susanna, who he disappointed years ago and who is now widowed, and Arabella, (the lady Richard’s mother is hoping he will become attached to) who is more beguiling than Richard remembers, but who also is determined not to form any attachment with him - begins to work on him and, perhaps, starts to change his perspective of things. ⁣
⁣
Reminiscent of Jane Austen, particularly the first dance scene, this story gives all the fascinating details of what Christmas was like in small-town England during the Regency Era. It also provides a hint of mystery as to what happened within the Brockwell family to make Richard wish to live away from them, and what transpired between Richard and Susanna all those years ago. ⁣… (plus d'informations)