Trio of Christian regency romances by Julie Klassen

Lady of Milkweed Manor, Julie Klassen, ISBN: 9780764204791

Read Sept 11, 2013

The Silent Governess, Julie Klassen.  ISBN: 9780764207075

Read Summer 2011

The Girl in the Gatehouse, Julie Klassen. ISBN: 9780764207082

Read Spring 2011

 

I first encountered this author when Girl in the Gatehouse arrived newish at the library, and so I checked it out, investigating a new to me author of christian/gentle romances (they're amazingly popular).  Liked it decently well, so when Silent Governess came across the counter a few months later, I read it also, to make sure the first wasn't a fluke.

I liked them both quite well, so when I saw Milkweed Manor, I was happy to pick it up for a quick read.  I didn't realize that this was the first of her books, and boy it showed.  It was super convoluted, with unheralded flashbacks from every point of view, and not any difference in the writing style to remind the reader who the character thinking is.  If I had read Manor first, I don't think I would have been at all inclined to pick up the others, so I'm somewhat grateful that I missed it when it came out.

All are regencies, very obviously Jane Eyre inspired.  Not in the sense of lifting plot (although there is a bit of that, there are only so many plots to go around) but in the sense of how the world and society is the focus, and the heroine is the one square peg who is just trying to get by, and manages to fall in love instead.

Gatehouse has a heroine who writes "trashy" novels, who got her real identity scooped, and was subsequently kicked out by her scandalized family.  She's reduced to living in penury in the gatehouse of an elder relative, hoping to be left alone to scramble for a living.

Governess has a mathmatically-gifted heroine who fights off her abusive father, and runs, thinking she's killed him.  She hides in the woods outside a great house, and sees something she shouldn't have.  Her throat is injured, but the lord in the compromising situation doesn't know that, and kidnaps her into service as a governess to encourage her to keep silent.

Manor features a Vicar's daughter who unwittingly "falls" with her beau, and ends up in a laying-in (maternity) hospital for unwed mothers.  Very melodramatic and over-wrought multi-way soap-opera ensues, with dead spouses and interchangable infants everywhere.   Not realizing this was her first endeavor, I wondered if the author had been inspired by the shenanigans on Downton Abbey!

Slightly Christian, a little on the gooey side, but not bad for light fluffy reading.  The religious elements in particular are very lightly applied, which makes me quite grateful.  Sometimes these things turn into very labored parables or sermons, and I just don't want to deal with that in my light reading.  I can't say that I'll go looking for more of these, but if they happen by, I won't be averse to picking them up for a quick sweet read.