The Girl in the Gatehouse
January 7, 2011
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Girl in the Gatehouse Bethany House (January 1, 2011) by Julie Klassen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Julie says: My background is in advertising and marketing, but I am blessed with a dream job—working as an editor of Christian fiction. I have been writing since childhood, but Lady of Milkweed Manor was my first novel. It was a finalist for a Christy Award and won second place in the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Awards. My second novel, The Apothecary’s Daughter, was a finalist in the ACFW Book of the Year awards. I am currently writing one novel a year.
I graduated from the University of Illinois and enjoy travel, research, BBC period dramas, long hikes, short naps, and coffee with friends.
My husband and I have two sons and live near St. Paul, Minnesota.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Miss Mariah Aubrey, banished after a scandal, hides herself away in a long-abandoned gatehouse on the far edge of a distant relative’s estate. There, she supports herself and her loyal servant the only way she knows how–by writing novels in secret.
Captain Matthew Bryant, returning to England successful and wealthy after the Napoleonic wars, leases an impressive estate from a cash-poor nobleman, determined to show the society beauty who once rejected him what a colossal mistake she made.
When he discovers an old gatehouse on the property, he is immediately intrigued by its striking young inhabitant and sets out to uncover her identity, and her past. But the more he learns about her, the more he realizes he must distance himself. Falling in love with an outcast would ruin his well-laid plans. The old gatehouse holds secrets of its own. Can Mariah and Captain Bryant uncover them before the cunning heir to the estate buries them forever?
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Girl in the Gatehouse, go HERE
Sally Says: What a fantastic book The Girl in the Gatehouse is, and I’m just over halfway through it. It feels like a Jane Austen movie meets Jo March with a bit of mystery thrown in for fun. I keep wanting to drop everything and hide away with the book so I can finish it.
If you like Jane Austen, the Regency era, or Regency movies, you will love The Girl in the Gatehouse. I’ve read two of Klassen’s other books and enjoyed them as well, especially The Silent Governess, but so far this one is my favorite by far. And the cover is gorgeous. If you’ve never read Klassen, get to a bookstore or your Kindle now.