Review: The Girl in the Gatehouse

This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  The Girl in the Gatehouse    by  Julie Klassen   

I loved this book! We got back from Christmas and several books waited for me. As soon as I saw this one from Julie Klassen, I picked it up, knowing I wouldn't be disappointed. I was right! The author does an amazing job transporting you back to the Regency period. And with the Girl in the Gatehouse she tackles tough issues regarding love and marriage from that time period -- and in the process made me think about some of our cultural strictures.

The plot is complex with secrets keeping people apart and threatening to collide. When they do, the fallout is immense and healing. And Mariah Aubrey is the kind of haunting heroine that pulled me through the story. I wanted to know how her story would end and hated to reach the last page.

Even if you don't think of yourself as a Jane Austen/regency fan, I urge you to try Julie Klassen's books. You may find yourself hooked...just like I did.


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

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.