Julie Klassen: The Tutor’s Daughter

The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen
Published by Baker Books on January 1, 2013
Genres: Fiction / Christian / General, Fiction / Christian / Historical, Fiction / Christian / Romance / General
Pages: 414

Award-Winning Regency Romance from Bestselling Author Julie Klassen

Emma Smallwood, determined to help her widowed father regain his spirits when his academy fails, agrees to travel with him to the distant Cornwall coast, to the cliff-top manor of a baronet and his four sons. But after they arrive and begin teaching the younger boys, mysterious things begin to happen and danger mounts. Who does Emma hear playing the pianoforte, only to find the music room empty? Who sneaks into her room at night? Who rips a page from her journal, only to return it with a chilling illustration?

The baronet's older sons, Phillip and Henry, wrestle with problems--and secrets--of their own. They both remember Emma Smallwood from their days at her father's academy. She had been an awkward, studious girl. But now one of them finds himself unexpectedly drawn to her.

When the suspicious acts escalate, can the clever tutor's daughter figure out which brother to blame...and which brother to trust with her heart?

In need of a good gothic Regency, I found this lovely title by a yet unread Julie Klassen and quickly sunk in to misty, moody drama.  Reading very similar to a traditional Reg Rom, The Tutor’s Daughter features a spinsterish heroine who, in her brave naivety, seems at times as young as Cathy Morland while others as desperately placed as Cousin Kate.

There are many of the tropes of the gothic romance, howls and late night haunting music, mysterious conversations and on edge servants.  But Klassen manages to pull it off, just short of Jane Eyre, and present a very real world of Regency life, class warfare, family expectations, and grief.  The gothic adds to the suspense, pushing the plot along at a fast and enjoyable clip.

Emma, the tutor’s daughter, has been raised in a small academy very much in the in-between of worlds between the genteel and the merchant class.  Her dreams of travel, adventure, and ever growing thirst for knowledge have placed her firmly on the shelf.  However, rather than fighting against it, or longing for a Season or different life, she is primarily concerned with her father’s welfare.  His despair following the death of Emma’s mother is familiar to any child who has lost one parent and sees the impact on the remaining spouse.  Coupled with a sharp downturn in his Academy’s business, it is natural for Emma to take the leap and accept the unusual appointment at Ebbington Manor.

It is as the tutor’s daughter, a strange and often uncomfortable status, that Emma must really grow up and into herself.  Her character arc is very subtle, but satisfyingly accomplished, and makes the unfolding romance all the more believable.

Klassen foils Emma against Lady Weston’s ward Lizzie, and offers a look at several unique personalities through the characters of the Weston sons.  Lady Weston herself is perhaps the most unlikeable, if only for being remarkably high in the instep, but Klassen gives even her a caring and careful postscript.

Klassen does, three quarters of the way through, veer sharply in to sermonizing which, in some respect is not out of place with the moralizing aspects of the gothic romance.  However, the expressions lean to heavy to a modern, personal Christianity which is out of step with the more patriarchal religious underpinnings of the era.  It is not so much anachronistic as oddly over-emphasized, as if tacked on to add more internal motivation for the characters during a dramatic climax.  To be fair, Klassen writes for the inspirational market, so readers should expect Christian content.

The book is kisses only, with some light embracing and kissing, and generally innocuous subject matter.

The hero (no spoilers, its a surprise!) fell a little flat for me towards the end, but I guess I like them a little less idealized.  Or perhaps it was that I never had a clear mental picture of him, from start to finish, making it hard to envision the finale.

4.5 out of 6 A great suspenseful Regency told in the tradition of gothic romance.