Shadows of Swanford Abbey. Julie Klassen. 2021. [December] 416 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: Miss Rebecca Lane quaked at the thought of returning to Swanford after more than a year's absence, even though her heart had never really left.
Shadows of Swanford Abbey is a book I loved cover to cover. If you enjoy historical fiction with equal blends MYSTERY (suspense) and ROMANCE, then I recommend Shadows of Swanford Abbey with you wholeheartedly without any reservations. It is set in England during the reign of George IV. (I would be tempted to just call it REGENCY era and leave it at that. But George III died several months before this novel opens, and so the Regency is at an end. George is no longer Prince Regent, but King.)
Rebecca Lane, our heroine, is a lady's companion. She is returning home for a visit with her brother, John. She's heard that he is doing horribly. (What we would call depression...or depression + addiction). Her brother, who dreams of being an AUTHOR, a published one at that, divides his time between writing and despair that he cannot get a publisher to read his work to see if it's publishable. He's also very BITTER over something that happened in the past.
Her brother will not make a place for her in their small home--her former room being HIS workspace now--so she finds herself going to Swanford Abbey a local village hotel (or inn?). As the name suggests, it has been converted from an abbey to a hotel. Rebecca Lane finds herself staying at the same hotel as her employer--among others. It's surprising how many familiar faces she finds staying there at the same time! Including her long-time crush, Frederick Wilford. (He's still oh-so-dreamy; and now he's a widower). And his brother, Thomas.
Mystery surrounds Swanford Abbey. The longer she stays, the more aware she becomes of the mystery--that all is not as it appears to be, that danger is lurking far closer than anyone suspects....
She's a woman on a mission--get her brother's manuscript in the hands of either a publisher (staying at the hotel) or an author (also staying at the hotel). But the task seems IMPOSSIBLE. Is getting her brother's manuscript worth risking everything?
I loved, loved, loved everything about this one!!! I loved the characterization. I loved that the characterization goes beyond just the heroine and hero. We've got a community of characters--residents at the hotel, the surrounding community, family--that are given enough depth and substance to come across as developed. That is rare--in my opinion. I loved spending time with the characters. I loved the development of relationships, the unfolding of secrets and mysteries. I loved the dialogue. Nothing felt rushed or under-developed in the romance department. I loved that I was kept guessing as to the identity of the murderer. I loved the author's note at the end.
This may just be my FAVORITE Klassen novel yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment