Picture of author.

Julie Klassen (1) (1964–)

Author of The Apothecary's Daughter

For other authors named Julie Klassen, see the disambiguation page.

22+ Works 5,807 Members 383 Reviews 7 Favorited

About the Author

Julie Klassen is a bestselling, award winning author. She graduated from the University of Illinois and worked in publishing for sixteen years in advertising and as a fiction editor. Klassen's books, The Girl in the Gatehouse and The Silent Governess won the Christy Award for Historical Romance. show more The Girl in the Gatehouse also won a Midwest Book Award and The Silent Governess was a finalist in Romance Writers of America's RITA awards. Julie is also the author of Lady of Milkweed Manor, which was a finalist for the Christy award, The Apothecary's Daughter, and The Maid of Fairbourne Hall. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group, copyright © 2008. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published(see © info.)

Series

Works by Julie Klassen

Associated Works

Sense and Sensibility (1811) — Foreword, some editions — 37,891 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1964
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Places of residence
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
Education
University of Illinois
Occupations
Publishing
editor
Short biography
Julie Klassen is a fiction editor with a background in advertising. She ahs worked in Christian publishing for more than twelve years, in both marketing and editorial capacities.

Julie is a graduate of the University of Illinois. She enjoys travel, research, books, BBC period dramas, long hikes, short naps, and coffee with friends.

She and her husband have two sons and live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota [adapted from Lady of Milkweed Manor (2007)]

Members

Reviews

For me, this book was just.. meh.

This is the second book in the "On Devonshire Shores" series. I really enjoyed the first book, "The Sisters of Sea View", but the same characters in this book felt foreign and distant from the reader and each other compared to the last book.
"A Winter By The Sea" read more like a stiff-toned Regency read than a whimsical seaside historical romance.

I think if these books were a bit shorter, and had more relaxed dialogue instead of as many descriptions of scenery, I think they would read more easily.

If you're a fan of Bridgerton and Downton Abbey (I'm not, nothing personal to those of the fandoms) you might love this book.

Things I didn't like:
-a scene where two characters (a male and a female) are reading on the couch late at night and both accidentally fall asleep. This was just kinda thoughtless and made it look like they might have been..well you know.
-an embarassing scene where a character has a low cut dress and the book mentions her lifted bosom showing when she accidentally happens upon a houseguest. Why would you memtion that? This was awkward, so inappropriate and didn't add anything to the story at all.

I don't think I'll continue with this series, and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone for two reasons: I personally found it to be rather boring, and those weird scenes.

Anyways, thank you to Bethany House Publishers for the complimentary e-book I received to review through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and the thoughts above are my own.
… (more)
 
Flagged
AstridHofferson | 11 other reviews | Feb 2, 2024 |
First sentence: If a quill pen was truly more powerful than a rapier, as Shakespeare suggested, then a pen must also be more powerful than a needle. Emily Summers mused on this as she sat in the parlour, writing in a notebook. Around her, her mother and sisters sewed together over tea and pleasant conversation. Even Viola, her recently married twin, had come over from Westmount with her needlework bag to join them. Only their oldest sister, Claire, was absent.

Genre(s): Christian fiction, clean romance, historical fiction, Regency fiction

A Winter by the Sea is the sequel to The Sisters of Sea View. The Summer family continues opening their home [in Devonshire] as a guest house to paying guests. The excitement surrounding the community is the soon to be arrival of members of the royal family--the Duke and Duchess of Kent and the infant Victoria. While they will not be lodging at their "guest house" (aka boarding house) some of their staff will be...including a Mr. James Thompson.

Julie Klassen has done research on the community for this time period, and the royal visit indeed did take place. This was where the Duke of Kent died. [Hopefully that doesn't count as a true spoiler].

The book follows the personal lives of the Summer sisters--Sarah, Emily, Viola, and Georgiana. Viola was married off [had her big romance] in the first book. This book is Emily's turn. Emily isn't a silly, flighty girl in search of a husband. (Though she does want to find her one true love). She is also interested in reading, writing, and editing. She is NOT interested in embroidery.

I definitely enjoyed this one. I loved both books in this series so much. I'm not sure I loved it more than the first book. I'm not sure I loved it less either. I liked that a handful of characters in this one were real historical people.
… (more)
 
Flagged
blbooks | 11 other reviews | Jan 1, 2024 |

Lists

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Simon Prebble Narrator
Lia van Aken Translator

Statistics

Works
22
Also by
1
Members
5,807
Popularity
#4,240
Rating
4.1
Reviews
383
ISBNs
235
Languages
5
Favorited
7

Charts & Graphs