My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Category: Adult, Christian Fiction
Genre: Mystery, Romance, Historical Romance, Clean Romance
Content: Clean
In pursuit of an author who could help get her brother published, Rebecca Lane stays at Swanford Abbey, a grand hotel rumored to be haunted. It is there she encounters Sir Frederick--the man who broke her heart. When a mysterious death occurs, Rebecca is one of the suspects, and Frederick is torn between his feelings for her and his search for the truth.
Every year I look forward to reading a new Julie Klassen book. While all her books have an element of mystery added to them, her last three books have all featured the mystery element more heavily. I wasn't as crazy about that in the last two books because I felt like the romance part was sacrificed a bit too much. There was a lack of chemistry for some reason in those two. The chemistry between the characters in this one was better, but still not up to par with her romance books.
I liked Sir Frederick a lot and Rebecca as well, although I thought she should have trusted Frederick with the truth long before she finally did. Also the story takes too long to really get going, and I found myself a little bored in the beginning. I liked the setting of the old abbey turned hotel a lot, and the parts when Rebecca ended up exploring a little were some of my favorites, as well as when she and Frederick start to collaborate.
This book had elements that reminded me of several other books I've read. It felt rather like an Agatha Christie novel set in the regency era at times, but not nearly as clever as Christie's novels. The mystery here was pretty easy to figure out, but still enjoyable.
Though not a favorite, overall I liked this book and enjoyed reading it once it got going.
On a side note- I love the covers to Julie Klassen's books and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed that there is always a part in her books where she describes what the main character is wearing and it looks just like what the character is wearing on the cover of the book. It seems like most writers don't have control over what the covers of their books look like, so I'm just wondering how she does this. Does she get to help pick the cover out with this in mind? I'll probably never know the answer to this, but it's just one of those random things that I wondered about.
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