Lady of Milkweed Manor – Julie Klassen (Historical Fiction)
This is definitely not my usual kind of ‘historical fiction’… regency ladies in their poufy dresses, ‘proper’ speech & mannerisms, etc… but there I was at the bookstore spending the church budget on new books for the library, and the woman ringing me up at the till saw that I had this book & the author’s next one in the stack, and promptly began gushing about them. She was so enthusiastic about this author that I found myself saying “well, I guess I’ll have to try them” and agreeing to come back and let her know what I thought. Well, since that’s the only Christian bookstore in town, and I still have more cash in the library budget, I figured it would be awfully hard to avoid her… and I just knew I’d feel guilty if she asked me what I thought and I had to admit I wasn’t really interested in reading the books after all. Especially when she was so excited about them… so, when I got home, I picked up Lady of Milkweed Manor and began reading… and read some more… and kept reading… and finally had to go to bed. The next morning, I… uh… didn’t start work until I’d sat down and finished reading the book. Oops.
“Huh,” I thought, “Guess it was worth my time after all…” And so, I’ve placed the second book on the TBR list. I won’t say a whole lot more about it – I don’t want to give the plot away, but if you’re interested, there are several good reviews on LT that give a bit more detail. I was glad I read it without knowing anything about the plot, probably since I might not have bothered otherwise. It was a pleasant surprise, and very well written for a first novel.
And I’ll admit it… I was actually bawling my eyes out near the end (and I think mumbling “no, no, NO!” as I read), when the author made me think something was going to happen/had happened that actually didn’t. My goodness… skillfully done. Recommended, even to those who don’t usually like this kind of regency-style historical fiction. Guess I learned a little something about my literary tastes with this one!
Rating: 4 coffees out of 5
Tags: books, historical fiction