Review: THE SECRET OF PEMBROOKE PARK by Julie Klassen

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley for the purposes of this review.

After a bad investment, the Fosters find themselves looking to downsize with a small home in the country. But they can't find a property that's both affordable and large enough for the entire family, until a lawyer appears offering them the lease of a large estate called Pembrooke Park ("With two o's"), for an amount they can't refuse. Yet questions surround the property, such as: Who is leasing it to them? Why was it abandoned twenty years ago? And are the rumors of murder and hidden treasure true?

I decided to read The Secret of Pembrooke Park for several reasons: one, I know a few people who love Julie Klassen's books, and I've been meaning to try them for a while. And two, it was pitched to me as inspired by Northanger Abbey. Because of that, I feel like The Secret of Pembrooke Park invites comparisons to Northanger Abbey; unfortunately it doesn't fare very favorably in that comparison. If you're looking for something fun and romantic along the lines of Northanger, you're going to be disappointed. Unfortunately, if you're looking for something along the lines of a traditional Gothic romance with Pembrooke, I feel like you're also going to be disappointed.

Although there are definitely parts of The Secret of Pembrooke Park that feel very Northanger Abbey-ish–specifically William Chapman, the handsome and charming (though of course not as charming as Henry Tilney; that would be impossible) local curate–The Secret of Pembrooke Park is fundamentally different in execution and tone from Northanger Abbey for the very fact that it takes itself about 200% more seriously than Northanger Abbey does. Northanger Abbey was a parody of the Gothic genre; Pembrooke Park is not. There's very little humor or self-awareness of how the story operates as a Gothic novel in these pages. There's a lot of Gothic-y stuff going on, definitely, but none of it really comes together. Just a few plot elements off the top of my head:

• Creepy doll house with decapitated dolls lying around. Good start, but the doll thing is quickly abandoned and forgotten about.
• Missing portrait of the mistress of the house.
• Hidden treasure.
• Pool of blood found on the night the family abandoned the mansion.
• Secret room.
• Stolen brooches?
• Long-lost Pembrookes returning.
• Unknown figure in a hooded green cloak wandering about. Is it the ghost of Clive Pembrooke?! Is Clive Pembrooke the guy who owned the house before the Fosters moved in, or was that the other Pembrooke everyone keeps talking about? And why do we care about that guy? Confusing.
• Random journal entries mailed to Abigail for no apparent reason.
• Coded messages.
• A grumpy caretaker who clearly knows more than he's admitting.
• A lazy and suspicious manservant.
• A slutty sister bringing shame to the family name.
• Lost heiresses.
• Missing family bible.

It's a lot to take in. I wouldn't have minded if it was all to a purpose, but it felt more like Klassen was making it up as she went along, throwing a bunch "spooky" stuff out there in the hopes it would stick, without considering how to make the most of the strongest elements. Catherine's suspicion of General Tilney when she first arrived at Northanger Abbey was more chilling than all of the stuff in this book combined, and she made all of it up in her own head!

As for the love story, I was not into it. It's kind of hard to feel invested in a relationship arc when there are three men chasing after the heroine and, as far as I can tell, they are interchangeable to her. It was impossible to tell what Abigail's feelings for the guys were, beyond "a flutter of attraction." Whenever any of them came on to her, she just kind of stood there and passively accepted what they did to her, no matter who it was. I would have liked for her to demonstrate some feeling or personal preference, by perhaps throwing herself at William, but she never did. It was very frustrating.

In fact, as the book went on I grew more and more annoyed with Abigail in general. We're TOLD she's practical and knows her own mind, but her behavior doesn't really bear that out. Actually, her behavior doesn't bear much of anything out–I've encountered ghosts in literature with more personality. She's devoid of any goals or personal motivation, and feelings...? Hard to say. By the time I finished The Secret of Pembrooke Park, I found myself convinced a cup of weak tea would have been as interesting a heroine as Abigail.

I will say Klassen's writing style is charming, and that was enough to keep me engaged for the first half of the book. But no writing style is enough to make me overlook the last twenty percent of The Secret of Pembrooke Park, where instead of letting the numerous plot points that went nowhere just hang there, each and every single one is laboriously explained through an endless series of expositional monologues. I'd rather be left to wonder–and that's another frustrating thing about The Secret of Pembrooke Park. There are moments when a genuine mystery or something of interest pops up (William snooping on his tour of the house, for example), but these elements are either immediately revealed as harmless (William was just curious) or dropped in favor of something else. Klassen shines when writing about everyday society–balls, going to church, Abigail's sister's behavior in London–but when it comes to building a sense of mystery, not so much.

Basically, I enjoyed the first part of The Secret of Pembrooke Park, but by the end I was more than a little annoyed. If you would like to give the book a try yourself, however, there's a tour-wide giveaway! Three lucky winners will receive one trade paperback or eBook copy of The Secret of Pembrooke Park, and one grand prize winner will receive one copy of all eight of Julie’s novels: Lady of Milkweed Manor, The Apothecary's Daughter, The Silent Governess, The Girl in the Gatehouse, The Maid of Fairbourne Hall, The Tutor’s Daughter, The Dancing Master, and The Secret of Pembrooke Park, one DVD of Northanger Abbey (2007 [love this production]) and a Jane Austen Action Figure.

To enter the giveaway contest, simply leave a comment on any or all of the blog stops on The Secret of Pembrooke Park Blog Tour starting February 16, 2015 through 11:59 pm PT, March 9, 2015. Winners will be drawn at random from all of the comments and announced on Julie Klassen’s website on March 16, 2015. Winners have until March 22, 2015 to claim their prize. The giveaway contest is open to residents of the US, UK, and Canada. Digital books will be sent through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Good luck to all!

And here's a list of the other blog stops. I'm sure most of these readers liked The Secret of Pembrooke Park better than I did, so don't hesitate to check out their reviews if you'd like some second opinions:

• February 16 My Jane Austen Book Club (Guest Blog)
• February 16 vvb32 Reads (Excerpt)
• February 17 Psychotic State Book Reviews (Review)
• February 17 My Kids Led Me Back to Pride and Prejudice (Spotlight)
• February 18 Addicted to Jane Austen (Review)
• February 18 Peeking Between the Pages (Review)
• February 19 Jane Austen in Vermont (Interview)
• February 19 Living Read Girl (Review) 
• February 20 My Love for Jane Austen (Excerpt)
• February 20 Truth, Beauty, Freedom & Books (Review)
• February 20 Laura's Reviews (Guest Blog)
• February 21 A Bookish Way of Life (Review)
• February 21 Confessions of a Book Addict (Review)
• February 21 Romantic Historical Reviews (Excerpt)
• February 22 Reflections of a Book Addict (Review)
• February 23 Austenesque Reviews (Guest Blog)
• February 23 Peace, Love, Books (Review)
• February 24 vvb32 Reads (Review)
• February 24 Poof Books (Excerpt)
• February 25 Babblings of a Bookworm (Review)
• February 25 Austenesque Reviews (Review)
• February 25 Luxury Reading (Review)
• February 26 So Little Time…So Much to Read (Review) 
• February 26 More Agreeably Engaged (Excerpt)
• February 27 Psychotic State Book Reviews (Interview)
• February 27 Booktalk & More (Review)
• February 28 Laughing with Lizzie (Spotlight)
• February 28 The Calico Critic (Review)
• March 01 Leatherbound Reviews (Excerpt)
• March 01 Delighted Reader (Review)
• March 02 CozyNookBks (Review)
• March 02 Laura's Reviews (Review)

Thanks to Laurel Ann and Bethany House for inviting me to be part of the blog tour!



Discus this post with me on Twitter, FaceBook, Google+ or in the comments below.

Review: WAIT FOR WHAT WILL COME by Barbara Michaels

Go to the western gate at set of sun
On Midsummer Eve, and wait for what will come.

Like most Americans, Carla Tregellas knows very little about her family's European roots--that is, until an unknown relative in Cornwall dies, leaving her an isolated and crumbling cliffside mansion. Carla knows she'll have to sell the property, but decides to visit before she does. Not a day into her arrival, she finds out the women of the Tregellas family are cursed--every 200 years, a demon rises from the sea to reclaim the soul of his ancient bride. And Carla just happens to be there on the 200th anniversary of the last Tregellas woman's disappearance. Dun dun dun! More importantly, there are a bunch of handsome and very available men hanging out in the village who are more than willing to show Carla the Cornish scenery. The list of available bachelors includes:

• Alan: the Tregellas family solicitor, and the local catch. He drives a fancy car and is very handsome, but unfortunately is also a controlling chauvinist pig. Or as the heroine puts it, "masterful."
  
• The Vicar: nice guy, is young for a vicar, and has an awesome house.
  
• Simon: the village doctor and self-proclaimed expert on local folklore. Charming in a bumbling country doc sort of way.
  
• Michael: (former?) ballet dancer and grandson of Carla's housekeeper, he's visiting for the summer to help out in the garden. Or so he says.
• Tim O'Hara: a friend of Michael's, he's backpacking around Europe and taking advantage of few days weeks worth of free lodging.
  

It's been a while since I read Wait for What Will Come, which is one of my favorite books by Barbara Michaels. When I recommended it to Becky at One Literature Nut a few weeks ago, I suddenly realized that I really wanted to read it again. If you're looking for a great summer escape novel, you can't go wrong with Barbara Michaels; and you especially can't go wrong with this book, which transports you to an obscure little village in Pirates of Penzance country and introduces a young woman to a heritage that goes back to Ancient Rome. Literally, there is a Roman mosaic in her backyard.

I first read Wait for What Will Come when I was eight, and I've reread it so many times since then I'm not sure I can effectively review it for someone who picks it up for the first time. I have my favorite scenes and I basically just read those and skim the rest. But there were a lot of things that surprised me on this reread. For one, I found Carla to be extremely annoying--she's so smug about being practical and logical, and looks down her nose at anyone who believes in legends or stories. By the time I was about a quarter of the way into the book, I was pretty sick of her Holier-than-thou attitude, especially since all the other women in this book are treated as total neurotics who need medical attention. Also, the tricks played on Carla to scare her out of the house, which seemed very creepy to me as a kid, seem laughable now.

That being said, Wait for What Will Come is still very romantic--not in the boy-meets-girl kind of way, which is a pretty minor part of the book, but in the sense of Carla going to Cornwall and discovering her family's history and place in the world. As a kid growing up in the middle of Colorado, things like cromlechs (standing stone circles) and Roman ruins seemed impossibly exotic and fascinating. And they still do! It probably says a lot about this book that the food and history Carla encounters in Cornwall are the things I remember most from the story. The suspense may be a little flat, but as a romantic escapist novel, Wait for What Will Come definitely succeeds.

Early Gothic Showdown: THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO versus VATHEK

For the Classics Circuit: Gothic Lit Edition, I thought it would be fun to read two of the earliest examples of Gothic literature and compare them. I first heard about these crazy 18th-century kids when studying Gothic Revival architecture--Horace Walpole (right) built Strawberry Hill, arguably the first Gothic Revival house. The much more elegant William Beckford (left), built Fonthill Abbey and Lansdown Tower. Both were mad for collecting--Walpole, medieval art; Beckford, items from the Orient and Italian Quattrocento paintings (many of which you can now see at the National Gallery)--and were full of more than little hubris, which is reflected in their respective books.

All of this makes the novels sound hoity-toity, doesn't it? Let me assure you, they're not.

The Castle of Otranto by Walpole (1764)

It's difficult to summarize this book because it doesn't really seem to have a plot, but essentially it's purported to be a translation by Walpole of a 16th-century manuscript he found in Naples that recounts a story from the 12th century--or earlier!--about a prince named Manfred who was a total dick and eventually got hoisted in his own petard.

This is honestly one the most bizarre books I have ever read IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. If you want a story that'll give you the OMGWTFBBQ's, then you should definitely pick Otranto up, because it is alllll over that like sticky in honey peanut butter. It's like Walpole was sitting around writing and thinking, "Hey, you know what this story needs? A prophecy! A murder! A shrieking virgin! A lost son returned! A lost father returned! A secret passage! Knights! Saints! Clergy! A convent! Sword fights!" and on and on, every other paragraph. I've heard some people explain this by saying Walpole was writing a parody, but I really don't think so. This was apparently the first book of its kind, so what was he parodying? I think it just reads like a parody because it's utterly ridiculous.

Basically, the one redeeming factor of this book is that it's short and you can skim through it. The idea that Otranto sparked the creation of an entire genre of literature is MIND BOGGLING to me. Because I was thinking something like that would be, you know, good-ish. Is this what 18-century avant-garde writing looks like?

Vathek by Beckford (written in French, 1782; published in English, 1786)

Compared to Otranto, Vathek is pretty good (the key words in that sentence being "Compared to Otranto"). Written in a much different style but with a similar theme, Vathek tells the story of a caliph who's a sensualist and wants to know ALL THE THINGS. But the gods, they don't want the people to know ALL THE THINGS; that's the gods' job. Everything is going great until a few deities take notice and send a djinni to lure Vathek into a trap made mostly of his own ego. Ensue abuses of power, renouncing of Islam, foolish escapades, mass murder, etc., until Vathek eventually gets what's coming to him.

Vathek reads like a tale from the Arabian Nights (quite deliberately), and would actually be readable if one was able to root for Vathek at all. Instead, he's totally unlikable and TSTL to boot. It makes a lot more narrative sense than Otranto, but since I knew exactly where it was going and didn't care about the character enough to find out how it was going to get there, I got bored. I also don't know why this is considered a Gothic novel. I do have to say the ending where Vathek gets his just desserts was pretty satisfying, though.

Overall

Even though I wouldn't call it good, Vathek definitely wins over Castle of Otranto. I think Beckford's Ideas about power and human limitations, which really reminded me of Frankenstein, were much more elegantly and effectively conveyed than whatever Walpole was up-chucking. I find it REALLY interesting that both of these men--who were incredibly rich, knew everyone who was worth knowing (Beckford took music lessons from AmadeusfreakingMOZART, for god's sakes), and spent lavish amounts of money creating a world for themselves that reflected their fantasies--wrote books about self-centered egomaniacs who needed to be taken down a peg. That being said, from the viewpoint of literature, whyyy are we still reading these books???

Beckford and Walpole were fascinating men, but as far as the Gothic is concerned, their architectural contributions seem more successful to me than their literary ones.

Listed: The Gothic Reader

A few weeks ago, Anastasia from Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog posted a review of Rebecca where she lamented the fact that she couldn't get into Gothic romance. Admittedly, the tropes of Gothic romance can be pretty tiresome--the young ingenue unsure of her suitor's love and of herself, etc.--but I think... no, I know that done right, Gothic romance can be fantastically awesome! So I started to think of books that might lure Anastasia into admitting Gothic romances have their merits. I don't think they're what she would expect!

• Lord of Fire by Gaelen Foley--Innocent Alice Montague travels to Lord Lucien Knight's estate--I forget why--and finds herself embroiled in a Hellfire-type Club with a whole bunch of sexxxoring going on. Shocking! Then she stays for a while and Lucien broods. There are atmospheric trees and cliff faces. Win!
• The Scarletti Curse by Christine Feehan--It takes place in Italy. Don Scarletti is drawn to the village healer, but ruh-roh, there's a curse upon the Scarletti men! That involves the women they love dying! I think they turn into something, I'm not sure.
• Wings of the Falcon by Barbara Michaels--Michaels wrote a heck ton of Gothic Romances back in the '80s. Wings is one of my favorites. It takes place in Italy and is about a young English woman who moves there and becomes fascinated with the mysterious figure of The Falcon. Fun!
• The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart--Stewart is another person who's written a load of Gothic romances. In this one, a mysterious woman shows up claiming to be a billionaire's long-lost daughter and heir to his fortune. But is she really? Or is she just an imposter out for the old man's money? Great story telling!
• Nevermore by Kelly Creagh--Definitely one of my favorite recent reads! Varen, a broody goth, and Isabelle, a perfect blonde cheerleader, are partnered together on an English assignment. A great Gothic atmosphere and lots of chemistry between the two main characters makes this one of the best Gothics I've encountered recently.
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen--This is one of my favorite Austen novels. I just love Mr. Tilney! Anyway, Catherine Morland, the heroine, loves Gothic romances, but her life conspires to keep her away from anything interesting and salacious until she meets someone who own a properly crumbling abbey.

Do you read Gothic romances? What favorite Gothic roms have I missed?

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