The Tutor's Daughter

Bude in Cornwall is the inspiration for the fictional coastal village depicted in 'The Tutor's Daughter'. Julie Klassen and her husband visited Bude during their second trip to England in 2011. Bude was — a serendipitous, unplanned stop in the couple’s whirlwind tour of Devon and Cornwall.

From their hotel on the north side of the harbour, Julie spotted a large red-stone manor house high on the cliff opposite and instantly thought to herself: "I want to set a book there." When they asked a local woman, she told us the place was called Efford. Further research revealed that the house was Efford Down House, and built by the same family who once owned Ebbingford Manor, an even older manor house nearby.

Julie decided to base her fictional Ebbington Manor on a combination of these two historic houses. Julie and her husband enjoyed walking up the cliff and along the scenic coastal path. On the top the headland they found an octagonal tower which inspired her fictional Chapel of the Rock – though in fact it’s actually a former coastguard lookout, known as Compass Point. There is something thought-provoking and soul-stirring, Julie recalls, about looking out through the tower’s narrow slit windows, and toward the endless sea beyond.

A lover of romance, English accents, Jane Eyre and anything by Jane Austen Julie Klassen worked in publishing for sixteen years; first in advertising, then as a fiction editor before becoming a full time fiction writer. Three of her books, The Maid of Fairbourne Hall, The Girl in the Gatehouse, and The Silent Governess have won the Christy Award for Historical Romance. The Maid of Fairbourne Hall and 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 graduated from the University of Illinois and enjoys travelling, researching her novels, watching BBC period dramas, taking long hikes, short naps, and coffee with friends. Julie and her husband have two sons and live near St. Paul, Minnesota.

Emma Smallwood, determined to help her widowed father when his boarding school fails, accompanies him to the cliff-top manor of a baronet and his four sons. But soon after they arrive and begin teaching the two younger boys, mysterious things begin to happen. Who does Emma hear playing the pianoforte at night, only to find the music room empty? And who begins sneaking into her bedchamber, leaving behind strange mementos?

The baronet's older sons, Phillip and Henry Weston, wrestle with problems--and secrets--of their own. They both remember the studious Miss Smallwood from their days at her father's academy. But now one of them finds himself unexpectedly drawn to her...

When suspicious acts escalate, can Emma figure out which brother to blame and which to trust with her heart?

Filled with page-turning suspense, The Tutor's Daughter takes readers to the windswept Cornwall coast - a place infamous for shipwrecks and superstitions - where danger lurks, faith is tested, and romance awaits.