Tuesday 25 October 2022

Read my #BookReview of The Godmother’s Secret by Elizabeth St.John @ElizStJohn @cathiedunn

 


The Godmother’s Secret
by Elizabeth St.John


Publication Date: 4th October, 2022. Publisher: Falcon Historical. Page Length: 350 pages. Genre: Biographical Historical Fiction / Historical Mystery

What if you knew what happened to the Princes in the Tower. Would you tell? Or would you forever keep the secret?

November, 1470: Westminster Abbey. Lady Elysabeth Scrope faces a perilous royal duty when ordered into sanctuary with Elizabeth Woodville–witness the birth of Edward IV’s Yorkist son. Margaret Beaufort, Elysabeth’s sister, is desperately seeking a pardon for her exiled son Henry Tudor. Strategically, she coerces Lancastrian Elysabeth to be appointed godmother to Prince Edward, embedding her in the heart of the Plantagenets and uniting them in a destiny of impossible choices and heartbreaking conflict.

Bound by blood and torn by honour, when the king dies and Elysabeth delivers her young godson into the Tower of London to prepare for his coronation, she is engulfed in political turmoil. Within months, the prince and his brother have disappeared, Richard III is declared king, and Margaret conspires with Henry Tudor to invade England and claim the throne. Desperate to protect her godson, Elysabeth battles the intrigue, betrayal and power of the last medieval court, defying her husband and her sister under her godmother’s sacred oath to keep Prince Edward safe.

Were the princes murdered by their uncle, Richard III? Was the rebel Duke of Buckingham to blame? Or did Margaret Beaufort mastermind their disappearance to usher in the Tudor dynasty? Of anyone at the royal court, Elysabeth has the most to lose–and the most to gain–by keeping secret the fate of the Princes in the Tower.     


Inspired by England’s most enduring historical mystery, Elizabeth St.John, best-selling author of The Lydiard Chronicles, blends her own family history with known facts and centuries of speculation to create an intriguing alternative story illuminating the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. 


Book Rating:

πŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“š⭐ = A book in a million
πŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“š = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.
πŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“š = A really great read.
πŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“š = It was enjoyable.
πŸ“šπŸ“š = It was okay.
πŸ“š = Um...! πŸ˜•

My Review 
The Godmother's Secret
πŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“š
I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

The king is dead - now what? As Richard, the new Lord Protector gathers his forces to intercept his nephew (Edward V) and get him away from those upstart Woodvilles, Elysabeth is charged with delivering Edward safely to The Tower of London where he will await his coronation - a coronation that is destined to never happen.

This novel follows Elysabeth as the world around her seemingly falls apart. She must make a choice - should she try and rescue the young princes, or should she leave them to their fate? This novel is deeply moving and Elysabeth is right in the thick of it, trying to make the right decision, not only because she loves the boys but because of her godmother's oath. She is torn between wanting to respect her husband and her king's wishes, and following her heart. Elysabeth is a character that comes across as very brave, a hero, one might say, but she is not a hero for her own sake, but for that of the children. She is a very brave and extremely likeable character and one I enjoyed reading about her very much.

There are several very distressing scenes in this novel, I think it would be fair to call them harrowing, so I would advise having some tissues close to hand. Likewise, this is a novel that really begs to be read in one sitting because the action and the drama do not stop. 

If you enjoy historical fiction set during the Cousins War, then I think you should put this book on to your to-read list. It is a truly great read.


You can pick up your copy of this book over on Amazon

Elizabeth St.John


Elizabeth St.John spends her time between California, England, and the past. An acclaimed author, historian, and genealogist, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Lydiard Park and Nottingham Castle to Richmond Palace and the Tower of London to inspire her novels. Although the family sold a few country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them— in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their legacy. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story.

Having spent a significant part of her life with her seventeenth-century family while writing The Lydiard Chronicles trilogy and Counterpoint series, Elizabeth St.John is now discovering new family stories with her fifteenth-century namesake Elysabeth St.John Scrope, and her half-sister, Margaret Beaufort.

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Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Book Bub, Amazon Author Page, Goodreads 





Sunday 23 October 2022

Read an #excerpt from Island of Dreams by Harry Duffin #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour @duffin26 @cathiedunn

 


Island of Dreams
By Harry Duffin


Publication Date: December 2022. Publisher: Cumulus Publishing. Page Length: 420 pages
Genre: Historical Family Saga

In May 1939, when Professor Carl Mueller, his wife, Esther, and their three children flee Nazi Germany, and find refuge on the paradise island of Cuba, they are all full of hopes and dreams for a safe and happy future.  

But those dreams are shattered when Carl and Esther are confronted by a ghost from their past, and old betrayals return to haunt them. 

The turbulent years of political corruption leading to Batista’s dictatorship, forces the older children to take very different paths to pursue their own dangerous dreams. 

And - among the chaos and the conflict that finally leads to Castro’s revolution and victory in 1959, an unlikely love begins to grow - a love that threatens the whole family. 

Having escaped a war-torn Europe, their Island of Dreams is to tear them apart forever.

Excerpt

As the wailing combined with the throb of the engines, Anna turned away from the crowd lining the rails. She felt her parents needed her and she needed to be with them. If they were to die, they would begin their final journey together as a family.
   She had just reached the main stairway to go back inside the ship, when she heard a man cry out. Fearing another suicide attempt she turned to look. 
  ‘Look!’ the man shouted again, excitedly. 
  All eyes followed his pointing finger. Anna went back to the agitated crowd and wormed her way through to see the cause of the excitement.   
  A small, stubby boat was racing through the water towards them. As the craft grew larger, approaching the cordon of police boats still surrounding the ship, the passengers started chattering excitedly. The helmsman of the boat was a plump black man. Beside him stood a young policeman and another man in a crumpled, cotton suit, his shock of straw-coloured hair flattened to his brow by the speed of the boat. 
  As the boat raced through a gap made by the police launches, the man looked up at the passengers crowding the rails. His handsome face looked tired, worn, but triumphant. Cupping his hands to his mouth, he shouted excitedly, 'The Mueller family! Professor Carl Mueller!’



The atmosphere in the Mueller’s cabin was electric. 
  ‘He’s said he’s got visas for us to leave the ship!’ gasped Anna, breathless from dashing the news to her parents.
  Carl and Esther looked at each other, a mixture of shock, joy and disbelief. But it was true. A steward, hurrying after Anna, confirmed the good news. They were to take their luggage to the ship’s ladder and disembark. All the Mueller family and Nanny Price too.
  The next few minutes were a blur. Carl, Hans, Nanny and the steward stumbled up the companionway to the boat deck, hauling various brown leather cases. Bringing up the rear behind Esther, Anna and Klaus, two more stewards carried Esther’s trunk. 
 Having climbed the ladder to the ships deck, Freddie looked through the excited crowd. Carl was easy to see, being over six foot and wearing a silver-grey homburg, but the rest of the family were hidden in the milling throng. Anger was rising as the crowd grew, demanding to know why they weren’t allowed to leave too.  Freddie had expected it. He glanced at Ramos, who smoothly slipped his gun from its holster and fired one deafening shot into the air. The effect at such close quarters was immediate. The crowd took a pace back, allowing Carl to shepherd his flock to the ladder where another policeman was waiting to help them down to Lardy’s boat.
  Freddie only glimpsed Esther, tearful and near to panic, as she was jostled through into the arms of the policeman. Out of Freddie’s sight, Anna had wrestled her arm from her father’s grip.
  ‘No!’ he heard her shout angrily. ‘I’m not leaving without the others. It isn’t fair!’
  Carl, occupied with the bemused Klaus, had become separated from his daughter, who was about to become submerged in the crowd.
  ‘Anna!’ he cried.
  Esther’s cry of panic pierced the hubbub. Freddie forced himself into the scrum, grabbed the young girl firmly round the waist and carried her, kicking and screaming, to the top of the ladder where Ramos helped him carry her down the precarious steps. They were all in danger of falling as Anna struck out furiously, catching Freddie full in the face, and knocking Ramos’s cap into the water.
  ‘No, no!’ she cried. ‘We can’t leave them! They’re our friends!’
  Somehow, they were all suddenly in the small swaying boat, the luggage was tumbled in after them and Lardy gunned the craft away from the sheer, black wall of the ship. 
 The family huddled towards the prow in silence, with Carl hugging the sobbing Anna to his chest and holding Esther in an embrace all the way. Freddie sat in the stern with Ramos and Lardy.  No one spoke on the short journey.
Ramos, aware of the danger of the large, excitable crowd gathered at the quay, told Lardy to take the boat through the harbour channel and up the river leading through the Old City. 
As they entered the mouth of the narrow river and the S.S. St Louis disappeared from view behind the dockside warehouses, Anna let out a little cry, ‘Papa!’
 Carl hugged her closer.  ‘Hush, Liebchen,’ he murmured. ‘There was nothing we could do.’
 After Lardy had tied up at the small jetty, Freddie quickly found two taxis. He and Ramos crammed into the front seat of the first, with Anna and Nanny Price in the back.
  ‘Hotel Ingleterre,’ Freddie instructed the driver.
  As the two cabs wound through the narrow shadowed Spanish style streets, that made up the ancient and most beautiful part of Havana, Freddie became aware for the first time that his nose was violently throbbing. Touching it he realised it had bled. He took out a handkerchief and dabbed it gently. The faint red smudge on the white cotton told him the blood had already dried. 
  The ship's klaxon sounded one final echoing blast. Glancing behind Freddie looked straight into the wide dark eyes of Anna, glaring hatred at him from the shadow of the rear seat. 
  ‘You had no right to drag me from the ship!’ she said coldly. ‘I wanted to stay.’
  ‘I understand how you feel –,’ began Freddie, but Ramos, squashed at his side, snapped without turning his head.
  ‘You should be grateful! I would have left you there!’
  Anna was about to respond, but felt Nanny Price’s hand gently squeeze her own. She contented herself with staring hard at the back of Ramos’ bare head, pleased that she’d knocked the man’s hat into the water.


You can pick up this novel at Amazon. This book is also available on  #KindleUnlimited

Harry Duffin


Harry Duffin is an award-winning British screenwriter, who was on the first writing team of the BBC’s ‘Eastenders’ and won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best TV serial for ‘Coronation Street’. 

He was Head of Development at Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment Group, producing seven major television series, including ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ starring Richard ‘John Boy’ Thomas, and ‘Twist in the Tale’, featuring William Shatner. 

He was the co-creator of the UK Channel Five teen-cult drama series ‘The Tribe’, which ran for five series. 

He has written three novels, Chicago May, Birth of the Mall Rats [an intro to the TV series ‘The Tribe’], and Island of Dreams, which will be published in December 2022.

Chicago May is the first book of a two-part series: www.chicagomay.com 

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Tour Schedule





Monday 10 October 2022

Look who is in the SPOTLIGHT!!! Small Eden by Jane Davis #HistoricalFiction #TheCoffeePotBookClub #BlogTour @janedavisauthor @cathiedunn


Small Eden
By Jane Davis


A boy with his head in the clouds. A man with a head full of dreams.  

1884. The symptoms of scarlet fever are easily mistaken for teething, as Robert Cooke and his pregnant wife Freya discover at the cost of their two infant sons. Freya immediately isolates for the safety of their unborn child. Cut off from each other, there is no opportunity for husband and wife to teach each other the language of their loss. By the time they meet again, the subject is taboo. But unspoken grief is a dangerous enemy. It bides its time.

A decade later and now a successful businessman, Robert decides to create a pleasure garden in memory of his sons, in the very same place he found refuge as a boy – a disused chalk quarry in Surrey’s Carshalton. But instead of sharing his vision with his wife, he widens the gulf between them by keeping her in the dark. It is another woman who translates his dreams. An obscure yet talented artist called Florence Hoddy, who lives alone with her unmarried brother, painting only what she sees from her window… 


Jane Davis


Hailed by The Bookseller as ‘One to Watch’, Jane Davis writes thought-provoking literary page turners.

She spent her twenties and the first half of her thirties chasing promotions in the business world but, frustrated by the lack of a creative outlet, she turned to writing.

Her first novel, 'Half-Truths and White Lies', won a national award established with the aim of finding the next Joanne Harris. Further recognition followed in 2016 with 'An Unknown Woman' being named Self-Published Book of the Year by Writing Magazine/the David St John Thomas Charitable Trust, as well as being shortlisted in the IAN Awards, and in 2019 with 'Smash all the Windows' winning the inaugural Selfies Book Award. Her novel, 'At the Stroke of Nine O’Clock' was featured by The Lady Magazine as one of their favourite books set in the 1950s, selected as a Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice, and shortlisted for the Selfies Book Awards 2021.

Interested in how people behave under pressure, Jane introduces her characters when they are in highly volatile situations and then, in her words, she throws them to the lions. The themes she explores are diverse, ranging from pioneering female photographers, to relatives seeking justice for the victims of a fictional disaster.

Jane Davis lives in Carshalton, Surrey, in what was originally the ticket office for a Victorian pleasure gardens, known locally as ‘the gingerbread house’. Her house frequently features in her fiction. In fact, she burnt it to the ground in the opening chapter of 'An Unknown Woman'. In her latest release, Small Eden, she asks the question why one man would choose to open a pleasure gardens at a time when so many others were facing bankruptcy?

When she isn’t writing, you may spot Jane disappearing up the side of a mountain with a camera in hand.

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Wednesday 5 October 2022

Read an #excerpt from Fortunate Son By Thomas Tibor #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour @thomastibor57 @maryanneyarde @cathiedunn

 


Fortunate Son
By Thomas Tibor


Publication Date: February 2022. Publisher: Zahav Brothers Publishing. Page Length: 338 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction.

A powerful, evocative novel that transports the reader to a tense period in America, Fortunate Son is set on a southern college campus during the turbulent spring of 1970. Reed Lawson, an ROTC cadet, struggles with the absence of his father, a Navy pilot who has been Missing in Action in Vietnam for three years.
While volunteering at a drug crisis center, Reed sets out to win the heart of a feminist co-worker who is grappling with a painful past, and to rescue a troubled teenage girl from self-destruction. In the process, he is forced to confront trauma’s tragic consequences and the fragile, tangled web of human connections.

Trigger warnings:
One aspect of this story dramatizes instances of self-harm and makes references to suicide.


Excerpt

Saturday, May 16, 1970

On the night Annabel decided to drown herself, Reed Lawson was drunk. Not falling-down, but close enough. He stumbled out of the packed Rathskeller Bar well past nine o’clock. The smell of stale beer and cigarettes and the pounding of the Rolling Stones’ “Midnight Rambler” bled into the warm Florida night. The bar had advertised LSD—Large Size Drafts—for twenty-five cents, a clever hook to lure in more business.

Reed checked his watch—the same model worn by his father, Commander Frank Lawson, U.S. Navy. Dumbass. An hour late for his shift, which never happened. On time for Reed always meant fifteen minutes early.

He shuffled through the crowded parking lot searching for his car, past students and locals drinking beer, slouching against fenders, passing joints amid the shadows. Then he remembered he’d parked around the corner.

Ten minutes later the Mustang rumbled to the curb in front of a brick bungalow, and Reed stumbled out. Twenty years old, he had a lean, muscled frame that suggested rigid self-discipline. But tonight his swarthy, olive complexion was pale, black hair unkempt, deep-set brown eyes glazed over, Levi’s wrinkled and T-shirt slept in.

Waves of nausea washed over him. Gagging, he was sure he’d vomit. Should’ve eaten something to soak up the beer.

Down the street, the branches of live oaks arched over the sidewalk. A quick gust drove clumps of Spanish moss across the pavement. The university’s iconic Gothic buildings loomed a block ahead—the Florida Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Florida Tech.

Reed trudged through patches of weeds that passed for a lawn and onto a porch cluttered with a threadbare sofa, metal chairs, and overflowing ashtrays. A single yellow bulb illuminated a hand-painted sign on the door: Lifelines.

Just what he needed—another Saturday night shift, always the craziest of the week. No way out, though. Maybe two cups of their caffeinated mud would sober him up. With any luck, the call volume would be light.

Reed stepped inside. The hotline phones occupied the bungalow’s largest bedroom, with two desks, two chairs, and a bulletin board papered with warnings about drug side effects, emergency phone numbers, and guidance for handling calls.

Meg was on duty, earnest and professional as usual in sensible shoes, ironed slacks, and a buttoned-up blouse. Her robin’s-egg-blue eyes widened in shock at his drunken, disheveled appearance.

Reed collapsed into the empty chair and mumbled, “Sorry I’m late.”

Meg flicked auburn bangs from a freckled forehead. “Called your dorm earlier. You just missed Annabel.”

His stomach knotted with dread. “What did she want?”

“I tried to find out, but she would only talk to you. Seemed super freaked out. After she split, I called her mom. Turns out Annabel left the house after lunch and hasn’t been back since. Also, her mom found joints and Quaaludes in her room.”

Shit. Annabel’s favorite drug cocktail.

“Sorry,” Meg said. “I begged her to stick around.”

“Not your fault. Any coffee left?”

“Got a fresh pot brewing.”

In the kitchen, every cup was coffee stained. Reed scrubbed and filled one. He listened to the murmur of conversation from the adjacent bedroom—a volunteer talking somebody down from a bad trip. He was way too wiped to deal with anything tonight. Not Annabel, not a tidal wave of callers.

Stepping back into the hotline room, he asked, “Sure she said nothing else?”

“Well, I followed her outside to stall her, but she was in a big hurry. Said something about the river.”

“The river? That’s it?” Annabel must have meant the Black River, where they’d spent so much time together. Reed slammed the coffee mug on the desk, scalding his wrist with the overflow, and raced outside.


Moments later the Mustang roared to life, and Reed barreled onto Broad Street—the city’s main east-west artery—and weaved through stop-and-go traffic. He barely noticed the crowd waiting for a table at Rossetti’s Pizza, the gaggle of students watching dryers spin inside Groomers Laundromat, or the usual stoners lingering outside the Second Genesis head shop.

At the first red light, his left hand trembled on the steering wheel as his right massaged the gearshift. A sobering breeze swept in. He rolled the window farther down to invite more cool air, then smacked the wheel. Should have seen it coming. The signs were there, clear as day. When she’d most needed a friend, he’d let her down, pushed her away to wallow in his own despair.

The light was taking forever to change. Screw it. Reed stomped on the gas and roared through the intersection. Horns blared. Oncoming traffic skidded to avoid a collision. He blew through two more red lights before swerving onto the highway that led out of town.

More alert now and pushing the eager V-8 to ninety miles an hour, Reed peered into the rearview mirror every few seconds, expecting to see flashing red lights. Cookie-cutter suburban houses soon gave way to open farmland. The road narrowed to two lanes lined by a thick forest of southern pines.

On a curve, driving as fast as he dared, Reed roared past a truck, then cut off two denim-and-leather-clad bikers astride chopped Harleys. One lifted a middle finger in salute.

After five more miles that felt to Reed like fifty, the Mustang skidded into a dirt parking lot at the river. He pulled alongside a dusty green Chevy, jumped out, and ran to the shore. Familiar bell-bottoms and sandals lay strewn on a thin strip of sand.

“Annabel!”

He scanned the fast-moving current, illuminated only by pale flecks of moonlight slicing through heavy cloud cover. Gnarled branches of cypress and mangrove dangled over the river. Darkened by tannins from decaying vegetation, the tea-colored water gave the Black River its name. If she’d gone in, it would have been here.

“Annabel!”

A cacophony of tree frogs and crickets answered him. What if she already lay at the bottom or had drifted downstream? Heart pounding, he spotted a glimmer of movement in the middle of the river. Annabel? Driftwood? Or just a ripple on the surface?

Ripping off his sneakers, he waded into the inky river, the muddy bottom sucking at his feet. Though a confident pool swimmer, Reed was nervous in water where he couldn’t see the bottom. Shaky, he labored with clumsy strokes to the middle before pausing to tread water.

“Annabel!”

A crane screeched. A stiff breeze quickened the current. Reed imagined water moccasins stirring beneath him, gators paddling in from the riverbank.
“Annabel!”

A memory surfaced from high school English class—beautiful but forsaken Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet plunging from a willow tree to her watery death. If he was too late and her slender body lay somewhere beneath the surface—skin ivory, lips blue, raven hair fanned out—he had only himself to blame.

You can pick up a copy of this book at Amazon and #KindleUnlimited

Thomas Tibor


A veteran writer and video producer, Thomas Tibor has helped develop training courses focusing on mental health topics. In an earlier life, he worked as a counselor in the psychiatric ward of two big-city hospitals. He grew up in Florida and now lives in Northern Virginia. Fortunate Son is his first novel.

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Look who is in the SPOTLIGHT!!! JULIA PRIMA by Alison Morton #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @alison_morton @cathiedunn

 


JULIA PRIMA
By Alison Morton


Publication Date: August 23rd, 2022. Publisher: Pulcheria Press. Page Length: 335 pages. Genre: Historical fiction

“You should have trusted me. You should have given me a choice.”

AD 370, Roman frontier province of Noricum. Neither wholly married nor wholly divorced, Julia Bacausa is trapped in the power struggle between the Christian church and her pagan ruler father. 

Tribune Lucius Apulius’s career is blighted by his determination to stay faithful to the Roman gods in a Christian empire. Stripped of his command in Britannia, he’s demoted to the backwater of Noricum – and encounters Julia.

Unwittingly, he takes her for a whore. He is overcome with remorse and fear when confronted by who she is. Despite this disaster, Julia and Lucius are drawn to one another by an irresistible attraction.

But their intensifying bond is broken when Lucius is banished to Rome. Distraught, Julia gambles everything to join him. But a vengeful presence from the past overshadows her perilous journey. Following her heart’s desire brings danger she could never have envisaged…


You can pick up this novel at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, Kobo, and Apple.



Alison Morton 


Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her nine-book Roma Nova series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the ancient Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but with a sharp line in dialogue. 

She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.  

Alison now lives in Poitou in France, the home of MΓ©lisende, the heroine of her latest two contemporary thrillers, Double Identity and Double Pursuit. Oh, and she’s writing the next Roma Nova story.

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Read an excerpt from The Royal Women Who Made England: The Tenth Century in Saxon England by MJ Porter

The Royal Women Who Made England:  The Tenth Century in Saxon England By MJ Porter Publication Date: 30th January 2024    hardback UK/epub d...