Blog
Extract from The Admiral’s Wife by MK Tod #CoffeePotBookClub #HistoricalFiction
The Admiral's Wife The lives of two women living in Hong Kong more than a century apart are unexpectedly linked by forbidden love and financial scandal. In 2016, Patricia Findlay leaves a high-powered career to move to Hong Kong, where she hopes to rekindle the bonds...
Review – Letting in the Light by Charlotte Betts #GreatWar #Cornwall @PiatkusBooks
LETTING IN THE LIGHT by Charlotte Betts 1914 Spindrift House, Cornwall Edith Fairchild’s good-for-nothing husband, Benedict, deserted her when their children were babies. Now the children are almost adult, Edith and Pascal, her faithful lover of two decades, are...
Extract and Review: The Missionary by Rowena Kinread #Roman #Pagan #Irish #CoffeePotBookClub
Read this atmospheric extract from The Missionary by Rowena Kinread They trudged on at a steady pace for several hours. Patricius’ initial optimism died rapidly. He had blisters on his toes and heels. The iron shackles had scoured the skin around his ankles, and they...
The Lake Pagoda by Ann Bennett – Read an Extract #WW2 #IndoChina #CoffeePotBookClub #Bookouture
Read this stunning extract from The Lake Pagoda by Ann Bennett Chapter 1 Paris, November 1946 Arielle pulled her shawl tightly around her shoulders and stepped out of the entrance to the apartment building and onto the broad pavement of Boulevard St Germaine. An icy...
The Stone Rose by Carol McGrath #medieval #historicalfiction #Review @AccentPress
This is the third in the splendid She-Wolves Trilogy and I've read them all. This one is about Queen Isabella, wife to Edward II. In my opinion this is the best and a fitting finale to an exploration of women and their role at court. From the opening where we are...
Historical Fiction Spotlight: Beheld by Christopher M Cevasco #AngloSaxons #HistoricalFiction #CoffeePotBookClub
NEW RELEASE! BEHELD ~ Godiva's Story by Christopher Cevasco A darkly twisted psychological thriller exploring the legend of Lady Godiva’s naked ride. Having survived a grave illness to become one of 11th-century England’s wealthiest landowners, Godgyfu of Coventry...
Sea of Shadows by Amy Maroney #CoffeePotBookClub #Rhodes #Greece #History
The new novel by Amy Maroney is a stunner. Here is the blurb: A gifted woman artist. A ruthless Scottish privateer. And an audacious plan that throws them together—with dangerous consequences. No one on the Greek island of Rhodes suspects Anica is responsible for her...
When the Mermaid Sings by Helen Hollick #Extract #CoffeePotBookClub #ShortStory
When the Mermaid Sings by Helen Hollick A prequel short read story to the Sea Witch Voyages of Captain Jesamiah Acorne When the only choice is to run, where do you run to? When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen? Or do you drown in the embrace of a...
The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge #Historical #Fantasy #Renaissance
Today I'm welcoming Tom Beckerlegge to tell us more about his new literary novel, The Carnival of Ash. The Carnival of Ash is a historical fantasy set during the Italian Renaissance in an imaginary city called Cadenza, where poets and scholars as its most important...
Naughty Language in Tudor England by Carol McGrath #Tudor #Love #Language
I've been looking forward to my guest, Carol McGrath enlightening me about Tudor language, and particularly the naughty words! Carol McGrath is the author of the acclaimed She-Wolves Trilogy, which began with the hugely successful The Silken Rose and continues with...
Richard II’s London by Mercedes Rochelle #blog #CoffeePotBookClub #HistoricalFiction
I'm thrilled to bring you an excellent post from Mercedes Rochelle about London in the time of Richard II. Thank you Mercedes! While researching this novel I had the good fortune to stumble across the book “The Turbulent London of Richard II”—not, as it turns out,...
Author Spotlight – Kerry Chaput, Daughter of the King #CoffeePotBookClub #17thCentury
I'm delighted to spotlight historical fiction author Kerry Chaput today, especially as her book is set in the 17th Cerntury, one of my favourite periods. Born in California wine country, Kerry Chaput began writing shortly after earning her Doctorate degree. Her love...
Audiences Behaving Badly – The London Theatre in the 1660’s
Crowd Pleaser In my novel, Entertaining Mr Pepys, the main character ‘Bird’ Knepp, so named for her beautiful singing voice, is an actress with the King’s Playhouse in the city of London, just before the Great Fire. As an actress her job was to please the audience –...
1066 Upside Down – alternative histories – To Crown a King by Helen Hollick #CoffeePotBookClub
Today I present an excerpt from 1066 Turned Upside Down by Helen Hollick To Crown A King by Helen Hollick An appropriate excerpt, for on January 6th in 1066 Harold Godwinson was crowned as King of England... King Edward, later known as ‘The Confessor’ died on 5th...
Fair Mountain Christmas by Heidi Eljarbo #CoffeePotBookClub #Review
Review A real comfort-blanket of a book! I've been getting into the Christmas spirit this week, and what better way to do it than with a heart-warming novella set in Norway! Plenty of snow in this one, along with a schooldays friend who turns out to be more than a...