Tuesday 12 November 2024

When her world shatters, she dares to trust a pirate. Will she survive what comes next?

 


The Pirate's Physician: 
A Thrilling Companion Novella to the Sea and Stone Chronicles
By Amy Maroney


Publication Date: 5th September 2024
Publisher: Artelan Press
Page Length: 206 Pages
Genre: Renaissance Historical Romance

When her world shatters, she dares to trust a pirate. Will she survive what comes next?

The Pirate's Physician is the story of Giuliana Rinaldi, a student at Salerno's famed medical school, whose lifelong dream of becoming a physician crumbles when her uncle and mentor dies suddenly.

Faced with an unwanted marriage to a ruthless merchant, Giuliana enlists the help of a Basque pirate and flees the only home she's ever known for the dangers of the open sea.

Will Giuliana make it to Genoa, where her only remaining relative awaits? Or will this impulsive decision seal her own doom?

The Pirate's Physician is a captivating novella that brings the world of Amy Maroney's award-winning Sea and Stone Chronicles to thrilling life.

Immerse yourself in an unforgettable Renaissance-era Mediterranean world with the three full-length novels in the collection: Island of Gold, Sea of Shadows, and The Queen's Scribe.

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The Pirate's Physician

Amy Maroney


Amy Maroney lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family, and spent many years as a writer and editor of nonfiction before turning her hand to historical fiction.

Amy is the author of the Miramonde Series, a trilogy about a Renaissance-era female artist and the modern-day scholar on her trail. Amy’s new series, Sea and Stone Chronicles, features strong, talented women seeking their fortunes in the medieval Mediterranean.

To receive a free prequel novella to the Miramonde Series, join Amy Maroney’s readers’ group at www.amymaroney.com.

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Monday 11 November 2024

ABANDONED BY ROME, INVADED BY BARBARIANS.

 


Abandoned
(A Light in the Dark Ages Book 1) 
By Tim Walker


Publication Date: 13th July 2018
Publisher: Independently Published
Page Length: 196 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

ABANDONED BY ROME, INVADED BY BARBARIANS.

In the year 410 CE, news reaches the town of Calleva Atrebatum in southern Britannia that the last Roman administrators and soldiers have left the island, never to return. Worried townsfolk look to youthful auxiliary commander, Marcus, to organise their defence when reports reach them of a roving band of raiders. Marcus’s Roman centurion father has long since passed away and he is influenced by his Briton mother to adopt her family name, Pendragon, in a tactic to appeal to the locals for support. What follows is a tense defence of the walled town from determined Saxon raiders who have marched along the Roman road from the south coast in search of plunder.

Marcus is challenged to forge a defence force from locals and a handful of Roman legionary deserters, and by doing so establishes the foundations of a post-Roman plan for survival. Elsewhere, a Christian Bishop persuades a Gallic prince to come to Britannia and lay the foundations for a post-Roman kingdom. King Constantine meets Marcus at Calleva and together they set out to unite the tribes and bring stability to the fractured, traumatised island of Britannia.

Abandoned is book one in a thrilling series – A LIGHT IN THE DARK AGES – and is followed by Ambrosius: Last of the Romans; Uther’s Destiny; Arthur Dux Bellorum and the final part - Arthur Rex Brittonum. This series is an imagining, based on slender historical sources, that covers the years from 410 to 535 CE, a time of bitter infighting between tribes and against seaborne invaders. The series builds to the coming of Arthur, a Lord of War who leads the Briton tribes against aggressive colonists, the Angles and Saxons.

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Abandoned

Tim Walker


Tim Walker is an independent author based in the UK. 

In 2024 Tim published his second audiobook, London Tales, to add to 2023's Thames Valley Tales. These two audiobooks were produced and narrated by British actor and author, Richard James and are available on Amazon Audible. London Tales is a collection of eleven stories that echo London's past, reflect the present and imagine its future. London Tales is a companion volume to Thames Valley Tales, re-published as a second edition in 2023. Thames Valley Tales is a collection of contemporary stories that draw on current affairs and the rich history associated with England's longest river wholly within the country.

His most recent novel is a thrilling dual timeline, Guardians at the Wall, published in June 2021. Inspired by a visit to Hadrian's Wall in 2020, it tells the story of a team of archaeologists who uncover artefacts that connect them to the life of a Roman centurion who had guarded the wall in second century Roman Britannia. The story of centurion Gaius Atticianus of the VI Legion is told in alternating chapters, shadowing the efforts of student archaeologist, Noah Jessop, to piece together an account of Gaius's life and struggles for his thesis. How close will Noah's assumptions be to Gaius's real fate?

Tim published three books in 2020 - Perverse (April); Arthur Rex Brittonum (June) and Charly in Space (September).

Arthur, Rex Brittonum, a re-imagining of the King Arthur story, is book five in his historical series, A Light in the Dark Ages, and follows on from 2019's Arthur Dux Bellorum. Book one in the series is Abandoned (second edition 2018), followed by Ambrosius: Last of the Romans (2017); and book three is Uther's Destiny (2018). Series book covers are designed by Canadian graphic artist, Cathy Walker. The series connects the end of Roman Britain to elements of the Arthurian legend, presenting an imagined history (inspired by early historical sources) of Britain in the early Medieval period, once called the Dark Ages.

Tim lives near Windsor - close to the River Thames - the inspiration for his first book of short stories, Thames Valley Tales (2015, revised second edition, 2023). In September 2017 he published a second book of short stories, Postcards from London (unpublished in August 2023 to make way for London Tales, 2023). These stories draw on the local history and current affairs of towns and cities along the course of the Thames where the author has lived and worked. A new collection of poems and short fiction, Perverse, was published in April 2020.

His first novel was a political thriller, Devil Gate Dawn, that received pre-publication exposure on the Kindle Scout programme in March/April 2016. It found a wide readership due to its unnerving predictions of a post-Brexit Britain beset by political turmoil under King Charles III's rule and buckling under attacks from terrorist groups and includes a chapter that anticipated life in Trump America, written a year before his election.

In early 2017 he published his first children's book, co-authored with his daughter, Cathy - The Adventures of Charly Holmes. Another adventure story was published in 2018 - Charly & The Superheroes, followed by Charly in Space (2020).

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Friday 8 November 2024

What will become of Will and his family? Protestors risk transportation or execution by a government scared Britain might follow France into revolution.


From Waterloo to Water Street
By S E Morgan

 
Publication Date: 20th August 2020
Publisher: Independently Published
Page Length: 371 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

West Wales 1843.

The daughters of Rebecca are marching, breaking down toll gates that circle Carmarthen. Cantankerous veteran, Thomas Lewis, is tormented by nightmares of the wars against the French in Spain and the Low Countries nearly thirty years earlier.

The Welsh countryside is in turmoil; livelihoods destroyed by unfair tithes and taxes. The workhouse provides a starvation diet for the “deserving poor”. The people’s fight for fair-handed justice has begun.

Carpenter’s apprentice, clever but cautious Will, grapples with resentment that he will not inherit the family farm. Will’s jealousy increases when his handsome, radical older brother falls in love with his best friend, Ellen.

Could telling Will the story of his campaigns and battles with the 44th East Essex Regiment help Thomas find peace?

What will become of Will and his family? Protestors risk transportation or execution by a government scared Britain might follow France into revolution.

Pick up your copy of
From Waterloo to Water Street
HERE!

S E Morgan

After many years working in mental health, I have taken time to indulge in my passions of walking, Wales and writing. I am working to combine all three, in historical novels set in Wales. Occasional potter, photographer and painter, my aim is to develop parts of my brain little used until now - while I still have the chance.

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Thursday 7 November 2024

Few women of her time lived to see their name in print. But Katherine was no ordinary woman. She was Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother. This is her story.




A Woman of Noble Wit
By Rosemary Griggs


Publication Date: 28th September 2021
Publisher: Troubador
Page Length: 423 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Few women of her time lived to see their name in print. But Katherine was no ordinary woman. She was Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother. This is her story.

Set against the turbulent background of a Devon rocked by the religious and social changes that shaped Tudor England; a Devon of privateers and pirates; a Devon riven by rebellions and plots, A Woman of Noble Wit tells how Katherine became the woman who would inspire her famous sons to follow their dreams. It is Tudor history seen though a woman’s eyes.

As the daughter of a gentry family with close connections to the glittering court of King Henry VIII, Katherine’s duty is clear. She must put aside her dreams and accept the husband chosen for her. Still a girl, she starts a new life at Greenway Court, overlooking the River Dart, relieved that her husband is not the ageing monster of her nightmares. She settles into the life of a dutiful wife and mother until a chance shipboard encounter with a handsome privateer, turns her world upside down.…..

Years later a courageous act will set Katherine’s name in print and her youngest son will fly high.

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A Woman of Noble Wit

Rosemary Griggs


Author and speaker Rosemary Griggs has been researching Devon's sixteenth-century history for years. She has discovered a cast of fascinating characters and an intriguing network of families whose influence stretched far beyond the West Country. She loves telling the stories of the forgotten women of history — the women beyond the royal court; wives, sisters, daughters and mothers who played their part during those tumultuous Tudor years: the Daughters of Devon.

Her novel A Woman of Noble Wit tells the story of Katherine Champernowne, Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother, and features many of the county’s well-loved places.

The Dartington Bride, published spring 2024, is the extraordinary tale of Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery who travelled from France to Elizabethan England to marry into the prominent and well-connected Champernowne family. 


Rosemary creates and wears sixteenth-century clothing, a passion which complements her love for bringing the past to life through a unique blend of theatre, history and re-enactment. Her appearances and talks for museums and community groups all over the West Country draw on her extensive research into sixteenth-century Devon, Tudor life and Tudor dress, particularly Elizabethan. 

Out of costume, Rosemary leads heritage tours of the gardens at Dartington Hall, a fourteenth-century manor house and now a visitor destination and charity supporting learning in arts, ecology and social justice.

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Monday 4 November 2024

As the body count piles up, the ale flows and mystery is afoot!

 


The Alewives: 
A plague-era tale of murder, friendship, and fine ale 
(The Alewives of Colmar)
By Elizabeth R. Andersen


Publication Date: 16th January 2023
Publisher: Haeddre Press
Page Length: 266 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction / Historical Mystery

Colmar, 1353 CE

Gritta, Appel, and Efi managed to survive the Black Death, only to find that they are in desperate need of money. With limited options and lots of obstacles, they band together to become alewives - brewing and selling ale in the free Alsatian town of Colmar. But when an elderly neighbor is discovered dead in her house, the alewives cannot convince the sheriff and the town council that her death wasn’t an accident, it was murder. As the body count piles up, the ale flows and mystery is afoot!

Set in the tumultuous years after the most devastating pandemic the world has ever experienced, The Alewives is a playful romp through a dark time, when society was reeling from loss and a grieving population attempted to return to normal, proving that with the bonds of love, friendship, and humor, the human spirit will always continue to shine.

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The Alewives

Elizabeth R. Andersen


Elizabeth R. Andersen's debut novel, The Scribe, launched in July of 2021. Although she spent many years of her life as a journalist, independent fashion designer, and overworked tech employee, there have always been two consistent loves in her life: writing and history. She finally decided to put them both together and discovered her true love.

Elizabeth lives in the Seattle area with her young son and energetic husky. On the weekends she usually hikes in the stunning Cascade mountains to hide from people and dream up new plotlines and characters.

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Saturday 2 November 2024

Book Review - A Celtic Yuletide Carol by Jennifer Ivy Walker

 


A Celtic Yuletide Carol
(Christmas in the Castle)
By Jennifer Ivy Walker


Publication Date: 6th November 2024
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press 
Page Length: 212 Pages
Genre: Historical Fantasy Romance

Once a royal Breton knight, Sir Cardin de Landuc is now infamously known as Basati, the Basque Wolf. Savage and sullen, he drowns his guilt in raucous taverns, accruing enormous debt and acquiring vengeful enemies.

Ulla, widowed daughter of a Viking chieftain, is a skilled archer who lives as a recluse in a secluded woodland cottage. Rendered mute by trauma, she avoids humans, preferring the company of her wild wolf and falcon as she hunts in the Forest of Brocéliande.

When his mother’s dying wish calls Basati home, he finally meets the son he abandoned at birth and Ulla, the enigmatic priestess who is teaching the boy to hunt. As the holidays approach, Basati finds himself smitten with the beguiling beauty as he bonds with his once forsaken child. But past enemies plot against him, and Basati is ensnared in darkness.

Can music lure the savage wolf into the light of love?



Formerly a noble knight from Brittany, Sir Cardin is now notoriously known by the name Basati, the Basque Wolf. Stricken with guilt and grief, he turns to alcohol for comfort after his wife’s death. Unfortunately, his mother is seriously ill and her last wish is for him to come home for Yule. The only thing that would make him return to his birthplace is his mother’s health, but the memories are overwhelming. In addition, he will have to face his young son, whom he has accused of causing his wife’s death in childbirth.

Ulla, who witnessed the murder of her entire family, including her husband and son, seeks solace in silence and prefers the company of animals over humans. Despite that, Ulla possesses exceptional healing and hunting abilities. Even though she can no longer speak, Ulla finds solace in teaching Cardin’s son, Lukaz, the skills of archery and hunting. Yet, she fears that with Cardin’s return, he will persist in ignoring his beautiful child. 

As Ulla strives to reunite father and son, she grapples with the dilemma of guarding her own heart. Will she take the risk of falling in love with Basati, the Basque Wolf?

Jennifer Ivy Walker’s A Celtic Yuletide Carol is a sensually captivating historical fantasy romance, perfect for a cosy afternoon with a hot cup of chocolate.

Successfully portraying a mute protagonist is a challenging task that requires skilful writing. In Ulla, Walker has created a believable protagonist who, despite her disability, plays a central role in everyone’s life, particularly Lukaz and Cardin. Ulla faces communication challenges due to her muteness, but she has devised strategies to navigate them. She is a highly expressive character who communicates through gestures and can effectively convey her thoughts through writing. Throughout the story, the reader is granted an intimate glimpse into her thoughts. Walker has successfully embraced the challenge of portraying Ulla, and her character truly propels the story forward. She becomes the bridge, uniting Cardin and his son.

Cardin is initially depicted as somewhat of an anti-hero in the novel due to his lack of strong morals, reckless behaviour, and selfish disregard for his brother and son, which diminishes his likability. Nevertheless, beneath the exterior of Basati, the Basque Wolf, is a man haunted by grief and remorse. Cardin’s tale is incredibly moving, and it is sure to provoke intense emotions in the reader. Cardin evolves into a character that the reader genuinely cheers for by the book’s conclusion. 

Though firmly established in the realm of historical fantasy, Walker’s book draws upon actual historical figures and events. Although we do not meet the historical characters mentioned in this novel, we are given an insight into the era. The lives of the main characters are shrouded in a shadowy backstory, stemming from the accumulation of tensions and drama caused by feuds and alliances of the kings of this period. Both the House of Plantagenets and the House of Valois seek dominance over Aquitaine, but avoiding war is possible through a treaty. But there are those who do not wish the treaty to be signed. On the crisp of the Hundred Year War, the characters face many challenges, and the future is uncertain, but their loyalties to their king are unquestionable. On the other hand, the historical fantasy elements bring together history, myths and legends. Thus, Lancelot du Lac, the famous knight who is famed for bringing down King Arthur, is alive and well and living his best life in Joyeuse Garde, training the next generation of knights. The decision to include Lancelot was fascinating, particularly because his story/creation was relatively new thanks to Chrétien de Troyes’ epic poem in in the 12th century, but as unlikely as it seemed, his inclusion (although we never actually meet him in this novel) fits with the narrative. Similarly, there is a multitude of Celtic traditions that persist, particularly in the realm of medicine which are endlessly fascinating. Walker’s knowledge of herbs and crystals is evident throughout the story. Although leaning more towards fantasy, the novel’s blend of historical accuracy and fantasy is what makes it such a highly enjoyable read. There is also a very believable romance, which runs through the length of this story, which has been beautifully written. 

Through multiple narratives, this novel provides readers with insights into the thoughts of various characters, going beyond just the protagonists. There are moments when the author becomes repetitive, making it a bit monotonous for the reader who already knows what the character will say as they are already privy to their thoughts. Moreover, an abundance of internal monologues, except for Ulla's, while occasionally beneficial, tends to impede the flow of the story. 

The author’s profound adoration for Brittany is evident in the masterful depiction of this enthralling kingdom. Walker has obviously done a great deal of research as to what Brittany was like during this era, and this comes across as a realistically drawn depiction. The depiction of the Brocéliande Forest is expertly done, immersing the reader in its enchanting atmosphere. Ulla effortlessly embodies the role of a Priestess of Dana in this bewitching setting.

This book is a profoundly moving story that truly captivates the imagination. For fans of well-written historical fantasy romance, A Celtic Yuletide Carol by Jennifer Ivy Walker is a must-read.

Review by Mary Anne Yarde
Yarde Reviews & Book Promotion



Pre-order your copy of
A Celtic Yuletide Carol
Amazon UK
Release Date, 6th November 2024

Jennifer Ivy Walker


JEnthralled with legends of medieval knights and ladies, dark fairy tales and fantasies about Druids, wizards and magic, Jennifer Ivy Walker always dreamed of becoming a writer. She fell in love with French in junior high school, continuing her study of the language throughout college, spending summers in France as a foreign exchange student, exploring medieval castles and troglodyte caves in the Loire Valley, sites of pilgrimage such as le Mont-Saint-Michel, eventually becoming a high school teacher and college professor of French.

As a high school teacher, she took her students every year to the annual French competition, where they performed a play she had written, "Yseult la Belle et Tristan la Bête"--an imaginative blend of the medieval French legend of "Tristan et Yseult" and the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast", enhanced with fantasy elements of a Celtic fairy and a wicked witch.

Her debut novel, "The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven"--the first of a trilogy-- is a blend of her love for medieval legends, the romantic French language, and paranormal fantasy. It is a retelling of the medieval French romance of "Tristan et Yseult", interwoven with Arthurian myth, dark fairy tales from the enchanted Forest of Brocéliande, and otherworldly elements such as Avalonian Elves, Druids, forest fairies and magic.

Explore her realm of Medieval French Fantasy. She hopes her novels will enchant you.

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