Monday, 31 March 2025

The Acorn Legacy by Paul Lima

 
The Acorn Legacy
By Paul Lima

 
Publication Date: 8th August 2023
Publisher: Historium Press
 Page Length: 357 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

A Historical Novel Spanning 17 Centuries!

Corey Alden knows his full family tree--a lineage that stretches back 17 centuries--and he has the documents to prove it. Through DNA testing, however, he discovers a connection with someone he did not know existed--an entirely new branch of his family tree. And when his wife, Indira, an adoptee who believed she was an only child, gets her DNA tested, things get even more interesting.

The Acorn Legacy is a complex novel of history, mystery, and fantasy--as we move between past, present, and the mythical to bring the family line to life. Through it all, the Alden family line is entangled with major historical events from 400 AD onward.

The story begins on the European mainland, but moves quickly to Britain as Saxons battle Romans. The family line moves through British history until, fleeing religious persecution in Britain, the Alden ancestors arrive in the New World on the Mayflower. During the American Revolution, the line takes up residence in Canada and continues the family tree.

The Alden family line has a genealogical past, much like the history that many of our families have, with the exception that through it all they pass on enchanted acorns that grow into magical Oak trees. Do the humans plant and control the trees, or do the trees guide the family history? Or is the entire narrative in the hands of the ancient gods? These provocative questions drive forward the narrative about a seemingly ordinary family.

If you have ever wondered about your ancestry, or just love a first-rate story with engaging characters and situations, The Acorn Legacy is a must-read.

Pick up your copy of
 The Acorn Legacy

Paul Lima


Based in Toronto, Canada, Paul Lima has been a professional writer and writing trainer for 35+ years. He has written 25 books: three novels, short story collections, and books on various aspects of business, promotional and online writing, writing memoirs, writing non-fiction books, and about Multiple Sclerosis, and illness Paul has had for 20 years. He has also produced free video webinars and video blogs on many aspects of writing and MS. An English major from York University, Paul has worked as an advertising copywriter (print and broadcast), continuing education manager and magazine editor (Northern Lights and Toronto Computes).

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Murder in Her First Degree (Red Brick Mysteries Book 1) by Lizzie Bentham


Murder in Her First Degree
(Red Brick Mysteries Book 1)
By Lizzie Bentham


Publication Date: 14th August 2024
Publisher: Sharpe Books
Page Length: 284 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Autumn Term 1934
Manchester, England

Dorothea Roberts, a farmer’s daughter, leaves Derbyshire for the Victoria University of Manchester. Her academic career starts with a bang when she and her friends are drawn into investigating a spy-ring, after a chance encounter with a stranger on a train.

Members of the Women’s Student Union Committee are dying unexpectedly and everything points towards there being a killer on campus.

Dorothea must infiltrate the committee, whilst dealing with essay deadlines and her increasing feelings for the enigmatic Dr Geraint Hadley-Brown, before the killer strikes again at the Christmas fancy dress ball.

Worse still, Dorothea receives news that her friend’s daughter has been kidnapped, as a ploy to entrap her.

Can Dorothea unmask a murderer and prevent a spy-ring compromising national security?

Some lessons may be too dangerous to learn.

Pick up your copy of
Murder in Her First Degree

Lizzie Bentham


Lizzie Bentham started writing during the 2020 lockdown with the aim of creating some imaginary friends to talk to, who could get out and about a bit more than she could.

With Murder in Her First Degree, the first book in the Red Brick Mystery series, she combines her love of all things academic with another of her passions – murder mystery novels from the golden age of crime writing. 

Lizzie currently lives in the West Midlands with her husband and two small children. When she is not writing, watching children’s television or visiting parks, Lizzie enjoy walks in the countryside, reading, flower-arranging and crocheting.

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Sunday, 30 March 2025

James Alexander Hamilton: Son of the American Revolution by Samantha Wilcoxson


 James Alexander Hamilton: Son of the American Revolution
By Samantha Wilcoxson


Publication Date: 30th March 2025
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Page Length: 211 Pages
Genre: Biography

James Alexander Hamilton, son of Alexander, influenced U.S. history, advising leaders and supporting abolition, with personal historical insights.

Born in the year of the Constitutional Convention, James Alexander Hamilton was uniquely positioned to observe the early republic era and the formation of the experimental United States government. His father, Alexander Hamilton, had been the first US Treasury Secretary, an outspoken and controversial character who was killed in a duel when James was a teenager. With a lifelong devotion to his father's memory, James advised men from Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren to Abraham Lincoln and Salmon P Chase on banking and constitutional matters.

Through his own talents and with the advantage of his father's name, James served as temporary Secretary of State and District Attorney of New York. James enjoyed a close-knit family life with his wife, Mary Morris, at his Hudson River home named Nevis for his father's birthplace. He was part of the crew of the yacht America, for which the America's Cup is named, and on the committee for New York's Crystal Palace in 1853. More importantly, he served his country through the War of 1812, Western Expansion, and the bloody Civil War. His first-hand account of these transformative events gives readers a priceless look at America's past. James supported the abolition of slavery and wrote a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation before settling down to write his own Reminiscences that cover the first seventy-five years of US history. 

This biography makes James A Hamilton's life and observations accessible to the modern reader and will leave you with a new appreciation for the Founders' heirs who inherited the difficult work of building a nation.

James Alexander Hamilton: Son of the American Revolution


Samantha Wilcoxson


Samantha Wilcoxson is an author of emotive biographical fiction and nonfiction featuring history's unsung heroes. She loves sharing trips to historic places with her family and spending time by the lake with a glass of wine. Her most recent work is a biography of James Alexander Hamilton published by Pen & Sword History. Samantha is currently writing a Wars of the Roses trilogy for Sapere Books.

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Friday, 28 March 2025

Blog Tour - The Midnight of Eights by Justin Newland

 



The Midnight of Eights
By Justin Newland


Publication Date: 28th October 2024
Publisher: The Book Guild 
Page Length: 288 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction 

1580.

Nelan Michaels docks at Plymouth after sailing around the world aboard the Golden Hind. He seeks only to master his mystical powers – the mark of the salamander, that mysterious spirit of fire – and reunite with his beloved Eleanor. 

After delivering a message to Francis Walsingham, he’s recruited into the service of the Queen’s spymaster, where his astral abilities help him to predict and thwart future plots against the realm.

But in 1588, the Spanish Armada threatens England’s shores.

So how could the fledgling navy of a small, misty isle on the edge of mainland Europe repulse the greatest fleet in the world?

Was the Queen right when she claimed it was divine intervention, saying, ‘He blew with His winds, and they were scattered!’?

Or was it an entirely different intervention – the extraordinary conjunction of coincidences that Nelan’s astral powers brought to bear on that fateful Midnight of Eights?

Pick up your copy of
The Midnight of Eights

Justin Newland


JUSTIN NEWLAND’s novels represent an innovative blend of genres from historical adventure to supernatural thriller and magical realism. 

Undeterred by the award of a Maths Doctorate, he conceived his debut novel, The Genes of Isis (ISBN 9781789014860, Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set under Ancient Egyptian skies. 
His second book, The Old Dragon’s Head (ISBN 9781789015829, Matador, 2018), and is set in Ming Dynasty China in the shadows of the Great Wall. 

Set during the Great Enlightenment, The Coronation (ISBN 9781838591885, Matador, 2019) speculates on the genesis of the most important event in the modern world – the Industrial Revolution. 

The Abdication (ISBN 9781800463950, Matador, 2021) is a mystery thriller in which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it means to abdicate that faith.
The Mark of the Salamander (ISBN 9781915853271, Book Guild, 2023), is the first in a two-book series, The Island of Angels. Set in the Elizabethan era, it tells the epic tale of England’s coming of age. 

The latest is The Midnight of Eights (ISBN 9781835740 330, Book Guild, 2024), the second in The Island of Angels series, which charts the uncanny coincidences of time and tide that culminated in the repulse of the Spanish Armada. 

His work in progress is The Spirit of the Times which explores the events of the 14th Century featuring an unlikely cast of the Silk Road, Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, and a nursery rhyme that begins ‘Ring a-ring a-roses’. 

Author, speaker and broadcaster, Justin gives talks to historical associations and libraries, appears on LitFest panels, and enjoys giving radio interviews. He lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.

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The Doomsong Voyage by J. G. Harlond



The Doomsong Voyage
By J. G. Harlond


Publication Date: 9th January 2025
Publisher: Penmore Press
Page Length: 250 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Long ago in the Cold North, Finn, a young tale-maker, encounters the Wanderer, Master Odo in a Baltic island tavern. Master Odo tells Finn there will soon be a terrible climate catastrophe and tasks him with sailing to the Middle Sea to locate the absent Volsung clan leader, Goran Ice-heart. Ice-heart must return to the North to lead his people to a warmer land before an imminent volcanic eruption. Master Odo gives Finn the legendary Doomsong sword, which he must hand to Ice-heart as the rightful clan leader. Finn also receives a grave warning: he will meet obstacles and dangers on his voyage, and a powerful, fire-loving enemy will try to prevent his success. Finn’s voyage is hindered by a sell-sword named Beorn Wolfman, who leads Finn to Heorot of the Grendel legend. Finn’s life is in jeopardy, but he has help from a Katranina, a strange girl with ginger hair and amber-green eyes, who is often nearby in times of danger. Their voyage continues to Hispania, where Finn comes into conflict with Viking raiders and is then captured in the Barbalus emirate and used to bait a trap to catch Ice-heart.

Pick up your copy of
The Doomsong Voyage

J. G. Harlond


Secret agents, skulduggery, sea voyages and a touch of romance . . . 

Creator of the infamous Ludo da Portovenere, J.G. Harlond (Jane) writes page-turning historical crime novels set during the 17th Century and World War II. Each story weaves fictional characters into real events. 

Jane also writes Viking-age historical fantasy drawing on Norse myths and legends.

Prior to becoming a full-time fiction author, Jane was involved in international education and wrote a number of school textbooks. 

After travelling widely – she has visited or lived in most of the locations in her novels – Jane is now settled in her husband’s home province of Andalucía, Spain.

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Thursday, 27 March 2025

State of Treason (William Constable Spy Thriller series Book 1) by Paul Walker

 


State of Treason
(William Constable Spy Thriller series Book 1)
By Paul Walker


Publication Date: 20th May 2019
Publisher: Sharpe Books 
Page Length: 289 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

London 1578 - a cauldron of conspiracy, intrigue and torture.

The might of Spain and the growing influence of the Catholic League in France all threaten the stability of Queen Elizabeth and her state.

William Constable, a physician and astrologer, is summoned to the presence of the Queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. He is charged to assist a renowned Puritan, John Foxe, in uncovering the secrets of a mysterious cabinet containing an astrological chart and coded message. Together, these claim Elizabeth has a hidden, illegitimate child (an “unknowing maid”) who will be declared to the masses and serve as the focus for an invasion.

Constable must uncover the identity of the plotters, unaware that he is also under suspicion.

A connection to his estranged mentor, Doctor Dee, comes under scrutiny.

Pressured into taking up a position as a court physician, Constable becomes a reluctant spy.

Do the stars and cipher speak true, or is there some other malign intent in the complex web of scheming?

Constable becomes an unwitting pawn, in a complex game of thrones and power.

State of Treason is the first in a series of Elizabethan thrillers featuring William Constable.

Pick up your copy of
State of Treason

Paul Walker


Paul is married and lives in a village 30 miles north of London. Having worked in universities and run his own business, he is now a full-time writer of fiction and part-time director of an education trust. His writing in a garden shed is regularly disrupted by children and a growing number of grandchildren and dogs.

Paul writes historical fiction. He inherited his love of British history and historical fiction from his mother, who was an avid member of Richard III Society. The William Constable series of historical thrillers is based around real characters and events in the late sixteenth century. The first two books in the series - "State of Treason" and "A Necessary Killing" - were published in 2019. The third book, titled, "The Queen’s Devil", was published in the summer of 2020.

He took a diversion to the early 20th century and wrote a thriller based at the peace conference in Paris at the end of the First World War. "A Turbulent Peace" was published in 2022. Now, it's back to the sixteenth century and more Elizabethan intrigue for William Constable and his confederates.

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The Queen and the Countess by Anne O'Brien



The Queen and the Countess
By Anne O'Brien

 
Publication Date: 27th February 2025
Publisher: Orion
Page Length: 446 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

KEEP THY FRIENDS CLOSE,
THY ENEMIES CLOSER...

England 1450s

Queen Margaret knows she must protect the crown - and her son Prince Edward's claim to it - at all costs. With her husband, King Henry, increasingly frail, it is up to Margaret to fight for their inheritance. And as the Wars of the Roses rage on, her enemies and their wives lurk close, threatening to unravel everything she is trying to protect.

Anne, Countess of Warwick has long striven to be a loyal and accomplished wife to the Earl of Warwick. But when she develops an unlikely alliance with the Lancastrian Queen Margaret, her husband's adversary, she wonders how much power now lies in her hands to determine the course of history.

Crossing enemy lines, the pair strike up a thorny friendship - yet in the midst of treachery and the turmoil of battle, can the two women trust each other?

Or is it only a matter of time before war drives a sword between them...

Pick up your copy of
The Queen and the Countess

Anne O’Brien


Sunday Times Bestselling author Anne O’Brien was born in West Yorkshire. After gaining a BA Honours degree in History at Manchester University and a Master’s in Education at Hull, she lived in East Yorkshire for many years as a teacher of history.

Today she has sold over a million copies of her books in the UK and internationally. She lives with her husband in an eighteenth-century timber-framed cottage in the depths of the Welsh Marches in Herefordshire. The area provides endless inspiration for her novels about the forgotten women of medieval history.

Anne's new book, A Marriage of Fortune, the sequel to The Royal Game, the exciting story of the women of the famous letter- writing Paston family, will be published on 28th September 2023 in paperback.

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Wednesday, 26 March 2025

Blog Tour: Viva Violetta & Verdi by Howard Jay Smith

 


Viva Violetta & Verdi
By Howard Jay Smith

Publication Date: January 28th, 2025
Publisher:  Historium Press
Pages: 256 Pages 
Genre: Historical Fiction

A Love Affair Inspiring the World's Most Unforgettable Operas:

Experience the intense, lifelong love affair between Giuseppe Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi, the brilliant and seductive soprano who shaped his legacy. As his muse, lover, and wife, Strepponi was the inspiration behind Verdi's most iconic works, including La Traviata and Aida. Her influence was pivotal, as she became the architect of his creative triumphs and the heart of his operatic genius.

Set against the backdrop of Italy's Risorgimento, this sweeping novel intertwines their turbulent relationship with the nation's fierce struggle for independence. Through the heartbreak of three brutal wars, Verdi and Strepponi's passion, betrayal, and artistic ambition come alive, mirroring the era's fiery spirit.

Rich with themes of love, power, food, wine, and unrelenting passion, Viva Violetta & Verdi is an unforgettable exploration of art, resilience, and the enduring bond that transformed both an artist and a nation.

Praise for Violetta & Verdi:

"A stunning, significant book...that is rich, lush and drenched in knowledge. It is nothing less than a gift." - Sheila Weller

"Smith's historic drama embraces universal themes of class and religious persecution, and weaves gorgeous language with an intimate knowledge of Italian food, music, and political hypocrisy that contemporary readers will find irresistible." - Jessica Keener

"Viva Violetta & Verdi is a well-researched love letter to Verdi; fans are sure to love." - Leslie Zemeckis

"Perfection. You are right there, inhaling and breathing in the words, the smell, and each piece of music. Bravo. It is both a love song and a love letter to the irrefutable power of Verdi's muse, Violetta." - Amy Ferris

Excerpt


Violetta

Eventually we reached Turin, the capital of Savoy. With the future King of Italy, Victor Emanuel II, in the audience, Strepponi took to the stage of Teatro Regio to perform as the young ingénue of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.  But a problem arose for which there was no simple solution. No matter how the costume mistress dressed Signorina Strepponi, there was, unfortunately, no way to hide the fact that our diva was at least seven months pregnant.     

Who was the father?

In her rise to stardom Strepponi’s social whirl had spun ever faster. Like a queen bee anointed in honey perfume, she found suitors swarming around her. And most were rich. Most were aristocrats. And most were already married. But they all wanted to bed her, this impassioned diva, whose voice intoxicated them. Or so these lotharios all would claim. But Strepponi was no innocent fool. In fact, I still regard her as one of the smartest, most well-studied people I have ever known. Her intellect was right up there with Verdi himself. In addition to her native Italian, she could banter with the best in fluent French and Spanish and she even had a rudimentary knowledge of English, sufficient enough to read Shakespeare’s plays while we were traveling. This wise woman saw no reason not to take advantage of these affairs and relationship and use them to benefit her career. If the men of the opera world could do that, so, she determined, could she.

And though Strepponi confided that she did her best to take precautions, the inevitable happened. The father? Strepponi acknowledged that it could have been Lanari, Donizetti, her Vienna violinist or anyone of the leading men she had an affair within in the recent the course of our travels. In the end, it turned out to be an associate of Lanari, Camillo Cirelli, a minor impresario more than twice her age who had occasionally joined us on tour. Cirelli took some responsibility for the child, but in the end, not enough. After all, he too was already married and not about to divorce a wife of many decades.

Despite her noticeable pregnancy, Strepponi performed right up until her January delivery date. She had a boy, who was quickly given up for adoption. 

But there were consequences.

In the rarified world of Italian society, it was one thing to be a goddess desired and taken by men, but another to advertise those affairs by becoming pregnant. On one side of the scale, the scandal was great for the box office as her bookings continued at a frenetic pace. The downside was that invitations to high society salons fell off ever more rapidly. In each city we toured, the diva had suddenly become a social pariah. Among the aristocracy, wives were scandalized, but their husbands, well, they kept calling. Of course, they did.

Never more than a thin whisp of a girl, the constant touring, the non-stop performances, the demands upon her voice, were often too much of a demand upon Strepponi’s stamina and her overall constitution. I urged her to slow down, but she would not listen. The pregnancy and her rush to get back on stage as soon as possible, added to the negative impact on her health. Though she was only twenty-three – yes, only twenty-three - there many were nights when she simply could not go on stage. She began to miss and cancel performances, which raised ever more concerns among the managers that ran the opera houses in each city we toured.

Strepponi was a realist. She tried to continue on as if nothing had happened but in her heart of hearts, she knew the world around her had begun to change, both brutally and permanently. In the self-righteous, male dominated society of the 1800’s she had become “the fallen woman,” “the one who has gone astray,” or as they say in the Milanese dialect, “La Traviata.” 

This pained her but such was the way of the world back then. Of course, none of her male lovers suffered any consequences. Call it unfair – it was – or consider it one sided – it was – but such was life for a woman in the theater back then. Ironically, this new and undeserved reputation as a fallen woman, a woman little better than a courtesan, now made Strepponi even more attractive to lovers who sought her out in private. 

And so, her tour continued so she could continue to fill up that pot of gold. And, yes, the affairs continued. A year later she was pregnant again. And the father this time? Chi lo sa? Who knows? Once more, there were too many suspects. She performed right up until the day she delivered. After she gave birth, I was the one tasked with bringing the poor infant – in secret - to the foundling orphanage, the Ospedale degli Innocenti, in Florence. I placed the baby in the little revolving door outside the orphanage and when it closed, that child entered another world, one none of us would ever know or experience. The impression that experience left upon me was as deep as witnessing poor Piero Lusardi being shot down by the Austrians in cold blood. I never wanted to be in that position again.

Pick up your copy of
Viva Violetta & Verdi

Howard Jay Smith


VIVA VIOLETTA & VERDI, is his third novel in his series on great composers, including BEETHOVEN IN LOVE; OPUS 139 and MEETING MOZART: FROM THE SECRET DIARIES OF LORENZO DA PONTE. 

His other books include OPENING THE DOORS TO HOLLYWOOD (Random House) and JOHN GARDNER: AN INTERVIEW (New London Press). He was recently awarded a Profant Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for Excellence in Writing. 

Smith is a former two-time Bread Loaf Scholar and three-time Washington, D.C. Commission for the Arts Fellow, who taught for many years in the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program and has lectured nationally. His articles have appeared in the Washington Post, American Heritage Magazine, the Beethoven Journal, Horizon Magazine, Fig Tree Press, the Journal of the Writers Guild of America, the Ojai Quarterly, and numerous trade publications. While an executive at the ABC Television, Embassy TV, and Academy Home Entertainment he worked on numerous film, television, radio and commercial projects.

He serves on the board of directors of the Santa Barbara Symphony and is a member of the American Beethoven Society.

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