Yarde Reviews & Book Promotion

Friday, 25 September 2026

Sparrow’s Song by Marilee Aufdenkamp

Sparrow’s Song

By Marilee Aufdenkamp

Publication Date: September 18th, 2026

Publisher: Old Fort Press

Pages: 292

Genre: Historical Fiction / WWI Fiction

Shortly after Kathryn Scheibel leaves her cigar‑making job in 1917, she enters the Army School of Nursing, a pioneering WWI nurse‑training program that offers the education she’s longed for but couldn’t afford. More than two decades later, her career carries her, as an instructor, into the Cadet Nurse Corps, the federal WWII nursing‑education initiative created to support the war effort. There she sees the same pressures she once felt now directed at students with even fewer protections. When two Black students are treated unfairly, Kathryn must decide how to respond.

Sparrow’s Song is a sweeping, intimate novel about resilience and belonging, rooted in the real history of wartime federal nursing education and the evolving landscape of modern American nursing. At its heart is a young immigrant woman pushing herself toward the advantages she’s convinced education will unlock, even as that drive pulls her away from the people and heritage she loves.

Pick up your copy of Sparrow’s Song HERE.

Marilee Aufdenkamp

Marilee Aufdenkamp is a retired nurse educator who taught undergraduate nursing for twenty-six years before turning her full time focus to historical fiction. She writes early to mid twentieth century stories grounded in immigrant experience and working class life.

Her debut novel, Sparrow’s Song, was inspired by her early nursing career in Nebraska, where she came to admire the Germans from Russia she cared for at the end of their lives.

Originally from Southern California, she has spent her adult life in Nebraska.

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Thursday, 24 September 2026

London Tales by Tim Walker

London Tales

By Tim Walker

Publication Date: 8th November 2023

2nd Edition 2026

Publisher: Independently Published

Print Length: 220 Pages

Genre: Short Stories / Historical Fiction / Contemporary Fiction / Dystopian

Audiobook: narrated by Richard James

London Tales is a collection of sixteen tales that offer dramatic pinpricks in the rich tapestry of London’s timeline, a city with two thousand years of history. They are glimpses of imagined lives at key moments, starting with a prologue in verse from the point of view of a native Briton tribeswoman absorbing the shock of Roman invasion. Then there’s a tale set in Roman Londinium in 60 CE, from the perspective of terrified legionaries and townsfolk facing the vengeful Iceni queen, Boudica, whose army burnt the fledgling city to the ground.

From Roman Londinium there’s a jump to Saxon Lundenwic in the late eighth century, then onward to the medieval city in 1381 at the time of the Peasant’s Revolt. Then a jump to the second significant conflagration, the Great Fire of London, in 1666. From there the reader is transported to 1814 and the last ice fair on the frozen River Thames in the year before the battle of Waterloo, then onto an unnerving tale of copycat killings based on the 1888 Jack the Ripper murders. This is followed by a fraught romance set during the Blitz in 1941; then the swinging Sixties and wide-flared seventies are remembered in the life story of fictional policeman, Brian Smith. There’s a series of contemporary stories that reference recent history and current affairs, including the London terrorist bombings of 2005; a literary pub crawl and a daring prison break, building to the imagined death throes of London in a dystopian vision.

These stories are inspired by the author’s love of history, personal experiences and reflections on his time living and working in London in the 1980’s and 90’s. Adaptability, resilience, conformity and resolve are recurring themes in these stories.

For ten years the author was one of thousands of commuters who’d pour in daily from outlying suburbs to feed the insatiable economic appetite of the city. London’s a busy and at times unfriendly place, driven by the productivity of its inhabitants and set against an incredible landscape of history, art, architectural and cultural development. It both inspires and tires in equal measure.

Available from Amazon in e-book, paperback, Kindle Unlimited, and audiobook formats, London Tales is a companion volume to Thames Valley Tales.

Tim Walker

Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK.

Born in Hong Kong in the Sixties, Tim grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper. He went on to attain an honours degree in Communication Studies at the University of Glamorgan in South Wales before moving to London where he worked in the newspaper publishing industry for ten years.

In the mid-90s he opted to spend a few years doing voluntary work in Zambia through VSO, running an educational book publishing development programme. After this, he set up his own marketing and publishing company in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. He returned to the UK in 2009.

His creative writing journey began in earnest in 2014, as a therapeutic activity whilst recovering from cancer treatment. Thames Valley Tales and London Tales were collections of short stories written between 2014 and 2026. They are both audiobooks available on Amazon Audible, narrated and produced by actor / author, Richard James.

In addition to short stories, Tim researched and wrote a five-book history-meets-legend fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages. This series connects the end of Roman Britain to the story of a possible historical King Arthur based on scant research material. There’s also a dystopian novel, Devil Gate Dawn, a book of poems and flash fiction, Perverse, and a dual timeline historical novel set at Hadrian’s Wall, Guardians at the Wall. In 2025 he published a novella, The Trials of Arthur Whitty, that took inspiration from a group he runs that supports old men in Windsor. Somewhere along the way, he and his daughter, Cathy, wrote a three-book children’s series, The Adventures of Charly Holmes.

Dragonbound: The first in a BRAND NEW epic historical romantasy series for 2026, full of dragons, fate and slow-burn romance from MJ Porter (Ice & Fire Book 1) by MJ Porter

Dragonbound

(Ice & Fire Book 1)

By MJ Porter

Publication Date: 23rd September 2026

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Print Length: 246 Pages

Genre: Viking Historical Romance

In a world frozen by darkness, desire is the most dangerous thing to awaken. Step into the world of Dragonbound

The Long Night is ending. The dragon is waking.

Sereh has escaped the tyranny of the local jarl, but the frozen wilds are just as deadly as the life she left behind.

And when she and her wolf-dog, Arrow, save a mysterious stranger from the glacier, she becomes bound to a destiny she never chose.

Erann has secrets. About the cold. About the land. About why the world is changing.

As the Long Night stretches on, survival means trusting each other. But beneath the frozen earth, something ancient is awakening. And as their fragile alliance deepens into something far more dangerous, Sereh and Erann must decide whether love is worth risking a world already on the brink.

Get ready to fall in love this with this Norse-set, myth-inspired fantasy romance from bestselling author MJ Porter!

Pick up your copy of Dragonbound HERE

M J Porter

I'm an author of historical fiction (Early English/Saxon, Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest, as well as four 20th-century historical mysteries) and fantasy (now published under a different name).

I was born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since 1066. Raised in the shadow of a strange little building, told from a very young age that it housed the bones of long-dead kings of Mercia and that our garden was littered with old pieces of pottery from a long-ago battle, it's little wonder that my curiosity in Early England ran riot. I can only blame my parents!

I like to write. You've been warned!

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Editorial Book Review: Fraying Skeins (Silver Sampler Series, Book #3) by Nancy Jardine

Fraying Skeins
(Silver Sampler Series, Book #3)
By Nancy Jardine

Publication Date: August 29th, 2026

Series: Silver Sampler, Book #3

Publisher: Nancy Jardine with Ocelot Press

Pages: 153 (ebook) / 342 (print)

Genre: Historical Fiction / Scottish Saga / Womens’ Fiction

An engrossing Victorian Scotland Saga (Silver Sampler Series Book 3)

Escape In Paradise Evasion

1870 Scotland

Fleeing from Peterhead, Margaret Law makes Aberdeen her refuge. Menial jobs keep her and her toddler son fed– till an unusual tutoring task boosts her finances, and self-worth. Letters to best friend Jessie contain the absolute truth, especially when Johnny Fraser re-enters her life. Is he the man for Margaret to grow old with? When better employment emerges in St. Andrews, Margaret is torn. Will the move mean losing Johnny?

When Johnny follows Margaret to St. Andrews, their life together is idyllic. But when menacing secrets unfold, will Johnny’s past indiscretions be their undoing? Will he lose the cherished family he is establishing with Margaret?

A new city promises a new beginning, but Margaret Law has learnt the hard way that security can be fleeting. With her husband dead and Peterhead firmly behind her, Margaret arrives in Aberdeen with her young son, Jamie, and the pressing need to find work. There is no fortune tucked away to support them and no certainty that the decisions she makes will be the right ones. Margaret has only her own determination, the skills she has acquired over the years, and the hope that somewhere in this unfamiliar city she can find a place for herself and her son.

Work is not something Margaret is afraid of. Sewing provides one avenue of employment, while domestic work offers another, but it is teaching that truly captures her interest. Margaret is an intelligent woman who was denied the opportunity to continue her own education, and her desire to learn has never left her. When opportunities arise for her to use that intelligence rather than simply the practical skills of her needle, another future begins to emerge — one in which Margaret may finally be able to do more than merely earn enough money to survive.

Fraying Skeins: A Continuing Scottish Saga by Nancy Jardine is a wonderfully immersive tale of a woman determined to take control of her future in a society where independence is not always easily achieved. From the busy streets of Aberdeen to St Andrews, Margaret's search for security is accompanied by friendship, romance and the possibility of fulfilling ambitions that once seemed beyond her reach.

Margaret is a wonderfully compelling protagonist. She is incredibly resourceful, but her independence is not portrayed as effortless. Every decision has practical consequences, and money is something she cannot afford to ignore. Having a child to support means that a romantic notion of simply following one's dreams is impossible. Margaret may long to teach, but sewing puts food on the table, and the realities of rent, childcare and regular employment must come before personal fulfilment. Her determination to make the most of every opportunity that comes her way is admirable, particularly because she refuses to view hard work as something beneath her.

The opportunity to tutor Clara Berrige gives Margaret a chance to demonstrate exactly how capable she is. Clara is bright, outspoken and thoroughly unimpressed by the prospect of spending her days learning the accomplishments deemed suitable for a young lady. Margaret quickly recognises that Clara needs to be challenged rather than subdued. There is something rather wonderful about watching these two characters find their rhythm together. Margaret knows what it is to desperately want an education and be denied one, while Clara has access to learning but is frustrated by the expectations placed upon her because she is a girl. Margaret's own education may have been cut short, but years of reading and self-study have ensured that her curiosity never disappeared.

There is a quiet frustration running beneath this part of the story, for Margaret is clearly intelligent enough to have achieved far more academically had she been given the opportunity. The same restrictions are visible in Clara's life, despite the differences in their social circumstances. Books, languages, mathematics and natural history all excite enquiring minds, yet what a woman is permitted to learn, where she is permitted to learn it and what she might subsequently do with that knowledge remain very different questions.

Margaret's abilities with a needle also lead her into the rather unexpected world of women's golf. When a customer requires alterations to make her clothing suitable for playing, Margaret needs to discover exactly what those alterations should be. Finding the answer proves more complicated than expected, not least because women are hardly being welcomed onto golf courses with open arms. The difficulties surrounding suitable clothing are fascinating. A dress may be perfectly fashionable while standing in a drawing room, but attempting to swing a golf club while encumbered by restrictive sleeves and layers of fabric is another matter entirely. It is a delightful piece of history to encounter and one that fits naturally with Margaret's practical approach to problems.

Then Johnny Fraser walks back into Margaret's life.

Johnny is difficult not to like. A journeyman tailor accustomed to travelling wherever work takes him, he has an easy charm and a mischievous sense of humour. He is also rather fond of women, and permanence does not initially appear very high on his list of priorities. Yet there is considerably more to Johnny than a flirtatious smile. His childhood has left its marks, employment is never guaranteed, and beneath his cheerful exterior is someone who knows what it means to have very little certainty about what comes next.

Margaret and Johnny have a natural chemistry, but it is their friendship that makes their relationship so endearing. There is laughter between them and an ease that never feels manufactured. Johnny does not expect Margaret to make herself smaller to accommodate him, while Margaret is certainly not looking for a man to rescue her. Perhaps even more charming is Johnny's relationship with Jamie. Games of tiddlywinks, stories and ordinary moments spent together gradually create a genuine affection between the two. Jamie is not treated as an inconvenience that must be accepted if Johnny wants Margaret; Johnny enjoys the little boy's company, and the warmth between them is delightful.

However, happiness has not always proved particularly dependable for Margaret. Past experiences have taught her the damage that secrets can cause, and the difference between an outright lie and a carefully avoided truth is not always as great as one might hope. There are moments when the reader desperately wants these characters to simply say what needs to be said, particularly when the alternative is allowing uncertainty to grow. Johnny may be charming, but charm does not automatically make someone an open book.

Margaret's friendship with Jessie offers another kind of love entirely. Although distance means that much of their relationship is conducted through letters, their closeness is unmistakable. Jessie can tease, encourage and chastise Margaret in equal measure, and Margaret's letters to her provide some wonderfully personal moments. Their correspondence also reinforces just how important letters were for maintaining relationships across distance. News cannot be shared instantly, and by the time a reply arrives circumstances may already have changed.

The details of everyday nineteenth-century life give this novel a wonderfully tangible setting. Lodging houses, sewing work, wages, childcare arrangements, coal fires, communal water supplies, trains, ferries and telegrams all become part of Margaret's routine. Jardine does not need to repeatedly remind the reader that this is historical fiction because the period is present in the way her characters live. Even establishing a modest home requires time, money and ingenuity, while employment can determine not only what a person earns but where they are able to live.

Although Fraying Skeins is the third novel in the Silver Sampler Series, there is enough context for a reader unfamiliar with the previous books to understand Margaret's circumstances. Her past is clearly important, and there are relationships and memories that will inevitably carry greater significance for readers who have followed her from the beginning, but Margaret's present situation provides a strong story in its own right.

Fraying Skeins: A Continuing Scottish Saga by Nancy Jardine is a warm and engaging tale of new beginnings, uncertain futures and the courage it takes to build something for yourself when very little is guaranteed. Margaret is a protagonist whose intelligence and determination make her immensely easy to champion, while Johnny's humour and Jamie's youthful enthusiasm bring plenty of warmth to the story. Yet the past has a habit of tugging at threads that one might have hoped were safely tied off, and not everything can remain neatly stitched together forever.

With wonderfully drawn characters and a fascinating portrayal of women's work, education and independence in nineteenth-century Scotland, Fraying Skeins is an absorbing historical novel that leaves the reader eager to discover what awaits Margaret next.

Review by Ellie Yarde
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Nancy Jardine

Nancy Jardine writes historical adventure fiction, historical saga, time travel historical adventure and contemporary mysteries. Research gobbles up lots of time but it’s a delight, and never a chore. Her garden wouldn’t win any prizes but tending it is a great way to unwind and gives her some lovely plants to post on Instagram!

When not creating her novels, or promoting her writing, she loves to interact with readers at Book and Craft Fairs where she signs / sells paperback versions of her novels. Recently she’s taken part in author panels at Book Festivals.

Memberships include: Historical Novel Society; Society of Authors; Scottish Association of Writers; Federation of Writers Scotland; Romantic Novelists’ Association; and Alliance of Independent Authors. She’s self-published with Ocelot Press.

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