Pam Lecky's Blog, page 2
July 7, 2025
Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence – The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour
Today, I’m delighted to host Julie McDonald Zander for the Coffee Pot Book Club Spotlight Tour for her novel, Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence.
You can follow the full tour here:
Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlh5nXX9bv8
Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence by Julie McDonald ZanderBlurb:
A forgotten diary. A century-old secret. A town still haunted by its past.
When former Navy Seabee Colleen Holmes inherits an old house in Centralia, Washington, she sees it as a chance to escape her own ghosts and start anew. But as she peels back layers of history within the home’s walls, she unearths long-buried secrets tied to a dark chapter in the town’s history.
Hidden behind crumbling plaster, a faded diary and a bundle of love letters unveil the struggles of a soldier trapped in the trenches of France and the heartbreak of those left waiting at home. Yet the diary’s brittle pages hold more than just longing—they bear witness to the explosive events of November 11, 1919, when a parade meant to celebrate peace erupted into violence and bloodshed.
As Colleen pieces together the tragic choices that shattered lives and fractured a town, she realizes history is never truly buried. The wounds of yesterday still shape today, and the past is not done with her yet.
Inspired by true events, Shattered Peace is a gripping time-slip novel of love, loss, and the echoes of history that refuse to fade. Perfect for fans of The Alice Network and The Girl You Left Behind, this haunting tale of resilience, redemption, and the pursuit of truth will linger long after the final page.
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/4AyWBp
Author Bio:
Julie McDonald Zander, an award-winning journalist, earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from the University of Washington before working two decades as a newspaper reporter and editor. Through her personal history company, Chapters of Life, she has published more than 75 individual, family, and community histories.
Her debut novel, The Reluctant Pioneer, won a Will Rogers Medallion and was a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Historical Novel.
She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest, where they raised their two children.
Author Links:
Website: https://maczander.com/ which takes you to https://mczander2024.ag-sites.net/index.htm
Twitter / X: https://x.com/MacZanderAuthor and https://x.com/ChaptersofLife
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563140294856
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliemcdonaldzander/?hl=en
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mczander.bsky.social
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/maczanderauthor/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/julie-mcdonald-zander
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maczanderauthor?lang=en
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Julie-McDonald-Zander/author/B001K8VG86
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5856830.Julie_McDonald_Zander
June 30, 2025
Fate: Tales of History, Mystery and Magic: The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour
Today, I am delighted to host the spotlight tour for FATE: Tales of History, Mystery and Magic. The anthology features stories by some fabulous historical fiction authors, namely: Annie Whitehead, Jean Gill, Marian L Thorpe, Helen Hollick, Alison Morton, Elizabeth St.John, R. Marsden, Anna Belfrage, J. P Reedman, and Debbie Young.
With an introduction by Cathie Dunn and endword by Helen Hollick
You can follow the full tour here:
If you had a crystal ball to predict what lay ahead, would you be tempted to use it? Or would you leave the future to the turn of Fate?
Tales of Variety. Tales of History, Mystery and Magic – some comprising just one of these popular fiction genres, others, a mild mixture of all three. Perhaps you prefer historical fiction rather than a story about magic or fantasy? Maybe you enjoy exploring new themes or prefer sticking to the familiar? Historical fiction can often inform, imparting knowledge of the past, of its events and its people. Stories of mystery exercise the ‘little grey cells’ as Poirot would say, while fantasy and magic create new worlds and awed wonder.
Whatever result, this is where anthologies come into their own, and where short stories are often appreciated as enjoyable, entertaining, quick or easy reads shown through the eyes of a variety of extraordinary characters and situations. In this instance: an Anglo-Saxon woman facing the consequence of conquest, the pursuit of alchemy, the concern of a mother for her daughter, the shifting of time, the necessity of hidden identity, souls who will linger as ghosts, a warning from the supernatural, the necessity for (justifiable?) revenge. All mingled with the rekindling of romance through a mutual quest, and the preparations for a Cotswold village celebration. (Along with a good tip if illicitly snaffling cakes.)
The binding theme? Destiny… Kismet… FATE!
Book Trailer:
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://mybook.to/FateAnthology
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Author Bios:
BRAMBLE CREEP BY ANNIE WHITEHEADWhen the Normans arrive at a peaceful Anglo-Saxon village, do the women, children and old men submit… or fight?
ABOUT ANNIE:
Annie Whitehead is a prize-winning writer, historian, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has written four award-winning novels set in ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Mercia. She has contributed to fiction and nonfiction anthologies and written for various magazines. She has twice been a prize winner in the Mail on Sunday Novel Writing Competition, and won First Prize in the 2012 New Writer Magazine’s Prose and Poetry Competition. She has been a finalist in the Tom Howard Prize for nonfiction and was shortlisted for the Exeter Story Prize and Trisha Ashley Award 2021. She was the winner of the inaugural Historical Writers’ Association (HWA)/Dorothy Dunnett Prize 2017 and was subsequently a judge for that same competition. She has also been a judge for the HNS (Historical Novel Society) Short Story Competition, and was a 2024 judge for the HWA Crown Nonfiction Award.
Her nonfiction books are Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom and Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England. In 2023 she contributed to a new history of English monarchs, published by Hodder & Stoughton, and in February 2025 Murder in Anglo-Saxon England was published by Amberley Books.
Website: https://anniewhiteheadauthor.co.uk/
Amazon Author Page: http://viewauthor.at/Annie-Whitehead
SIX POMEGRANATE SEEDS BY JEAN GILLA daughter’s dream can be a mother’s nightmare.
ABOUT JEAN:
Jean Gill is an award-winning Welsh writer and photographer living in the south of France with a scruffy dog, a beehive named ‘Endeavour’, a Nikon D750 and a man. First published in 1988, her twenty-six books are varied in genre, including novels, memoir, military history, dog books, poetry, and a cookery book on goat cheese. With Scottish parents, an English birthplace and French residence, she can usually support the winning team on most sporting occasions. She taught English for many years and was the first woman to be a comprehensive school headteacher in Dyfed, Wales. Life has been hectic as she is also mother or stepmother to five children.
Website: www.jeangill.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/jeangill
ONE BLACK DOG BY MARIAN L THORPEA warning of Fate, or simply too much beer and a tale well told?
ABOUT MARIAN:
A dual Canadian/British citizen who divides her year between Ontario, Canada, and Norfolk, UK, Marian published the first of her eight-book Empire’s Legacy series, historically-inspired speculative fiction, in 2015. The series is set in a world ‘on the edge of history’: reminiscent of Britain, Northern Europe, and Rome in the latter centuries of the first millennium, but a world where society evolved differently after the Eastern Empire left; a world where one young fisherwoman answers her leader’s call to defend her country, beginning a journey into uncharted territory.
Amazon Author Page: https://relinks.me/MarianLThorpe
IN THE SHADOW OF GHOSTS BY HELEN HOLLICKDoes the fate of those who survive linger forever?
ABOUT HELEN:
Known for her captivating storytelling and rich attention to historical detail, Helen’s historical fiction, nautical adventure series, cosy mysteries – and her short stories – skilfully invite readers to step into worlds where the boundaries between fact and fiction blend together. Helen started writing as a teenager, but after discovering a passion for history, was initially published in 1993 in the UK with her Arthurian Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy and two Anglo-Saxon novels about the events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, one of which, The Forever Queen (USA title – A Hollow Crown in the UK) became a USA Today best-seller. Her Sea Witch Voyages are nautical-based adventures inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy. She also writes the Jan Christopher cosy mystery series set during the 1970s, and based around her, sometimes hilarious, years of working as a North London library assistant. Her 2025 release is Ghost Encounters, a book about the ghosts of North Devon.
Helen and her family moved from London to Devon after a Lottery win on the opening night of the London Olympics, 2012. She spends her time glowering at the overgrown garden, fending off the geese, helping with the horses and wishing the friendly, resident ghosts would occasionally help with the housework…
Website: https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
A FATEFUL ENCOUNTER BY ALISON MORTONWhen time turns in the wrong direction, fate will always step in…
ABOUT ALISON:
Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her eleven-book Roma Nova thriller 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.
Six years’ military service, a fascination with ancient Rome and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction have inspired her writing. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history. She lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her latest three contemporary thrillers, Double Identity, Double Pursuit, and Double Stakes.
Website: https://www.alison-morton.com
Amazon Author Page: https://Author.to/AlisonMortonAmazon
FOLLOWING FATE BY ELIZABETH ST.JOHNA Lost Portrait, a Hidden Conspiracy, and a Second Chance at Love
ABOUT ELIZABETH:
Elizabeth St.John’s acclaimed historical fiction brings to life her ancestors – remarkable women linked to England’s royalty – offering unique insights into Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times. Inspired by family archives and historic sites like Lydiard Park and the Tower of London, her novels include The Lydiard Chronicles, The Godmother’s Secret, and The King’s Intelligencer, exploring the English Civil War and the mystery of the Princes in the Tower.
Website: www.elizabethjstjohn.com
Amazon Author Page: https://geni.us/AmazonElizabethStJohn
THE BLACK ONYX BOX BY R. MARSDENThe Bluffer’s Guide to Becoming a Famous Alchemist
ABOUT R. MARSDEN:
R. Marsden is an author and musician, passionate about the Middle Ages. He plays the gittern, a beautiful medieval stringed instrument, ancestor of the guitar; and a thirteenth century recorder, a replica of one which was excavated from medieval ruins in modern-day Poland. He also plays the piano, and there’s nothing medieval about that!
Tales of Castle Rory are Medieval Fantasy Adventures, in which the demesne of Lord Rory of Hambrig is brought to life. Set in the latter part of the thirteenth century, these stories have adventure, mystery and magic at their heart. You’ll also find relationships, romance, friendship and the forging and breaking of ties between people and nations. Running through the Tales are themes of family, loyalty, trust and resilience, together with the other sides of those coins: abandonment, betrayal, loss and disempowerment.
Website: https://talesofcastlerory.co.uk/
Amazon Author Page: https://mybook.to/TalesOfCastleRory
BEWARE THE CROWS BY ANNA BELFRAGEBeware the consequences of hatred. Revenge can take many forms…
ABOUT ANNA:
Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with three absorbing interests: history, romance and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set in 14th century England, and The Castilian Saga, which is set against the medieval conquest of Wales. She has also published a time travel romance, The Whirlpools of Time, and its sequel Times of Turmoil, and is now considering just how to wiggle out of setting the next book in that series in Peter the Great’s Russia, as her characters are demanding. . .
All of Anna’s books have been awarded the IndieBRAG Medallion, she has several Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choices, and one of her books won the HNS Indie Award in 2015. She is also the proud recipient of various Reader’s Favourite medals as well as having won various Gold, Silver and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards.
Website: www.annabelfrage.com
Amazon Author Page: http://Author.to/ABG
DAME FORTUNE’S WHEEL BY J.P. REEDMANFate can be in the hands of others – or held within your own…
ABOUT J.P. REEDMAN:
J.P. Reedman lives in Wiltshire near to Stonehenge. Born in Canada, she has had a lifelong interest in ancient and medieval history, and is often found lurking around prehistoric sites, ruined castles and abbeys, and interesting churches with camera in hand. She became a full-time writer in 2018. Series include I, Richard Plantagenet, five books chronicling Richard’s life from childhood to Bosworth, and Medieval Babes, a set of standalone novels about lesser-known medieval queens and noblewomen.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRichardPlantagenet/
Amazon Author Page: author.to/REEDMANHISTFIC
SAINTS ALIVE BY DEBBIE YOUNGWhen children are not quite the saints we’d like them to be!
ABOUT DEBBIE YOUNG:
Debbie Young is the author of three series of cosy mystery novels set in the Cotswolds. The Sophie Sayers series starts with Best Murder in Show; the Gemma Lamb series begins with Dastardly Deeds at St Bride’s; and the Cotswold Curiosity Shop series kicks off with Death at the Old Curiosity Shop. She sometimes sends characters from one series to visit those in another. She also writes short fiction, not all of it crime-related, set in the same world, eg Christmas with Sophie Sayers. Her novels are published by Boldwood Books in English, by DP Verlag in German, and by Antonio Vallardi in Italian. She has recently written her first murder mystery play for performance by her village amateur dramatic group. She is a frequent speaker at events for writers and readers, a course tutor for Jericho Writers, and the founder and director of the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival. She lives in a Victorian cottage with her Scottish husband, her student daughter, and three cats, and she writes in a little hut at the bottom of her garden.
Website: www.authordebbieyoung.com
Links to buy Debbie’s books: https://authordebbieyoung.com/books-2/
June 6, 2025
Luminous by Samantha Wilcoxson: The Coffee Pot Book Club Spotlight Tour
To celebrate her 5 year book anniversary, I’m delighted to host Samantha Wilcoxson for the spotlight tour for Luminous, the fascinating story of the radium girl.
You can follow the full tour here:
https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-tour-luminous-by-samantha-wilcoxson.html
Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl by Samantha WilcoxsonAudio narration by Joanne Joyce
Blurb:
Tragic true story of a radium girl
Catherine’s life is set on an unexpected course when she accepts a job at Radium Dial. The dial painters forge friendships and enjoy their work but soon discover that an evil secret lurks in the magical glow-in-the-dark paint. When she and her friends start falling ill, Catherine Donohoe takes on the might of a big corporation and becomes an early pioneer of social justice in the era between world wars.
Emotive and inspiring – this book will touch you like no other as you witness the devastating impact of radium poisoning on young women’s lives.
It’s too late for me, but maybe it will help some of the others.
~ Catherine Wolfe Donohue
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://mybook.to/luminous
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Author Bio:
Writer, history enthusiast, and sufferer of wanderlust, Samantha enjoys exploring the lives of historical figures through research and travel. She strives to reveal the deep emotions and motivations of historical figures, enabling readers to connect with them in a unique way. Samantha is an American writer with British roots and proud mother of three amazing young adults. She can frequently be found lakeside with a book in one hand and glass of wine in the other.
Samantha’s most recent release is a biography of James Alexander Hamilton published by Pen & Sword History. She is currently writing a trilogy set during the Wars of the Roses for Sapere Books.
Author Links:
Website: www.samanthawilcoxson.com
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/carpe_librum
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlantagenetEmbers/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samantha_wilcoxson
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/samantha_wilcoxson/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/samantha-wilcoxson
Amazon Author Page: https://amazon.com/author/samanthawilcoxson
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/samanthajw
May 31, 2025
A Class Liberated: New Release from Susie Murphy
Many congratulations to my fellow Irish historical fiction author, Susie, on her new release – A Class Liberated, book seven in her fabulous Irish historical saga series.
A Class Liberated BlurbFreedom may be within their grasp…
As the devastation of the potato blight continues, Cormac and Bridget grapple with their dual roles at Bewley Hall in England and Oakleigh Manor in Ireland. In their quest to alleviate the suffering of the Irish people, their charitable endeavours face both success and violence.
Meanwhile, tensions mount within their own family when Cormac’s nephew, Patrick, struggles with a shocking revelation. In the midst of his anguish, he lashes out, setting off a chain of events that will have far-reaching consequences.
As the family navigate personal and collective challenges, can Cormac and Bridget guide them through the turmoil? And will they finally secure the freedom they’ve longed for?
A Class Liberated is the seventh book in Susie Murphy’s historical fiction series A Matter of Class. The story will continue in the eighth book, A Class Divided.
Susie Murphy Author Bio
Susie Murphy is an Irish historical fiction author. She loves historical fiction so much that she often wishes she had been born two hundred years ago. Still, she remains grateful for many aspects of the modern age, including women’s suffrage, electric showers and pizza. Susie has published seven novels in her A Matter of Class series, a sweeping romance saga which begins in Ireland in 1828.
To find out more, visit www.susiemurphywrites.com where you can join the Susie Murphy Readers’ Club and receive a collection of six free short stories which tie in with A Matter of Class.
Purchase links
Susie’s website: www.susiemurphywrites.com/shop (currently available)Amazon: https://mybook.to/aclassliberated (available from 31st May)May 2, 2025
White Feathers by Susan Lanigan: The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour
I am delighted today to host fellow Irish historical fiction author, Susan Lanigan, for the book blog tour for her novel, White Feathers. Susan has kindly provided an excerpt for your enjoyment (please see below).
You can follow the full tour here:
https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/04/blog-tour-white-feathers-by-susan-lanigan.html
White Feathers by Susan LaniganBlurb:
“Anti-war and anti-patriarchy without ever saying so – a bravura performance of effortless elegance” – Irish Echo in Australia
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROMANTIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD 2015
In 1913, Irish emigrée Eva Downey receives a bequest from an elderly suffragette to attend a finishing school. There she finds friendship and, eventually, love. But when war looms and he refuses to enlist, Eva is under family and social pressure to give the man she loves a white feather of cowardice. The decision she eventually makes will have lasting consequences for her and everyone around her.
Journey with Eva as she battles through a hostile social order and endeavours to resist it at every turn.
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/4APnB0
Excerpt: The Pigeon Van SceneLate July, 1916. Eva’s friend Sybil Faugharne and her companion Roma Feilding are on a mission to drive a van full of pigeons northwards to Belgium. They encounter the front line.
‘You wanted to see what it was like,’ Roma said. ‘Well, here it is.’
‘Heavens,’ Sybil said, shocked, ‘there’s not even a blade of grass.’
She was right: no grass, nor any leaves on the trees, which were barely trees at all, merely stumps. No life, not even the song of a bird. Swathes of land churned, dead, bleak, like the surface of the moon seen through a telescope, full of craters and holes. Barbed wire on sticks, stretching on for miles and miles. The light hitting colourless land, and the tormented, broken ground absorbing it all.
They were approaching the front line.
‘Shall I close the window?’ Roma said. She was sitting on the right-hand passenger seat.
‘Oh, do!’ said Sybil heartily. ‘It stinks.’
Roma only shuddered in reply and wound up the window. The overlying odours were cordite, cresol, ammonia, sewage. But the underlying odour was death, on a mass scale. It hit their nostrils and nearly burned them out it was so rank. Even with the windows closed, Sybil couldn’t stop coughing.
‘Can you keep quiet, please?’ snapped Major Arnold Stephens from behind the wheel. ‘I’m trying to drive a van full of ruddy pigeons here.’ As if to corroborate his irritation, some of the birds set to squawking. Stephens had been charged with conveying an assignment of messenger pigeons from Lieutenant Colonel Osman in the Home Office to the front line at Nieuwpoort. Osman was a notorious pigeon-fancier, and his idée fixe about employing pigeons in the war effort had begun to pay off, with officers noting approvingly that the little buggers appeared impervious to mustard gas and were not hampered in carrying messages by the shelling of communication trenches.
Although Sybil and Roma rarely went on driving missions, and most of these involved the transportation of the sick and wounded from various requisitioned chateaux around the area to safety at Dunkirk and beyond, they had been roped in to help with unloading the cages. Their vehicle was a supply truck, painted in camouflage, to which was attached a van the size of a wagon, and on top of that again the cages of pigeons. The whole thing looked like a top-heavy, triple-decker bus.
Apart from the pleasant diversion of having Roma’s leg smack bang next to hers (Sybil was no longer under any illusion as to what drove her to follow this girl wherever she went), the journey was a little frightening, and very tedious. The van moved at an excruciatingly slow speed and had already stopped several times. The major insisted that neither Sybil nor Roma be involved in fixing any of the mechanical problems – that was men’s work. ‘Men’s work’ had got them the fifteen miles from Dunkirk to the Belgian border – in just over three hours.
Further, Major Stephens’ conversation was as constant as it was dull. He shared details of his occupation as an artillery observer that nobody had requested. It was all to do with calculations and indirect fire and something called an azimuth, which sounded to Sybil like nothing more than an angel of Satan. As he droned on, Roma nudged her, and Sybil looked down at the seemingly disorganised cluster of notes on her lap. She had written: ‘His MO appears to be a Battery of Boredom: from it, he will fire six-inch howitzer shells of Pure Monotony, followed by a rapid machine-gun fire of Interminable Facts until the Germans will scream for mercy – anything, anything but to have to listen to this man for a moment longer!’
Sybil had to stuff her knuckles in her mouth not to laugh out loud; she ended up snorting the laugh through her nose and sounding like a pig, which made Roma laugh too.
‘I don’t know what they’re doing, letting giggling society girls out on a dangerous mission like this,’ said Stephens primly.
As if in agreement, the sky in the distance lit up with a shell. Stephens braked violently, and half the cages lurched to the right. Behind the partition, the pigeons squawked with distress.
There’ll be enough white feathers in there, Sybil thought to herself, to shame a whole army. That reminded her: she had not managed to answer Eva’s letter yet, because it had arrived at the same time as a far less welcome communication from Clive. Viscount Faugharne had written to tell Sybil that he wanted a divorce. Her licentious behaviour, abuse of his finances and refusal to perform the services ‘befitting a viscount’s wife’, whatever that meant, had decided him.
‘Since you have effectively deserted me for a bit of wartime spills and thrills,’ he wrote, ‘I cannot serve you papers. It would be too dangerous for my lawyers to chase after you. But I have instructed my man Markham to have our London property cleared of all your things.’
It was a poorly written screed, blots of ink everywhere. Clive liked writing even less than she did, that was for sure. But divorce was very hard for a woman to shake off. And ‘licentious behaviour’? Was Clive talking about Roma’s motorbike? Because she hadn’t been keeping that sort of company with anyone else.
‘No great loss,’ she murmured aloud, just as the vehicle came to yet another shuddering halt.
‘What now?’ Roma asked Stephens, not hiding her irritation.
‘“What now” is that I have to point Percy at the porcelain,’ he said, closing the van door and disappearing around the side.
‘Vulgar fellow,’ Sybil muttered.
‘Sybil,’ Roma said, her eyes suddenly beseeching, ‘do you think—?’
They were interrupted by a WHEEEEE! then a dull thud and a sudden uprising of light on the road ahead. Carts, vans and horses scattered, people dashed about like ants.
Instinctively, Sybil grabbed Roma and flattened them both against the van seat, Roma grunting as her tailbone hit the gearbox.
After a few seconds, Sybil cautiously lifted her head.
‘Another one!’ cried Roma beneath her as a high note tore through the sky, descending in pitch… and then another, right next to them. An explosion sucking all the air and sound, abrupt as a full stop.
‘Where the hell is Stephens?’ Sybil wondered. ‘I hope that last one didn’t get him.’ She sighed and pulled herself up until she was kneeling on the seat. ‘I’d better go see he’s all right. Old Fritz seems to have taken a break for the moment.’
She did not see immediately, and then she did.
He … Major Arnold Stephens … was lying flat on his back several yards away from the van, his chest blown open by the shell, ragged ends of ribcage sticking up. A black space where his internal organs had been blown out, half the intestines remaining, half in a bloody mess around him. The entirety of his innards, from neck to groin, open to public view. His face just about left intact, though part of his left jawbone had gone.
Sybil had never before seen the kind of injuries from which there could definitely be no recovery. She struggled not to be sick. Her teeth were chattering in her head. ‘I’m not a society girl,’ she addressed the mangled corpse, somewhat hysterically. ‘I’m going to be divorced. So now you know.’
Author Bio:
Susan Lanigan’s first novel White Feathers, a tale of passion, betrayal and war, was selected as one of the final ten in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2013, and published in 2014 by Brandon Books. The book won critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the UK Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2015. This edition is a reissue with a new cover and foreword.
Her second novel, Lucia’s War, also concerning WWI as well as race, music and motherhood, was published in June 2020 and has been named as the Coffee Pot Book Club Honourable Mention in the Modern Historical Book of the Year Award.
Susan lives by the sea near Cork, Ireland, with her family.
Author Links:
Website: https://susanlanigan.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100028262426042
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susanlanigan_books/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@susan_lanigan
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/susanlanigan.bsky.social
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/susan-lanigan
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B00MTKLNLO
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4181196.Susan_Lanigan
May 1, 2025
New Release from Tony Riches: Bess – Tudor Gentlewoman
Today, I am delighted to host Tony Riches as he releases the sixth book in his Elizabethan Series: BESS – TUDOR GENTLEWOMAN
New from Tony Riches, Author of the best-selling Tudor Trilogy (Publication 2nd May 2025)
“A thrilling portrait of a remarkable woman who witnessed the key events of Elizabethan England.”
Bess Throckmorton defies her notorious background and lack of education to become Queen Elizabeth’s Gentlewoman and trusted confidante.
Forced to choose between loyalty and love, duty and desire, will she risk her queen’s anger by marrying adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh without permission?
Entangled in a web of intrigue, from the glittering Palace of Whitehall to the cells of the Tower of London, Bess endures tragedy and injustice, becoming a resilient, determined woman, who takes nothing for granted.
Can she outwit her enemies, protect her family, and claim her destiny in a world where women are pawns and survival is a game of deadly consequences?
This is the true story of the last of the Elizabethans, which ends the story of the Tudor dynasty – and introduces their successors, the Stuarts.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D46XQP59
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D46XQP59
#Elizabethan #Tudors #HistoricalFiction
Author Bio
Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of Tudor historical fiction. He lives with his wife in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the lives of the early Tudors. As well as his Elizabethan series, Tony’s historical fiction novels include the best-selling Tudor trilogy and his Brandon trilogy, (about Charles Brandon and his wives). For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website tonyriches.com and his blog, The Writing Desk and find him on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter @tonyriches.
April 29, 2025
The Finding by Jane Hunt: The Coffee Pot Book Club Book Spotlight Tour
Today, I am delighted to host Jane Hunt for the book spotlight tour for The Finding, a WW2 novella, inspired by her family history.
You can follow the full tour here:
https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/02/blog-tour-the-finding-by-jane-hunt.html
The Finding by Jane HuntBlurb:
This poignant novella is a tale of forbidden love, resilience, and the human cost of war.
In the quiet fields of Wiltshire during World War II, Eveline, a sheltered young woman, stumbles upon a life-altering discovery: a German Luftwaffe pilot, Fritz, has crash-landed near her home. Against the backdrop of war and suspicion, her family takes the injured man in, nursing him back to health. Beneath his reserved demeanor and burned body, Eveline senses a mystery—and something stirs an unfamiliar longing within her.
As Eveline’s infatuation deepens, she faces a storm of challenges: her overbearing mother’s rigid rules, a zealous preacher’s warnings, and the scrutiny of the town’s gossips. Despite Fritz’s attempts to keep her at arm’s length Eveline’s heart defies reason, falling for the man branded as her enemy.
But Fritz harbours secrets that could shatter Eveline’s fragile world. When the truths of war and the weight of loyalty collide, Eveline must confront the reality of loving someone forbidden.
Will their bond endure the hostility of a nation at war? Or will the scars of betrayal and loss prove impossible to heal?
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/3JAedg
Author Bio:
Born in Reading UK, Jane grew up with a love of reading. She remembers taking Enid Blyton books to bed and reading them under the covers when she should have been asleep! Her love of the written word extended into the classroom where the teachers commented on her vivid imagination and length of stories—probably accompanied with a few sighs when they realized the amount of time the reading would take!
On leaving school Jane spent a brief spell at college before finding employment as a Dental Nurse where she spent many happy years meeting lots of wonderful people and mixing lots of fillings. After meeting her husband, she later went on to have three children and found work as a Teaching Assistant.
[image error] Jane HuntAlongside a busy life, she completed a comprehensive writing course, which saw her having non-fiction work published in newspapers and magazines. But the desire to do something ‘creative’ burned ever brightly. Having recently undertaken a lot of research into her family tree, a desire to find out what life was really like for her ancestors took hold, and she developed a fascination with World War II. Heeding the advice of her late parents to ‘put pen to paper’, she decided to get a story that had been buzzing in her head for quite some time written.
The result of her endeavour was a very ‘raw’ manuscript: The Finding. With some professional help—thank you, Dee, the story evolved into a book—something she still can’t quite believe!
Author Links:
Publisher’s Author Page: https://www.historiumpress.com/jane-hunt
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jane-Hunt/author/B0DRJ7KNHK
April 15, 2025
Book Spotlight: Oscar’s Tale by Chris Bishop – The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour
Today, I’m delighted to host Chris Bishop on the spotlight tour for Oscar’s Tale.
You can follow the full tour here:
https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/02/blog-tour-oscars-tale-by-chris-bishop.html
Oscar’s Tale by Chris BishopBlurb:
Oscar’s Tale is that of a Saxon boy who sets out to find and rescue his father who has been taken by Viking slavers.
The story begins in 877, just prior to the Viking attack on Chippenham in which King Alfred was routed. Against this backdrop, Oscar is obliged to set out on his all but impossible quest and quickly becomes embroiled in all that’s going on in Wessex at this turbulent time, culminating in him playing a small but important part in the battle at Edington.
But this is not just a story about blood thirsty battles and fearsome warriors, it’s about a boy struggling to live up to his father’s reputation as a warrior and trying to find his place in a dangerous and uncertain world. For that, he is forced to confront many dangers and earn the respect of others who are far above his station. Along the way he also finds love – albeit at a cost far higher than most would have been willing to pay.
‘For is it not the wish of every man that his son will achieve more in life than he did?’
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bwQQ99
Author Bio:
Chris was born in London in 1951. After a successful career as a Chartered Surveyor, he retired to concentrate on writing, combining this with his lifelong interest in Anglo Saxon history.
His first novel, Blood and Destiny, was published in 2017 and his second, The Warrior with the Pierced Heart, in 2018 followed by The Final Reckoning in 2019 and Bloodlines in 2020. Together they form a series entitled The Shadow of the Raven, the fifth and final part of which – The Prodigal Son – was published in 2023.
Chris has published numerous blogs about various aspects of Anglo Saxon history and is a member of the Historical Writers’ Association.
Author Links:
Website: www.chrisbishopauthor.com
Twitter: https://x.com/CBishop_author
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/207271.Chris_Bishop
April 11, 2025
Publication Day! The Book of Lost Children by Jenny O’Brien.
A very happy publication day to Jenny O’Brien for The Book of Lost Children. Many of you will know Jenny for her contemporary crime series, but this book is a new venture for Jenny – WW2 historical fiction. I was lucky enough to read an ARC copy, so I can heartily recommend this novel.
As ever, Jenny creates vivid characters and a cracking plot inspired by real events. Be warned though, this book is an emotional roller-coaster of a ride. Have the tissues on stand-by!
Book BlurbA wartime nurse risks everything to protect mothers and babies in Nazi-occupied Guernsey. Decades later, a hidden record reveals a devastating family truth. Based on a remarkable true story of one woman’s extraordinary courage.
Guernsey, 1943. As German forces tighten their grip on the Channel Islands, nurse Evelyn Nightingale guards a dangerous secret. Within the walls of the Emergency Hospital, she’s hidden three babies from the enemy – children who would otherwise face a terrible fate. When a traumatized French woman arrives to give birth, Evelyn must risk everything – with consequences that will echo through the generations.
Dublin, 2018. Still reeling from her mother’s death, Kitty White is struggling to keep her family’s antique shop afloat when a desperate woman arrives with an old violin to sell. Hidden in its dusty case, Kitty discovers a mysterious list of names that shatters her father’s composure. Her search for answers leads her to Guernsey, where she is about to uncover a long-buried secret about her family…
Inspired by true historical events, this heart-wrenching tale will stay with you long after the last page. If you were gripped by The Nightingale , The Alice Network and The Paris Library , you must read The Book of Lost Children .
Universal Buy Link: https://geni.us/915-al-aut-am
Jenny O’Brien
April 4, 2025
Two New Irish Crime Novels
Irish crime fiction is thriving, and this week sees the release of two new offerings: Zoë Miller’s The Girls’ Trip and Lucy O’Callaghan’s Obsession. Both books are now on my TBR pile.
The Girls’ Trip by Zoë Miller.It was a holiday she would never let them forget …
‘She had it coming. So had the others.’
In 2007, four friends returned home from a week in Ibiza with secrets to keep. When they agreed never to contact each other again, all traces of their holiday were erased. Or so they thought.
Now, almost seventeen years after that trip, Anna’s sister Kim is still picking up the pieces after Anna abandoned her life without warning. Kim is sure that Anna’s unexplained departure had something to do with her visit to Ibiza. And when a photo from the trip surfaces unexpectedly, she finally has some clues to start looking into what happened to her sister.
Julia, Cora and Faye are forced to come together when they realise someone might be looking into the past. But how far will they go to bury the truth? And what’s to stop one of them from letting a ‘friend’ take the fall, in order to save herself?
Buy Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DPHCD1CL
Obsession by Lucy O’CallaghanWhen a woman’s desire to help those who need it most sparks a dangerous obsession in one man, will she be able to see what’s right in front of her?
She needs to help. He needs her help. It’s that simple… or is it?
Since losing her brother to suicide five years ago, Rachel has thrown herself into her job, supporting men in getting back to work and rebuilding their self-esteem. Men like Peter—an ordinary man, seemingly down on his luck, but hiding a dependency on painkillers and alcohol.
Peter mistakes Rachel’s kindness for something more and believes they are destined to be together—even if she needs a little help along the way to realize it.
While Rachel is consumed with helping others, she is blind not only to Peter’s growing infatuation but also to family secrets emerging from the past.
Will Rachel recognize Peter’s obsession before it is too late?
Buy Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DWNCYVZV
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