Mary Anne Yarde's Blog: The Coffee Pot Book Club , page 28

#BookReview – Wrath of Olympus by E.M. Kkoulla #AlternativeHistory #RomanEmpire

 

Publication Date: 8th December 2020Publisher: PublishNation Page Length: 243 PagesGenre: Alternative History / Mythology 
The Roman Empire never fell. The Gods are real. Ships are alive.

In the Province of Britannia, ruled by descendants of King Arthur and on the brink of an industrial revolution, young Maia Abella is on the run.

“What she had taken for a table was beginning to ripple, vast eddies surging through the wood and twisting the grain as, slowly and majestically, two heads emerged; Ships travelling through the substance of the building as fish through the sea, their essence reforming using the great slab of ancient oak as their medium.”

Wrath of Olympus by E.M. Kkoulla is the story of Maia Abella. Abandoned at a Foundling Home when she was just a baby, Maia is an indentured servant, trapped in a life where she is all but a slave, be it without the life sentence. Maia's mistress is cruel and often mistreats her servants. Maia has to endure another two-and-a-half years of servitude until she is free to choose her own destiny. However, when, by some unknown force, Maia’s mistress is killed, Maia’s life is changed forever.

This novel is set in 2044. The Roman Empire never fell and is still in control. This alternative history world is where the ancient gods run supreme and mythical creatures still exist. At the death of Maia’s mistress, she is tested by Master Mage Raven, to see if she possesses any Potentia—the magic that comes alongside having Divine blood. But it is clear to Maia that she cannot possibly be the descendent of a god, for what parents would abandon a child of Divine blood? Regardless of her heritage, she takes on the role of learning to become a Ship. This is a great honour, for the amount of people suitable for the job is falling rapidly. To become a Ship would be the greatest sacrifice—to abandon one’s body and take the form of wood instead, sailing the seas and looking after the boat and crew. Becoming a Ship is a great honour, but is it really what Maia wants?

Maia is an incredibly strong protagonist who endures everything that is thrown her way. She battles life, her enemies, and embraces the lot she has been given with open arms. Her lack of Potentia may always be on her mind as she learns all she needs to know to be a Ship, as she trains to carry out the tasks required, but it doesn’t hold her back. Instead, she sails through her lessons with ease, an eidetic memory allowing her to remember every detail she is told, every word that she reads. She is an incredibly kind and loyal girl, who loves fiercely, willing to do anything, sacrifice anything, to save those she loves. Maia is someone that one can really get behind and support, for she is a convincing and loveable character, who is affected by things that happen to her but somehow finds the strength within to pick herself up and carry on.

This novel’s setting was captivating and interesting, set in Portus (Portsmouth) in a Roman society, where the Pendragons occupy high social positions. Admiral Pendragon makes an appearance during a ceremony, and several other such names are easy to pick out as you read, giving a sense of the historical differences between our world and the one that has been penned. With such a visual and sense of realism of the world that Kkoulla has created, one can get lost in the pages as easily as one can go adrift at sea, resurfacing only when you have read the whole story.

Maia is not alone in her journey, meeting people along the way that help her to survive, thrive and reach her full potential. One of these is Briseis Apollonia, another candidate at the Academy. Although ahead of Maia in her studies, Briseis is kind, an immediate friend to Maia, and helps her come to terms with the lifestyle that is so very different to the one Maia is used to.

Branwen, Maia’s servant at the Academy, is met with shocked disbelief. Maia is a girl used to being treated like a slave, working long hours and enduring mistreatment. So when she is suddenly thrust into a world of respect, with her own personal possessions and a servant to run her a bath in the evenings, she is understandably unsettled. Her pure joy at discovering she had a comb of her own was heartbreakingly beautiful to read about, and it was upsetting to learn of how afraid she was of being kicked out of the Academy and her meagre possessions taken from her when they found out that she had no Potentia.

After learning the history about being Ships, and all the relevant information in a classroom, Maia’s next challenge is to take that information and the lessons and put them into practice, learning alongside a fully-fledged Ship to get used to the duties of being a Ship and learning how to carry them out effectively. The Blossom is a Ship that has spent a long time training new Ships, and she is a wonderful teacher. Blossom is an interesting character, for as a Ship she has no physical body, but can move throughout the boat, travelling through the wood and appearing where she wishes. It was glorious to read about a boat where the Captain is not in charge, but commands alongside a Ship, with the crew belonging to the Ship and not to the Captain. This importance of women, or in particular, one woman, upon a boat, was an impressive detail that I found incredibly refreshing.

It is evident from the impressive narrative and in-depth detail this novel possesses that Kkoulla has spent many hours researching the history and weaving it into a world of her own. However, there were some times when I found myself lost, in need of more explanation to clarify some important aspects of this story. For example, the role of Ships, moreover, what they are and their roles in society, was not explained as thoroughly as I would have liked. Instead, small details were scattered through the novel, as if creating the image a piece at a time. By the end, I thoroughly understood what they were and why they were regarded with such importance and respect, but I would have preferred some more explanation to begin with, to avoid any confusion.

Wrath of Olympus by E.M. Kkoulla is a story of adventure, danger and friendship, and it was one that was intriguing from start to finish. Kkoulla has a skill for bringing a world to life and has a great eye for the human detail and especially, human fragility. This novel is immensely readable and a wonderful depiction of the importance of the gods in a Roman world and the incredible power that they held.

I Recommend.

Review by Ellie Yarde.
The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Amazon UK • Amazon US

E. M. Kkoulla lives with her husband and two feline overlords in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. After many years of teaching very small children, she decided to finally put her degree in Classical Studies, along with decades of re-enacting 16th and 17th century life, to constructive use. Her hobbies include singing in various choirs, walking in the hills and watching anything with gods, superheroes and monsters trashing the landscape.

Join The Coffee Pot Book Club in conversation with #VampireRomance author, Glenn Stevens #Vampire @GlennStevens

 

Publication Date: 2nd September 2018Publisher: Independently PublishedPage Length: 611 PagesGenre: Vampire Romance

Eros finds warm-blooded creatures fascinating...especially the female ones.

Eros is a handsome, ageless, blood-sucking alien who finds refuge on modern-day Earth. Despite coming from an advanced civilization thousands of years ahead of Earth, he falls in love with the charm, compassion, and creativity of humanity. But after outliving his friends and lovers, Eros becomes incensed to find a way to help others live longer—especially after meeting the beautiful and powerful Camellia. And when he hears of the sacred and elusive Fountain of Youth, Eros believes he may be able to keep his love alive for good.

But with Eros's need for female blood and Camellia's mortality and protective mother fighting against their union, will Camellia and Eros find a way to be together today, tomorrow, and forever? This epic love story will have readers' hearts skipping beats and filling with warmth and positivity. Despite its incredible paranormal twists, this love story feels as real and raw as it gets.

Mary Anne: A huge congratulations on your fabulous book, Blood Relations: A New World, could you tell us a little about your book and how you came to write it?
Glenn Stevens: Thank you so much, Mary Anne. I love a good vampire story, but I never quite found one that I could sink my teeth into. There are clearly some good contenders out there, but I was looking for something special, a little different. So, I set out to write my own story. Little did I know it would become my lifetime journey. 
Blood Relations is truly one of the greatest stories I’ve ever read or wrote. It’s a captivating, fantasy that I hope captures every reader’s imagination and heart and leaves them feeling really warm inside. These days we especially need a little pick-me-up feel good story! Blood Relations stands in stark contrast to some other vampire tales out there. This is also a story within a story that spans 15 years in the making. After I first wrote this story, I realized it was missing an important part - a deeper understanding of the story’s beginning. So, I wrote a prologue. That prologue turned into what we now know as Blood Relations: A New World. That’s quite a prologue!


A New World is about a Prince who tries to save his family from barbaric monsters that are destroying his home planet, Mira. He is able to escape and find a new home on Planet Earth, only to have his spaceship ambushed by these same monsters as they secretly follow him half-way across the galaxy. When his spaceship crashes, he is ejected and his body smashes into the Carpathian mountainside where he is left for dead. The impact causes him to lose all memory of who he is and the many dangers that now surround him. A human saves his life and in return he will save the planet.
The story resembles The Wizard of Oz, where we follow the Prince on his new journey through life meeting interesting new people, falling in and out of love, discovering his secret powers and succumbing to unknown weaknesses. He’s also alien to Earth with an alien appetite that resembles that of a vampire. Unlike some vampire stories though, Blood Relations shows how important love is to this vampire’s survival, it even shows that love exists throughout the galaxy. And similar to rags to riches stories, this Prince came to Earth with nothing and by the end of the book he is the richest in the world. In the end, Blood Relations is an uplifting adventure that values close friendships, fun fantasies and hopes to leave the reader’s own levels of Oxytocin soaring.
Mary Anne: What is it about vampires, do you think, that stirs the imagination? And why do you think readers are still so endlessly fascinated with them?
Glenn Stevens: I think it depends on the individual person. Vampire characters are incredibly unique. They are rich in variety and work well in almost any setting and role, both male and female. This huge variety fills people’s imaginations with endless possibilities. If you look at real vampires in the insect world you quickly realize how amazing these characters can be. Look at spiders, how they immobilize their victims or parasites how they control the minds of their victims. There are many choices to choose from when creating the vampire character. Then there is the love aspect and why it’s so important to this character if you write it that way. Vampires can be so lonely in their long lifespan or full of love and hope.


Vampires, having lived for hundreds of years, are also far more experienced, smarter, more powerful and incredibly seductive. Not aging keeps them looking young, sexy and vibrant. Add in some mind control, a little suspense and the threat of danger and you have the makings for an explosive story every time.  
Mary Anne: Did you have to do much research when it came to writing your novel and if so, did you come across any unexpected surprises?
Glenn Stevens: I did. In an effort to keep Blood Relations as realistic as possible, I had to look at the star charts to pick a home for the Prince about half-way across our Milky Way Galaxy. Had to figure out the distance and travel time. Beginning the story in the 1500’s I needed to research kingdoms of the past, old Spanish Galleon ships that could take Eros across the frightening Atlantic and learn a little more about countries like Romania and the cities within it. I needed to research the east coast of Florida where the Prince eventually would build his Fantasy Island type blood center/resort for the thousands of annual donors. 


Then there was the medical research since the Prince wanted to know how his venom protected humans from all sorts of diseases except for aging. I looked at emerging breakthroughs on how researchers today are harnessing the power of viruses to repair broken or damaged DNA and using these viruses to cure diseases. Amazing cutting-edge science. I used that knowledge to enhance the health of everyone the Prince bit as the venom carried within it a version of this miracle virus.
Vampire stories have always fascinated me. So, while writing Blood Relations I asked my writer self why must the vampire bite his victim in the neck? Particularly their jugular. A gross thought I realize but I needed to know since it interested me immensely. One obvious reason is it’s sexual, but what medical reasons could there be? So, I searched for a chemical that can only be created in the human brain and found Oxytocin. It’s the love hormone. With that, the story really came together, and the Prince’s name changed from Stan to Eros, after the God of Love. I was able to add more suspense to the story using this need for Oxytocin and for the need to bite his lover in the neck to capture it. For example, Eros could never bite just anyone. He could only bite someone who trusted and loved him, someone who had the fresh Oxytocin in their blood he needed. I had a lot of fun with this. Another discovery showed what could happen if a woman had too much Oxytocin in her blood, she could become lesbian, and that would work against Eros. That unexpected surprise added a new dimension to the story and with it, new characters.
Mary Anne: What do you think is the most challenging aspect of writing vampire romances?
Glenn Stevens: For me, I think it’s keeping the story as realistic as possible. The reader has to be able to connect with the characters and story at some level. That means keeping it real from bite scenes to deep loving relationships to all the incredible experiences in between. When you think about the vampire character, you’re thinking about someone who never dies. Someone who will need enormous patience and one who will love many people for hundreds if not thousands of years. The worst part of it is he will also have to see all of them die before him. That’s hard on any character. It’s so unbearable for Eros that he sets up a medical center and devotes billions in research desperate to find cures to stop the human aging process. 

Then there is the special kind of love a vampire needs such as the kind that brings life. There first must be deep trust between the two so that both can survive. The deepest love is when one shares one’s own life with another to keep the other alive. It’s hard to put that kind of love into words but you sure can feel it in your own heart.  
Mary Anne: What advice do you have for an aspiring author?
Glenn Stevens: Writing can be lonely so you must first believe in yourself. I believe everyone has a story in them to share. Because each of us are very different, coming from different life experiences everyone has a unique view of their world around them and thus that unique story. 
The best advice I’ve learned is to tell people to never give up. Write often, build that muscle in your brain. Read often to feed your imagination. Try not to talk too much about your writing while it’s a work of art in progress. Save that energy to fuel and energize your writing. There will be plenty of time to talk about your story after it’s released. 
Writing should be an adventure. Embrace it! Remember you’re creating something new out of nothing. Take your place at the all-important storyteller table! Enjoy it and keep at it. Learn, grow, and you’ll get better with practice. Ray Bradbury once said you only fail if you stop writing. So, write and write often!
Thank you again so much for interviewing me today.

Amazon UK • Amazon US

Glenn Stevens grew up in Chicago glued to the TV watching Dark Shadows every summer afternoon. In that highly rated vampire soap opera, it was Barnabas Collins who first ignited Glenn's interest and passion for vampires. 
More romantic and erotic vampire stories like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the many films by Hammer set his passion for vampire stories ablaze. That same passion still exists today in his many writings. His favorite story is titled "Blood Relations" where his vampire comes from another planet, is marooned on Earth, and is forever searching for love.
When Glenn isn't writing, he's shopping with his wife of 30 years, loving on his pet birds, helping his community, or reading and watching vampire-themed books and movies. 
Glenn is a trained storm spotter, licensed private pilot, NAUI/PADI scuba diver, Space Camp alumni, an ordained minister with ULC, and licensed Ham radio operator.
Glenn wishes every writer much success and every reader much enjoyment.
Connect with Glenn:Website • Twitter • Facebook • Amazon • Goodreads • YouTube • 

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Welcome to Day #8 of the blog tour for The Search (Across the Great Divide, Book II) by Michael L. Ross #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @MichaelLRoss7 @MaddieS39950549

February 1st – February 19th 2021
Amazon UK • Amazon US • Amazon CA • Amazon AU • Barnes and Noble • Kobo 
Publication Date: December 15, 2020Publisher: HistoricalNovelsRUSPage Length: 217 PagesGenre: Historical Fiction, Christian Historical Fiction, Historical Romance

Where do you go when home is no longer an option?
The guns of the Civil War have ceased firing, and the shots are but an echo... yet the war rages on, deep inside Will Crump's soul. His "soldier's heart" is searching for peace, and in that quest Will joins the westward movement, setting his path on a collision course with adventure, loss, and love.
The Westward Expansion floods the sacred, untouched lands with immigrants, bringing conflict to the Shoshone, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Amidst the chaos Will finds safety in the shadow of the US Army, but the army brings battle-hardened troops into Red Cloud's War, pulling Will into a tornado of conflict. Broken treaties and promises leave both sides searching for answers. Will's search leads him to a battle for survival, and there he finds a love that could change him forever.
Dove, a young Shoshone woman, is a survivor of the Bear Creek Massacre. After being kidnapped and escaping from the Cheyenne, she joins Will's search, seeking where she belongs. Dove longs for more than the restricted role placed on women in her tribe. If she can learn to trust a white man, he just might help her find home... and hope.
Together, Will and Dove must search for understanding, and reach Across the Great Divide.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Best-selling author Michael Ross is a lover of history and great stories. He's a retired software engineer turned author, with three children and five grandchildren, living in Newton, Kansas with his wife of forty years. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, and still loves Texas. The main character of "Across the Great Divide", William Dorsey Crump, is one of the founders of Lubbock and Shallowater, Texas. Michael knew Will's granddaughter when he was a child. He has written a scholarly article on Will Crump for the Texas Historical Society, published in the Handbook of Texas Online, and has sold short stories in the past. This is his first novel and the first in the Across the Great Divide series, now an Amazon bestseller.

Michael attended Rice University as an undergraduate, and Portland State University for his graduate degree. He has degrees in computer science, software engineering, and German. In his spare time, Michael loves to go fishing, riding horses, and play with his grandchildren, who are currently all under six years old.

He sees many parallels between the time of the Civil War and our divided nation of today. Sanctuary cities, immigration, arguments around the holiday table, threats of secession - all are nothing new. Sometimes, to understand the present, you have to look at the past- and reach Across the Great Divide.  

“I thought this novel was brilliant from start to finish. I am so glad I was introduced to the work of Michael Ross. This certainly will not be the last book of his that I read…” Oh look, another book!
Head on over to Oh look, another book! to read the rest of the review.
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #9 of the blog tour for Donna Scott's fabulous book - The London Monster #HistoricalFiction @D_ScottWriter @Archaeolibrary

 

DECEMBER 16TH – FEBRUARY 17TH 2021AMAZON US • AMAZON UK

Publication Date: 21st November 2020

Publisher: Atlantic Publishing

Page Length: 322 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction/Historical Mystery

In 1788, exactly one hundred years before Jack the Ripper terrorizes the people of London, a sexual miscreant known as the London Monster roams the streets in search of his next victim…

Thomas Hayes, having lost his mother in a vicious street assault, becomes an underground pugilist on a mission to rid the streets of violent criminals. But his vigilante actions lead to him being mistaken for the most terrifying criminal of all.

Assistance arrives in the form of Sophie Carlisle, a young journalist with dreams of covering a big story, though she is forced to masquerade as a man to do it. Trapped in an engagement to a man she doesn’t love, Sophie yearns to break free to tell stories that matter about London’s darker side—gaming, prostitution, violence—and realizes Tom could be the one to help. Together, they come up with a plan.

Straddling the line between his need for vengeance and the need to hide his true identity as a politician's son becomes increasingly difficult as Tom is pressured to win more fights. The more he wins, the more notoriety he receives, and the greater the chance his identity may be exposed—a revelation that could jeopardize his father’s political aspirations and destroy his family’s reputation.

Sophie is also in danger as hysteria spreads and the attacks increase in severity and frequency. No one knows who to trust, and no one is safe—Tom included, yet he refuses to end the hunt.

Little does he realize, the monster is also hunting him.

Head on over to Archaeolibrarian to find out what Merissa thinks of this fabulous book!
Click HERE!

#BookReview — Discovery (The Orphan Train Saga, Book 1) by Sherry A. Burton #HistoricalFiction @SherryABurton

 

Publication Date: December 25, 2018

Publisher: Dorry Press

Print Length: 229 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

While most use their summer breaks for pleasure, third grade teacher Cindy Moore is using her summer vacation to tie up some loose ends concerning her grandmother’s estate. When Cindy enters the storage unit that holds her grandmother’s belongings, she is merely looking for items she can sell to recoup some of the rental fees she’s spent paying for the unit.

Instead, what she finds are secrets her grandmother has taken to the grave with her. The more Cindy uncovers, the more she wants to know. Why was her grandmother abandoned by her own mother? Why hadn’t she told Cindy she’d lived in an orphanage? And how come her grandmother never mentioned she’d made history as one of the children who rode the Orphan Trains?

Join Cindy as she uncovers her grandmother’s hidden past and discovers the life that stole her grandmother’s love.

In this sweeping and captivating story across generations, be carried back to 1920s America, where orphans were transported to uncertain futures by the now little-known Orphan Trains.
Teacher Cindy Moore is not thrilled at the task awaiting her during her summer holidays. Whilst other teachers are having breaks, she is stuck clearing out a storage unit which holds all her grandmother’s belongings. Mildred may have left Cindy her house, but the old lady never showed any love for her granddaughter whilst she was alive. Nor was there any love lost between Mildred and Cindy’s mother, either.
However, the unit contains far more than items with sales potential. Intrigued by a single doll, but frustrated by a rattle, Cindy investigates, and is shocked to find a letter, as well as a trail to an important stash of diaries. To her surprise, the diaries tell of a little girl, Mileta, abandoned at an orphanage by her mother and, even more of a shock, uprooted on the Orphan Trains, carriages of children sent west across America, as part of a plan to find hundreds, thousands, of children new homes. Cindy’s curiosity about the young Mileta is piqued, and she begins reading the series of journals, sharing them with her mother, partly in the hope of distracting her from the grief at Cindy’s father’s death. It is soon revealed that Mileta will become Mildred in the home of her new parents, once settled in Detroit. The story is told through a combination of flashbacks to Mildred’s life, as she tells the story of her train journey and subsequent life, and the thoughts of Cindy and her mother, as they discover the truth behind a woman who had always been so closed off to them, emotionally. As readers then, we are ‘with’ both sides of the story, and Mildred’s telling of her life does indeed feel very raw initially, as a bewildered child, suddenly very alone in the world. She is forced to mature very quickly as life throws some very severe challenges in her path, including her first kiss, bereavement, love, loss, and an insight into Detroit’s dangerous side, through her relationship with Tobias, a fellow orphan who has ridden the trains more than once, and become something of an expert. Sadly for him, he has also become an expert at making the most of a life on the streets, and has fallen in with some dubious people since leaving New York. The Orphan Trains spread their tracks far and wide, and as Mildred’s life turns again, she leaves Detroit with her ‘brother’ Frankie, a canny former street-child with a curious link to both her present and past, which emerges when they go in search of a future. With every chapter, we, and Cindy, see the lives that Mildred lived, and how they left her damaged in so many ways. Certainly in the early parts of the book, there is a real sense of threat, both in the orphanage and on the train itself, and I found my heart in my mouth as I read of the people Mileta ends up sat with by pure chance on her journey. At so many points, there is a sense of both danger and opportunity, and I found myself hoping that Mildred could enjoy the latter. We are very clearly reading the journals of an older woman who has only died relatively recently, and is describing her own youth from that viewpoint, therefore, by that very logic, we know Mildred survives, and through casual references between Cindy and her mother, we find out about the fates of other characters before the end of the book. Despite this, the tension is kept high throughout, and I was racing through the chapters to find out exactly how the story came together, and exactly why Mildred was the way she was later in life. This becomes clear as the story develops, and was heart-breaking, especially as the pieces of the puzzle between Mildred, Toby, Frankie and others all fit together. I have always enjoyed getting a taste of a different era or location through historical fiction, rather than non-fiction, and Discovery (The Orphan Train Saga, Book 1) by Sherry A. Burton certainly fits into that category for me. I wasn’t aware of the Orphan Trains, although having read the book, the concept is not that far removed from the Home Children programme, where UK-based children were sent to new homes around the world, including Australia and Canada. That programme did not have a wonderful success rate, and although it is noted that 87% of the Orphan Train children had ‘done well’, there are tales of children being essentially brought in as servants to their new families, abused, or ending up on the streets, in worse conditions than if they had remained in the orphanages. All of this is captured wonderfully in the story, through the children telling tales of others they had known, and where they had ended up. There is also an excellent sense of time and place throughout the book, bringing the world of prohibition, notorious gangs, beautiful suburban homes and imposing apartment blocks all to life. In the final pages of her own journals, Mildred tells how she has become the custodian of more journals, including those of some characters we meet in her own story; these become the subsequent books in the series. Again, it is the skill of the writer that even though we know where these children ended up, I am still intrigued to find out more about their lives before we ‘met’ them. Highly recommend for fans who are interested in tales of family history, 1920s America, or who enjoy a hint of mystery in their historical fiction.

Review by Jennifer C. Wilson.
The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Amazon UK •  Amazon US • Barnes and Noble

Born in Kentucky, Sherry got her start in writing by pledging to write a happy ending to a good friend who was going through some really tough times. The story surprised her by taking over and practically writing itself. What started off as a way to make her friend smile started her on a journey that would forever change her life. Sherry readily admits to hearing voices and is convinced that being married to her best friend for thirty-eight plus years goes a long way in helping her write happily-ever-afters. Sherry is the author of The Orphan Train Saga novels, a planned eighteen book historical fiction saga that revolves around the historic orphan trains. Books in the saga include Discovery, Shameless, Treachery and Guardian. Loyal, the fifth in the saga, expected to release summer of 2021. Sherry resides in Michigan and spends most of her time writing from her home office, traveling to book signing events and giving lectures on the Orphan Trains.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Instagram • Pinterest • Goodreads





 

Welcome to Day #10 of the blog tour for Janet Lee Berg's fabulous book - Restitution #BlogTour #HistoricalFiction #CoffeePotBookClub @janetleeberg1 @jroberts1324

December 8th - February 9th 2021

Publication Date: 30th September 2020
Publisher: Koehler
Page Length: 262 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction 
Amazon UK • Amazon US • Barnes and Noble • BooksAMillion

“Restitution” is the riveting, multigenerational story of Sylvie Rosenberg, a Holocaust survivor traumatized by the memory of her art dealer father forced to trade paintings with the Nazis in an attempt to save their large extended family.  Sylvie’s adult life in 1970s New York is plagued by survivors’ guilt and bitterness.  But when her self-destructive ways threaten to upend the life of her Vietnam-vet son, Sylvie finally needs to face her demons.  She returns to Holland to confront her past and fight the Dutch judicial system for the return of the masterpieces, but the battle proves far more difficult than Sylvie imagined...
Weaving in tragic true events from her own family history, Berg offers a sensitive story of history, romance, and humor along with detail from the extensive research of Lynn H. Nicholas, the world’s leading expert on art pilfered during WWII. Over 80 years later, the real family still awaits justice and the return of artwork that continues to hang on museum walls, without noting their tragic history…  

We are ending this tour over on two blogs!
Head on over to The Books Delight for a sneak-peek between the covers of this fabulous book!
Click HERE!
Head on over to CelticLady Reviews to find a spotlight post!
Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #7 of the blog tour for The Search (Across the Great Divide, Book II) by Michael L. Ross #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @MichaelLRoss7 @ADarnGoodRead

 

February 1st – February 19th 2021
Amazon UK • Amazon US • Amazon CA • Amazon AU • Barnes and Noble • Kobo 
Publication Date: December 15, 2020Publisher: HistoricalNovelsRUSPage Length: 217 PagesGenre: Historical Fiction, Christian Historical Fiction, Historical Romance

Where do you go when home is no longer an option?
The guns of the Civil War have ceased firing, and the shots are but an echo... yet the war rages on, deep inside Will Crump's soul. His "soldier's heart" is searching for peace, and in that quest Will joins the westward movement, setting his path on a collision course with adventure, loss, and love.
The Westward Expansion floods the sacred, untouched lands with immigrants, bringing conflict to the Shoshone, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Amidst the chaos Will finds safety in the shadow of the US Army, but the army brings battle-hardened troops into Red Cloud's War, pulling Will into a tornado of conflict. Broken treaties and promises leave both sides searching for answers. Will's search leads him to a battle for survival, and there he finds a love that could change him forever.
Dove, a young Shoshone woman, is a survivor of the Bear Creek Massacre. After being kidnapped and escaping from the Cheyenne, she joins Will's search, seeking where she belongs. Dove longs for more than the restricted role placed on women in her tribe. If she can learn to trust a white man, he just might help her find home... and hope.
Together, Will and Dove must search for understanding, and reach Across the Great Divide.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Best-selling author Michael Ross is a lover of history and great stories. He's a retired software engineer turned author, with three children and five grandchildren, living in Newton, Kansas with his wife of forty years. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, and still loves Texas. The main character of "Across the Great Divide", William Dorsey Crump, is one of the founders of Lubbock and Shallowater, Texas. Michael knew Will's granddaughter when he was a child. He has written a scholarly article on Will Crump for the Texas Historical Society, published in the Handbook of Texas Online, and has sold short stories in the past. This is his first novel and the first in the Across the Great Divide series, now an Amazon bestseller.

Michael attended Rice University as an undergraduate, and Portland State University for his graduate degree. He has degrees in computer science, software engineering, and German. In his spare time, Michael loves to go fishing, riding horses, and play with his grandchildren, who are currently all under six years old.

He sees many parallels between the time of the Civil War and our divided nation of today. Sanctuary cities, immigration, arguments around the holiday table, threats of secession - all are nothing new. Sometimes, to understand the present, you have to look at the past- and reach Across the Great Divide.  

Head on over to A Darn Good Read for a sneak-peek between the covers of this fabulous book!
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#BookReview — The Travels of Ibn Thomas by James Hutson-Wiley #HistoricalFiction

 

Publication Date: 24th November 2020Publisher: New Generation PublishingGenre: Historical Fiction

Thoma, the son of Thomas, the Sugar Merchant, born in Egypt but raised in England, is sent to the famous Salernitan Medical School to train as a physician in the early twelfth century. In Sicily, he saves the life of a prince and becomes court physician. But disaster strikes; escaping from Sicily, he is captured by pirates, befriends an assassin, and is plunged into political and religious turmoil in the Holy Land following the first crusade.

The adventures of a man torn between religious and political loyalties, and embroiled in international conflict and intrigue, The Travels of ibn Thomas, the second book in the series that began with The Sugar Merchant, is a gripping story of one man's life, and a fascinating glimpse into the tumultuous twelfth century commercial and scientific revolution when the three Abrahamic faiths meet in both cooperation and deadly conflict.

“Here I was, a Christian pretending to be a Muslim who would now pretend again to be a Christian. At best, this was confusing…”

…and not to mention dangerous. But Thomas lives in a world of chaos and confusion, where religious intolerance and political uncertainly ran hand in hand with wealth, greed, power, and fear.

Torn between religious and political loyalties, Thomas, a respected court physician, is determined to find out exactly what had happened to his father. If his father was dead, as he was rumoured to be, then Thomas could claim his inheritance, which the Abbey held in trust until his majority. But not everyone wants Thomas to discover the truth of what had happened to his father, and they will stop at nothing to keep Thomas from claiming what is rightfully his…

From a young man’s ambition to become a respected physician to an extraordinary audience with the Pope, The Travels of Ibn Thomas by James Hutson-Wiley is what Historical Fiction is all about!

The narrative of this novel swept me away. Hutson-Wiley’s crystalline prose and his intuitive understanding of what makes history worth reading made this book unputdownable. This is a story that not only captured my attention from the opening sentence but continued to hold it until the final full stop. This book is, in all ways, a Historical Fiction triumph.

Told in the first person, The Travels of Ibn Thomas is the story of one young man’s search for the truth. Due to his rather unconventional upbringing, Thomas finds himself at a disadvantage right from the start. He was born a Muslim, forced to convert to Christianity, and has a Jewish adoptive uncle, which means Thomas is in a unique, yet dangerous position. Hutson-Wiley captured the very real struggle that Thomas has with his identity. Torn between two warring religions, he must ultimately choose, knowing that either way he risked being accused of apostasy. When he finally does decide to embrace one religion, he does so not because he has suddenly seen the light, but because it serves his own desires to do so. By choosing, he finally takes control of his destiny.

As stated above, throughout this novel Thomas has to hide who he is behind a religious mask—depending on who and where he is. His position as a court physician does open some doors, but he is constantly living a double life, pretending to be someone he is not. It is only occasionally when he lets this mask slip, such as drinking wine while practising the Muslim faith. At times, Thomas feels tremendous guilt at all the pretence, but his determination to claim his inheritance, which has been put in the Church’s trust, means that he is determined to play the part he has been given until he can claim what is rightfully his. Despite this pretence, Thomas does develop close friendships. Thomas is genuinely fond of Sukman Ibn Artuq, and I thought their relationship was particularly telling. Thomas and Sukman are thrown together in unforeseen circumstances, and they continue to travel together for a good part of this book. Sukman is a character who is exceedingly sure of himself. He knows who he is. He knows what he believes, and he knows who his enemies are. He is also consistently loyal to Thomas, saving his life on several occasions. It is just a shame that Thomas can never confess to Sukman of his own conflicted feelings when it came to his spiritual uncertainty.

The novel questions the traditional notion of morality, faith, and justice. Hutson-Wiley has depicted a Holy Land in crisis where Christians despise Muslims and the Muslims return their feelings. But there are also religious tensions between the Shia and the Sunni, and, not forgetting, the Western Christians’ rather ungodly feelings towards the Greeks. The Jewish population had been systematically abused and murdered. This is a Holy Land soaked in blood. There is no meeting in the middle of the religious factions in this book. There are no negotiations, no sitting down and thrashing out theological debate, which makes it even more of a distressing situation for Thomas because he is straddling two profoundly different religions. However, Thomas sometimes uses his understanding of both faiths to his advantage, although he is often left befuddled by what he witnesses. This point is driven home by his friendship with Sukman who is indifferent to taking human life, but must ask Allah for forgiveness for taking a horse’s life.

The desperate desire for revenge is an underlying theme that is woven with great skill between this remarkable book’s pages. The concept of what revenge looks like and how it should be delivered is often up for debate, and although Thomas is content to live a life of peace, others are not so forgiving. Brother Jehan is a brooding, dark character that fascinated me because while he spews his hatred at the Moors, it is, in fact, himself and the things that he has done in the name of God that are really at the heart of the matter. This deeply conflicted, emotionally damaged character follows a path that there is no coming back from. Hatred and fear guide him and he will destroy anyone who gets in his way. I thought Brother Jehan’s portrayal was particularly well-drawn.

Hutson-Wiley has an especially dry sense of humour, and this shines through in his writing. There were many times when I found myself laughing out loud. I wasn’t expecting this novel to be as amusing as it was, but with characters such as Roland, there is no way you can read this book without being highly amused.

The historical detail in this novel has to be commended. Hutson-Wiley’s understanding of this era, of the warring factions, the uncertainties, the way trade was done, and the underlying social conventions shone through in every sentence. Hutson-Wiley deserves the highest of praises for his depiction of this period in history.

Although this novel is the second book in the series, it does stand firmly on its own two feet, but I think you would be doing yourself a grave disservice if you did not read The Sugar Merchant first.

The Travels of Ibn Thomas by James Hutson-Wiley is, without a doubt, one of the best novels I have ever read that depicts this period of history. This novel is a must-read.

I Highly Recommend.

Review by Mary Anne Yarde.
The Coffee Pot Book Club.

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Jim Hutson-Wiley's long career in international trade and project finance involved extensive travel and residence in the Near East and Europe. He graduated with a BSFS from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and received an MBA from the Wharton School. He currently lives in Miami, Florida with his wife and two Chartreux cats.

Check out Brynmor Leyshon fabulous #novella — Magical Town #Comedy @BrynmorLeyshon

 

Publication Date: 24th August 2015Publisher: Independently PublishedPage Length: 124 PagesGenre: Political Comedy
A retired history professor. A physicist working secretly underground. And a town. A town so changed for the more extraordinary, it cannot be put into words.
I am Professor Donovan and I have written this true account of what happened when I travelled to Lowestoft to write a book about witchcraft.
Magic is indeed real!



Chapter 1
Far, far away, in the depths of a place called East Anglia, where nothing much happens, and not much has happened, lies a town. This town, quite with the spirit of the region, has not been host to many extraordinary events. Yet it is in this town that the story starts and ends! It is in this town that the extraordinary became the norm, albeit for a week or so. Nonetheless, it is this town which is now remembered as Magical Town!
A quiet fishing village, in the years prior to The Great Flood of 1953… Lowestoft, or Magical Town, was, and is host, to the varied characters of Great Britain. It had and has its billionaires, its benefit seekers and everything in between. It’s not so hard to believe then, that these clashes of character added a certain element to the story I’m about to tell you. The story I’m about to tell you is one in which foes clashed fiercely. In which benefit seekers had magical powers. And in which magic was finally studied and proven to be an electromagnetic source of energy with far reaching and practical properties, which we have now learnt to harness. Above all, the story I’m about to tell you is one I did indeed experience and wrote entirely from cold hard facts and wit. With the prelude aside we can now begin our story on a Tuesday morning on the High Street of the soon to be known as… Magical Town.
Mrs Clark was an old age pensioner and had never been better. A retired bank clerk, she was now enjoying her wonderful state pension at the expense of the current taxpayer. Not that Mrs Clark cared. She’d done fifty odd years of counting money and handing it to people. It was only fair that she got something in return. She’d had children. Her children had had children. She’d been and still went on family holidays. She’d worked hard. She’d truly been happy and had achieved a lot in her life. Now it was time to turn her attention to those who were just starting theirs. 
In the envelope she was carrying was a birthday card made out to Mark, and ten pounds sterling. Her grandson would be delighted with the gift of money. Everyone always was. She made her way up the High Street quickly, posted the letter, and noticing it was almost collection time, exclaimed a sigh of happiness as it fell to the bottom of the red post box.
Several metres away, a young gentleman wearing sports clothing and a baseball cap approached another young gentleman, who was dressed similarly... in fact… almost identically. After a quick upward jerk of the head they both exchanged something between them and walked off in opposite directions with no further altercations. Mrs Clark glanced at them, shook her head, and then made her way back down the High Street. Mrs Clark was well aware of what they were up to and had called the police on several occasions when these abandoned youth had caused her problems. The last time she’d rung them was when they’d stolen her pint of milk from her doorstep in broad daylight and said, “It’s poisoned, innit.”
Mrs Clark shook the youth commonly known as Roachman out of her head and carried on home.



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Brynmor Leyshon is an actor, author, screenwriter and musician. He lives in South Wales and is a keen runner and avid reader. Magical Town is his debut book.
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