Mary Anne Yarde's Blog: The Coffee Pot Book Club , page 76

Check out Iona Morrison's fabulous book — Key to the Past (A Blue Cove Mystery Book 8) #Fantasy #Paranormal @ionacrv

Key to the Past

(A Blue Cove Mystery Book 8)

By Iona Morrison

 

Plans for a romantic weekend celebrating their recent engagement at a charming inn go awry when Detective Matt Parker and bookstore owner Jessie Reynolds are suddenly pulled into another case. A missing girl's ghost, an antique key, and an improbable journey take Jessie into another dimension to solve the murder, leaving Matt behind to wonder if he will ever see her again. Bullets fly and sparks ignite—as the past and the present collide, in their most unusual case to date.

 

Excerpt

 

Compelled by a strange force pulling at her, Jessie slipped out of bed. The closer she got to the dresser, the harder it was for her to look away. “Kimberly,” she called to her. The weeping girl stopped crying. Jessie reached for an antique key, which rested prominently on the dresser. She hadn’t seen it there earlier. Clutching the key in her hand, a strange electric sensation coursed through her body. What was happening to her? She dropped the key to the ground, but it was too late. The room was moving, and so was she. The light, like a huge hand, lifted her off her feet, slowly spinning her round and round. The tempo began to build faster and faster. The light tugged her, pressing her into its current, and then it all went dark.

 

Pick up your copy of

Key to the Past

Amazon UK • Amazon US • Barnes and Noble • Walmart • Target

Add Key to the Past to your ‘to-read’ list on

Goodreads

Iona Morrison

I am a multi-published, Amazon Best Selling author who writes romantic suspense with a touch of the paranormal. I enjoy writing fiction. The character development, their stories, and the twists and turns in the plot intrigue me. Once I let the characters loose, I can't wait to see where they take me. I'm hooked from the first words on the paper and I have to keep writing to see how the story ends. Layer by layer I build it until I come to the happy conclusion.

I am a member of the Colorado Authors League and RMFWPAL (Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Published Authors League) and have enjoyed becoming involved in my community as one of the many authors living in Colorado. I invite you to read one of my Blue Cove Mysteries and see for yourself why Blue Cove is a special and unusual place.

Connect with Iona:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn •  Amazon Author Page • BookBub • Goodreads.

 

Have a sneak-peek between the covers of N.A. Granger's fabulous book — The Last Pilgrim #HistoricalFiction @NAGrangerAuthor

The Last Pilgrim

The Life of Mary Allerton Cushman

By N.A. Granger

 

The Last Pilgrim: The Life of Mary Allerton Cushman captures and celebrates the grit and struggle of the Pilgrim women, who stepped off the Mayflower in the winter of 1620 to an unknown world – one filled with hardship, danger and death.  The Plymouth Colony would not have survived without them.

Mary Allerton Cushman was the last surviving passenger of the Mayflower, dying at age 88 in 1699. Her unusually long life and her relationships with important men – her father, Isaac Allerton and her husband, Thomas Cushman – gave her a front row seat to the history of the Plymouth Colony from its beginnings as the first permanent settlement in New England to when it became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.

Mary’s life is set against the real background of that time. The Last Pilgrim begins from her father’s point of view – she was, after all, only four when she descended into the small living space below deck on the Mayflower – but gradually assumes Mary’s voice, as the colony achieves a foothold in the New England’s rocky soil. Hers is a story of survival - the daily, back-breaking work to ensure food on the table, the unsettled interactions with local native tribes, the dangers of wild animals, and the endless challenges of injury, disease and death.

What was a woman’s life like in the Plymouth Colony? The Last Pilgrim will tell you.

 

Excerpt

 

On a cold autumn day in 1643, with the harvest in, I took my basket and went with young Thomas to walk in the woods. There I picked such wild herbs and greens as still grew and gathered nuts. Thomas, with his wild imagination, hid behind trees, playing hunter and pretending to shoot game. The woods were magical during that time of year. Many leaves had already fallen, creating a soft, colorful carpet under our feet, while the sun bathed us in golden light as it passed through the yellow leaves remaining on the beech and larch trees.

 

Ever mindful of wild animals, I always brought a knife, thinking it would be enough protection should we encounter anything dangerous. Up until then, I had only seen deer and skunks, but just days before, we had heard the call of lions in the night. Even thus forewarned, my heart nearly stopped when I saw a large tawny cat at the far edge of the clearing where I stood. As it stalked something, I followed its line of sight and felt a surge of terror when I spotted its intended victim, my son. I yelled out to distract it, dropped the basket and took my knife from my waist, running toward young Thomas, getting to him just as the cat leapt. They went down in a flash of his russet coat and the cat’s golden fur. Thomas’ screams blended with my yells, echoing in the woods, and he fought at the claws. With one hand I grabbed the cat by its scruff, as I would a kitten, to keep its teeth from Thomas’ neck. With the other, I stabbed at it, a hard thing to do as they tumbled. I felt the knife penetrate the cat, and giving a hiss and a wail, it released my son and ran off, disappearing into the trees.

 

I knelt to examine what damage the wild thing had done, while Thomas moaned, his eyes fixed on something in the distance. The cat’s claws had rent the back and sleeves of his waistcoat and blood seeped through the slashes. Deep scratches covered his hands. The most worrisome was the bite mark on his neck, dribbling blood, where the cat’s jaws had seized him. I believed my yelling had distracted the animal from breaking his neck.

 

“Can you walk, Thomas?” I asked him, but the shock of the attack had rendered him nearly senseless. I would have to carry him.

 

My son weighed several stones, and I pulled him up with great difficulty. Then I bent and lifted him over my shoulder and began the long walk back to the house, staggering under his weight. By the time I reached our gate, I’d almost dropped him several times and with great relief, finally let him slip to the ground as I reached the palisade. 

 

“Sarah, come help me!” I couldn’t hear my words for the ringing in my ears, but Sarah ran out of the house, carrying Button, whom she set down as soon as she saw us. “Help me drag Thomas into the house.”

 

Together, we got him on a mattress and I stripped off his clothes. First, I examined his neck, where I thankfully found only shallow punctures – I’d kept the cat from far worse. I ran my hand over his head, checking for further blood and found none. However, Thomas’ arms and chest were badly clawed, but not very deeply because of the layers he wore. Only a few of the slashes would need sewing, thanks be to God.

 

He finally appeared to recognize where he was and began to shiver with shock. I had Sarah warm some of the whiskey that my husband made from corn and kept for his guests and forced some of it into my son’s mouth. He coughed violently, but the color returned to his cheeks and his eyes finally focused on my face.

 

“Mother, was that a wild cat?” he asked. 

 

“Yes, and you’re a lucky young man, because I think it was young, based on its size. Thomas…it’s going to hurt, what I must do to treat your wounds. Are you brave enough to stand some pain?”

 

“I can do it,” he said, but I saw fear in his eyes.

 

I swabbed each slash with soap and water to wash away the dirt and blood, then poured a little whiskey on them, which one of my gossip members had recommended. I knew full well how much it stung him, and he took it bravely. Finally, I told him I would need to stitch two of the slashes on his chest, the worst part.

 

While I did the sewing, he gripped Sarah’s hand until she groaned in pain, and while he cried quietly, he never screamed. I sat back, pleased with my work. “This is the sweet part,” I told him with a smile, packing honey into his wounds before wrapping them all in clean linen. When I had finished, he looked as if he were covered in a shroud from the waist up. Then his eyes closed, and I thought he’d fainted, but he’d just fallen asleep.

 

Sometime later, when my son sat up and said, “I’m hungry. What is there to eat?” I had to turn my head to hide the tears. The experience had shaken me to my roots, and it was the hand of God that had helped me save him. I knew he would bear the scars of the cat for many years, and I hoped they would remind him of God’s love.

 

When my husband returned for his midday meal and saw his son, I allowed young Thomas to tell the story of our encounter with the cat, only adding a few details. After a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving for his son’s delivery, to which we all added our voices, Thomas took his musket and left to retrieve my basket and follow the wounded cat. He didn’t find it, so perhaps I hadn’t wounded it mortally.

 

In bed that night, Thomas whispered to me, “You were very brave today, my dear wife. With God’s power flowing through you, you saved our son. I hope such a terrible thing will never happen to you again, but this new world presents us all with unforeseen dangers.”

Warm, drowsy and feeling safe in his arms, I struggled to listen to him. As my eyes closed, I murmured, “I should have had a bigger knife.”

 

 

Pick up your copy of

The Last Pilgrim

Amazon UK • Amazon US

Add The Last Pilgrim to your ‘to-read’ list on

Goodreads

 

N.A. Granger

N.A. GRANGER is a Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. After forty years of research and teaching undergraduates and medical students, plus earning her EMT license, she decided to turn her hand to writing and created the Rhe Brewster Mystery Series.

Having grown up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the author worked as one of the first reenactors at Plimoth Plantation when it opened, which is where the idea of writing a book to honor the Pilgrim women took seed. This stayed with her over the years, resulting in The Last Pilgrim, the story of Mary Allerton Cushman, the oldest surviving passenger on the Mayflower.

The author has also written for Coastal Living and Sea Level magazines and several times for the Bella Online Literary Review.

She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband and a Maine coon cat who blogs, and she spends a portion of every summer in Plymouth and in Maine, researching for her books.

Connect with N.A. Granger

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook.

 

 

Check out Gretchen Jeannette's fabulous book — The Devil Take Tomorrow HistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance @GAJeannette

The Devil Take TomorrowBy Gretchen Jeannette

George Washington has been marked for death. British agents embedded in the Continental Army wait only for the order to strike. Racing against time, rebel spy Ethan Matlock sets out to protect the one man who can save the Revolution. Without General Washington, the whole American enterprise might easily collapse, for no one else has demonstrated the ability to keep together an army that constantly threatens to fall apart.

Boldly Ethan infiltrates the heart of the British military, occupiers of grand old Philadelphia, where elegant officers posture in drawing rooms and frolic in the bedrooms of the rich. Surrounded by twenty thousand redcoats, aware that the slightest misstep could lead to the gallows, Ethan resorts to vicious measures to unravel a conspiracy of power-hungry men. Against his better judgment, he becomes entangled with the provocative Miss Maddie Graves, whose fierce devotion to the American cause ironically threatens his mission.

The Coffee Pot Book Club

★★★★★ 

Highly Recommended

Read the full review HERE!

Pick up your copy ofThe Devil Take TomorrowAmazon UK • Amazon US

Gretchen Jeannette
Gretchen Jeannette was born in 1955 in Wilmington, Delaware. She lives and works in Chester County, Pennsylvania, an area rich in Revolutionary War and Colonial American history. Her enduring interest in 18th Century America began at a young age, inspired by the novels of Dale Van Every and Allan Eckert, whose timeless tales of adventure and romance capture the essence of early American lore. Eager to read more such stories, to her disappointment she had trouble finding them on bookshelves, so she decided to write one of her own. Thus began a journey fueled by her passion for breathing life into history through believable characters, authentic historical details, and plots woven with adventure, romance and suspense.
Connect with Gretchen: Website • Twitter • Goodreads.

Welcome to Day #3 of the blog tour for The Devil's Crossing by Hana Cole #HistoricalFiction #TheDevilsCrossing #CoffeePotBookClub @gwendalyn_books @hanascribe

 

The Devil's Crossing

By Hana Cole

 

1212. The Chartrain, France.

 

Gui is a troubled priest who has been shielding his secret family for years.

Agnes, his beloved, is a falsely-accused heretic he rescued from the Inquisition’s pyre.

Their son Etienne, unaware of his father’s true identity, is coming of age. Tired of his lowly shepherd’s life, he seeks adventure. The Crusade is the perfect opportunity to prove himself to the world.  He has no reason to suspect the men offering him passage overseas are not what they seem.

 

Discovering that Etienne has been sold into slavery, Gui and Agnes set off to find him. If Gui is ever to tell his son the truth, he must give up his comfortable compromises and fight the battle of his life against the institution he has served devoutly.

 

Meanwhile, Agnes guards a secret of her own; she must face her past in a confrontation with the venal Amaury, Lord of Maintenon, that will either set her free or claim her life.

If they are to save their son and expose the slave trade, they must risk everything to overcome the powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to protect their positions and silence them.

 

Check out this fabulous review by Gwendalyn's Books:

Click HERE! 

 

Welcome to Day #1 of the blog tour for Drake: Tudor Corsair #HistoricalFiction #SirFrancisDrake #CoffeePotBookClub @tonyriches @Beatric09625662

  

Drake - Tudor Corsair

(The Elizabethan Series Book 1)

By Tony Riches

 

1564

 

Devon sailor Francis Drake sets out on a journey of adventure.

 

Drake learns of routes used to transport Spanish silver and gold, and risks his life in an audacious plan to steal a fortune.

 

Queen Elizabeth is intrigued by Drake and secretly encourages his piracy. Her unlikely champion becomes a national hero, sailing around the world in the Golden Hind and attacking the Spanish fleet.

 

King Philip of Spain has enough of Drake’s plunder and orders an armada to threaten the future of England.

 

The first stop of our tour is over on Candlelight Reading for a fabulous review.

 

Click HERE!

 

 

Check out USA Today bestselling author, Roberta Kagan's, fabulous book — Not In America: Book One in a Jewish Family Saga #HistoricalFiction @RobertaKagan

 

Not In America

Book One in a Jewish Family Saga

By Roberta Kagan

“Jews drink the blood of Christian babies. They use it for their rituals. They are evil and they consort with the devil.” These words rang out in 1928 in a small town in upstate New York when little four-year-old Evelyn Wilson went missing. A horrible witch hunt ensued that was based on a terrible folk tale known as the blood libel.

Follow the Schatzman’s as their son is accused of the most horrific crime imaginable. This accusation destroys their family and sends their mother and sister on a journey home to Berlin just as the Nazi’s are about to come to power.

Not in America is based on true events. However, the author has taken license in her work, creating a what if tale that could easily have been true.

 

Excerpt

 

Imagine, if you will, that you have boarded a time capsule, and it has transported you to a time and place where life was simpler, where the neighborhood children chased fireflies until well after dark, and folks never locked their doors. It’s the late 1920s, and violent crime is unheard of in this small, fictitious town that lies stretched along the Saint Lawrence Seaway in Upstate New York.  This quaint little village lies huddled under elms and weeping willow trees far from the sins of the big city. 

Let us give this little town a name. Let us call her Medina, with her tree-lined streets, white-wood farmhouses, and heavily scented rosebushes, was divided into two distinct and very different sectors. The larger of the two areas was populated by hardworking folks, most of whom were employed at the local factories. Now, although it wasn’t discussed very much, it was  true that some of these folks in that very sector belonged to a mean-spirited group known as the KKK, but the KKK kept to themselves, so no one paid much attention.

On the other side of Medina was the smaller section.  It was only a few streets away, but once you passed the corner of Main Street, where the synagogue stood, with two stained-glass windows and a large wooden door, you knew you’d entered the Jewish part of town. On Friday nights and on Jewish holidays one might hear the lovely baritone sound of the cantor coming from inside the temple.  The people who made their homes here were primarily Jewish immigrants, who were business owners and professionals. 

Although there was always an awareness on both sides that an invisible line lay between them that must never be crossed, these two very different groups of people had lived side by side for centuries without much trouble.  They even frequented each other’s sectors, and often spoke courteously to one another.  Sometimes the non-Jewish housewives bought bread at the Jewish bakery or had their shoes fixed by the Jewish cobbler.  The Jewish families sometimes ventured to the other side to visit a movie theater or a museum. And . . . all was well. At least until it wasn’t.

One day something happened . . . something  that rocked that little village like an earthquake . . . something that sent shock waves through the Jewish people who had built their lives in that small, comfortable, protected town, making them realize that even in America, where the streets were surely paved in gold,  they must never take their safety for granted. Even here, hatred for God’s chosen people lay buried right beneath the oak tree in the village square.  And in the time it takes for lightning to flash down from the sky, everything they’d spent their lives building, could be consumed by flames. But this couldn’t happen . . . not in America . . . could it?

 

Pick up your copy of

Not In America

Amazon

Add Not in America to your ‘to-read’ list on

Goodreads

Roberta Kagan

When I was a child my mother kept a black suitcase in our basement. She forbade me to look inside. Of course, as we all know the way to spark a child's curiosity is to tell them they are forbidden to do or see a particular thing. One afternoon when my mother was out, I raced downstairs. Nobody was around so I opened the suitcase. Inside I found pictures and letters in a foreign language. Later that night I asked my mother what all of it meant. She told me that she was trying to protect me by keeping the suitcase out of my reach, but since I'd found it I might as well know that she and my father both lost their entire extended families in the Holocaust. So began my obsession with the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe. Being that my father was Romany and my mother was Jewish, I had many aspects to research and much to learn. Finally, many years later...I wrote my first novel. It is set in this period. It comes to you, along with all of my work, from my heart, with love and hopes that someday there will be understanding and tolerance among all peoples. I thank you so much for your interest in my writing.

Love, Blessings, Good Fortune, and as the Gypsies say Good Road to all of you,

Roberta Kagan

Connect with Roberta:

Website • Facebook • Roberta Kagan’s Book Club • Twitter.

Check out Alison Booth's fabulous book — The Philosopher’s Daughters #HistoricalFiction #Australia @booth_alison

 

The Philosopher’s Daughters

By Alison Booth

A tale of two very different sisters whose 1890s voyage from London into remote outback Australia becomes a journey of self-discovery, set against a landscape of wild beauty and savage dispossession.

From nineteenth century London to the outback of Australia, two sisters – pulled apart by love – are brought together by tragedy.

 

When Harriet Cameron follows her beloved sister Sarah to the harsh Australian outback – as dangerous as it is beautiful, as mysterious as it is wild – she is alienated by the casual violence and great injustices of outback life.

 

Harriet’s recovery begins with her growing friendship with an Aboriginal stockman and her increasing love for the landscape. But this fragile happiness is soon threatened by murders at a nearby cattle station and by a menacing station hand who is seeking revenge…

 

Praise for The Philosopher’s Daughters

 

‘A lyrical tale of wild, frontier Australia. Evocative, insightful, thought-provoking’
Karen Viggers

‘Two young women in outback Australia in the 1890s, where the brilliant sunlight may illuminate more than the landscape. Booth is superb at the small detail that creates a life, and the large one that gives it meaning.’
Marion Halligan

‘A delicately handled historical drama with the theme of finding self, both in relationships and art’
Tom Flood

 

 

Pick up your copy of

The Philosopher’s Daughters

Amazon UK • Amazon US • Waterstones • Kobo • Red Door • Book Depository

Add The Philosopher’s Daughters to your ‘to-read’ list on

Goodreads

Alison Booth

Novelist and academic Alison Booth was born in Australia and lived and worked for many years in the UK.  Her previous books include A Perfect Marriage (contemporary fiction), while her first three novels (Stillwater Creek, The Indigo Sky, and A Distant Land) are historical fiction spanning the 1950s through to the early 1970s. Alison’s work has been translated into French and has been published by Reader’s Digest Select Editions in Asia and Europe. Stillwater Creek was Highly Commended in the 2011 ACT Book of the Year Award, and A Perfect Marriage was Highly Commended in the 2019 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards.

 

Connect with Alison:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram

 

 

 

Check out Mary Ann Bernal's fabulous book — Planetary Wars, Rise of an Empire scific @BritonandDane

Planetary Wars Rise of an EmpireBy Mary Ann Bernal

Caught up in a whirlwind romance, Anastasia Dennison, M.D., does not realize her husband is the terrifying dictator, Jayden Henry Shaw, who rules the galaxy with an iron fist while pretending to defend the vulnerable against the Imperial Forces of the Empire.

Denying the existence of widespread suffering, Anastasia ignores her principles as she embraces the spoils of war and takes her rightful place among the upper echelon of Terrenean society.

Will Anastasia continue to support her husband’s quest for complete domination of every world within the cosmos, or will she follow her conscience and fight the evil invading her home?

The Coffee Pot Book Club

★★★★★ 

Highly Recommended

Read the full review HERE!

Pick up your copy ofPlanetary Wars Rise of an EmpireAmazon UK • Amazon US


Mary Ann Bernal  Mary Ann Bernal attended Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, where she received a degree in Business Administration.  Her literary aspirations were ultimately realized when the first book of The Briton and the Dane novels was published in 2009.  In addition to writing historical fiction, Mary Ann has also authored a collection of contemporary short stories in the Scribbler Tales series. Her latest endeavor is a science fiction/fantasy novel entitled Planetary Wars Rise of an Empire. Originally hailing from New York, Mary Ann now resides in Elkhorn, Nebraska. 

Connect with Mary Ann: Website • Whispering Legends Press • Twitter.

Welcome to Day #6 of the blog tour of The Last King: England — The First Viking Age (The Ninth Century Book 1) #HistoricalFiction #GreatReads @coloursofunison

 

The Last King: England: The First Viking Age

(The Ninth Century Book 1)

By M J Porter

They sent three hundred warriors to kill one man. It wasn’t enough.

Mercia lies broken but not beaten, her alliance with Wessex in tatters.

Coelwulf, a fierce and bloody warrior, hears whispers that Mercia has been betrayed from his home in the west. He fears no man, especially not the Vikings sent to hunt him down.

To discover the truth of the rumours he hears, Coelwulf must travel to the heart of Mercia, and what he finds there will determine the fate of Mercia, as well as his own.

  

Today we are stopping over at

Mary's Bookcase

Click HERE!

Welcome to Day #2 of the blog tour for The Devil's Crossing by Hana Cole #HistoricalFiction #TheDevilsCrossing #CoffeePotBookClub @hanascribe

  

The Devil's Crossing

By Hana Cole

 

1212. The Chartrain, France.

 

Gui is a troubled priest who has been shielding his secret family for years.

Agnes, his beloved, is a falsely-accused heretic he rescued from the Inquisition’s pyre.

Their son Etienne, unaware of his father’s true identity, is coming of age. Tired of his lowly shepherd’s life, he seeks adventure. The Crusade is the perfect opportunity to prove himself to the world.  He has no reason to suspect the men offering him passage overseas are not what they seem.

 

Discovering that Etienne has been sold into slavery, Gui and Agnes set off to find him. If Gui is ever to tell his son the truth, he must give up his comfortable compromises and fight the battle of his life against the institution he has served devoutly.

 

Meanwhile, Agnes guards a secret of her own; she must face her past in a confrontation with the venal Amaury, Lord of Maintenon, that will either set her free or claim her life.

If they are to save their son and expose the slave trade, they must risk everything to overcome the powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to protect their positions and silence them.

 

We are taking a sneak-peek between the covers of The Devil’s Crossing over on Let The Word Shine... and The Books Delight

 

Let The Words Shine... • The Books Delight