Catherine Meyrick's Blog, page 4

Book Review – The Midsummer Women by Jean M Roberts

Blurb

Since childhood, Ethnobotanist Hannah Heronstone has had a passion for healing plants and their use through the centuries. Orphaned at birth, she’s unaware of her connection to an ancient lineage of cunning women, healers, and yes, even witches. But they have not forgotten about her.

A surprise invitation to an archaeological dig lures Hannah to Maine and the site of a long forgotten English colony, abandoned in 1608. The presence of Dr. Peter Wentworth, rich, charming, and a rec...

My Reading – July to September 2024

The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning
The darkness was increasing rapidly, as the whole sky had clouded, and threatened thunder. There was still some desultory shelling.

Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War by Joan Beaumont
Clarence Joe Russell, known to his family as Joe, volunteered to serve in the Australian Infantry Force (AIF) on 4 December 1916. This was not an obvious time to enlist.

When Blackbirds Sing by Martin Boyd
All the way home on the ship Dominic though...

Apollo’s Raven by Linnea Tanner

Today I’m delighted to be sharing Linnea Tanner’s novel, Apollo’s Raven, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Apollo’s Raven is the first book in the Curse of Clansmen and Kings series set in first century Rome and Britannia.

Blurb

A Celtic warrior princess is torn between her forbidden love for the enemy and duty to her people.

Award-winning Apollo’s Raven sweeps you into an epic Celtic tale of forbidden love, mythological adventure, and political intrigue in ...

Excerpt – Bandy by Craig R. Hipkins

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Craig R. Hipkins’ novel Bandy as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Bandy is a Young Adult adventure set in the months before the start of the American Civil War.

Blurb

Isaac’s only friend is a passenger pigeon named Bandy. He deludes himself in believing the bird talks to him. Bullied, he is resigned to a life of being the misunderstood bookworm by neighboring boys until a disastrous fire kills his parents and l...

Book Review – No Ordinary Convict: a Welshman called Rebecca by Janine Marshall Wood

Blurb

There he was – John Hughes – a handsome young man with face blackened, clad in a white nightdress and bonnet adorned with feathers. Leading hundreds of other young farmers similarly disguised, he was on a mission. After midnight under moonlight, amid a cacophony of drums, horns, gunfire and general caterwauling, they announced their presence, with John leading the way on his while horse.

The Rebecca Riots took place between 1839 and 1844 to protest primarily about excessive tolls imp...

Venator by A M Swink

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from A. M. Swink’s newly released novel Venator as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Venator is the first book in the Roman Equestrian series.

Blurb

Britannia, AD 59. Decimus is a long-serving senior centurion who dreams of retirement in Rome. Luciana is a Cornovii princess devoted to the freedom and survival of her tribe. Connected only by a passion for horsemanship, the pair could not be more ill-matched. After a d...

Audiobook Excerpt – Fortune’s Wheel by Carolyn Hughes

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Carolyn Hughes’s recently released audiobook of her novel Fortune’s Wheel as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Fortune’s Wheel is the first book in The Meonbridge Chronicles series which follows a year in the life of the Hampshire village of Meonbridge as the survivors of the Black Death attempt to struggle on with their lives.

Blurb

How do you recover from the havoc wrought by history’s cruellest plague?

It’...

Excerpt – The Agincourt King by Mercedes Rochelle

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Mercedes Rochelle’s recent novel The Agincourt King as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. The Agincourt King is the latest book in her series, The Plantagenet Legacy.

Blurb

From the day he was crowned, Henry V was determined to prove the legitimacy of his house. His father’s usurpation weighed heavily on his mind. Only a grand gesture would capture the respect of his own countrymen and the rest of Europe. He woul...

Military Music – Western Australia, September 1914

Recently, while attempting to find examples of songs and music from the Word War 1 period that were not military, I stumbled across this delightful photo (definitely a search fail but a wonderful find).

Taken in September 1914 at Blackboy Hill camp, Western Australia, it shows Privates Leonard Darcy and John Pratley of the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance creating makeshift music. I also think it shows something of the enthusiasm and the innocence of those early months of World War 1 in Aust...

Excerpt – The Curse of Maiden Scars by Nicolette Croft

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Nicolette Croft’s newly released novel, The Curse of Maiden Scars, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. The Curse of Maiden Scars  is set against the backdrop of Venice’s tumultuous Napoleonic invasion of 1797.

Blurb

Sixteen-year-old Renna Covert toils away in the shadows of a Yorkshire workhouse, her days filled with the mundane task of shelling cotton and the dangerous duty of scouting for punters. One fateful...