Please join us in welcoming Reina M. Williams Book Blast for her Love at Pemberley series

Please join Reina M. Williams on her Love at Pemberley Series Book Blast from May 12-June 13.

About Most Truly

Publication Date: December 15, 2013 Amazon Digital Services, Inc. eBook; 88 pages Heat level: Sweet Colonel James Fitzwilliam is home. The war has left him weary, battle-scarredóand a free man of fortune ready to find a wife. He travels to Pemberley, his second home. There he meets Kitty Bennet. Her unexpected charms soon have him questioning his familial duty and his expectations. A fight looms on the horizon when his auntóLady Catherine de Bourghóand his parents arrive with their own plans for his future. Kitty Bennet has found happiness. At Pemberley, she has improved herself and formed true friendships with her sister Lizzy and Georgiana Darcy. Kitty is captivated by the gentlemanly Colonel Fitzwilliam. But she will not be silly over a redcoat again, and she will not risk her happinessóor his familyís displeasureófor his attentions. Colonel Fitzwilliam, Darcy, Lizzy, and Georgiana have their say, and Kitty learns a new lessonólove will find you at Pemberley.

About Miss Darcy Decides

Publication Date: January 21, 2014 Amazon Digital Services, Inc. eBook; 77 pages Heat level: Sweet Miss Darcy Decides is a light, sweet Pride and Prejudice novella, book two in the Love at Pemberley series. While visiting a young womanówho was not so fortunate as Miss Georgiana Darcy in escaping the persuasions of a rogueóGeorgiana meets Sir Camden Sutton, whose reputation causes Georgiana to wonder as to his motives. Her wondering soon turns to a different feeling when Sir Camden comes to stay at Pemberley, showing himself to be a very different man than was rumored. While Sir Camden struggles with his past and his commitment to his future, as well as the ill intentions of haughty Caroline Bingley, Miss Darcy must decide whether to listen to others, or the words written on her heart.

About Miss Bennet Blooms

Publication Date: 4/25/14 Amazon Digital Services, Inc. eBook; 70 pages Heat level: Sweet Miss Mary Bennet is the last unmarried Bennet sister. She believes she will live out her days as a maiden aunt, seeking quiet in the libraries and parlors of her father's and brother-in-laws' homes. On a visit to Pemberley, the estate of Fitzwilliam Darcy, her sister Lizzy's husband, Mary begins to feel more is possible than her planned life of solitude. Among new friends and with new confidence, Mary opens to new feelings when she meets Mr. Nathaniel Bingley. Nathaniel Bingley, at the insistence of his cousin Charles Bingley, finds himself at Pemberley. After Nathaniel's years in the West Indies studying its intense flora, he is ready to seclude himself to compile his work into a book. But Nathaniel could not say no to Charles, who was one of Nathaniel's few kind relatives after the deaths of his beloved parents. Soon, Nathaniel also finds it difficult to say no to his own feelings about the lovely Miss Mary Bennet. Can Mary and Nathaniel look beyond their plans and accept the grace of love at Pemberley?

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About the Author

Reina M. Williams loves period dramas, sweet reads, fairy tales, cooking and baking. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her two boys, who hope to someday take a research trip to England with their mom. For more information please visit Reina M. Williams's website. You can also connect with her on Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest.

Book Blast Schedule

May 12: Kincavel Korner May 13: Hardcover Feedback May 15: Peeking Between the Pages May 16: A Bookish Girl & The Lit Bitch May 20: CelticLady's Reviews May 21: Historical Tapestry & To Read, Or Not to Read May 22: Book Nerd, & Historical Fiction Obsession May 24: Passages to the Past May 26: Mari Reads May 27: Long Ago Love May 28: Kinx's Book Nook May 30: Flashlight Commentary June 1: Literary Chanteuse June 2: History From a Woman's Perspective June 4: She is Too Fond of Books June 5: So Many Books, So Little Time June 7: A Bookish Affair & Griperang's Bookmarks June 8: The True Book Addict June 9: West Metro Mommy June 11: Book Lovers Paradise, Historical Fiction Connection, and The Tower of Babel June 13: Carole's Ramblings & The Mad Reviewer

Giveaway

To win one of the following prizes please complete the Rafflecopter giveaway form below. Giveaway is open internationally.

• 2 eBook Sets of Love at Pemberley Trilogy

• 2 Audio Books of Most Truly

Giveaway ends at 11:59pm on June 13th. You must be 18 or older to enter. Winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter on June 14th and notified via email. Winner have 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Autumn in the City of Angels

about the book

Paperback, 362 pages

Published April 14th 2013 by Streetlights Publishing (first published April 13th 2013)

ISBN 0989036405 (ISBN13: 9780989036405)

edition languageEnglish

seriesAutumn #1

2014 NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD FINALIST!

What would you do if you lived through the apocalypse? The real fight to survive comes after everyone else is gone.

A plague of epic proportion sweeps the globe, leaving less than one percent of the world’s population immune. Among the living is Autumn Winters, the teenage daughter of a famous actress. When Autumn’s parents don’t come home and the city is overtaken by a dangerous faction, she goes into hiding with a small group of underground survivors. They’re led by a mysterious young man who harbors an unearthly secret, and with whom Autumn feels a deep connection. 

Autumn in the City of Angels is the first novel in a series, followed by Autumn in the Dark Meadows and Autumn in the City of Lights.

my thoughts

To begin, I am slightly tired of dystopian novels. It is a genre that is currently saturating the market.  That being said, this book reminded me why I loved dystopians.  I was drawn into the story from the very beginning.  To say I loved this story  would be an understatement.  

The characters are multidimensional. The reader will have a personal interest in the lives of each character.  I wasn't overly thrilled with the alien component.  I found it a bit creepy as the alien was several hundred years older than our female protagonist.

How is this story dystopian, well, a massive virus kills off most of Earth's population.  The few remaining citizens of Earth attempt to band together to survive.  As with any disaster, there are groups that attempt to take advantage of the situation and benefit from others need for food/lodging and medicine.

This book will hold your attention from beginning to end.  I have purchased book two and plan to read it over the summer.

Autumn is a character that commands respect. She is a strong young woman who WILL survive. No matter what.  Her instincts are sound, and she toughens up enough to become a strong leader to others.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves dystopian stories, strong characters or just a fun read.

Kirby Howell's Goodreads Page

about the authors

Dana Melton and Jessica Alexander, who write under the name Kirby Howell, have been writing together since 2000 when they met as freshman in their first script writing class at the University of Alabama.  Dana, a native Southerner, quickly showed Jessica the ropes and the joys of living below the Mason Dixon Line.  Having lived in nearly every other part of the country, it didn’t take Jessica long to acclimate to sweet tea, grits and football.  Four years later, with a couple of film degrees under their belts, they moved to Los Angeles to pursue their professional writing careers. 

The Missing One

about the book

Paperback, 480 pages

Published February 16th 2014 by Quercus Books (first published January 16th 2014)

ISBN 184866320X (ISBN13: 9781848663206)

edition languageEnglish

urlhttp://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/book/The-Missing-One-by-Lucy-Atkins-ISBN_9781848663206

The loss of her mother has left Kali McKenzie with too many unanswered questions. But while clearing out Elena’s art studio, she finds a drawer packed with postcards, each bearing an identical one-line message a Canadian gallery owner called Susannah Gillespie: thinking of you. Who is this woman and what does she know about Elena’s hidden past?

Desperate to find out, Kali travels with her toddler, Finn, to Susannah’s isolated home on a remote British Columbian island, a place of killer whales and storms. But as bad weather closes in, Kali quickly realises she has made a big mistake. The handsome and enigmatic Susannah refuses to talk about the past, and as Kali struggles to piece together what happened back in the 1970s, Susannah’s behaviour grows more and more erratic. Most worrying of all, Susannah is becoming increasingly preoccupied with little Finn . . .

A tense, thrilling novel about a family divided by secrets, and the lengths a mother will go to protect her child.

my thoughts

It's been a while since I've read a complete book in one sitting.  This book is amazing. I read the entire book in a few hours. 

This book will hook you in immediately and not let you go.

  A mother's relationship with her child is the heart and soul of this book. How much do we really know about our parents?  We see them as mom and dad, but they are much more.  Kali discovers this after the death of her mother.   

Some characters in this book are annoying, some arrogant, others merely sad.  All will somehow tug at your heart.

I highly recommend this book.  It is a wonderful summer/beach read.  

Thank you Eidelweiss/Above the treeline and Quercus Books for allowing me to read this truly wonderful story.

check out Lucy Atkins Goodreads page.

What can be better than a story about Pompeii?

Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/cursesandsmoketour

Tour Hashtag: #CursesandSmokeBlogTour

Publication Date: May 27, 2014

Arthur A. Levine Books

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Genre: YA Historical

about the book

When your world blows apart, what will you hold onto?

TAG is a medical slave, doomed to spend his life healing his master's injured gladiators. But his warrior's heart yearns to fight in the gladiator ring himself and earn enough money to win his freedom.

LUCIA is the daughter of Tag's owner, doomed by her father's greed to marry a much older Roman man. But she loves studying the natural world around her home in Pompeii, and lately she's been noticing some odd occurrences in the landscape: small lakes disappearing; a sulfurous smell in the air. . . .

When the two childhood friends reconnect, each with their own longings, they fall passionately in love. But as they plot their escape from the city, a patrician fighter reveals his own plans for them -- to Lucia's father, who imprisons Tag as punishment. Then an earthquake shakes Pompeii, in the first sign of the chaos to come. Will they be able to find each other again before the volcano destroys their whole world?

(above is an alternate cover...picture from Goodreads)

About the Author

Vicky Alvear Shecter is the author of the young adult novel, CLEOPATRA’S MOON (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 2011), based on the life of Cleopatra’s only daughter. She is also the author of two award-winning biographies for kids on Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. She is a docent at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Antiquities at Emory University in Atlanta.

my thoughts

Pompeii. The name says it all. We think of volcanic eruptions, Pliny, and the heartbreaking scenes we've seen from history shows on television and movies. 

This book has much more to offer. We are introduced to Lucia. She is the daughter of Lucius, owner of a gladiator school in Pompeii. When we meet Lucia, she is becoming betrothed to a man 45 years older than herself. She will be the young trophy wife of an old man who can infuse money into her father's gladiator school. Sad but true, women were used in this manner. Lucia is a very sheltered young woman, educated but naive. She is in love with Tages (Tag) a medicus (healer) who happens to be a slave owned by her father. What, a slave? Yes. As you can probably guess, a slave and the daughter of the house is a no-no.

As their love blossoms, we are witness to tremors, earthquakes and finally, the eruption of Vesuvius. Mixed in with this is a romantic triangle involving a rich boy from Herculaneum. No spoilers, but this is quite a punch added to the story. 

I enjoyed this book. I found it historically accurate and highly entertaining. Vicky Alvear Shecter is a fantastic author. The scenes of Vesuvius' eruption are spellbinding. I could not put this book down. The ending is heartbreaking, the descriptions of Pompeii during and after the eruption are just amazing. The author includes some historical information. For example, she places the eruption in October 79 CE, a date many scholars feel may be more accurate than August.

All in all, a fantastically written book, well researched and interesting to read.

Author Links

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Also by Vicky Alvear Shecter

THE LOST DUCHESS- Virtual tour + BookBlast

Please join Jenny Barden as she tours with HFVBT with her new book THE LOST DUCHESS

Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/thelostduchesstourandbookblast
Tour Hashtag: #LostDuchessBlogTour #LostDuchessBookBlast

Paperback Publication Date: June 5, 2014
Ebury Press
Paperback; 448p

An epic Elizabethan adventure with a thriller pace and a high tension love story that moves from the palaces of England to the savage wilderness of the New World.

Emme Fifield has fallen about as far as a gentlewoman can.

Once a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, her only hope of surviving the scandal that threatens to engulf her is to escape England for a fresh start in the new America where nobody has ever heard of the Duchess of Somerset.

Emme joins Kit Doonan’s rag-tag band of idealists, desperados and misfits bound for Virginia. But such a voyage will be far from easy and Emme finds her attraction to the mysterious Doonan inconvenient to say the least.

As for Kit, the handsome mariner has spent years imprisoned by the Spanish, and living as an outlaw with a band of escaped slaves; he has his own inner demons to confront, and his own dark secrets to keep…

Ever since Sir Walter Raleigh’s settlement in Virginia was abandoned in 1587 its fate has remained a mystery; ‘The Lost Duchess’ explores what might have happened to the ill-starred ‘Lost Colony’ of Roanoke.

Buy the Book

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About the Author

I’ve had a love of history and adventure ever since an encounter in infancy with a suit of armour at Tamworth Castle. Training as an artist, followed by a career as a city Jenny (Portrait 2)solicitor, did little to help displace my early dream of becoming a knight. A fascination with the Age of Discovery led to travels in South and Central America, and much of the inspiration for my debut came from retracing the footsteps of Francis Drake in Panama. The sequel centres on the first Elizabethan ‘lost colony’ of early Virginia. I am currently working on an epic adventure during the threat of invasion by the Spanish Armada.

My work has appeared in short story collections and anthologies and I’ve written for non-fiction publications including the Historical Novels Review. I am active in many organisations, having run the ‘Get Writing’ conferences for several years, and undertaken the co-ordination of the Historical Novel Society’s London Conference 2012. I am a member of that organisation as well as the Historical Writers’ Association, the Romantic Nevelists’ Association and the Society of Authors. I’ll be co-ordinating the RNA’s annual conference in 2014.

I have four children and now live on a farm in Dorset with my long suffering husband and an ever increasing assortment of animals.

I love travelling, art, reading and scrambling up hills and mountains (though I’m not so keen on coming down!).

Author Links

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Facebook

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Jenny Barden’s Blog

English Historical Fiction Authors Blog

Also by Jenny Barden

Publication Date: June 20, 2013

Ebury Press

Formats: Paperback, Ebook

Mistress Cooksley may be a wealthy merchant’s daughter, but she blushes at my words and meets my eyes look for look. Yet I cannot hope to court her without fortune, and a dalliance with a pretty maid will not hinder me from my path.

Captain Drake’s endeavour might bring me gold, but I, Will Doonan, will have my revenge.

The Spaniards captured my brother and have likely tortured and killed him. For God and St George, we’ll strike at the dogs and see justice done.

I thought I’d left Mistress Cooksley behind to gamble everything and follow Drake, and here she is playing the boy at the ends of the world. She’s a fool with a heart as brave as any man’s. Yet her presence here could be the ruin of us all…

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