SPOTLIGHT ON: A Lady's Guide to Gossip and Murder by Dianne Freeman

Publication Date: June 25, 2019
Kensington Publishing
Hardcover, eBook, AudioBook
Genre: Historical Mystery

Synopsis

How far will some go to safeguard a secret? In the latest novel in Dianne Freeman’s witty and delightful historical mystery series, the adventurous Countess Harleigh finds out...

Though American by birth, Frances Wynn, the now-widowed Countess of Harleigh, has adapted admirably to the quirks and traditions of the British

BOOK REVIEW: Valentines From Bath: A Bluestocking Belles Collection by Jessica Cale, Sherry Ewing, Jude Knight, Amy Quinton & Caroline Warfield

Valentine's Day may have come and gone for this year but Valentines from Bath is exactly what's needed if you're still craving some romance reading.

Synopsis

The Master of Ceremonies announces a great ball to be held on Valentine's Day in the Upper Assembly Rooms of Bath.

Ladies of the highest rank--and some who wish they were--scheme, prepare, and compete to make best use of the opportunity.

Dukes, earls, tradesmen, and the occasional charlatan

BOOK REVIEW: Georgiana Darcy: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Alice Isakova

Alice Isakova's debut novel is a very entertaining sequel featuring Georgiana Darcy and her cousin Anne de Bourgh, two minor characters from Pride and Prejudice.

Synopsis

With her temptingly large dowry, the beautiful and talented Georgiana Darcy catches the eye of numerous suitors, not all of whom wish to marry purely for love. As Georgiana navigates the treacherous waters of courtship, her story becomes intertwined with that of Anne de Bourgh, her wealthy but painfully awkward cousin, who stirs up trouble

BOOK REVIEW/BLOG TOUR: A Holiday by Gaslight: A Victorian Christmas Novella by Mimi Matthews

Publication Date: November 13, 2018
Perfectly Proper Press
eBook & Paperback; 172 Pages
Genre: Historical Romance/Christmas/Novella

Synopsis

A Courtship of Convenience

Sophie Appersett is quite willing to marry outside of her class to ensure the survival of her family. But the darkly handsome Mr. Edward Sharpe is no run-of-the-mill London merchant. He's grim and silent. A man of little emotion--or perhaps no emotion at all. After two months

BOOK REVIEW/BLOG TOUR: A Pivotal Right by K.A. Servian

Publication Date: August 15, 2018
Paperback & eBook
Series: Shaking the Tree, Book #2
Genre: Historical/Romance/Victorian

Synopsis

Florence struggled for breath as she stared into the face of a ghost. "Jack?"

Twenty years after being forced apart Jack and Florence have been offered a second chance at love. But can they find their way back to each other through all the misunderstandings, guilt and pain?

And what of their daughter, Viola? Her plan to become a doctor is based on the belief she has inherited her gift her medicine from Emile, the man she believed was her father. How will she reconcile her future with the discovery that she is Jack's child?

BOOK REVIEW/BLOG TOUR: Lady of a Thousand Treasures by Sandra Byrd

Publication Date: October 9, 2018
Tyndale House Publishers
Hardcover, Paperback, & eBook; 480 Pages
Series: The Victorian Ladies Series, #1
Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance

Synopsis

Miss Eleanor Sheffield is a talented evaluator of antiquities, trained to know the difference between a genuine artifact and a fraud. But with her father’s passing and her uncle’s decline into dementia, the family business is at risk. In the Victorian era, unmarried Eleanor cannot run Sheffield Brothers

BOOK REVIEW/BLOG TOUR: A Duel for Christmas by Rosanne E. Lortz

Publication Date: October 1, 2018
Madison Street Publishing
Paperback & eBook; 383 Pages
Series: Pevensey Mysteries, #3
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Regency

Synopsis

After seven long years in Devon, Lady Maud Worlington returns to London to reclaim life on her own terms, but a nefarious shadow and the prospect of financial ruin dog her steps. An impulsive and unforgettable kiss under the mistletoe creates a connection with Geoffrey, the handsome, young Duke

BOOK REVIEW/BLOG TOUR: Last Dance in Kabul by Ken Czech

Publication Date: August 2, 2018

Fireship Press

Paperback & eBook; 306 Pages

Genre: Action & Adventure/Historical/Romance/War & Military

Synopsis

The Ultimate Dance Between Love and War

When his superiors ignore his warnings of an impending Afghan insurrection in 1841, British army captain Reeve Waterton vows never to return to Kabul. But then he rescues strong-willed Sarah Kane from an ambush and his plans for civilian life and self-

BOOK REVIEW/BLOG TOUR: A Hangman for Ghosts by Andrei Baltakmens

Publication Date: July 1, 2018
Top Five Books
Paperback & eBook; 288 Pages
Genre: Historical Mystery

Synopsis

“We are transported. We are consigned to the ends of the Earth. And we are therefore as good as dead to the realm and its judges. There can be no hope of reprieve…”

Gabriel Carver, the convict hangman of Sydney Prison, knows that none of his kind may depart Australia’s penal colony without the system’s leave.

Book Review: The Power Game by Meg and Tom Keneally

The Power Game is the third book in the crime series set in Colonial Australia by daughter and father team, Meg and Tom Kenneally.

Synopsis

When a boatman is murdered on a remote island off Van Dieman’s Land, the authorities want to blame a famous, and very inconvenient, political prisoner. But the victim’s history of blackmail prompts Monsarrat to look further afield – and not everyone is happy . . .

In this, the third in the Monsarrat series, Hugh Llewelyn Monsarrat and his trusty housekeeper, Mrs

Blog Tour and Book Review: An Unquiet Ghost by Linda Stratmann

Welcome to the next stop on the blog tour for Linda Stratmann's latest Mina Scarletti novel, An Unquiet Ghost.

Synopsis

Brighton, 1871

Mina Scarletti, writer of horror stories but supernatural sceptic at heart, is becoming well known for unmasking those who fraudulently claim to be able to communicate with the dead. So it is no surprise to her when a young couple write to her seeking her advice.

They are George Fernwood and Mary Clifton, betrothed distant cousins with a family secret that is preventing them from getting married. Twenty years ago their alcoholic grandfather died in his bed.

Blog Tour and Book Review: Illusion by Stephanie Elmas

I'm pleased to welcome you to today's stop on the blog tour for Stephanie Elmas' wonderful book, Illusion, published by Endeavour Press and available for purchase from Amazon.

Synopsis

London, 1873. Returning home from his travels with a stowaway named Kayan, Walter Balanchine is noted for the charms, potions and locket hanging from his neck. Finding his friend Tom Winter’s mother unwell, he gives her a potion he learned to brew in the Far East. Lucid and free from pain, the old woman remembers something about Walter’s mother. Walter is intrigued, for he has never known his family or even his own name – he christened himself upon leaving the workhouse.

Living in a cemetery with his pet panther Sinbad to keep the body snatchers away, word soon spreads of

Book Review: Parthena's Promise by Valerie Holmes

In 1815, after five years fighting the French, London barrister and gentleman, Jerome Fender, returns to England intent on starting a new life, far from London and not in the profession for which he is trained.

Outside an inn while taking a quiet moment to reflect on his future and his family's reaction to his decision, he is approached by Parthena Munro in distress. She misconstrues his offer of help and rejects it, but steals his money instead before disappearing into the night.

Angry, yet intrigued by the identity of the thief, Jerome is determined to recover his money and sets off across the Yorkshire Moors in pursuit. After learning the reason behind the theft and unable to deny his

Book Review: Perseverance: Book Two of the Garth Trilogy by L.F.McDermott

Perseverance continues the story of two convict families, the Garths and their friends, the Belletts, which began in Of Angels and Eagles. It spans the years 1809-1864 and focuses on the next generation, primarily James Garth and Mary Belletts.

When the Government decides to close the penal settlement of Norfolk Island, the two families are forced to leave and resettle in Van Diemen's Land.

Perseverance opens with the Belletts arriving in Hobart Town to take up their land grants and to be reunited with the Garths.

Book Review: Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar

Lucy Treloar’s debut novel is a wonderful exploration of colonial life, set in the ruggedly beautiful coastal region of the Coorong, South Australia, which encompasses the traditional lands of the Ngarrindjeri people.

In 1874, from her home in Chichester, England, Hester Finch’s memories of her years spent on the Coorong are evoked by the arrival of letters and an old tin trunk from Australia. The items inside the trunk take her back to when she was fifteen: to March 1855 when her father, Stanton Finch, due to several failed business ventures, removes his large family from Adelaide to the isolation of Salt Creek Station.

Book Review: The Unmourned by Meg and Tom Keneally

The Unmourned is the second book in the crime series set in colonial Australia from daughter and father team, Meg and Tom Keneally.

I enjoyed their first collaboration, The Soldier’s Curse, which takes place in Port Macquarie, a penal settlement for reoffenders, and introduced Mrs. Mulrooney, an Irish housekeeper, and Hugh Monsarrat, an English gentleman convict.

In The Unmourned, Monsarrat, with his ticket of leave regained, is in Parramatta, with Mrs. Mulrooney, now employed as his housekeeper and unofficial assistant.

Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye Book Review

Shadow of the Moon, set in India before and during the Sepoy rebellion of 1857, was one of those books that I'd been meaning to read but never got around to. So when I saw that Helen was joining Cirtnecce and Cleo in a Read Along, I decided to join them.

At the start of the Read Along, additional background on the Company Raj and an overview of how the mutiny spread was supplied by Cirtnecce, which gave me a better grasp of the situation in India at the time of the novel.

Shadow of the Moon was first published in 1957, but was not as popular as M.M. Kaye's other novel

Book Review: From This Valley by Murray Harvey

Murray Harvey's debut novel, inspired by one of his ancestors, is a very easy to read and informative potted history of the north west territory of Canada, as seen through the eyes of a young man searching for peace of mind and a place to belong.

At the age of sixteen Ryan Meade is banished from his home in Boston due to an illicit romance with the daughter of a Negro family retainer and is forced to enlist in the Union Army. After the Civil War ends he follows his hero, George Custer, to the west. Disillusioned by the treatment of the Native Americans and Custer’s part in it, he deserts just before the Battle of the Little Bighorn and heads for Canada. Here he meets up with a

Book Review: The Bishop's Girl by Rebecca Burns

The Bishop's Girl is Rebecca Burns' debut novel and is one of the best historical mysteries I've read this year.

Bishop Anthony Shacklock was killed in France during World War I and buried in the graveyard of a church near the field hospital where he ministered to the injured and dying soldiers. At the end of 1919 when the Bishop’s body is exhumed for re-burial in England, a skeleton wrapped in a canvas bag is found on top of the coffin. The bones are that of a female and DNA tests on a finger bone reveal a familial link to the Bishop. Other than that there are no other clues as to who she was or how she came to be buried in the same grave.

Book Review: Wild Island by Jennifer Livett

Wild Island, influenced by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, asks the reader to forget the outcome of Jane Eyre and to imagine another ending where Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester didn't marry, and his wife, Bertha, is still alive ...

Harriet Adair, a widow, artist and nurse, is accompanying Anna Rochester (Bertha), Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester to Tasmania (or Van Diemen’s Land as it was known at the time the novel is set) in search of a lost relative.

The decline of Edward Rochester’s health part way into the voyage results in his and Jane Eyre’s transfer