High Rising by Angela Thirkell Book Review

Back in May 2021, Kay @ Whatmeread announced a challenge to read Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire series in order, starting with High Rising in June. While I've managed to keep pace with the reading, my reviews haven't, a situation I'm hoping to remedy before the end of the year.

Synopsis

Successful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son Tony set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbour George Knox has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village. Can clever, practical Laura rescue George from Miss Grey's clutches and, what's more, help his daughter

Every Word Unsaid By Kimberly Duffy Book Review

Publication Date: November 2, 2021
Publisher: Bethany House
Format: Trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook
Length: (368) pages
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Inspirational Fiction

Synopsis

Augusta Travers has spent the last three years avoiding the stifling expectations of New York society and her family's constant disappointment. As the nation's most fearless--and reviled--columnist, Gussie travels the country with her Kodak camera and spins stories for women unable to leave hearth and home. But when her adventurous nature lands her in the middle of a scandal, an opportunity to leave America offers the perfect escape.

Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg Book Review + Blog Tour Giveaway (US only)

eBook Publication Date: October 1, 2021
Publisher: Lion Heart Publishing
Genre: Historical Fiction

Triple-gold-medal-winning author Rebecca Rosenberg serves up a triumphant tale of talent and ambition, love and loss, betrayal and redemption, and accepting yourself and others for who they are.

Synopsis

Champagne, France, 1800
Twenty-year-old Barbe-Nicole has inherited Le Nez (an uncanny sense of smell that makes her picky, persnickety, and particularly perceptive) from her great-grandfather, a renowned champagne maker.

Her parents, however, see Le Nez as a curse

Traitor's Knot by Cryssa Bazos Read an Excerpt

Publication Date: 1st October 2021
Publisher: W.M. Jackson Publishing
Page Length: 450 Pages
Series: Quest for Three Kingdoms
Genre: Historical Fiction/ Historical Romance

Synopsis

England 1650: Civil War has given way to an uneasy peace . . .   

Royalist officer James Hart refuses to accept the tyranny of the new government after the execution of King Charles I, and to raise funds for the restoration of the king’s son, he takes to the road as a highwayman.

 Elizabeth Seton has long been shunned for being a traitor’s daughter. In the midst of the new order, she risks her life by sheltering

Dare the Dark by Bruce Mitchell Book Review

In Dare the Dark, Bruce Mitchell has set aside his Thornton family saga for the time being to venture into the historical mystery genre.

Synopsis

Sydney, January 1879.

A body with its eye hacked out is found in a suburban street, and a cryptic note promises more. Detectives Kennedy and Walsh scour the city for a crazed killer dubbed ‘Doctor Hacksaw’ by the press.

A female suffrage march turns ugly and Kennedy’s wife Mary defends three accused women in a courtroom drama. Walsh’s partner Victoria Chen has information on a crime boss that could get her killed.

Lives spiral out of control as the body count

The Inns of Devonshire, A Timeless Regency Collection by Sally Britton, Annette Lyon, & Deborah M. Hathaway

Publication Date: October 5, 2021
Publisher: Mirror Press
Series: Timeless Regency Collection (Book 18)
Format: Trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook
Length: (300) pages
Genre: Regency Romance, Historical Romance, Inspirational Fiction

Synopsis

Three novellas, three times the romance, and three times the love . . . in this brand new Timeless Regency Collection

The Seventh Star Inn by Sally Britton

After years of looking after one another, Susan Baxter and her mother view their neighbors in Totnes as family. When a new landlord inherits

Eleonora and Joseph by Julieta Almeida Rodrigues Book Blast + Giveaway (US only)

Publication Date: July 21, 2020
Publisher: New Academia Publishing/The Spring
Format: Paperback & eBook; 198 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction/Biographical

Synopsis

The novel opens with aristocratic Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel pleading with the High Court of Naples to be beheaded instead of hanged like a criminal. One of the leading revolutionaries of her time, Eleonora contributed to the establishment of the Neapolitan Republic, based on the ideals of the French Revolution. Imprisoned in 1799 after the return of the Bourbon Monarchy - due to her work as editor-in-chief of Il Monitore Napoletano - and while waiting to be sentenced, she writes a memoir. Here, she discusses not only her revolutionary

Darjeeling Inheritance by Liz Harris Book Review

Publication Date: 1st October 2021
Publisher: Heywood Press
Page Length: 365 pages
Series: The Colonials
Genre: Historical Romance

Synopsis

Darjeeling, 1930

After eleven years in school in England, Charlotte Lawrence returns to Sundar, the tea plantation owned by her family, and finds an empty house. She learns that her beloved father died a couple of days earlier and that he left her his estate. She learns also that it was his wish that she marry Andrew McAllister, the good-looking younger son from a neighbouring plantation.   

Unwilling to commit to a wedding for which she doesn’t feel ready, Charlotte pleads with

Six Degrees of Separation: From The Lottery to Falling Creatures

The first Saturday of the month is time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is The Lottery, a short story by Shirley Jackson. I read this yesterday, which means this is one of those rare occasions where I come into this meme better prepared.

The Lottery is a disturbing story, set in America, where a village gathers for their annual lottery, a tradition to ensure a good harvest. The winner, however, is not as happy as you would expect a lottery winner to be.

Supersition and bizarre rituals immediatley brought to mind The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer. This is the

The Limits of Limelight by Margaret Porter Book Review + Giveaway (International)

Publication Date: September 14, 2021
Publisher: Gallica Press
Format: Paperback & eBook; 412 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

Pretty Oklahoma teenager Helen Nichols accepts an invitation from her cousin, rising movie actress Ginger Rogers, and her Aunt Lela, to try her luck in motion pictures. Her relatives, convinced that her looks and personality will ensure success, provide her with a new name and help her land a contract with RKO. As Phyllis Fraser, she swiftly discovers that Depression-era Hollywood’s surface glamour and glitter obscure the ceaseless struggle of the hopeful starlet.

Lela Rogers, intensely devoted to her daughter and her niece, outwardly accepting

Guest Post + Giveaway (International) from A. E. Chandler, Author of The Scarlet Forest: A Tale of Robin Hood

Synopsis

You are invited underneath the great greenwood tree to hear how a young man became a hero, and a hero became a legend. When Robin takes a shortcut through Sherwood Forest, the path he chooses leads not to Nottingham’s archery contest, but to a life on the run from the law. Unable now to become a knight, and joined by his childhood friends, Robin Hood leads the most infamous outlaw band ever to evade the king and his sheriff.

Blending true history with new stories, popular inaccuracies, and some almost forgotten medieval legends, The Scarlet Forest: A Tale of Robin Hood brings a new life to the greenwood, which here feels as fresh as it does traditional. With an academic background in medieval English studies, A. E. Chandler captivates with this unique and nuanced reinterpretation

A Lesson in Murder by Verity Bright Book Review

Publication Date: September 14, 2021
Publisher: Bookouture
Series: A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #7
Format: ebook and print
Genre: Historical Fiction/Cosy Mystery

Synopsis

When Lady Swift is invited to her old school, she walks through familiar classrooms, finds her favourite books in the library… and surely that’s not a body? Time for a lesson in murder!

Autumn, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift is invited to her old school, St Mary’s, as a guest speaker. Her favourite teacher, Mrs Wadsworth, has asked that Eleanor talk about her intrepid travels around the globe – travelling the Silk Road by bicycle, crossing the Himalayas and even befriending the Maharaja of India. But in the circumstances, perhaps it would have