Millstone of Doubt by Erica Vetsch Book Review - Blog Tour

Publication Date: September 20, 2022
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Series: Thorndike and Swann Regency Mysteries #2
Format: Trade paperback & eBook
Length: (304) pages
Genre: Historical Mystery, Historical Romance, Inspirational Fiction

Synopsis

A Bow Street Runner and a debutante in London Society use their skills to find the killer of a wealthy businessman, but the killer’s secrets aren’t the only ones they will uncover.

Caught in the explosion of the Hammersmith Mill in London, Bow Street runner Daniel Swann rushes to help any survivors only to find the mill's owner dead of an apparent

A Turbulent Peace by Paul Walker Read an Excerpt

Publication Date: July 2022
Publisher: Sharpe Books
Page Length: 305 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

January 1919.  

Following the armistice, Mary Kiten, a volunteer nurse in northern France, is ready to return home to England when she receives a surprise telegram requesting that she report to Paris. The call comes from her Uncle Arthur, a security chief at the Peace Conference.

Within minutes of arriving at the Majestic Hotel in Paris, Mary hears a commotion in the street outside. A man has been shot and killed. She is horrified to earn that the victim is her uncle. The

Top Ten Tuesday Books On My Spring 2022 To-Read List

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. A topic is assigned to each Tuesday. For that topic you are encouraged to make a top ten list, putting your own spin on it, if needed. Upcoming topics and

20 Books of Summer (Winter) 2022 - Wrap Up

This reading challenge was hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books and ran from June 1st to September 1st, the winter months here in Australia.

In that time, I read a total of twenty five books and wrote reviews for nine. I still have some reviews in the draft stage which will be posted at a later date.

My list was drawn from my NetGalley shelf (which included titles for book

My Name is Ona Judge by Suzette D. Harrison Book Review - Blog Tour

Publication Date: September 6, 2022
Publisher: Bookouture
Format: ebook, print and audio
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

New Hampshire, 1796. “My name is Ona Judge, and I escaped from the household of the President of the United States. I was the favored maid of George and Martha Washington, but they deemed me a slave and thought me property, and I hear ten dollars is offered as reward for my capture. Now I must write the truth that I have lived, and tell my story…”

Chincoteague, Virginia, present day. Rain soaks Tessa Scott as she runs from her car to the old, vine-covered property she has been

Death Down the Aisle by Verity Bright Book Review - Blog Tour

Publication Date: August 31, 2022
Publisher: Bookouture
Series: A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #11
Format: ebook, print and audio
Genre: Historical Fiction/Cosy Mystery

Synopsis

The society wedding of the decade has everything: the blushing bride, beautiful flowers… and the groom arrested before he can walk down the aisle? Thank goodness Lady Swift is on the guest list!

Lady Eleanor Swift isn’t normally one for grand social occasions, but who can resist a wedding? Especially when it’s her old friend, Constance Grainger, marrying the most eligible bachelor in town, Lord Peregrine Davencourt. Eleanor is taking Gladstone the

Where the Sky Begins by Rhys Bowen Book Review

Synopsis

London, 1940. Bombs fall and Josie Banks’s world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash. Josie’s beloved tearoom boss has been killed, and Josie herself is injured, with nothing left and nowhere to go.

Evacuated to the English countryside, Josie ends up at the estate of the aristocratic Miss Harcourt, a reluctant host to the survivors of the Blitz. Awed as she is by the magnificent landscape, Josie sees opportunity. Josie convinces Miss Harcourt to let her open a humble tea shop, seeing it as a chance for everyone to begin again. When Josie meets Mike Johnson, a handsome Canadian pilot stationed at a neighboring bomber base, a

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare Book Review

Synopsis

The glittering RMS Queen Mary. A nightclub singer on the run. An aristocratic family with secrets worth killing for.

London, 1936. Lena Aldridge wonders if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn't worked out. Instead, she's stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just left her. But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial heritage.

She's feeling utterly hopeless until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a

Spell the Month in Books - August 2022

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on her blog Reviews from the Stacks on the second Saturday of each month.

The aim is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. Easy! More information here.

I've watched this challenge doing the rounds for sometime now, but never joined in. Usually because I missed when it was due. Today, however, I made it!

The Secret Keeper by Siobhan Curham Book Review

Publication Date: July 27, 2022
Publisher: Bookouture
Format: Print, ebook and audio
Genre: Historical Fiction/Womens Fiction

Synopsis

Nazi-occupied Paris, 1942. “I want to create a world where we are free to be together, to be in love,” he whispered. I gulp down the sobs building in my throat. “I want that too. I’ll come back to you. I swear I’ll come back.”

Elena Garcia knows that the mission she has been tasked with is her most dangerous yet. With a tearful goodbye to the man she has grown to love, the dark-eyed and warm-hearted Santiago Lozano, she hurries to catch the train to the drop-off point, the coded maps she is delivering for the resistance concealed

Six in Six is Back for 2022!

Another July has come around which means it's time for this fun meme hosted by Jo @ The Book Jotter, now in its tenth year.

The aim of Six in Six is to share what we've read in the first six months of the year by choosing six of the categories given and listing six books under each category. More information and the list of categories can be found here.

This meme is a great way to look back on what you've read so far in the year and to see any emerging trends. Looking at what I've read over the past six months,

Spotlight On: A Turbulent Beginning, The Mallory Saga, Book 5 by Paul Bennett

The Mallory Saga Series

Follow the Mallory family as they attempt to live a peaceful life on the PA frontier in 1756.

They face tragedy and loss as they become embroiled in The French and Indian War - Clash of Empires.

In Paths to Freedom, the colonies are heading to open revolt against King George III, and the Mallory's are once again facing the spectre of war.

Crucible of Rebellion continues the Mallory story through the early years of The Revolutionary War.

Book 4, A Nation is Born completes the Revolution and The Mallory's have played

Shoot the Horses First: A Collection of Histories by Leah Angstman Cover Reveal + Blog Tour Giveaway (US only)

Publication Date: February 28, 2023
Publisher: Kernpunkt Press
Format: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook; 238 pages
Genre: Literary / Historical / Short Stories

***Finalist for the Shorts Award for Americana Fiction***

Through a historian’s lens and folkloric storytelling, the pieces in SHOOT THE HORSES FIRST revel in the nuances, brutality, mythology, and tiny victories of our historical past. A launderer takes us inside the linens of the richest families in early Baltimore. A child on the Orphan Train has his teeth inspected like a horse. Civil War soldiers experience PTSD. While one woman lands on an island of the Wampanoag tribe, a woman 200 years later finds Apache in a

The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth Book Review + Blog Tour Giveaway (US only)

Publication Date: July 5, 2022
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

In Crete during World War II, Alenka, a young woman who fights with the resistance against the brutal Nazi occupation, finds herself caught between her traitor of a brother and the man she loves, an undercover agent working for the Allies.

May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks, and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka, a young Greek woman, saves the lives of two Australian soldiers.

Cragside: A 1930s Murder Mystery by M. J. Porter Read an Excerpt

Publication Date: 14th April 2022
Publisher: M J Publishing
Page Length: 234 Pages
Genre: Historical Mystery

Synopsis

Lady Merryweather has had a shocking year. Apprehended for the murder of her husband the year before, and only recently released, she hopes a trip away from London will allow her to grieve. The isolated, but much loved, Cragside Estate in North Northumberland, home of her friends, Lord and Lady Bradbury, holds special memories for her.

But, no sooner has she arrived than the body of one of the guests is found on the estate, and suspicion immediately turns on her. Perhaps, there are no friendships to be found here, after

The Lost Sister of Fifth Avenue by Ella Carey Book Review

Publication Date: July 7, 2022
Publisher: Bookouture
Series: Daughters of New York #4
Format: ebook, print and audio
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

New York, 1938: Martha pulled the door of her Fifth Avenue apartment closed, her heart thumping, re-reading the telegram she’d been dreading. Her beloved sister Charlotte needed her help. She was alone in Paris, and the threat of Nazi invasion was growing ever stronger. The time had come for Martha to make the bravest decision of her life. She needed to bring Charlotte home.

As Martha looks out of her bedroom window at the blossom-covered trees in Central Park,

A Dress of Violet Taffeta by Tessa Arlen Spotlight and Excerpt

Publication Date: July 5, 2022
Publisher: Berkley Books
Length: (352) pages
Format: Trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook 
Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis

A sumptuous novel based on the fascinating true story of La Belle Époque icon Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, who shattered the boundaries of fashion with her magnificently sensual and enchantingly unique designs.

Lucy Duff Gordon knows she is talented. She sees color, light, and texture in ways few people can begin to imagine. But is the male dominated world of haute couture, who would use her art for their own gain, ready for her?