I am absolutely delighted to be bringing you an excerpt of Shadows in the Spring by Christina Courtenay. This is one I've had my eye on for a while and it looks fabulous!
The Blurb
Two souls bound together but lost in time. Until now.
AD 80
Duro of the Iceni tribe escaped life as an enslaved gladiator and is now finally home in Britannia with one thing on his mind: vengeance. For 20 years he has sought the Roman legionary who destroyed his family. What he didn’t expect was Gisel: a fierce Germanic woman with long white-blonde hair, forced into slavery by the Romans. Hypnotised by her spirit and her beauty, Duro frees Gisel and slowly tries to win her trust as they work together to complete his quest.
Present Day
Mackenna Jackson returns to Bath with a broken heart, thanks to rockstar Blue Daniels. Luckily she can still count on Blue’s former bandmate Jonah Miller as a listening ear. But Jonah has secretly been fighting stronger feelings, drawn to Mac’s quiet confidence and gorgeous white-blonde hair. As they explore the area, memories they can’t quite explain flood them both.
Is the spark between Mac and Jonah in fact a sign of something much deeper – a love enduring through millennia – or can it all be an illusion?
The Excerpt
Brussels, Belgium, late May, Present Day
Mackenna Jackson tugged her suitcase into the large hotel foyer. She knew it was somewhere in the centre of Brussels, part of one of the luxury hotel chains, but she didn’t care which one. It looked like all the other umpteen hotels she’d stayed in during the last six months, and the name and location were irrelevant.
She had met her boyfriend, Bryan ‘Blue’ Daniels, during a party held by the record company she’d worked for as a temporary receptionist. It was a clichéd meet-cute, but there was instant attraction between them and they’d started dating. Mac felt the whole thing was a bit surreal, as Blue was the lead singer in the famous band Valhalla Storm. She was Cinderella to his Prince Charming, drawn into a whole new world where shopping at Harrods and eating at the finest restaurants was nothing out of the ordinary.
When he’d asked her to give up her job and travel with the band on their upcoming tour, she hadn’t hesitated. It had seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime, and the glamorous lifestyle beckoned. Unfortunately, the reality was much less exciting. Long, boring days of travel, a lot of waiting around in hotel rooms, and endless parties with groupies and other hangers-on. Even the concerts, which she’d once felt so privileged to watch from the side of the stage, became samey. Something to be endured, not enjoyed. Not that she would ever tell Blue that. He was inordinately proud of Valhalla Storm, and rightly so. If you didn’t have to hear the songs on repeat, they were fabulous.
A bodyguard stationed by the lifts nodded to her. ‘Hey, Mac, you’re back! I heard the news – so sorry for your loss.’
‘Thank you, Jimmy.’
She swallowed down the lump in her throat. She’d had to fly home to attend her beloved aunt Sandra’s funeral, and it had been a difficult time. Aged only sixty-one, Sandra should have had many more years to enjoy life, but she’d been diagnosed with a savage type of cancer. Mac couldn’t believe she was gone. It was like a bad dream, but now she just wanted to put it all behind her and start the grieving process.
‘Let’s get you a key card. I bet you want nothing more than to crash, am I right?’ Jimmy ushered her over to the reception desk and swiftly procured a card to Blue’s room.
Tired beyond belief, she took the lift to the top floor, where the band members all had a suite each. She had managed to get away a day early and couldn’t wait to see Blue again. To be enveloped in his arms and let go of all the tension roiling through her.
Stepping out of the lift, wheeling her case behind her, she was hit by a wall of music coming from one of the suites, whose door stood wide open. The bass thumped so loudly she could feel it vibrating in her stomach, and she sighed. She guessed Blue was in the thick of it – he loved to party and never missed an evening of fun – and she decided to leave him to it.
Heading for his room, which thankfully wasn’t the loud one, she slotted in the key card and pushed open the door, stepping into a lavish sitting room. Immediately, she heard giggling coming from the adjoining bedroom. Leaving her suitcase, she walked over to peer in through the door, stopping dead at the sight before her. It was yet another ultimate cliché, and presumably every rock star’s dream. Blue was lying in the middle of the giant bed with a blonde woman on either side of him. Despite having different facial features, they were eerily similar, and their naked bodies had clearly been spray-tanned recently, judging by the somewhat unnatural colour of their skin. They were pretty, though, it had to be said.
Mackenna could see why Blue might have had a hard time resisting them. And yet he should have done. Had sworn he would never want anyone but her.
Yeah, so much for that.
‘Oh Blue, you’re so perfect,’ one of the blondes murmured in a thick French accent.
Blue chuckled, clearly having the time of his life, until he looked up and caught sight of Mackenna. His eyes went comically wide and he struggled to sit up, flailing against the onslaught of the blonde bombshells. ‘Mac! Baby! You’re back already? Didn’t you say . . .?’
‘That I was arriving tomorrow? Yes, but I managed to get an earlier flight. Guess I shouldn’t have bothered. Enjoy the rest of your evening. And the rest of your life.’
She turned away from the awful scene in front of her, unable to watch for even a second longer. The lump in her throat had grown to epic proportions and would not be contained any longer. Tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks, and she swiped at them impatiently. Honestly, had she really been naïve enough to think she’d be enough for a rock star? That this would last? Yes, she’d been told by her friends that she was beautiful, smart and fun to be with, but he could have anyone he wanted. Supermodels. Blonde clones. Why would he want to tie himself to one woman? That wasn’t very rock ’n’ roll, was it?
God, she’d been such fool. It was time to return to reality.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1035418664
Publisher: Headline Review
Formats: e-book, audio hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 352 (hardback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip/dual time and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a Vice President and former Chair and of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014) and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes.
SHADOWS IN THE SPRING (dual time historical romance published by Headline Review 24th April 2025) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).
You can also find Christina at:
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