Like Sapphire Blue by Marisa Billions - #blogtour #book #excerpt

 

Isn't this a gorgeous cover? Today I am bringing you an excerpt, along with some information about the book, Like Sapphire Blue by Marisa Billions. Enjoy!

The Blurb

“Your eyes are amazing. I’ve never seen a blue like that.”

Emma Landry is tough, independent, beautiful, and smart. Being an outcast unable to identify with her classmates, she was willing to do whatever it takes to climb her way out of poverty.

“What color would you say they are?”

Like Sapphire Blue

Having never known a mother’s love, her father “Bear”, raised her on the wrong side of the tracks in a wealthy town.

When success beckons, the woman she’s been in love with is, finally, within her grasp. Life is now worth living and loving.

That is, until a dark family secret is revealed. A secret tied into the very fabric of who she is, and what she spent a lifetime working to overcome.

Faced with a foundation shattering treachery, Emma finds herself at the crossroads. Can she overcome a destiny stronger than death, destitution, and murder, to prove she is more than just her father’s daughter? Or will this new knowledge lead her to destroy the world she’s spent a lifetime building?

Winner of the 2023 Reader Views Reviewers Choice Fiction Book of the Year.

About the Author:

Marisa Billions is a high school English teacher in Southern California. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Criminology. She is the author of the fiction novels, This Too Shall Pass, Like Sapphire Blue, and Into the Blue Again. 

She is working on her upcoming fourth novel. Like Sapphire Blue was the Reader Views Reviewers Choice Fiction Book of the Year. She lives in Southern California with her wife, Stephanie, and son, Alexander, and two Boxer dogs, Max and Ruby.

The Excerpt

~ 1 ~ 

Humble Beginnings 

The Present...

Discord, meaning a lack of harmony or unity by the definition. In a relationship it is that moment when the realization hits that there is no turning back and the damage is done. It’s irreparable. 

Why won’t she look at me? Emma looked about the room. The table was set with the good china. Their favorite bottle of wine sat corked in the center, and across from her, was her beautiful wife. This was the woman that she spent the last two decades of her life with, and she won’t even look up? There was no way I was ever going to really fall in love with anyone else, you made sure of that. Whenever I thought you were out of my life, you miraculously reappeared every time. With narrowed eyes, gripping the ends of the table she looked around in the dimly lit room. 

The dining room was immaculate, crown molding lines the ceiling, and a tapestry of a French courtyard hangs on the back wall. A china cabinet delicately displaying the unused settings on the opposite wall. The dimmer switch was set to low and candles flicker in silver holders (inherited from her wife’s grandmother, who inherited them from her grandmother and so forth and so on). Her wife was sitting, with her thick strawberry blonde hair in delicate waves down her back. Her favorite dress clung to her curves. She has a beautiful body, and not a lot of things look bad on her. Her chin was down, and her beautiful blue eyes are downcast, refusing to look at Emma. She is leaning back against the chair with her head down. She’s there, but she’s not. 

Emma sat back, still staring across the table at her wife. One hand rested on the table, the other on the back of her chair. She worked so hard on this dinner. She made their favorite meal – eggplant parmigiana, pasta, home-made garlic bread. Not even an acknowledgement of the fact that the bottle of wine costs what Bear used to make in two weeks working at Jessie’s shop.

Her wife just sat there unmoved. Unimpressed. Not looking. Not speaking. This was her schtick though. The cold shoulder. The silent treatment. It wasn’t the first time she did this to Emma. But still, it was frustrating to her. And to think, this woman has a PhD. You would think she has better coping mechanisms than the silent treatment. 

The dinner itself and the beautiful and impressive dining room it was served in, could not be a further cry from Emma’s meager beginnings. To keep from looking at her silent wife, Emma looked around at the room. 

“You had everything growing up. This dinner, and what I did to prepare it, probably don’t mean much to you. But to make this, to have this, this is the world to me. What we built together, has meant the world to me.” Emma’s voice was quiet. Tears had welled up in her eyes. 

The Past (1976-1991)

Emma Landry never knew her mother. She didn’t even know she had one until she was in kindergarten. She thought she only came to be because of one parent, her dad Frank, who she called Bear, short for Papa Bear. 

She lived with her dad in a small trailer near the town. It was behind the auto shop that her dad worked at, which was owned by his brother, her uncle Jessie. The trailer was rundown, and there was a hole in the corner of the floor in the living room where she could see the ground beneath. In the winter time, she would stick a towel in the hole to keep the cold out, but sometimes the mice beneath the trailer would take it. Bear’s room was located at one end of the narrow trailer, and hers was at the other. There was a small living room with a tv that had bootlegged cable running to it. The walls were lined with a dark, faux wood paneling. An old card table with folding chairs was where they ate from dull plastic plates with mismatched silverware and chipped ceramic mugs. The couch was old, cream colored with brown and orange flower print, sagged in the middle and smelled faintly of mildew. 

Their trailer and the shop were located on a small, wooded plot of land. They didn’t have neighbors, and she didn’t have friends. Her friends were two plush animals, Teddy (a floppy eared dog) and Brownie (a threadbare cotton tailed bunny).

Book available from:

Amazon US

Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown by Alison Weir - #bookreview @AlisonWeir

 

1503 - He had cried for hours. Mother, his dearest Mother, was dead. It had been the most hateful, dreadful news, broken to him by Mrs Luke, his old nurse. Not, thankfully, by Father, who was too broken by his own grief. Harry could not have coped with witnessing the King's distress. He had enough to bear. He had wept and wept on Mrs Luke's broad bosom, and now, aware that great boys of eleven were not supposed to give way to wamanish tears, he struggled to compose himself and went to find his sisters, who were sitting desolately on the rug before the fire in Mother's bedchamber. He stared in horror at the bed, which had already been hung and draped with the black velvet of mourning. Mother would never sleep here again; he would never more hear her sweet voice, feel her gentle arms around him, her golden boy...

***

Six wives. One King. You know their stories. Now it's time to hear his.

A second son, not born to rule, becomes a man, and a king...

In grand royal palaces, Prince Harry grows up dreaming of knights and chivalry - and the golden age of kings that awaits his older brother. But Arthur's untimely death sees Harry crowned King Henry of England.

As his power and influence extends, so commences a lifelong battle between head and heart, love and duty. Henry rules by divine right, yet his prayers for a son go unanswered.

The great future of the Tudor dynasty depends on an heir. And the crown weighs heavy on a king with all but his one true desire.

HENRY VIII. HIS STORY.

***

This book is the second part of The Tudor Rose series. The first, The Last White Rose, follows the life of Henry VIII's mother Elizabeth of York . I have not read that book and it did not hinder my reading and enjoyment of this second one. I am assuming that the first covers the time up to Henry's birth as The Heart and the Crown picks up the story in 1503 when the young Henry would have been about twelve years of age.

Of course, the story of Henry VIII and his six wives is a familiar one but it was interesting to read this which is told from his own perspective. Having read several of the books in the authors Six Tudor Queens series, this is the perfect companion book.

Ms. Weir describes Henry in a way which is compelling and believable. This comes as no great surprise as her books, both fiction and non-fiction, are always expertly researched. She has previously written much about the Tudor period, and as readers we can rest assured that she will present the world with a book which is as historically accurate as is possible within the realms of fiction.

It is a lengthy book at 640 pages and is sedately paced. What I appreciated most about this book is that we see Henry VIII in all his guises. Not just Henry, the tyrant king of popular history, but we also observe Henry, the man, lover, husband, father, king and politician. We see the human side of Henry that can only come alive in this way in a fictional retelling of his story.

It is an ambitious novel which the author has pulled off successfully and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

If you would like to read my reviews from some of the Six Queen series, you can read my review of Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession by clicking here, Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen  by clicking here, my review of Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets by clicking here.

ISBN:  978 1472278081

Publisher:  Headline Review

Formats:  e-book, audio and hardback

No. of Pages:  640 (hardback)

Support Independent Bookshops - Purchase from Bookshop.org

About the Author:

Alison Weir is a British writer of history books for the general public, mostly in the form of biographies about British kings and queens, and of historical fiction. Before becoming an author, Weir worked as a teacher of children with special needs. She received her formal training in history at teacher training college. 

She currently lives in Surrey, England, with her two children.

You can find out more about Alison at her website: http://alisonweir.org.uk/index.php

(ARC courtesy of the publisher)

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*Disclosure: I only recommend books I would buy myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains an affiliate link from which I may earn a small commission.

Try the Leopard's Mouth by Charles Moberley - #blogtour #spotlight #promo

 

The Blurb

AFRICA. 1970

Briony and Tom, both in their twenties, are very different characters. But opposites attract. In business, as in love, they complement each other.

They buy a farm and discover a rare drug. Tom grows it and Briony markets it. At first, they are oblivious of their responsibilities to the land and its people. But gradually they realise that they have been supporting a racist and colonialist regime.

The onset of the Rhodesian – Zimbabwean War of Independence tears at the couple’s relationship. Misunderstandings arise from their conflicting personalities and from external pressures. Events pull them apart, but also bind them together.

Try the Leopard’s Mouth is a romantic thriller set in Africa. It is also a historical novel, grounded in real events in the period 1970 - 80.

Publication Date: 12th March 2023

Publisher:  Tancava Press

Page Length: 375

Genre: Historical thriller/romance

About the Author:

Charles Moberly has written three novels to date: The Scrotum Toad, a satirical comedy (Winner of a Chill with a Book Reader Award); The Corncrake, a historical novel set in 1909 - 10 and 1914 - 15 (Winner of a Chill with a Book Premier Award).

In The Corncrake, four members of a family share the narration, which passes between them approximately 300 times throughout - this powerful technique allows the reader to enter the minds of the characters as they react to events, so that love, conflicts and misunderstandings are conveyed immediately. This is only possible if the voices of the characters are so strong that they are identifiable the moment they speak.

Try the Leopard’s Mouth is a romantic thriller with a firm historical base.

Charles lived and worked in Africa for two years, which explains why two of his novels are set there.

In his writing, he loves tension and how cultural differences can tear people apart, yet unite them through a common humanity. He believes that no two characters should ever have the same voice. He writes in the vernacular of the time and place, using slang where appropriate.

He now lives in the UK.

You can find out more about Charles and his books by visiting his website: 

 https://charlesmoberlyauthor.blogspot.com/

Book available from:

Amazon UK 

Amazon US

Amazon Canada

Amazon Australia

It is a Kindle Unlimited title.

A Stepney Girl's Secret by Jean Fullerton - #bookreview @JeanFullerton_ #blogtour

 

Rolling her shoulders to ease the stiffness caused by a four-hour journey down the Great North Road, Prudence Carmichael glanced at her watch.

'Not long now, Prudence,' her father, Revd Hugh Carmichael, called over his shoulder as their elderly Austin Seven approached a crossroads.

'Mind that parked car, Hugh,' said Prue's mother Marjorie from the seat beside him.

It was just after four o'clock in the afternoon. Twenty-three-year-old Prudence... was squashed into the back of her father's car since the last of their furniture had been carried out of St Stephen's vicarage in the leafy village of Biddenden.

***

East London, 1940. Prue Carmichael never dreamed that she'd end up working at a railway yard. But when her reverend father is called up to Stepney, she and her family are uprooted from their country home for a new life in the turbulent city.

Determined to help with the war effort, Prue signs up for work and soon becomes intrigued by handsome train engineer Jack Quinn. But as the spark between them grows apparent, so does his troubled past - a past that Prue's mother would certainly not approve of.

In between cleaning train carriages and helping to shelter Jewish refugees, Prue manages to stay busy. But she has more than one admirer, and when Jack is recruited into Churchill's secret army, a very different suitor begins to pursue her.

As air raid sirens sound overhead, Prue Carmichael is facing her own battle - the fight between her heart and her head . . .

Amidst the ruins of war, will Prue and Jack's love find a way?

***

As a Stepney girl myself, how could I possibly resist this book. It has been a number of years since I lived there, but it was where I spent my formative years and I still have a fondness for it.

Prue was a wonderful character and easy to engage with. She is determined, headstrong and hardworking. Having moved to the vicarage in Stepney from her father's rural parish in a Bedfordshire village, Prue quickly demonstrates that she is not afraid to roll her sleeves up and get stuck into working with the people of the parish. In addition, she 'does her bit' for the war effort and gains employment in the local railway works, enabling the trains to continue running.

It is in the train yard that she gets to know Jack and it is not long before an attraction turns into something more significant.

The author is a very skilled storyteller and I almost felt as though I was there with them. Her knowledge of the area is apparent, and she has clearly researched her period well, enabling her to do an excellent job of recreating 1940's East London.

This the first book that I have read by this author and I am certain that it won't be my last.

ISBN: 978 1838957599

Publisher:  Corvus

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages: 544 (paperback)

About the Author:

Born and bred in East London Jean was a District Nurse by trade and ended her thirty-year career in health care as a senior lecture in Health and Nursing Studies in London Southbank University.

She had published twenty sagas all set in East London with both Orion and Atlantic the most recent of which is the highly successful Ration Book series. She has also recently released her autobiography A Child of the East End.

If you would like to find out more about Jean and her books you will find her website at:  http://jeanfullerton.com/

(ARC, photos & author bio info courtesy of the blog tour operator)

James I, The King Who United Scotland and England by Keith Coleman - #BookReview @penswordbooks

 

The king's first child, and his great hope as the rightful ruler of the two island kingdoms, Prince Henry, was born in Stirling Castle in February 1594. The great hopes of the father were set down in the Basilikon Doron, the 'royal gift,' an extended missive to Henry which the king published when his son was five. As he grew, it seemed to some that Prince Henry was everything that his father was not: comely in appearance, attractive in personality, upright in morality. In later years, after the shady favouritism of his father's court and the weakness of his brother, Charles, as king, there was a retrospective urge to idealise the lost prince who died before maturity...

***

The life of King James VI who united England and Scotland under one crown and became James I in 1603 is marked by contradictions. Generally praised as a good king of Scotland and a poor English one, James was a deep theological thinker, but he also inspired a superstitious frenzy which resulted in the North Berwick witch hunt and trials in the 1590s. Scholar and pedant, he was in his own view God’s appointed ruler, yet also a foul mouthed sloven and forever tarnished with the title of the Wisest Fool in Christendom.

The most glaring contrast in his personal life was between his image as a married family man and as a ruler who lavished indiscreet affection on a series of men whom he invested with considerable power. This book approaches James through the lens of his relationships with his major favourites. First was Anglo-French lord Esme D’Aubigny, then Scottish squire Robert Carr (later Earl of Somerset), and finally the consummate nobleman George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. ‘A king will have need to use secrecy in many things,’ the king wrote in one of his books. Although his private life was sometimes astonishingly visible, there are still many mysteries about James I as a man rather than a ruler.

This work tracks the king’s life from a barren childhood through a succession of plots, intrigues and conspiracies in Scotland which largely forged, or deformed, his character. Beyond his complex and disputed connection with these men the book looks at his relationship with his wife, sponsorship of the arts, and contains a reappraisal of the first and most neglected historical mystery of his first reign, the Gowrie Conspiracy.

***

If I wandered into a bookshop, any bookshop, and browsed the history shelves I suspect that I would find the section on British royalty dominated by the Tudors. That is not a criticism as it was an extremely interesting period of history. Comparitively, I wonder how many books on the Stuarts I would find? This is certainly one such book that should feature on those shelves. 

It is rich in scope and whilst it discusses those events pertinent to King James VI/I's reign in England (1603 - 1625), the author offers something a little different in his book. The witch hunts, the Gowrie conspiracy and his unification of Scotland and England into a United Kingdom are all expectedly there. 

However, we learn much about King James the man. Mr. Coleman portrays the contradictory lifestyle led by James VI/I. On one hand, he portrayed himself as a husband and father. On the other, he openly displayed and elevated a series of 'favourites,' all men who were believed to be his bedfellows. As an historically apparent homosexual, (although the author explains that the concept of homosexuality was not the same as we understand it today)  he would still have been expected to fill the royal nursery and provide the country with an heir.

Mr. Coleman's book has been extensively researched and is presented in an accesible manner. I have read many books on this period in history and this is an excellent addition to the canon. It is suitable for those who are already familiar with Stuart history or to those who are new to the period. It explains much about King James himself and would entice a reader to find out more about the historical events of the period. It is an excellent book which I highly recommend.

ISBN: 978 1399093590

Publisher:  Pen & Sword History

Formats:  e-book, hardback

No. of Pages:  240 (hardback)

About the Author:

Keith Coleman has a MA degree in Celto-Roman Studies from the University of Wales, Newport. His book Aedán of the Gaels: King of Scots (Pen & Sword Books, 2022) was his latest long-term study of the legends and history of the Scottish kings. He is also the author of The Afterlife of Kings James IV, Otherworld Legends of A Scottish King (Chronos Books, 2019) and maintain several blogs about the legends and history of Scotland and its kings. He is currently working on a book on latter day Jacobites to be published by Pen & Sword.

(author photo courtesy of Amazon)

(ARC courtesy of NetGalley)

(author bio courtesy of Pen & Sword)

Through Three Rooms by Sven Elvestad - Translated by Lucy Moffatt - Intro by Nils Nordberg - #bookreview @LucyTranslator.

One winter evening some three years ago, Asbjorn Krag was sitting by the fireplace in his apartment, leafing through a huge folder of documents he had received from one of his clients. The lamp cast a sharp light on the papers, which were many and various - yellowed letters, diverse accounts, numerous telegrams. Suddenly the detective gave a start: a ring at the doorbell.

Krag put down the papers. A man's voice was audible in the hall.

Surmising that the new arrival was a client, the detective quickly stood up, dimmed and then doused the lamp...

***

When an old school friend whisks private detective, Asbjørn Krag away by train to an isolated snow-covered manor house, his curiosity is aroused.

John Aakerholm, a wealthy landowner with peculiar tastes, refuses to disclose why he is utterly terrified. Every evening at midnight he retires to bed, locking himself within three different chambers - and access is strictly forbidden. When a shocking murder takes place, Krag must use his sharp wit and skills to uncover the killer before he strikes again.

A brilliantly ingenious story, Through Three Rooms amply displays Elvestad's gift for storytelling and style. Available in English for the very first time, this book will delight fans of vintage crime fiction. This new translation features an introduction by Nils Nordberg, radio drama producer and Norwegian authority on crime fiction.

***

This novella is part of a series in the Asbjorn Krag mysteries. Originally published in Norway in 1915, this is the first time it has been translated into English.

It is a country house murder mystery whose main character, John Aakerholm, fears for his life. It is a clever story and the mystery surrounding Aakerholm's bedroom which can only be accessed via three different locked rooms kept me guessing until the end.

However, I did guess who the murderer was but not the reason behind it. It is very much dialogue led and I could easily envisage this as a play script. 

Being so short, it moved along at a brisk pace. This could easily be read in a single sitting and was both enjoyable and entertaining.

It has been expertly tranlated by Lucy Moffatt and includes an interesting and informative introduction by Nils Nordberg.

This will delight fans of the traditional crime story. The publisher, Kabaty Press, have several other of this series in their catalogue and I would love to read more of them.

ISBN:  978 8396616623

Publisher:  Kabaty Press

Formats:  e-book, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  140 (paperback)

About the Author:

Sven Elvestad (1884-1934) was born Kristoffer Elvestad Svendsen and also wrote under the pseudonym Stein Riverton. During a golden age for Norwegian crime fiction, Elvestad reigned supreme as the King of Crime in northern Europe. He wrote close to 100 books, with several published in as many as 17 languages. His masterpiece The Iron Chariot, published in 1909, anticipated by 16 years a twist later used by Agatha Christie in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

​Elvestad became an international celebrity. With a tall and distinct appearance, as well as a passion for food, drink and tobacco, he was popular with painters and cartoonists. He changed his name after being caught embezzling from his employer as a young man and took up a second career as a journalist. He was the first foreign journalist to interview Adolf Hitler and often played a colourful part in his own stories, once spending a day in a circus lion’s cage.

Although reprints of his books have been few and far between in the years since, his pseudonym inspired the name of the Norwegian Crime Writers’ Association, Rivertonklubben, the Riverton Club, a society for the cultivation and improvement of crime writing. A special honorary Riverton prize is reserved for distinguished service for Norwegian crime fiction. There is also an honorary international Riverton prize which is given out occasionally, among its recipients are PD James, Maj Sjöwall and Henning Mankell.

About the Translator:

Lucy Moffatt is an award-winning translator (Norwegian and Spanish into English). She won a 2014 John Dryden Prize for her translation of an excerpt of a novella by Hans Herbjørnsrud and she was awarded the NORLA Translator’s Award in 2020.

 

(Book, photos and all author/translator bio info courtesy of the publicist)

The New Normal by Michelle Paris - #bookpromo #spotlight @Maparis916 @RRBookTours1 #RRBookTours

 

You all know by now that I have a weakness for book covers with a dog on. I never can resist so I was very pleased to be invited to be part of this blog tour.

The Blurb

After the sudden death of her husband, Emilie Russell just wants to feel normal. But being a middle-aged widow doesn’t come with a how-to manual. Her well-meaning friend, Viv, believes the cure to all that ails is simple: a new man. So, she sets Emilie up with her handsome and charming new neighbor, widower Colin. There’s only one problem with the plan—Colin is gay.

Emilie embarks on a rollicking journey of self-discovery with Colin as her mentor and best friend. From learning to swipe right without cringing while midlife dating in constricting shapeware to cougar moments in Key West, Emilie reenters the dating pool with both humorous and soul-crushing results.

Publication Date: May 2nd, 2023

Genre: Women’s Fiction/ Light-Hearted

Publisher: Apprentice House Press

About the Author:

Michelle Paris is a Maryland writer who believes laughter can heal the heart. Her debut novel, New Normal is loosely based on her own experience as a young widow. Her personal story of overcoming grief was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. And heressays about grief and mid-life dating have appeared in multiple editions of the Chicken Soup for the Soul inspirational book series as well as in other media outlets. 

She is a member of the Romance Writers of America, the Maryland Writers’ Association, and the Women’s FictionWriters’ Association. Currently, Michelle is enjoying chapter two of her life with her new husband, Kevin, who keeps her from being a cat lady but only on technicality.  https://michelleparisauthor.com/