Category: Blog Tour

Cover Reveal: A Woman’s Lot (Meonbridge Chronicles #2) by Carolyn Hughes

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A Womans Lot Reveal Banner

I loved the first book in the Meonbridge Chronicles series, Fortune’s Wheel, so it’s a real pleasure to be taking part in the cover reveal for the next book in the series, A Woman’s Lot.  A Woman’s Lot is due to be published on 4th June 2018.  Do look out for my review as part of the blog tour running from 4th and 8th June.  I can’t wait to read it!

And there’s a chance to win ebook copies of Books 1 & 2 of the Meonbridge Chronicles!  Click here to enter.

Bloggers, do you like the sound of A Woman’s Lot? You can review it as part of the review tour on 4th – 8th June 2018! Just email brookbooks@hotmail.co.uk to register your interest and with details of your blog!

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A Woman's LotAbout the Book

How can mere women resist the misogyny of men?

When a resentful peasant rages against a woman’s efforts to build up her flock of sheep… Or a husband, grown melancholy and ill-tempered, succumbs to idle talk that his wife’s a scold… Or a priest, fearful of women’s “unnatural” power, determines to keep them in their place…

The devastation wrought two years ago by the Black Death changed the balance of society, and gave women a chance to break free from the yoke of chatteldom, to learn a trade, build a business, be more than just men’s wives.

But many men still hold fast to the teachings of the Church, and fear the havoc the daughters of Eve might wreak if they’re allowed to usurp men’s roles, and gain control over their own lives.

Not all men resist women’s quest for change – indeed, they want change for themselves. Yet it takes only one or two misogynists to unleash the hounds of hostility and hatred…

Format: ebook, paperback   Publisher: SilverWood Books
Published: 4th June 2018       Genre: Historical Fiction

Carolyn HughesAbout the Author

Carolyn Hughes was born in London, but has lived most of her life in Hampshire. After a first degree in Classics and English, she started her working life as a computer programmer, in those days a very new profession. It was fun for a few years, but she left to become a school careers officer in Dorset. But it was when she discovered technical authoring that she knew she had found her vocation. She spent the next few decades writing and editing all sorts of material, some fascinating, some dull, for a wide variety of clients, including an international hotel group, medical instrument manufacturers and the Government. She has written creatively for most of her adult life, but it was not until her children grew up and flew the nest, several years ago, that creative writing and, especially, writing historical fiction, took centre stage in her life. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from Portsmouth University and a PhD from the University of Southampton.

Carolyn blogs at The History Girls on the 20th of every month.

A Woman’s Lot is the second of the MEONBRIDGE CHRONICLES, her series of historical novels set in fourteenth century England. The first, Fortune’s Wheel, was published in 2016. The third in the series is well under way.

Connect with Carolyn

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Blog Tour/Extract: Her Hidden Life by V. S. Alexander

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Her Hidden Life Blog Tour Banner

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Her Hidden Life by V.S. Alexander. Unfortunately, the book hasn’t yet reached the top of my TBR pile, although I’m eager to read it based on some of the glowing reviews from other book bloggers.  For instance, Beverley Has Read called it ‘a well-written, well-plotted and…well-researched historical novel which ticked lots of boxes’.  Ginger Book Geek was ‘hooked from the moment I read the first sentence.’

Based on a true story, Her Hidden Life is described as a sweeping, heroic love story perfect for fans of Dinah Jeffries and Gill Paul.  I have an extract from Her Hidden Life to whet your appetite.  Incidentally, you can read a fascinating article by the author about the writing of Her Hidden Life here.

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Her Hidden LifeAbout the Book

It’s 1943 and Hitler’s Germany is a terrifying place to be.  But Magda Ritter’s duty is the most dangerous of all…

Assigned to The Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat, she must serve the Reich by becoming the Führer’s ‘Taster’ – a woman who checks his food for poison. Magda can see no way out of this hellish existence until she meets Karl, an SS officer who has formed an underground resistance group within Hitler’s inner circle.

As their forbidden love grows, Magda and Karl see an opportunity to stop the atrocities of the madman leading their country. But in doing so, they risk their lives, their families and, above all, a love unlike either of them have ever known…

(Her Hidden Life was published under the title The Taster in the US)

Format: ebook, paperback (400 pp.)    Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 3rd May 2018                         Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Her Hidden Life on Goodreads

 

Extract: Her Hidden Life by V. S. Alexander

In the first years of the war, Berlin had been spared. When the attacks began, the city strode like a dreamer, alive but unconscious of its motions. People walked about without feeling. Babies were born and relatives looked into their eyes and told them how beautiful they were. Touching a silky lock of hair or pinching a cheek did not guarantee a future. Young men were shipped off to the fronts – to the East and to the West. Talk on the streets centered on Germany’s slow slide into hell, always ending with ‘it will get better.’ Conversations about food and cigarettes were common, but paled in comparison to the trumpeted broadcasts of the latest victories earned through the ceaseless struggles of the Wehrmacht.

My parents were the latest in a line of Ritters to live in our building. My grandparents had lived here until they each died in the bed where I slept. My bedroom, the first off the hall in the front of the building, was my own, a place I could breathe. No ghosts frightened me here. My room didn’t hold much: the bed, a small oak dresser, a rickety bookshelf and a few items I collected over the years, including the stuffed toy monkey my father had won at a carnival in Munich when I was a child. When the bombings began, I looked at my room in a different way. My sanctuary took on a sacred, extraordinary quality and each day I wondered whether its tranquility would be shattered like a bombed temple.

The next major air raid came on Hitler’s birthday on April 20, 1943. The Nazi banners, flags and standards that decorated Berlin waved in the breeze. The bombs caused some damage, but most of the city escaped unscathed. That attack also had a way of bringing back every fear I suffered as a young girl. I was never fond of storms, especially the lightning and thunder. The increasing severity of the bombings set my nerves on edge. My father was adamant that I leave, and, for the first time, I felt he might be right. That night he watched as I packed my bag.

About the Author

V. S. Alexander is an ardent student of history and the arts and loves writing historical fiction with strong women protagonists. The author of several novels and short stories, Alexander’s first novel for Kensington Publishing was The Magdalen Girls, an Amazon best seller, set in 1962 Dublin. The author lives in South Florida where summer is never far away.

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