Book Spotlight: The Fern Flower by Kathleen Shoop

 

St. Petersburg 1908-1917

Born into privilege as the daughter of the Tsar’s favored vodka maker, Mila appears to have everything: wealth, status, and a household devoted to her happiness. But behind the gilded doors of her family estate, she is trapped by the cruelty of a stepmother whose greatest wish is to give birth to her own child.

Each summer on Ivan Kupala Eve, Russia turns its gaze to river bends and forest floors in search of the legendary Fern Flower—a mythical bloom said to grant fortune, power, and the deepest desires of the heart. Only one person had ever found it.

Until Mila.

Years later, in the fading grandeur of Petrograd, Mila and her friends slip into the fabled Stray Dog Café, once the sanctuary of Russia’s most daring artists and dreamers. Inspired by its ghosts, murals, and memories, Mila's group resurrects the work she'd first imagined as a child. The Fern Flower is a breathtaking ballet drawn from folklore, magic, and the secrets of Mila’s past.

But in the fiercely competitive ranks of the Imperial Ballet School, talent is never enough. Though Mila wrote the ballet and her gifted musician friend composed its score, rivals question whether Mila is worthy of claiming the coveted lead role.

As World War I intensifies and revolution ignites, the Russia Mila knows begins to collapse. Family secrets surface, loyalties are tested, and the people she loves begin to disappear. When her parents flee and her young brother’s life hangs in the balance, Mila is faced with an impossible choice: remain with the found family who helped her chase her dreams or risk everything to save the person who needs her most.

With Russian folklore, imperial grandeur, and the fierce beauty of ballet, The Fern Flower is a sweeping tale of ambition, friendship, sacrifice, and the magic that survives even when the world is falling apart.

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/m0jpWJ (Kindle & Apple)

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fern-flower-kathleen-shoop/1150136033?ean=2940183381290

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-fern-flower

Bestselling author, Kathleen Shoop, PhD’s novels have won awards in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), Eric Hoffer Book Awards, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Readers’ Favorite, and more.

Kathleen has more than 20 years of experience in the classroom and has been featured in USA Today and the Writer’s Guide. She co-coordinates Mindful Writers Retreats and co-coordinated the 2023 Pennwriters Conference.

She frequently teaches and is a regular presenter at conferences for writers.

Author Links:

Website: http://kshoop.com

Twitter / X: https://x.com/kathieshoop

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057696591811

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenshoop/?hl=en

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kathleenshoop.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kathieshoop/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kathleen-shoop

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kathleenshoopauthor

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kathleen-Shoop/author/B0051FCVQU

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4787101.Kathleen_Shoop

 

If you enjoy powerful historical fiction, you’ll love Forgiving Nero. An award‑winning novel of betrayal, survival, and redemption set in ancient Rome. https://books2read.com/u/3GOMvQ

Book Spotlight: Marie Conner, A Leading Lady by Elle Mott

 

Marie was born a girl. That was only her first mistake, according to her father.

 

In an era when daughters and wives are not supposed to be concerned with matters outside the home, Marie is determined to prove him wrong. To do this, she must break down barriers placed on women in society, overcome difficulties that befall her, surpass hardships from the Great Depression, and then face an inevitable relocation.

 

Marie steps into her community and into the hearts of many people to give her time and help with their needs. She wants nothing in return other than her father's acceptance as a worthy woman and yet, she gains much in return, even if it is not her father's praise. This is Marie’s story—of a rise from her girlhood angsts to become a leading lady—and much more.

 

This definitive biography is the empowering true story of one trailblazing woman who, in the mid-1900s in small-town America, changed her community and beyond for the better and forevermore.

 

Universal Buy Links:  

Amazon universal paperback link: https://mybook.to/AmazonMott

Author’s Website for all links: https://ellemottauthor.com/product/marie-conner  

 

Elle Mott is a creative nonfiction author who weaves advocacy and strength into her writing, empowering readers to find their purpose.

“Marie Conner, A Leading Lady" is her third book. She is also the author of “Out of Chaos: A Memoir” and “People Helping People.” Her next book, releasing this fall, will be as a contributing co-author to “When Women Talk, Notes From the Future: What I Would Tell My Younger Self.” Her other publications have been featured in literary journals, news magazines, and anthologies.

She has a background working in libraries, both at the college level and, for more than ten years, at the public library in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. While library work is her livelihood, writing is her passion.

Elle grew up in Oregon and now makes her home in the suburbs of northern Kentucky with two cats and several pet birds.  

Author Links: 

Website: https://ellemottauthor.com

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/novellemott

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ellemott.author

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/marie-conner-a-leading-lady-her-life-and-civic-leadership-in-a-bygone-era-by-elle-mott

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Elle-Mott/author/B07G4FXMSJ

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/elle_mott  

 AllAuthor: https://allauthor.com/author/ellemott

Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/ellemott

 

If you enjoy powerful historical fiction, you’ll love Forgiving Nero. An award‑winning novel of betrayal, survival, and redemption set in ancient Rome. https://books2read.com/u/3GOMvQ

Book Spotlight: One More Hour of Daylight by C.M. Gray

From the Bestselling Author of Shadowland

On the first day of World War II, a young man makes a promise—one that will shape every choice he makes for the next four years.

 

Essex. September 1939.

 

A wounded German pilot drops from a clear autumn sky into a quiet English field. Seventeen-year-old Derrick finds him—broken and feverish. Not an enemy. Just a young man asking for one small mercy before everything ends.

 

One more hour of daylight. That is all I ask. A chance to breathe free air before whatever comes next.

 

Derrick gives him until morning.

 

When the stretcher comes, the pilot’s last words strike Derrick like a blow he will never stop feeling.

 

Scotland. France. Germany. 1941–1943.

 

In the mountains of Scotland, they teach him how to kill, how to lie, and how to endure things that break most men. Then they give him a new name, put him on a plane, and drop him into the dark.

 

As an SOE operative deep inside occupied Europe, Derrick Sedgley lives on false papers, borrowed names, and nerves worn to nothing by years in the shadows. He moves agents to safety, builds escape routes, and stays one breath ahead of the Gestapo.

 

Then a mission collapses—and everything changes.

 

Forced to run, Derrick finds himself moving through the most dangerous corners of occupied Europe alongside someone whose connection to his past he cannot yet see. As safe houses fall, loyalties fracture, and the frozen passes of the Pyrenees rise ahead like the edge of the world, Derrick begins to understand something.

 

The choice he made in an Essex field on the first day of the war has been leading him here all along.

 

Some debts cannot be paid.
Some can only be carried.
And some—if you are brave enough, and fortunate enough—can finally be laid to rest.

 

From the quiet fields of Essex to the mountains of Scotland, from the dangerous streets of Lyon to the shadows of wartime Hamburg and the high passes of the Pyrenees, One More Hour of Daylight is an unforgettable story of courage, guilt and redemption—of ordinary people forced to make impossible choices in extraordinary times.

 

Some promises can survive a war.
Some people can too.

For readers who believe that even in war, what matters most is who we choose to be.

Praise for One More Hour of Daylight:

"A beautifully written book with a perfect pace that kept me reading

from start to finish."
~ Bookcollector, Amazon 5* Review

"A confident, carefully crafted novel that handles its subject matter with restraint, earning the weight it carries."
~ Indie Library, Goodreads 5* Review

 Buy Link:

 Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bz01nG

 This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

 

C.M. Gray's first book, The Flight of the Griffin, was longlisted in the 2015 Times Chicken House Writing Competition. Shadowland, the first book in the Pendragon Saga, has so far received over 900 five-star reviews on Amazon. These things still genuinely astonish him, and he is deeply grateful for every one of them.

Most of his previous work has been fantasy: either pure fantasy or historical fantasy, the kind of writing where druids turn up uninvited and one of your main characters develops an unsettling affinity with wolves before you have quite decided what sort of book you are writing. Shadowland began with every intention of staying grounded in historical reality, the story of Uther Pendragon. It did not. It has turned out to be a popular book, so he does not complain.

His years travelling through Asia, India, Africa and the Middle East have a habit of finding their way onto the page. He has seen and done some fairly strange things along the way and met some extraordinary people, and writing fantasy has always felt, to him, only a short step from writing fact.

New for 2026

One More Hour of Daylight, marks C.M. Gray's return to writing. It will be fully published in June 2026, marking a departure: pure historical fiction, no druids, no wolves. It follows Derrick Sedgley, a seventeen-year-old from Essex who makes a single moral choice in a field one September morning in 1939 and spends the next four years living with the consequences. From the Essex countryside to occupied France, from the mountains of Burgundy to the Pyrenees, it is a story about promises, betrayal, courage and the cost of doing the right thing too late.

And for those who have been waiting patiently for the Pendragon Saga to continue: the third book, Shadow's Heir, the story of Arthur Pendragon, follows in September 2026. More on that very soon.

C.M. Gray was born in England and grew up in the Essex countryside near the Suffolk border, which is where Derrick Sedgley grows up, too. The flat fields, the big skies and the particular quality of Essex light found their way into the book, whether he intended them to or not.

C.M. Gray is now very happily settled just outside Barcelona with his wonderful wife and partner in life, Adriana.

Author Links:

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0H23SV952/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5752854.C_M_Gray

 

If you enjoy discovering new stories, you may also like The AnaRose Chronicles—a trilogy of award‑winning adventure novellas. https://books2read.com/u/4jzKAY

Book Spotlight: VIA MALORUM by G.G. MacLeod

 

In the shadows of Rome, power bleeds red.

In the shadowed streets of ancient Rome, 37 CE, power is a blade that cuts both ways. Agrippina, a towering enigma of ambition, slips from Caligula’s gilded cage with her newborn son, Domitius, her mind a labyrinth of cold calculation. At her side prowls Messalina, a siren in scarlet, her seductive cunning as deadly as her blade. Together, they navigate a city teeming with decadence and deceit, pursued by whispers of treachery and the emperor’s wrath.

Their journey leads to the Temple of Fortuna where the enigmatic Prophet Cassandra unveils a cryptic fate – one that demands sacrifice and promises blood. As alleys echo with violence and forbidden passions ignite, Agrippina’s quest for dominion collides with Messalina’s ruthless desires. In a night where every step drips with danger, who will rise and who will fall?

VIA MALORUM is a visceral plunge into the heart of Roman darkness, blending historical intrigue with the chilling allure of giallo. Prepare for a tale where power bleeds red, and trust is a luxury none can afford.

  Buy Link:

 Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bMkq6a

 

The author is a 59-year-old Canadian male based in Calgary. The author has always had a tendency of combining genres like horror and action along with drama, psychological thrillers, giallo, and sometimes even comedy.

It really depends on how the author feels from moment to moment as they write because the author likes to entertain themselves first and then hope that a smattering of other people out there in the world will like it as well.

 Author Links:

 Twitter / X: https://x.com/GGMacLeod1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ggmacleod1/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ggmacleod1

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/G.-G.-MacLeod/author/B098Z2Z35R

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22624912.G_G_MacLeod

 

 If you enjoy discovering new stories, you may also like The AnaRose Chronicles—a trilogy of award‑winning adventure novellas. https://books2read.com/u/4jzKAY

Book Spotlight: Soldiers of Christ by Jon Byrne

 

In a land torn by crusade and rebellion, honour is earned in blood.

1205. Richard Fitz Simon has fled England after his title was usurped, joining the Livonian Order of Swordbrothers – a German brotherhood of warrior-monks fighting to bring the word of God to the pagan frontier. After slaying the Lithuanian champion at the Battle of Rodenpois, Richard is celebrated by the Order and their Semigallian allies.

Yet his position remains precarious. Jealous rivals question his right to stand among the brotherhood, and his master, Knight-brother Rudolf, is enraged by Richard’s disobedience. When dark secrets from Lübeck resurface, Richard also finds himself at odds with Bishop Albert, head of the Christian mission in Livonia. As he struggles to reconcile faith, duty and identity, he is drawn into a brutal world of suspicion and bloodshed.

Sent on an expedition to build a castle deep in the wilderness, Richard soon sees tensions erupt – and the path he has chosen threatens to destroy everything he has fought to become.

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bz0eaZ

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uQnLEQAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/soldiers-of-christ-1

  

Jon Byrne, originally from London, now lives with his German family by a lake in Bavaria with stunning views of the Alps. As well as writing, he works as a translator for a local IT company and occasionally as a lumberjack. He has studied the medieval world for over twenty years, building up a comprehensive personal library and a particular interest in the often-overlooked Northern Crusades.

Soldiers of Christ is Book Two of The Northern Crusader Chronicles, a gritty, historically grounded series focused on realism, moral ambiguity, and the brutal realities of medieval warfare.

Written for readers who value authenticity and atmosphere over romanticised adventure, the novel explores a largely forgotten crusading frontier, culminating in the first of many confrontations in a harsh wilderness of forest and swamp.

Readers who enjoy the historical detail of authors such as Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, or Ben Kane may find familiar ground here.

Author Links:

Website: https://www.jonbyrnewriter.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JonByrneAuthor

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0DJC6PL8D

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/249448581-soldiers-of-christ

  

 If you enjoy discovering new stories, you may also like The AnaRose Chronicles—a trilogy of award‑winning adventure novellas. https://books2read.com/u/4jzKAY

Book Spotlight: The Spirit of the Times by Justin Newland

 

From a land of milk,

And a Road of Silk,

To a ring of roses,

And a dance of posies,

Comes the tale of the spirit of the times!

In fourteenth-century Central Asia, Karia is a young woman living under the yoke of Mongol occupation. But she’s different. She’s a fighter with supernatural powers. She could use them to keep the Black Plague at bay and solve the mystery of the purple skies at dawn – if only she could overcome her self-doubt. 

Travelling in caravans on the Silk Road, she faces dangers seen and unseen – from sandstorms and slave traders to the desert djinn and folk who believe she’s a witch. She fears losing Abi, her little cousin, who’s fascinated by roses and the dance of the Whirling Dervishes of Bukhara.

When Karia falls in love with an English sailor fleeing the Knights Hospitaller, they sail to England with Abi to unravel the meaning of the purple skies, a dance, a posy tree, and a ring of roses.

The Spirit of the Times is part history, part fiction and part speculation: on the origin of disease; the power of innocence; the unfortunate aspects of custom and dogma; and humanity’s ability to respond to the governing influence or spirit of the times.

Buy Links:

 Universal Paperback Buy Link: https://mybook.to/thespiritofthetimes

 Author’s Website: The Spirit of the Times - PREORDER, RELEASE JULY 2026 £9.99 - Justin Newland - Author of secret history thrillers

 Publisher website: https://troubador.co.uk/bookshop/historical/the-spirit-of-the-times

 Waterstones: The Spirit of the Times by Justin Newland | Waterstones

 TG Jones: The Spirit of the Times: Justin Newland: 9781806344154: TGJones

 Coles Books: The Spirit of the Times by Justin Newland 9781806344154 Coles Books

 Shakespeare & Company: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-spirit-of-the-times

 iMusic: https://imusic.co/books/9781806344154/justin-newland-2026-the-spirit-of-the-times-paperback-book  

 

Justin Newland’s novels represent an innovative blend of genres, from historical adventure to supernatural thriller and magical realism.

Undeterred by the award of a doctorate in mathematics from Imperial College, London, he conceived his debut novel, The Genes of Isis (Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set under Ancient Egyptian skies. Next came The Old Dragon’s Head (Matador, 2018), set in Ming Dynasty China in the shadows of the Great Wall.

The Coronation (Matador, 2019) features the Great Enlightenment and speculates on the genesis of the most important event in the modern world – the Industrial Revolution. The Abdication (Matador, 2021) is a mystery thriller in which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it means to abdicate that faith.

At this point in his writing career, after four self-published books, Justin was offered a part-funded contract with the Book Guild.

The Mark of the Salamander (Book Guild, 2023) is the first in a two-book ‘The Island of Angels’ series. It tells the epic tale of England’s coming of age during the Elizabethan era. The second in the series, The Midnight of Eights (Book Guild, 2024), charts the uncanny coincidences of time and tide that culminated in the repulse of the Spanish Armada.

His latest novel, The Spirit of the Times (Matador, 2026), is to be published in July. It tells the story of a young Kyrgyz woman’s journey westwards along the Silk Road. With purple skies at dawn, and a supporting cast of Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, a perplexing rhyme, a ring of roses, it explores the greatest mystery of all – the spirit of the times.

Justin’s enduring passion is to explore the origins of our current time. This prompted a broad research into what we’ve inherited from history – encompassing Egypt, China, Prussia and Tudor England. He also writes entertaining talks which he gives to the WI, U3A, Probus, Rotary and local historical associations. Please visit his website for a current list of the talks.

Alongside the talks, Justin promotes his work with regular book signings at TG Jones (ex. WH Smith) high street stores, selling over 3,500 books since 2019. He has sponsored over 40 UK and US blog tours, given frequent radio interviews and penned many guest posts.

His current book-signing motto is: "Enjoy, Imagine, Discover."

As a member of the Society of Authors, he has Public and Products Liability Insurance.

Born in Essex, England, three days before the end of 1953, he lives with his lady in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.

Author Links:

 Website: https://www.justinnewland.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justin.newland.author/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjustinnewland/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/justinnewland

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jnewland

 

 If you enjoy discovering new stories, you may also like The AnaRose Chronicles—a trilogy of award‑winning adventure novellas. https://books2read.com/u/4jzKAY

 

Book Spotlight: The Cleansing: A Novel of Ancient Rome. Based on a True Story. By Victoria Alvear

 

Based on a true story, this is not the enlightened Rome of myth. This is a city choking on fear, where blood flows on both the battlefield and altar, and where generals and politicians alike are desperate to appease rageful gods.

When 50,000 Romans fall in a single day at the Battle of Cannae, priests claim there can be only one reason the gods abandoned Rome: a Vestal Virgin has broken her vow of chastity. And they accuse Opimia (Mia), the strongest, most defiant of the six sacred Vestal priestesses.

Forced as a child into serving Vesta, the goddess of fire, Mia has always chafed against Rome’s control of her every move—especially after being separated from her childhood love, Attius. Now, accused of a crime she did not commit, she must defend herself in a hostile court to avoid being buried alive for her “crime.”

Betrayed by the high priestess, hunted by Rome’s political and religious elite, Mia must either accept her fate — or join with the Sybil of Cumae to expose the truth behind a world built on superstition, fear, and lies.

A story of personal awakening amid public catastrophe, The Cleansing is a haunting journey through a city at war with itself — and a woman who risks everything to survive it.

 Praise:

 "Original, deftly crafted... [and a] historical thriller with an impressive level of literary excellence."

~ Midwest Book Review

 

 

Buy Links:

 Universal Amazon Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/3LWn1e

Barnes & Noble: https://shorturl.at/P3FwP

Bookshop.org: https://shorturl.at/cchlf

 This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Victoria Alvear has written multiple books and novels set in the ancient world, including A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii, A Song of War: A Novel of Troy, Cleopatra’s Moon, and others.

She is known as Vicky Alvear Shecter for her children’s books, which include Warrior Queens, Anubis Speaks!, Hades Speaks!, and Thor Speaks!

 She has served as a docent at the Museum of Antiquities at Emory University for nearly twenty years.

  Author Links:

 Website: www.vickyalvearshecter.com

Twitter / X: https://x.com/valvearshecter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valvearshecter

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vicky_alvear_shecter/

Threads: https://www.threads.com/@vicky_alvear_shecter

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/valvear.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/valvearshecter/

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/victoria-alvear

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ask.a.docent

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Vicky-Alvear-Shecter/author/B001JRYRO8

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/140762.Vicky_Alvear_Shecter

If you enjoy discovering new stories, you may also like The AnaRose Chronicles—a trilogy of award‑winning adventure novellas. https://books2read.com/u/4jzKAY

 

 

Book Spotlight: The Making of Marigold McGrath by Carrie Hayes

 

New York City, 1937. Seventeen-year-old Marigold McGrath is coming undone.

Her mother is dead. Her father is drawn to dangerous politics. The only place she feels joy is behind a camera — where she can frame the world on her own terms.

After a series of her own missteps, she reinvents herself in London: mentored by a celebrated émigré photographer, photographing Kindertransport children, working alongside Edward R. Murrow. She falls in love with Joop, a charming Dutch student, and shrugs off the war gathering around her.

Then the Blitz begins.

Joop vanishes into the Dutch Resistance. And Marigold — who has always preferred to photograph the world as she wishes it were — must finally decide what kind of woman, and what kind of witness, she is willing to become.

A sweeping WWII coming-of-age novel set in wartime London.

For readers of Kristin Hannah, Kate Quinn, and SL Beaumont's The War Photographers

Praise:

"I read a lot of historical novels ... this one was one of my favorites. From the characters to the setting to the actions depicted I thoroughly enjoyed the journey—I really didn’t want it to end!"

~ Netgalley Review 5*

"The Making of Marigold McGrath by Carrie Hayes is the tale of a well to do American seventeen year old sent to Europe just prior to World War II. The book is exquisitely written with a well paced dialogue. The characters are well formed and interesting. Sprinkled throughout the book are bits from news outlets that help set the larger context for the reader - they are well timed and helpful. Great read, well worth it!"
~ Goodreads Review 5*

"The Making of Marigold McGrath explores a rarely examined aspect of WWII: the complex journeys to maturity of young adults in war-torn Europe as they seek human connection and meaning. Marigold finds both, using her skills as a photographer to document the stories of refugee children. With gobs of historical references and vivid imagery, interlaced with intrigue and romance, The Making of Marigold McGrath is a great read!"
~ Goodreads Review 5*

 Buy Links:

 Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/388dyw

 This book is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

 

Carrie’s first two novels, Naked Truth or Equality and Well Dressed Lies, follow the lives of the iconoclastic suffragist sisters, Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin.

Carrie lives with her husband and two spoiled dogs in a rambling Victorian house just outside of New York City.

Author Links:

Website: www.carriehayeswrites.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carrie.hayes.984

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carriehayes1964/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/carrie-hayes

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Carrie-Hayes/author/B083R8LZQQ

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3487483.Carrie_Hayes

Substack Infrequent Newsletter: https://substack.com/@hayesc

 

If you enjoy discovering new stories, you may also like The AnaRose Chronicles—a trilogy of award‑winning adventure novellas. https://books2read.com/u/4jzKAY

Book Spotlight: Queen of Shadows by Anna Belfrage

 

She should have stayed in the shadows—but Leonor de Guzmán yearned for the sun

Castile in the 1330s is a place of constant turmoil. King Alfonso must contend with the incursions from the Muslim Marinids eager to reclaim Al-Andalus while struggling with repeated rebellions against his firm rule.

When Alfonso needs respite, he finds it in the arms of his Leonor—the most beautiful woman in the realm. But while he may love Leonor over all others, his lawful wife, Maria of Portugal, is tired of being constantly displaced by the fair Leonor.

Leonor loves her man. She gives him healthy sons, a place to be himself. But she is only a mistress, even if Alfonso treats her like a queen. Leonor’s enemies watch and hate.

Flying too close to the sun comes at a high price. How much will Leonor’s love cost her?

Based on the true story of Alfonso XI and his complicated relationships to wife and life-long mistress 

 

Buy Link:

 Universal Buy Link: https://myBook.to/QofS

 This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

 

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with three absorbing interests: history, romance and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as two equally acclaimed medieval series; The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set in 14th century England, and The Castilian Saga ,which is set against the medieval conquest of Wales. She has also published a time travel romance, The Whirlpools of Time, and its sequel Times of Turmoil, and is now considering just how to wiggle out of setting the next book in that series in Peter the Great’s Russia, as her characters are demanding. . .

 All of Anna’s books have been awarded the IndieBRAG Medallion, she has several Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choices, and one of her books won the HNS Indie Award in 2015. She is also the proud recipient of various Reader’s Favorite medals as well as having won various Gold, Silver and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards.

 “A master storyteller” “This is what all historical fiction should be like. Superb.”

Find out more about Anna, her books and enjoy her eclectic historical blog on her website, www.annabelfrage.com where you will also find her post about Alfonso and Leonor:

Author Links:

Website: www.annabelfrage.com

X: https://twitter.com/abelfrageauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annabelfrageauthor

Instagram: https://instagram.com/annabelfrageauthor

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/abelfrageauthor.bsky.social

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/anna-belfrage

Amazon Author Page: http://Author.to/ABG      

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449528.Anna_Belfrage

  

 If you enjoy discovering new stories, you may also like The AnaRose Chronicles—a trilogy of award‑winning adventure novellas. https://books2read.com/u/4jzKAY

 

 

Book Spotlight: The Magician by W Somerset Maugham / G.G. MacLeod

Only that which is forbidden may be permitted.

In Edwardian Paris, brilliant surgeon Arthur Burdon is engaged to beautiful Margaret Dauncey, accompanied by her loyal friend, artist Susie Boyd. They encounter enigmatic Oliver Haddo—a wealthy, obese occultist claiming alchemical mastery. Haddo, inspired by Aleister Crowley, seduces and marries Margaret, drawing her into depravity.

While Arthur remains blind, Susie spies Haddo’s true nature: tentacled astral projections, ritual abuse, and experiments creating daemonic homunculi fed on virgin blood. Margaret descends into addiction and submission. Susie, contemptuous of weakness, murders to steal Haddo’s forbidden texts, performs blood rituals, and binds young Oswald Pendleton as lover and disciple through explicit sex magick.

This modern revision of this classic pot-boiler is a more hardcore, horrifying, and twisted take on this tale.

 Buy Link:

 Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/47K6j7

 

G.G. MacLeod is a 59-year-old Canadian male based in Calgary. The author has always had a tendency of combining genres like horror and action along with drama, psychological thrillers, giallo, and sometimes even comedy.

It really depends on how the author feels from moment to moment as they write because the author likes to entertain themselves first and then hope that a smattering of other people out there in the world will like it as well.

 Author Links:

 Twitter / X: https://x.com/GGMacLeod1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ggmacleod1/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ggmacleod1

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/G.-G.-MacLeod/author/B098Z2Z35R

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22624912.G_G_MacLeod

 

 If you enjoy discovering new stories, you may also like The AnaRose Chronicles—a trilogy of award‑winning adventure novellas. https://books2read.com/u/4jzKAY