A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica's Rebellion Review with Giveaway!!

A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica's Rebellion

by Ruth Downie, Stephanie Dray, E. Knight, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter, S.J.A. Turney, and Russell Whitfield

Publication Date: November 13, 2015

Knight Media LLC

eBook & Paperback; 440 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Britannia: land of mist and magic clinging to the western edge of the Roman Empire. A red-haired queen named Boudica led her people in a desperate rebellion against the might of Rome, an epic struggle destined to consume heroes and cowards, young and old, Roman and Celt . . . and these are their stories.

A calculating queen sees the sparks of revolt in a king’s death. A neglected slave girl seizes her own courage as Boudica calls for war. An idealistic tribune finds manhood in a brutal baptism of blood and slaughter. A conflicted warrior hovers between loyalty to tribe and loyalty to Rome. A death-haunted Druid challenges the gods themselves to ensure victory for his people. An old champion struggles for everlasting glory in the final battle against the legions. A fiery princess fights to salvage the pieces of her mother’s dream as the ravens circle. A novel in seven parts, overlapping stories of warriors and peacemakers, queens and slaves, Romans and Celts who cross paths during Boudica’s epic rebellion. But who will survive to see the dawn of a new Britannia, and who will fall to feed the ravens?

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | ITUNES

A Year of Ravens Authors

Ruth Downie, Stephanie Dray, E. Knight, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter, S.J.A. Turney, & Russell Whitfield

My Thoughts

There are a few woman in history that fascinate me and among them is Boudica, queen of the Iceni tribe of Britain, a statuesque and intelligent woman. She is mostly known for her uprising against the Roman Empire around 60 AD. The Roman Empire were a domineering and cruel people. They had to conquer and rule everyone and kill whoever resisted their attempts. After the death of Boudica's husband, King Prasutagus, Boudica was flogged mercilessly and her daughters raped by the Roman soldiers, not only that, whatever loans the Iceni had with the Romans was called in. 

"A calculating queen foresees the fires of rebellion in a king's death. 

A neglected slave girl seizes her own courage as Boudica calls for war.

An idealistic tribune finds manhood in a brutal baptism of blood and slaughter.

A death-haunted Druid challenges the gods themselves to ensure victory for his people.

A conflicted young warrior finds himself torn between loyalties to tribe and to Rome.

An old champion struggles for everlasting glory in the final battle against the legions.

A pair of fiery princesses fight to salvage the pieces of their mother’s dream as the ravens circle."

Each of the seven parts of the novel told by seven different authors who write historical fiction are involved in the writing of this collaboration, they each tell a story that combines their own spin on the characters portrayed in A Year of Ravens.  It is interesting to note that the only information of Boudica and her life and rule of the Iceni tribe is mostly documented by the Romans. If you are interested in this period of Brittania's history and the Roman Empire, give this book a read. I give it five stars for the writing alone, I find it amazing that seven different authors can come together and write about a time in history and it weaves together seamlessly.

I received a copy of this book for my honest opinion.

Blog Tour Schedule

Friday, November 13
Kick Off at Passages to the Past
Saturday, November 14
Guest Post at A Bookish Affair
Spotlight at Historical Fiction Connection
Sunday, November 15
Review at Book Babe
Monday, November 16
Review at Flashlight Commentary
Tuesday, November 17
Review at Unabridged Chick
Wednesday, November 18
Guest Post at Let Them Read Books
Interview at Unabridged Chick
Thursday, November 19
Review at Kinx's Book Nook
Review at A Bookish Affair
Friday, November 20
Review at Leeanna.me
Monday, November 23
Review at Bibliophilia, Please
Tuesday, November 24
Review at The Maiden's Court
Wednesday, November 25
Review at A Book Drunkard
Friday, November 27
Review & Excerpt at With Her Nose Stuck in a Book
Monday, November 30
Review at Ageless Pages Reviews
Tuesday, December 1
Review at Griperang's Bookmarks
Wednesday, December 2
Interview at Griperang's Bookmarks
Thursday, December 3
Review at Book Nerd
Friday, December 4
Spotlight at The Never-Ending Book
Saturday, December 5
Review at Bookramblings
Monday, December 7
Review at Just One More Chapter
Tuesday, December 8
Review at Book Lovers Paradise
Wednesday, December 9
Review at I'm Shelfish
Thursday, December 10
Review at Boom Baby Reviews
Friday, December 11
Review at Historical Readings & Reviews
Monday, December 14
Review at History From a Woman's Perspective
Tuesday, December 15
Review at CelticLady's Reviews
Wednesday, December 16
Review at A Literary Vacation
Guest Post at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf
Thursday, December 17
Review at The True Book Addict
Review at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf Friday, December 18
Review at Broken Teepee
Review, Excerpt, & Interview at Unshelfish

Giveaway

During the Blog Tour we will be giving away a Celtic inspired set of silver tone metal and red Swarovski crystal beads, including a necklace, bracelet, and earrings inspired by the setting of A Year of Ravens! Please enter the giveaway via the GLEAM form below. Rules – Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on December 18th. You must be 18 or older to enter. – Giveaway is open to residents in the US and UK. – Only one entry per household. – All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion – Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

A Year of Ravens

Beautifully Shattered by Courtney Kristel Virtual Book Tour!

About the Book:

Title: Beautifully ShatteredAuthor: Courtney KristelPublisher: AmazonPages: 412Genre: Romantic Suspense

What would you do if your world fell apart right before your eyes? If everything you held dear was stolen before you had a chance to say goodbye, would you give up or keep fighting? Adalynn Maxwell didn't decide to give up. She was robbed of her choice.

After years of therapy, Adalynn finally wants to move on and her brother's sexy best friend Jax lures her further out of her shell. But she doesn’t understand his game and he changes the rules at every turn, making her fall into the waiting arms of the mysterious Doctor Kohen Daniels, whom she can’t seem to avoid. She’s terrified of trusting him, but something about him makes her want to bare her soul.

Adalynn is desperate for that all-consuming love she reads about, but doesn't believe she deserves it. Her desperation to prove to Jax that she isn’t a little girl anymore may ruin her forever. One wrong decision can change her entire future. She has one last choice to make, but will it be ripped away from her like everything else? Will she pay the ultimate price?

For More Information

• Beautifully Shattered is available at Amazon.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

About the Author

Courtney Kristel graduated from The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, but she couldn't shake her true passion for writing. She's currently working on the second novel of the Beautifully Series, Beautifully Mended. When she isn't creating stories to share with the world, Courtney usually has a book in her hands or is searching for new music to add to her writing playlist.  

Her latest book is the romantic suspense, Beautifully Shattered.

For More Information

• Visit Courtney Kristel’s website.
• Connect with Courtney on Facebook and Twitter.
• Find out more about Courtney at Goodreads.
• Visit Courtney’s blog.

Book Excerpt:

The Power of Numerology by Stefanina Book Tour

In the Shadow of the Storm (The King's Greatest Enemy, Book One) by Anna Belfrage #IntheShadowoftheStormBlogTour #HistoricalFiction #HistFic @hfvbt

Publication Date: November 1, 2015 Silverwood Books eBook & Print; 398 Pages Genre: Historical Fiction 

     

Adam de Guirande owes his lord, Sir Roger Mortimer, much more than loyalty. He owes Sir Roger for his life and all his worldly good, he owes him for his beautiful wife – even if Kit is not quite the woman Sir Roger thinks she is. So when Sir Roger rises in rebellion against the king, Adam has no choice but to ride with him – no matter what the ultimate cost may be.

England in 1321 is a confusing place. Edward II has been forced by his barons to exile his favourite, Hugh Despenser. The barons, led by the powerful Thomas of Lancaster, Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun, have reasons to believe they have finally tamed the king. But Edward is not about to take things lying down, and fate is a fickle mistress, favouring first one, then the other. Adam fears his lord has over-reached, but at present Adam has other matters to concern him, first and foremost his new wife, Katherine de Monmouth. His bride comes surrounded by rumours concerning her and the baron, and he hates it when his brother snickers and whispers of used goods. Kit de Courcy has the misfortune of being a perfect double of Katherine de Monmouth – which is why she finds herself coerced into wedding a man under a false name. What will Adam do when he finds out he has been duped? Domestic matters become irrelevant when the king sets out to punish his rebellious barons. The Welsh Marches explode into war, and soon Sir Roger and his men are fighting for their very lives. When hope splutters and dies, when death seems inevitable, it falls to Kit to save her man – if she can. In the Shadow of the Storm is the first in Anna Belfrage’s new series, The King’s Greatest Enemy, the story of a man torn apart by his loyalties to his baron, his king, and his wife.

chapter 1

“Will she do?” The voice came from somewhere over Kit’s head.

“Do? She will have to, won’t she?”

With a series of grunts, the men carrying her deposited her in a cart. Kit made as if to protest. A large hand gripped her by the neck, tilted her head, and held something to her mouth. No. No more. She spat like a cornered cat, to no avail. Her mouth was forced open; sweet wine was poured, obliging her to swallow. And then there was nothing but a spinning darkness. Nothing at all.

When next she came to, a wrinkled face was peering down at her.

“Remarkable,” the old woman said. “Absolutely remarkable.”

Kit shrank back. Her heart leapt erratically in her chest, her gaze flitting from one side to the other in this unfamiliar chamber, taking in tapestries and painted walls, streaks of sunlight from the open shutters. Where was she? All she had were vague recollections of days on a cart, being jolted this way and that. Days in which strong fingers pinched her nose closed until she was forced to open her mouth and swallow the unctuously sweet concoction that submerged her in darkness.

“Not so remarkable when one considers that they have the same father,” someone else said drily. A pair of light blue eyes studied Kit dispassionately. The eyes sat in a narrow face, a nose like a knife blade separating the two halves. A wimple in pristine linen and a veil in what Kit supposed to be silk framed a face that would have looked better on a man than on a woman – harsh, aloof and with an expression which reminded her of old John back home when he’d cornered a rat.

“M…m’ lady,” Kit stuttered. She tried to sit up but was pushed down again.

“Oh, no. You will not move until we have reached an agreement.”

“Agreement?” Kit pulled at her hands, noting with a burst of panic that she was tied to the bed – a simple thing, consisting of a rough wooden frame and a straw mattress.

“We are in a quandary,” the lady with the blue eyes said. For an instant, she pressed her lips together. “Stupid, wilful child!”

“Me?” Kit’s head hurt, a constant thudding behind her eyes. What had happened to her?

There was a barking sound which Kit took for laughter.

“You, little one, will be anything but wilful. If you are…” The lady made a swift motion across her throat with her hand. Kit cowered. What did they want with her, these two old crones? The older of the women patted her hand.

“It will be none too bad.” From the homespun material of her clothes and the coarse linen of her veil, Kit concluded that she was not a lady but a servant.

“Where am I?” Kit asked.

“Where you are doesn’t matter. It is what you are that is important.” The lady gave her an icy smile. “You are a soon-to-be bride. At noon, you will wed Adam de Guirande.”

Kit did not know what to say. She didn’t like the look in the lady’s eyes, and for some reason she suspected that should she refuse to comply, she would end up dead in the latrine pit – the lady had that sort of air to her.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

“Me?” The lady cackled. “Why, I am the bride’s mother, Lady Cecily de Monmouth.”

Kit wanted to protest. Her mother was Alaïs Coucy – dead since two months back. Grief tore at her, and she turned her face towards the wall, not wanting these strangers to see the tears welling in her eyes.

“I know all about your whore of a mother,” Lady Cecily said. “My husband’s great love, no less.” She sounded bitter. “But at least his bastard will come in handy.”

Kit tugged at her bindings. “I am no bastard!”

“What lies has little Alaïs told you? That your father is dead? That he abandoned her to pursue a religious vocation?”

Kit flushed. “My father—”

“Is my husband, Thomas de Monmouth. My husband, you hear?”

“But…” Kit slumped back against the thin pillow. For most of her eighteen years, she’d heard her mother’s sad story: how two young lovers fled their irate parents, exchanged their vows before a priest and hoped for an eternity together – except that her father had died of a fever. She didn’t understand. Life as she knew it was caving in on top of her – all at the say-so of this unknown woman. “You lie,” she tried.

“I most certainly do not,” Lady Cecily said.

Kit closed her eyes to avoid that penetrating light blue gaze. She suspected the lady was telling the truth: every question Kit had ever asked about her father had been met with an evasion, or the sad tale of star-crossed lovers as trotted out by her mother. When she’d taken her questions to John or to Mall, they had looked discomfited and referred to her mother.

A hand on her shoulder shook her – hard. “No time for all that now. Those dolts I sent to abduct you took their time getting you here, and we have urgent matters at hand. First and foremost, your impending wedding. Mabel, call for a bath – the child is revoltingly dirty.”

“No.” Kit raised her chin and stared Lady Cecily in the eye, summoning what little courage she had. “I’ll not wed on your say-so.”

“No? Oh, I think yes.” Lady Cecily’s eyes were of a sudden far too close, filled with such menace Kit flinched. “If you don’t, I will have you thrown out of Tresaints and publicly branded a bastard.”

“Tresaints? It’s my home.”

“It was deeded to your mother for life. And she is quite, quite dead, isn’t she?” Lady Cecily smirked. “You have nowhere to go, little…Kit, is it? But here you’ll respond to the full version of the name you share with your sister, Katherine.”

A sister? Kit gaped.

Lady Cecily smiled wickedly. “What? You didn’t know you had a trueborn half-sister? A girl who looks just like you?” She laughed as she straightened up to her full height. “So, what will it be? Destitution or marriage?”

Kit wanted to say destitution. She wanted to snarl and spit in Lady Cecily’s face – accuse her of abduction, even – but she knew it would be futile. Women like Lady Cecily had power and wealth on their side. Kit had nothing. She swallowed a sob.

“If you say no, I will evict every single one of the tenants as well,” Lady Cecily said, effectively nailing down the lid on what felt very much like a coffin.

“And if I say yes?”

“If you say yes, your father will include Tresaints in your dowry.”

Kit was trapped. She knew it; Lady Cecily knew it. She acquiesced with a single nod.

Lady Cecily patted her cheek. “Good girl.”

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY

About the Author

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a professional time-traveller. As such a profession does as yet not exist, she settled for second best and became a financial professional with two absorbing interests, namely history and writing. These days, Anna combines an exciting day-job with a large family and her writing endeavours. When Anna fell in love with her future husband, she got Scotland as an extra, not because her husband is Scottish or has a predilection for kilts, but because his family fled Scotland due to religious persecution in the 17th century – and were related to the Stuarts. For a history buff like Anna, these little details made Future Husband all the more desirable and sparked a permanent interest in the Scottish Covenanters, which is how Matthew Graham, protagonist of the acclaimed The Graham Saga, began to take shape. Set in 17th century Scotland and Virginia/Maryland, the series tells the story of Matthew and Alex, two people who should never have met – not when she was born three hundred years after him. With this heady blend of romance, adventure, high drama and historical accuracy, Anna hopes to entertain and captivate, and is more than thrilled when readers tell her just how much they love her books and her characters. Presently, Anna is hard at work with her next project, a series set in the 1320s featuring Adam de Guirande, his wife Kit, and their adventures and misfortunes in connection with Roger Mortimer’s rise to power. The King’s Greatest Enemy is a series where passion and drama play out against a complex political situation, where today’s traitor may be tomorrow’s hero, and the Wheel of Life never stops rolling. The first installment in the Adam and Kit story, In the Shadow of the Storm, will be published in the autumn of 2015. Other than on her website, www.annabelfrage.com, Anna can mostly be found on her blog, http://annabelfrage.wordpress.com – unless, of course, she is submerged in writing her next novel.

My Thoughts

In the Shadow of the Storm, we visit a time in the history of England during Edward II's reign. It is 1321 and Edward has exiled his barons led by Hugh Despenser the Younger. The King is not a favorite as Hugh Despenser is a cruel man who seemed to enjoy having control over the king and would do whatever it took to keep his place as the kings favorite.

The story starts out with Katherine (Kit) de Monmouth being kidnapped. It turns out she is the illegitimate child of Thomas de Monmouth. She has been taken because she has a striking resemblance to the legitimate Katherine. Katherine is to marry Adam de Guirande, but she has disappeared. The wedding proceeds as planned and it eventually comes out that Kit is not the intended bride. Adam and Kit have a tumultuous relationship first but eventually fall in love. 

Lord Roger Mortimer was an English nobleman and Marcher lord, imprisoned by Hugh Despenser, on King Edward II's orders as he led a revolt against the King, this became known as the Despenser Wars. England was in turmoil at this time, lands were confiscated and men were executed, and their families imprisoned. 

King Edward II is not a popular king within England, France and Spain, including his own wife, Queen Isabella. By this time Adam is imprisoned and subject to Hugh Dispenser's and his half brother's cruelty. War has erupted by this time in the Welsh Marches with Lord Mortimer and other men imprisoned. The Tower of London is a stronghold that is nearly impossible to get into, but a plan is underway to rescue those men imprisoned. 

Aymer de Valence, was the 2nd Earl of Pembroke, is another vital character in this story who was a close confidant to Edward II. He is also the man who tries to keep Adam from getting executed.

With all of the characters, real and imagined by the author, In the Shadow of the Storm is a wonderful start to a new series by one of my favorite authors, Anna Belfrage. Believable characters, taut storyline and impeccable research make this novel enjoyable. I read it in a few sittings and loved it!

I received a copy of this book for review for my honest opinion

During the Blog Tour we will be giving away 2 eBooks and 1 paperback! To enter, see the GLEAM form below.

Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on December 22nd. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open internationally.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion

– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.  

ENTER AT LINK BELOW!

In the Shadow of the Storm

Blog Tour Schedule

Tuesday, December 1
Review at I'm Shelfish
Review at Let Them Read Books
Spotlight at Passages to the Past
Wednesday, December 2
Review at Beth's Book Book
Review & Interview at Bookish
Thursday, December 3
Review at So Many Books, So Little Time
Friday, December 4
Review at Singing Librarian Books
Spotlight at Historical Fiction Connection
Sunday, December 6
Review at A Bibliotaph's Reviews
Monday, December 7
Review at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf
Tuesday, December 8
Review at Book Nerd
Guest Post at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf
Wednesday, December 9
Review at Flashlight Commentary
Thursday, December 10
Review at Book Drunkard
Review at Impressions in Ink
Interview at Flashlight Commentary
Friday, December 11
Spotlight at The Never-Ending Book
Monday, December 14
Review at Unshelfish
Review at CelticLady's Reviews
Guest Post at To Read, Or Not to Read
Tuesday, December 15
Review at A Chick Who Reads
Review at Historical Fiction Notebook
Wednesday, December 16
Review at Room with Books
Review at Griperang's Bookmarks
Thursday, December 17
Review at Just One More Chapter
Review at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Friday, December 18
Interview at Just One More Chapter
Interview at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Monday, December 21
Review at Puddletown Reviews
Review at With Her Nose Stuck in a Book
Tuesday, December 22
Review at Bookramblings
Review at Broken Teepee

Hello Dahling Series by Kim Young Book Tour!

Steady is the Fall by Emily Ruth Verona Book Tour!

General Fiction / Literary

Date Published: October 29, 2015

Holly Dorren can't breathe. Think. Feel. Her cousin is dead. Nothing will bring him back. And nothing will ever make her whole again.

In the days following Larry's funeral, Holly begins to reflect on the childhood they shared. She looks for answers in both the past and the present, convinced that understanding his fascination with death might somehow allow her to cope with his absence. She doesn't want to disappear, but already she's fading away from the life she's led.

Holly knew her cousin better than anyone, she was his best friend, and yet there is still a great deal she cannot accept in their relationship. In him. In herself. She doesn't know how to move on without him, but refusing to accept his death carries it's own devastating price.

Emily Ruth Verona is the author of the novel Steady Is The Fall. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and Cinema Studies from the State University of New York at Purchase. She is the recipient of the 2014 Pinch Literary Award in Fiction and a 2014 Jane Austen Short Story Award. Previous publication credits include work featured in Read. Learn. Write., The Lost Country, The Toast, and Popmatters. She lives in New Jersey with a very small dog.

Excerpt

 We were in a car accident as children. I was eight at the time and could never remember the details afterward. My cousin Larry remembered everything, even though he was two years younger than me. It might sound strange that a six-year-old would remember more than an eight-year-old, but it wouldn’t seem odd at all if you knew Larry.  
  

Even as the years passed and my memory of the event faded more and more, Larry’s recollection of it only grew stronger. His parents never liked that much. Neither did mine. I was the only one who ever listened with the sort of unease and appreciation that he craved. We’d sit huddled on the sofa in my living room while my mother was out and my father was upstairs. I’d hug a pillow against my chest and he’d sit on his knees, hunched forward with his hands slicing through the air as he described it all in active detail. 
 

Larry never called it an accident. Not once. He referred to it instead as an imperfect moment or that time in the truck. Keep in mind this was coming from a boy of six, and then eight, and then fifteen, but Larry was incredibly articulate from the very beginning. Every phrase was deliberate with him—each letter carefully chosen. With such a gift for language and grace as a speaker, my cousin should have been a better storyteller, but he wasn’t. His descriptions were clear, but for some reason, Larry couldn’t milk it. He always started at the same spot—when we were in his father’s gray pickup truck, where Larry was seated in the middle between his father and me. 
            

Riding in that truck was really something to a couple of kids because it was the only time we didn’t have to sit in the backseat. We felt like proper adults up there in the front with the steering wheel and the dashboard. The cloth interior smelled like motor oil and old takeout. Larry loved that. He found it comforting. Nostalgic. His mother was a health nut, but his father possessed a particular fondness for anything that could be gotten from a drive-thru window. Abandoned hamburger wrappers and soda straws sat in huddled piles at our feet and we just kicked our heels together and smiled with gleaming, crooked teeth. 
            

It had been snowing all morning, Larry often explained, with tiny white flakes falling onto the windshield and dissolving the same as they do when they fall onto your tongue. It was still fairly early in the day though the clouds made it seem much later. Larry’s father had promised to take us out for lunch if we helped him in emptying out the garage. It was simple enough. He’d hand us something and have us run it upstairs to Larry’s mother in the study to see if she wanted to keep it or if the item could be thrown away. Larry and I made it a game, racing one another to see who could reach his mother first. Mostly we just tied, but I think I might have managed to win a time or two. 
           

Most of the boxes from the garage were filled with old baby clothes and broken toys that were old enough to possibly be worth something at auction if only they had been properly maintained. Larry’s mother enjoyed finding value in the obsolete. They had a garage sale monthly for about five years. It drove Larry’s younger sisters mad because all their toys were constantly being sold before the girls were ready to part with them. They’d toss their red little heads up in the air and call it unfair. Larry called it capitalism. 
              

By noon, we had finished with the garage and were out in the truck on our way to lunch to well-known and beloved Barkley Diner. The place had these dark brown seats, which looked like leather but weren’t, and the lights were yellow-tinted which made everything look like it was lit up by a warm, crackling fire. They served the standard fare. Burgers. Fries. Eggs. Pie. It could have been swapped out with any other diner in the country and no one would have noticed. And yet it was our very own place. The historic Barkley Diner.   
            

The drive only took ten minutes from Larry’s house, but to get there we had to drive along Redwood Road, which consisted of one wide lane that stretched through the woods and down beyond the park. The road was about six miles in length though we only had to travel about two of those before turning onto Wharton Avenue, which emptied into the intersection by the traffic light that sat opposite the diner. The trees, whose bare branches lurched overhead as we gazed out the window, were coated with a light brush of fresh snow. Everything seemed frozen and icy. It was the middle of October, but it looked more like December. That day entered the record books as the earliest snowfall Garner County ever received. I used to like to tell my friends that in school. It made me feel knowledgeable—powerful even. It’s strange how children grasp so tightly to what they cannot make sense of, finding importance in all the wrong places. 
           

Both Larry and his father remembered the radio as being on that afternoon, but only Larry knew the song that was playing prior to and following the accident. Stairway to Heaven. Larry was particularly proud of that little detail. After a point, he even became smug about it. Stairway to Heaven. Imagine that. He claimed it started about two or three minutes before the crash and continued amidst the static on the radio until an ambulance arrived. No one bothered to turn the engine off. It just kept on playing all the way through. 
            

Being hit, he said, was like sitting in one of those spinning teacups at an amusement park. The other car tried to yield as it came to a fork in the road but there was ice on the pavement and so the little sedan went barreling into the left side of our truck. We spun three or four times before hitting a tree. Larry compared the impact to a violent punch in the chest. It made him dizzy and, gasping, he looked up to see that his father’s nose was cracked and the man’s mouth had set on muttering every curse that could be called upon. Then, Larry said, he turned to me. I didn’t stir when he touched my arm. Blood had begun to seep through my hair, painting the window bright red. The impact left a thin scar up near my temple, just under the hairline, from where my skull split the glass. Larry explained that his father looked me over, but was afraid to move my arms or head. My uncle then instructed his son to run over and check on the other driver. He didn’t though. He didn’t want to leave me—he couldn’t leave me. He didn’t even want to get out of the car. So Larry’s father told him to watch me and he opened the door and ran over and called to the man in the sedan. Larry just continued to sit there. Staring. He claimed he couldn’t stop staring at me as that song continued to play and his head continued to spin. It was like the teacup never stopped turning, he said. It just never stopped. 

When the paramedics arrived they took me away. Larry wanted to sit in the ambulance with me, but they drove us separately, claiming my injuries to be more severe. Whether Larry’s disappointment in not being allowed to go with me came from a concern for my safety or his fascination with the blood, I’ll never know. It was probably a little of both. Afterward he swore it was because he was worried about me. He was always a rotten liar, and since I believed him it was most likely true. Or maybe I just wanted to believe him. Too much has happened since to ever really know. 
              

Larry sprained his arm in the accident, but other than that there was little harm done to him. He was always disappointed about that and at first, his parents took that disappointment to be displaced guilt; they thought he felt ashamed to have gotten away with barely a scratch. But really he was just disappointed that he hadn’t experienced more. Felt more. The accident wasn’t nearly enough to settle him. 
              

The only solid thing I could ever recall about that afternoon was how bright the lights were when they rolled me into the hospital. I looked up at those round, white lights along the ceiling and thought I was dreaming. Or dying. The lights looked hot and it stung so viscously to stare at them that I had to close my eyes. There was nothing after that. The memory just tapered off and the next thing I could recall was being back at home. 

The doctors did their work and were proud of my recovery, given that my injuries were more severe than they at first suspected. I received a concussion from hitting my head and one of my lungs collapsed in the ambulance. The latter actually served me well in later years. I was able to avoid my parent’s insistence that I join the soccer team that spring, and in high school, it got me out of having to run the mile required to pass gym. The cold weather sometimes made my chest ache and I couldn’t breathe well after running, but those doctors considered me lucky. I could have died. Larry used to say that all doctors tell the parents of surviving patients that their children were lucky. He thought it was nonsense. There was nothing lucky about it. For years I thought I understood what he meant. Only later did I realize that I was wrong. 
              

Larry clung to the particulars of that afternoon. They mattered so much to him, and so in time, they began to mean a great deal to me as well. His memories became mine. His story did, too, and for a while it looked like that was all the accident would be: a good story. Those involved recovered, even the other driver who suffered nothing beyond a split lip. No one pressed charges. No one died. The flesh healed quickly. At the time, it looked as if nothing much had changed. Only later did we come to realize the extent of the damage it had done.  
               

My parent’s never let Larry’s father off the hook, even though it wasn’t his fault. The fact that guilt nearly drowned him became inconsequential. No one seemed to notice that it was only after the accident that he started drinking again. It didn’t matter, not to my parents. At the time, I was an only child and my mother maintained that nothing ever scorched her soul like that phone call informing her that her lovely little girl had been brought to the hospital. It was the last time she ever took the trouble to care about me as a mother. In that respect, the accident also did me good. I knew from that afternoon that she loved me and I remembered it when she left my forty-five-year-old father for a twenty-six-year-old physical therapist in Florida. I remembered it when she stopped visiting. I remembered it when she stopped calling. For the rest of my childhood I had the comfort of knowing that for one day as I lay on the very verge of death, my mother truly loved me. That love was so strong that it scorched her soul. Some people might have needed more than that, but I considered it to be plenty. It was more than my father had. It’s more than my brother, who was only three when she left, was ever likely to receive. 
              

Larry always regretted the accident more than I did, which many thought was strange for a lot of different reasons that did not really apply. They thought he wished it hadn’t happened, but really it was what didn’t happen that disappointed him. Larry saw something in the accident—the potential for something—that he couldn’t get over. He became fascinated by it—addicted to it. The dizziness never left him and so he never stopped spinning. Instilled in him was the need to know. He was stuffed full of the cruel and compelling need to understand every aspect of it. Every vile little detail. Every curious moment. It was unfortunate really. All those years of waiting and wondering and he never shared a single answer with me, even though I was quite possibly the only one who actually wanted to understand. And he tried. He always tried to make it clear what it was he wanted to find and why it meant more to him than all the rest, but as articulate as he was, he couldn’t put it into words. It became impossible to convince any of us. Not that it really mattered when all was said and done. There was nothing worth finding in it because Larry ended up dead. It happened on a Thursday. Suicide. No one was surprised.

Corruption of Power by C.W. Eccles Book Spotlight!

Independent troubleshooter, Alex Leksin, is recruited by Prime Minister Saidov when the plan to reduce Russia’s reliance on an ever more hostile Europe is put at risk. Hell bent on expansion, President Karpev’s strategy is first to shift the markets for his country’s vast energy resources to the East and Saidov has been charged with overseeing a planned pipeline for Russia’s oil through Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to access these markets. Failure could mean catastrophe, spreading the conflict raging in the Middle East to Russia’s own borders.

Fearful that the pipeline deal might be tilting off course, Leksin has only twelve days to report back before Karpev is due to sign the pipeline contract with the Turkmen President in Ashgabat.

His investigation begins in Moscow at the conglomerate responsible for planning and funding the pipeline. Once the province of larger-than-life oligarch, Lev Usenko, the group is now run by his daughter, Vika, the woman Leksin was once to marry. Trickier still is the prospect of dealing with her embittered brother, Max.

Against a background of political corruption, state-sponsored terrorism and increased Taliban insurgency, Leksin moves on to Turkmenistan, one of the world's most sinister countries, right at the heart of Central Asia. Initially his enquiries reveal nothing to cause alarm. Other factors, though, suggest otherwise: wherever Leksin goes, someone tries to kill him; people in a position to help him are assassinated; and information turns out to be misinformation.

And when at last he discovers the truth, he finds himself unsure of whom he can trust as the stakes get frighteningly higher.

G W Eccles

George Eccles, writing as G W Eccles, graduated from the London School of Economics with a law degree and subsequently became a partner in one of the major international financial advisory firms.

In 1994, George left London to move to Russia and Central Asia during the tumultuous period that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union. His work involved extensive travel throughout Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - often to places with restricted access to foreigners. During his time there, he advised a number of real-life oligarchs how best to take advantage of the opportunities that became available as regulation crumbled and government became increasingly corrupt. Against this background, while his novels are fiction, many of the anecdotes and scenes are inspired by actual events.

His first thriller: The Oligarch, was awarded a Silver Medal both at the Global E-book Awards 2013 and at the Independent Publishers Book Awards 2013, as well as being selected as IPPY Book of the Day.

George is married and now lives with his wife in a hilltop village not far from Cannes in the South of France.

LINKS TO AUTHOR:

Website: http://www.gweccles.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gweccles

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/george.eccles.52

Goodreads

WHERE TO BUY:

Corruption of Power on Amazon:

Amazon UK: 

 

Amazon USA: 

 

Amazon India: 

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A Death in C Minor: A Mick Chandra Mystery By Rebecca Yount Spotlight! Includes #giveaway

A DEATH IN C MINOR: A Mick Chandra Mystery by Rebecca Yount 
E-book original 
Pub. Date: June 26, 2012 
ISBN: 978-1-4675-1499-6

A DEATH IN C MINOR follows young American concert pianist Jessica Beaumont. Determined to rebuild her life following the death of her young son, a bitter divorce and a suicide attempt, Jessica retreats to a 17th century cottage in rural England. But she soon learns that life in the village of Kenwick isn’t the idyll she imagined. A year earlier, Peter Chandler, a mysterious newcomer to the village, had been hacked to death in his manor house with his own kitchen cleaver. The case remains unsolved until it’s reopened by Detective Inspector Mick Chandra of New Scotland Yard.

Like Jess, Mick Chandra harbors a few ghosts of his own—a childhood spent on the mean streets of industrial Liverpool and a father murdered in a robbery. Welsh on his  mother's side and Kerala Indian on his father’s, Mick attributes his keen instincts as an investigator to his grandmother, who was a seer in her village in India. He has succeeded as an investigator despite the racial tensions that still divide England’s most elite police force.

As Mick begins to question the villagers, his list of suspects grows to include an adulterous vicar; an unscrupulous Cambridge don; a neglected, love-starved wife; a retired octogenarian army colonel; a loss-stricken daughter; and Adam Marr, a devastatingly handsome wealthy landowner with whom Jess had a brief affair when she first arrived in Kenwick.

 Against the backdrop of Chandler’s violent murder, and though deeply wounded from failed marriages, Mick and Jess find themselves falling in love. Consequently Jess stirs the hostility of the villagers.

Under pressure from his superiors to close the case, Mick must find Peter Chandler's murderer and bring him to justice. But who is the murderer: the local laird, the cheating vicar, or perhaps the wealthy commodities trader? Or does it take a village to commit a murder?

A DEATH IN C MINOR takes the reader on a journey fraught with danger, love, and intrigue, where the unexpected becomes the norm. The surprise ending will astonish even the most jaded readers of mystery fiction.

 REBECCA YOUNT trained from childhood as a concert pianist, is a published poet, and worked in education reform, but she always nurtured a passion for storytelling which she has indulged only late in life. Coming from a family of writers, it wasn’t hard for her to put pen to paper, but it took an actual unsolved murder to give her the idea for her first novel. On a home A Death in C Minor by Rebecca Yount, page 3 of 3 exchange in England—something she and her husband regularly do—a villager told her about a local murder that remained unsolved, even by New Scotland Yard. Sitting under a tree in a fallow field one day, Rebecca began to imagine what might have happened. The result is A DEATH IN C MINOR.

In 2010, Rebecca underwent open heart surgery, which left her unable to write for two years. After this hiatus, she returned to writing, deciding to put the entire Mick Chandra series out herself as e-books. She is retired and lives in Virginia with her husband, writer David Yount

Rebecca Yount is available for talks and presentations, and she is happy to meet with book clubs.

To schedule an appearance or to learn more about Rebecca Yount and her books, please visit rebeccayount.com.

Rebecca is also the author of the following books in the series:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19802619-the-ravenhoe-cauldron

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17983025-the-erlking

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21900577-the-oracle-of-baal

              

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25964404-when-half-spent-was-the-night

Now for the GIVEAWAY!

The Giveaway is for 1(one) ebook copy of A Death in C Minor, Kobo, B&N, or Amazon, the US only.
Just comment to enter! If you win I will need to get in touch with you so please leave an email address. Celticlady's Reviews respects your privacy. Thank you and Good Luck!
Ends 12/24.