Blog Tour – MJ Porter

I’m welcoming The Earl’s Bride by Fenella J Miller to the blog with a fab post about Regency Bath #blogtour #historicalromance #RegencyEngland

I’m welcoming The Earl’s Bride by Fenella J Miller to the blog with a fab post about Regency Bath #blogtour #historicalromance #RegencyEngland

Life in Regency Bath: Fashion, Society, and the Art of Being Seen

In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the elegant city of Bath became one of the most fashionable destinations in Britain. During the period now known as the Regency (roughly 1811–1820), when George IV ruled as Prince Regent for his incapacitated father George III, Bath flourished as a hub of health, leisure, and above all society. Visitors arrived not merely to take the waters but to see and be seen in one of the most vibrant social theatres of the age.

Bath’s distinctive honey-coloured Georgian architecture created a perfect stage for Regency society. Elegant terraces such as the Royal Crescent and the circular grandeur of The Circus reflected the city’s carefully designed sense of order and beauty. Wide streets and sweeping crescents allowed promenading visitors to display their fashionable attire while admiring the architecture and the company.

Many visitors stayed for the “season,” renting townhouses or lodging houses for weeks or months at a time. London’s elite often travelled to Bath during quieter periods of the capital’s social calendar, bringing with them the latest fashions, gossip, and ambitions.

Yet Bath was not reserved exclusively for the aristocracy. Wealthy merchants, naval officers on leave, widows with modest fortunes, and families hoping to introduce daughters into society also flocked to the city. Bath offered something unique: a social environment where rank mattered, but introductions and reputation could shape one’s fortunes just as strongly as birth.

The Healing Waters

Bath’s popularity originally grew from its natural hot springs, known since Roman times. By the Regency period, visiting the baths was still considered an important health practice. The famous Roman Baths remained a central attraction, though the ritual of “taking the waters” had evolved into a highly social activity.

Visitors drank mineral water in the elegant Pump Room each morning, often accompanied by live music. The water itself had a strong mineral taste—many found it unpleasant—but its supposed curative powers for ailments ranging from gout to digestive troubles made it widely popular.

The morning ritual also provided an ideal opportunity for polite conversation and discreet observation. Friendships were formed, introductions arranged, and reputations quietly assessed over glasses of warm mineral water.

Rules of Society

Regency Bath society operated under a complex web of etiquette. Social events such as balls, card parties, concerts, and public breakfasts structured the daily lives of visitors. The city’s social life was historically overseen by the Master of Ceremonies, a role once famously held by Richard ‘Beau’ Nash, whose influence helped establish the rules governing behaviour and introductions.

By the Regency period, these conventions were deeply embedded in Bath’s culture. Strangers could not simply approach one another at social events; proper introductions were essential. A person’s reputation could determine whether they were welcomed into fashionable gatherings or quietly excluded.

The grand centre of this social world was the Assembly Rooms, where elegant balls and concerts brought together hundreds of guests. These glittering events allowed young people to dance, families to negotiate advantageous marriages, and ambitious visitors to cultivate connections.

Leisure and Entertainment

Beyond balls and social calls, Bath offered a wide variety of amusements. Visitors attended theatre performances at the Theatre Royal Bath, one of the most respected provincial theatres in Britain. Concerts, lectures, circulating libraries, and pleasure gardens ensured that boredom was rarely a concern.

Promenading remained a daily pastime. In the afternoons, fashionable visitors would stroll along Great Pulteney Street or gather in the public gardens to exchange news and admire the latest styles.

Shopping was also an important activity. Milliners, dressmakers, and jewellers catered to the city’s fashionable clientele, ensuring that visitors could maintain the appearance required for Bath’s competitive social stage.

Bath in Literature and Legacy

Bath’s lively society and carefully structured etiquette made it an ideal setting for fiction. The city appears prominently in the works of Jane Austen, particularly in the novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Austen herself lived in Bath for several years and observed its social rituals closely.

Through her writing—and through the preserved beauty of the city itself—we still glimpse the world of Regency Bath: a place where health cures mingled with ambition, romance blossomed in crowded ballrooms, and reputation could change with a single introduction.

Today, walking through Bath’s sweeping crescents and elegant streets, it is still possible to imagine the rustle of silk gowns, the rhythm of a quadrille, and the quiet calculations of those seeking their place in one of Britain’s most fashionable Regency playgrounds.

Book cover featuring a woman in a red dress and a man on horseback in front of a large mansion, promoting the work of Fenella J Miller.

Here’s the blurb

Bath, 1810.
Lord James Brotherton, the charismatic Earl of Avon, is wealthy, intelligent—and marked for death. His own cousin believes him an imposter and has enlisted corrupt lawyers and treacherous servants to remove him permanently.
Enter Sofia Brotherton.
Unconventional, outspoken, and entirely irresistible, Sofia turns James’s ordered world upside down. He falls for her instantly. She follows a week later.
As danger closes in, their growing attraction becomes both a refuge and a risk. With enemies plotting murder and passions running high, James and Sofia must fight for love—and survival.
A witty, action-packed Regency romance filled with intrigue, danger, and deliciously sensuous tension.

The book cover for The Earl's Bride. A lady in a red dress has her back to the audience, while a hated man rides towards her. A fine country house forms the background.

Purchase Link

https://mybook.to/Earlsbride1

Meet the author

Fenella J. Miller is a bestselling historical fiction author, known for her emotionally rich World War II family sagas, sweeping Regency romances, and Jane Austen-inspired variations. With over 100 novels published, she continues to captivate readers who love strong heroines, resilient communities, and heartfelt historical storytelling.

Fenella currently writes for Boldwood Books, where she has launched several beloved WWII series, including:

• The Goodwill House series, beginning with The War Girls at Goodwill House

• The Army Girls series, starting with Army Girls – Reporting for Duty

• The Harbour House series, introduced with Wartime Arrivals at Harbour House

She is also the author of the popular six-book Regency romance series, The Duke’s Alliance, which begins with A Suitable Bride. Her novels are praised for their authentic period detail, compelling characters, and uplifting themes of courage and love during turbulent times.

Born on the Isle of Man to a Yorkshire father and a mother of Anglo-Indian descent, Fenella brings depth and diversity to her storytelling. She previously worked as a nanny, chef, hotelier, and teacher—experiences that inspire her vivid, grounded characters.

Now writing full-time, Fenella lives in a peaceful village in Essex with her British Shorthair cat. She enjoys a close relationship with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, and continues to share powerful stories of women facing challenges with strength and hope.

Social Media Links – Fenella J Miller facebook fenellajmiller.co.uk website.

Author Fenella J Miller. A white woman with pink hair wearing a grey and pink cardigan.

Cover image of the book 'The Earl's Bride' by Fenella J Miller, featuring a woman in a red dress and a man in formal attire on horseback, set against a picturesque, historical backdrop.

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I’m welcoming Ancestral Virgins by Fiona J MacKintosh to the blog, with a fab guest post #historicalfiction #blogtour #nonfiction

I’m welcoming Ancestral Virgins by Fiona J MacKintosh to the blog, with a fab guest post #historicalfiction #blogtour #nonfiction

Why Write about the Past?

Historical fiction has been around as long as there have been novels. In 1859, Charles Dickens published The Tale of Two Cities, which was set during the French Revolution. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair came out in 1849, 34 years after the historic events it portrayed including the Battle of Waterloo. And Walter Scott went even further back in his 1819 novel Ivanhoe to the reign of Richard the Lionheart in 12^th century England.

My recently published historical novel, Ancestral Virgins, is set in Britain a little over a century ago in the period before, during, and after the Great War. It was a time – like now – when new technologies were overturning the old realities at a rapid pace as the telephone, the car, and the airplane came into regular use. In one scene in the novel, the guests at a dinner party in a Sussex manor house rush outside to look up at the night sky, trying to spot a Zeppelin on a test flight above southern England.

“Someone shouted ‘Look!’ and a long slim shadow moved out from behind a cloud and stole very slowly across the open sky, sliding out of sight behind another cloud. ‘How can there be people up there in that thing?’ Tessa whispered.”

Today, most of us see planes crisscrossing the sky every day, but for those people in 1914, who would never before have seen anything up there but birds, the sight of that metal tube bearing humans high above the earth must have been both amazing and terrifying.

Capturing that lost sense of newness about things we now take for granted is one reason why I write historical fiction.

Another reason is that as the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” History can be reexamined just as legitimately by the novelist as by the non-fiction writer, because fiction can take us deep into the minds and emotions of people who lived through real events of the past.

To take an example from Ancestral Virgins, George Ingham, a young British explosives expert working for the de Beers diamond company in South Africa, finds himself trapped in Kimberley during its long siege by the Boers. Food supplies run short, and soon the townspeople are barely getting by on “mealie pap, horseflesh, and the occasional vegetable from the de Beers kitchen garden.” Ingham and the woman with whom he’s in love lie awake at nights talking about the meals that they’re craving.

“Ingham described the Sunday dinners his mother made on special occasions – roast beef, a little pink, with roasted potatoes, carrots, and parsnips in parsley and gravy, with warm yeasty bread crowned with knobs of melting butter. In the moonlight, he could see a gleam of saliva at the corner of Ottilie’s mouth.”

The starvation during the siege is a historical fact; the fantasies of food are how I imagined that it was experienced by those who lived through it.

But imagination alone is not enough when writing realist historical fiction. It must always build on what is already there – otherwise known as the facts. I can attest that my descriptions of the historical events in Ancestral Virgins are based on a huge amount of research. For that Kimberley chapter alone, I memorized the entire map of the town by heart as well as a week-by-week digest of what happened during the four-month siege and bombardment. It’s not the quickest way to write a novel, but you learn an enormous amount and the grounding that the research gives you is invaluable for imagining your way inside the heads of your characters and to experience the sights, sounds, and smells that they would have seen, heard, and smelled.

I do this work because I hope that you, the reader, can also feel like you’re in that Sussex garden in 1914 looking up at the night sky or in that dusty South African wartime town in 1899. I want us to go back there together, right alongside the characters I’ve made up from my imagination.

This is my overriding motivation for why I write historical fiction – so that, however briefly, we can feel the way our ancestors felt within their own lifetimes when they had no conception of all the history that was still to come.

Promotional graphic for the blog tour of 'Ancestral Virgins' by Fiona J. Mackintosh, featuring a vintage-style portrait of a woman with a gold headpiece and delicate attire.

Here’s the blurb

In early 20^th century Britain, society was changing rapidly, but not much was changing for women. From different ends of the social spectrum, Celia Mapperley and May Hallam wrestle with rules and circumstances beyond their control and must navigate love, sex, war, and the thin line between conformity and scandal. As they each bear the shame of a devastating family secret, their stories come together in ways that neither could have imagined.

Book cover of 'Ancestral Virgins' by Fiona J. Mackintosh featuring a portrait of a young woman with long hair and ornate attire.

Purchase Link

https://books2read.com/rl/ancestralvirgins

Meet the author

Fiona J. Mackintosh is a Scottish-American author living in Washington D.C. whose fiction draws from both sides of the Atlantic. Her flash fiction collection, The Yet Unknowing World (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021), was a runner-up for the 2021 Saboteur Award for best short story collection, and her debut novel Ancestral Virgins will be published on June 26, 2026. Her flashes were selected for Best Small Fictions in 2023 and 2019, and her short stories have been finalists in the Cairde Word, Colm Toíbín, Bristol, Galley Beggar, Exeter, and Fish Short Story Prizes. She is a proud recipient of an Individual Artist’s Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. www.fionajmackintosh.com

Image of author Fiona J Makintosh wearing a denim jacket andblack polo neck jumper

https://linktr.ee/Fionajanemack

Promotional graphic for the book 'Ancestral Virgins' by Fiona J. Mackintosh, featuring a woman in period attire, with publication dates listed for various book reviews from September 19th to 25th.

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I’m excited to share an excerpt from RJ Verity’s new historical fiction novel, Poole of Honour #PooleOfHonour #ThePooleLegacy #HistoricalFiction #LGBTQHistoricalFiction #RJVerity #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

I’m excited to share an excerpt from RJ Verity’s new historical fiction novel, Poole of Light #blogtour #historicalfiction

I’m excited to share an excerpt from RJ Verity’s new historical fiction novel, Poole of Honour #blogtour #historicalfiction

Here’s an excerpt

Excerpt 2 (Chapter 2, Barkston Chambers)

Two years into his career as a criminal barrister, Daniel is defending the clients nobody else wants – and his head of chambers isn’t happy.

Daniel drops a file onto the mountainous pile on his desk – the cases never seeming to diminish. The youth used by gangs to slip through windows. The teacher caught in the crossfire of a pub brawl. The single mother accused of stealing a tin of baked beans. He wishes he could have been there sooner – to stop the exploitation; to steer the couple elsewhere; to buy the woman a meal before she had to choose between hunger and shame. He has learned that small mercies rarely alter the machinery.

He slumps in his chair. Two years at Barkston Chambers, and still that sense of not quite belonging. Educated in England since the age of fourteen, yet his American background continues to mark him out as a foreigner. The irony is that he came here because he didn’t fit in there either. In the States, expectation pressed constantly at his back; here, the scrutiny is better concealed, but no less real.

Swivelling around, he stares out of the window. A starling lands on the ledge and walks jerkily back and forth, its metallic plumage catching the weak afternoon sun. It taps at the glass, bristling at the bird opposite – unaware that it is only confronting its own reflection. Sometimes you see something from afar and feel drawn towards it. You move closer, circling, trying to understand. But even up close – perhaps especially then – it is hard to know what’s real. Better, sometimes, to leave it be.

There’s a knock, and the door opens before Daniel can answer. Gareth Glover-Rees, head of chambers, stands in the doorway, his stance wide, his six-foot-three frame almost touching the ceiling and filling the tiny room.

‘Poole—’ Glover-Rees stops as he eyes the paperwork on Daniel’s desk and lets out a sigh. ‘We need to talk about this backlog.’

‘I’m sorry, it’s just that there’s so much coming in these days. Most of them are minor offences, but it still takes time to put all the arguments forward.’

‘Actually, that’s why I came to see you.’ He takes one step to the middle of the office. ‘I’ll be candid. When we agreed to take you on, you had a first from Oxford and excellent recommendations from the Bar School. Not to mention your Poole family connections in the business world.’

‘I never disclosed my family b—’

‘That’s not my point. We expected more from you than defending petty criminals.’ Glover-Rees brandishes a piece of paper in his right hand. ‘You’re behind on rent, and your fees are shockingly low.’

‘But so many cases need representing, and they can’t all afford our fees.’

‘This is not Hollywood, Poole. Sentiment is all very well, but it has no place in English law. We are not a charity, and neither are you. Don’t you have a wife with a child on the way?’

Daniel concedes a nod.

Glover-Rees gestures towards the files on his desk. ‘Some of the other barristers—’ he stops. ‘Some of their clients are unhappy with the endless stream of ruffians you’re bringing into chambers. Only the other day, an elderly widow was horrified to find herself sitting next to a violent criminal.’

‘I’m just following the cab-rank rule.’

Glover-Rees’ face reddens. ‘Is that so? Then how come you haven’t covered a single prosecution case in the last six months?’

‘I’ve been run off my feet. I just haven’t had the time t—’

‘Nonsense. Any criminal barrister must prosecute and defend if he is really to learn his art.’

‘But—’

‘No buts, Poole. Clear your cases and start taking on some more lucrative ones. That’s my advice if you want to remain here. Some early guilty pleas wouldn’t go amiss either – or is every one of your clients a victim of gross injustice with a reasonable prospect of success?’ He pauses for effect. ‘Thought not. Look, if your clerk hands you a prosecution brief, you take it. Besides, it’s good to win some points with the police. I trust I’ve made myself clear?’

Before Daniel can respond, Glover-Rees leaves, punctuating his departure with an exclamatory slam of the door.

Cover of the book 'Poole of Honour' by RJ Verity displayed on a tablet, featuring a man in a hat looking down a street with historical buildings, on a wooden surface with a notepad and a pen beside it.

Here’s the blurb

London, 1965. The city is swinging, the world is shifting, and Daniel Poole is a rising criminal barrister with everything to prove – to the courts, to his father, to his wife and to himself.

But Daniel is carrying a secret that could shatter the life he has so carefully built. As society begins to question the rules it once held sacred, he is forced to decide what he stands for — and what he is willing to risk in order to belong.

Set against a backdrop of cultural upheaval and political change, Poole of Honour is a tense, character-driven historical novel exploring ambition, identity, and the cost of silence, as the next generation of the Poole family confronts a world on the brink of transformation.

Cover of the book 'Poole of Honour' by RJ Verity, featuring a man in a suit and hat standing on a street looking at historic buildings under a dramatic sky.

Purchase Link

https://mybook.to/poole-of-honour

Meet the author

RJ Verity grew up in Yorkshire and studied at King’s College London before spending more than twenty years working in financial services across Asia. She now lives in Guernsey with her endlessly patient husband and their ageing but ever-spirited Labradinger. When she’s not writing or reading, she can often be found exploring the island’s rugged coastline.

RJ writes character-led historical fiction rooted in place, memory, and the social and personal forces that shape ordinary lives. Her debut novel, Poole of Light, opens The Poole Legacy – a trilogy following three generations of one family across a century of change.

The second novel, Poole of Honour, publishes on 15 September 2026. Set in London in 1965, it follows Daniel Poole, a rising criminal barrister drawn into the most divisive political debate of the decade – one that cuts closer than he dare admit.

https://www.rjverity.com

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/rj-verity

Promotional banner for The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour scheduled from September 14th to 18th, 2026, featuring the book 'Poole of Honour' by RJ Verity, with specific dates and participating blogs listed. — Follow the Poole of Honour blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club

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I’m reviewing The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder (The Crooked Medium 1) by Stephen Cox #blogtour #bookreview #historicalmystery

I’m reviewing The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder (The Crooked Medium 1) by Stephen Cox #blogtour #bookreview #historicalmystery

Here’s the blurb

London 1881. Can two crooked women stop a murder?

Extravagant medium Mrs Ashton and her lover, blunt working-class Mrs Bradshaw, run a spiritualist scam. Mrs Ashton secretly reads minds.

Believing that Mrs Ashton is genuine, grieving Lady Violet craves the truth behind her mother’s untimely death. But Lady Violet’s powerful husband Sir Charles hates spiritualists. Has he killed before?

Uncovering this MP’s wicked crimes will put all three women in terrible danger…

To solve a shocking murder, look both sides of the grave.

“I loved this book! Victorian murder mystery meets “ghost” story, with delicious sprinklings of compassion and mischief…”

Caroline Day, author of Sunday Times Bestseller Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life

Purchase Links

THE CROOKED MEDIUM’s guide to MURDER

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crooked-Mediums-Guide-Murder-Victorian-ebook/dp/B0FLK68742/

https://www.amazon.com/Crooked-Mediums-Guide-Murder-Victorian-ebook/dp/B0FLK68742/

Exciting News: Book 2 in the Crooked Medium series is now available for pre-order!! – https://stephencox.co.uk/buy-terror/

My Review

The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder is an enthralling late nineteenth-century set mystery, with all the trappings we would expect from a story set in this era, complete with a spiritualist (or is she?), an angry husband and a desperate wife, told with a flair for the language of the time, and some quite amusing insults to boot.

The setting is well depicted, and the (initial) mystery quickly reveals itself as Mrs Ashton resolves to aid poor Lady Violet while she uncovers the truth about her mother’s death. And yet, not all is as it seems, and Mrs Ashton, with her own secrets as well, finds herself caught in the middle of something she’s desperate to understand. Having placed herself in terrible danger when the very man she’s investigating turns up dead himself, she’s implicated in his murder; only there’s something even more unsettling for Mrs Ashton to contend with (I don’t want to spoil what happens). This adds a whole new dimension to everything the reader thought they knew!

A rousing mystery, with plenty of pace and a sure-fire hit for those who love stories set in the era. And with a fabulous ‘well, I didn’t see that coming’ element about halfway through the book. This story kept me reading, and I was absolutely hooked. This is late nineteenth-century London (and further afield) splendidly told, never stinting on the harder sides of life, and with quite a shocking resolution. I am looking forward to book 2.

Meet the author

My grandmother told me I read too much. I remember walking in the garden when I was small, telling myself stories. It was over thirty years of wanting to be a novelist before I tried… and succeeded.

The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder arose because I wanted to write about Britishness and specifically about Englishness; about our complex relationship with the past; I wanted leads who were morally grayer but still capable of kindness. It was time for a novel with queer leads. And in quite desperate times, I needed to write something with some uplift. It’s the first book intended to start a series.

My first books, Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds are set in the 1960s USA. It’s about Gene and Molly, a childless couple, and Cory, the little boy from the stars that they adopt, under such challenging circumstances. The books got lovely reviews and are available on both sides of the Atlantic.

I spent nearly all my childhood in Bristol, and I’m now an adoptive Londoner. I live with my partner, and it’s the best thing our two adult children come back from time to time. Our garden rages wild.

https://stephencox.co.uk

https://stephens-newsletter-69af79.beehiiv.com

Giveaway to Win 4 x Signed Books by Stephen Cox (Open to UK Only)

https://gleam.io/gFE4O/win-4-x-signed-books-by-stephen-cox-open-to-uk-only

Prize includes – Our Child of the Stars, Our Child of Two Worlds, The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder and the Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror.

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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Check out my review for House of Thieves by Rachel Walkley #historicalmystery #blogtour #countryhousemystery

Check out my review for House of Thieves by Rachel Walkley #historicalmystery #blogtour #countryhousemystery @rararesources @raejcreations

Check out my review for House of Thieves by Rachel Walkley #historicalmystery #blogtour

Here’s the blurb

At Terrington Hall, objects are treasured while people are forgotten.

Chief conservator Amy is restoring the Hurly family’s guilt-stained hoard when a theft forces her to hire Harrison, a security adviser on a personal quest to uncover his own history.

Unknown to anyone, an invisible presence woven into the fabric of the house watches their every move.

When Harrison uncovers a room sealed for decades, the investigation shifts from simple theft to the resurrection of murderous secrets. In a house where the past is too heavy to escape, the dead don’t need bodies to tell their stories — they just need someone to listen.

One house. Two mysteries. Two centuries apart.

Trailer https://youtu.be/SpbHfueEYdU

Book cover for House of Thieves by Rachel Walkley

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H9HY2WZL

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H9HY2WZL

https://books2read.com/u/m2gOqG

My Review

House of Thieves is an intriguing novel that follows the modern conservation of an old country house under the guidance of Amy. Into the midst comes Harrison, connected to the house through a long and tangled family history, and employed to discover how certain thefts have been occurring. There are also other modern characters, each with their own stories to tell, alongside the house, which seems to have largely discarded elements of its history.

Our narrator is (for much of the time) an otherworldly presence who says very little but offers hints about why she continues to haunt the property. The storyline slips back in time, and so we have two timelines: the present day and the early 1800s.

Because of all this, the storyline seems to move a little slowly in places. It takes a long time to discover exactly what’s happening, and why the thefts are even relevant. It takes even longer to begin to learn the ghost’s secrets, and when they do reveal themselves, they’re quite horrifying. This is where the novel is at its strongest, bringing together all these threads, which seem unconnected but aren’t.

It’s definitely a slow burn, but it rewards the reader as the pacing increases, and we almost don’t want to know what happened to our ghostly narrator.

House of Thieves is stuffed with delightful little details, just like Terrington Hall, and it’s almost as reluctant to give them up as the house is, but give them up to the reader it does.

Meet the author

Rachel Walkley is a former librarian and scientist who lives in the North West of England, where she spends her spare time making music and writing. Her debut novel, The Women of Heachley Hall, was a bestseller in the UK and Australia. Known for weaving together family secrets, magical mysteries, old houses and inspirational women, Rachel also writes gripping female-led crime novels under the pen name Rae Shaw.

Rachel Walkley’s author website

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I’m reviewing the new book in the Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Italian Mysteries, Murder at Christmas by TA Williams #BookReview #BlogTour #CosyCrime #ContemporaryCrime

I’m reviewing the new book in the Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Italian Mysteries, Murder at Christmas by TA Williams #BookReview #BlogTour #CosyCrime #ContemporaryCrime

Here’s the blurb

BRAND NEW instalment in the page-turning Armstrong & Oscar cozy mystery series, this time in the snowy Italian Alps.

A festive gathering…

Private investigator Dan Armstrong, accompanied by his wife and his canine sidekick, Oscar, are spending the days before Christmas in a luxurious Alpine chalet tucked away in a hidden valley. It should be the perfect escape, except the owner is in fear for his life.

A house full of secrets…

Amid perfect winter wonderland scenery, the more Dan discovers about his host and the other guests, he realises that all is not as it seems. What should be a happy family party is riddled with rancour, mistrust and hatred.

A killer in the snow?

Then the snow falls – fast and heavy – and within moments, someone is dead. Accident, suicide, or murder? As the snow closes in, Dan has to work out if he’s looking for a killer, or whether he and Oscar are barking up the wrong tree.

Purchase Link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Pompeii-At-Christmas-Williams-ebook/dp/B0F4VXZQVH

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Pompeii-At-Christmas-Williams-ebook/dp/B0F4VXZQVH

My Review

Murder in Rome is somehow the 16th book in the Armstrong and Oscar mysteries.

This latest outing sees Dan and his wife venturing into the Alps to meet a friend from an earlier mystery, and of course, there’s an ulterior motive as well. Is someone trying to kill their host, or is he simply paranoid?

Against the backdrop of a winter storm, Dan (and Oscar) feel their noses twitch and decide to find out exactly what is happening – if they can manage to do so between the meals being prepared for them. And, if it is murder on the mind, there are any number of potential suspects.

Murder at Christmas is a distinctly chilly mystery and the resolution, when it comes, is a little more nuanced than we readers might expect, but no less satisfying.

Check out my reviews for earlier books in the series, and be sure to start at book 1, Murder in Tuscany.

Meet the author

I’m a man. And a pretty old man as well. I studied languages at Nottingham University a long time ago and then lived and worked in France and Switzerland before going to work in Italy for seven years. My Italian wife and I then came back to the UK with our little daughter (now long-since grown up) where I ran a big English language school for many years. We now live in a sleepy little village in Devonshire. I’ve been writing almost all my life but it was only thirteen years ago that I finally managed to find a publisher who liked my work enough to offer me my first contract.

I started off writing romances but after 28 of them, I knew I wanted to try something different, and so the first of the Armstrong and Oscar cozy mysteries, Murder in Tuscany, was born three years ago. I’ve been having a lot of fun ever since getting to know the dynamic duo (and introducing them to people all over the world). These books are cosy crime [a genre I didn’t even know existed when I started writing them). They are murder mysteries, but not gory, over-violent stuff, but stories designed to exercise the brain of the reader and to put a smile on their face. Maybe it’s because there are so many horrible things happening in the world today that I feel I need to do my best to provide something to cheer my readers up. My books provide escapism to some gorgeous locations all over my beloved Italy.

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Bookbub profile @trevorwilliams3

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I’m welcoming The Fern Flower by Kathleen Shoop to the blog #HistoricalFiction #TheFernFlower #ballet #WW1 #ReaderReach #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

I’m welcoming The Fern Flower by Kathleen Shoop to the blog #HistoricalFiction #TheFernFlower #ballet #WW1 #ReaderReach #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @kathieshoop @cathiedunn @maryanneyarde
@kathleenshoop @thecoffeepotbookclub @yardereviews

I’m welcoming The Fern Flower by Kathleen Shoop to the blog #HistoricalFiction #TheFernFlower #ballet #WW1 #ReaderReach #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Here’s the blurb

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.

Any Triggers: Set 1908-1917 so people weren’t so kind to each other. Mila’s in ballet school at one point and living away from home. She always has adult support of some kind, but faces abandonment to some degree from those she loves.

Book cover for The Fern Flower by Kathleen Shoop

Buy Links

https://books2read.com/u/m0jpWJ Barnes & Noble Kobo

Meet the author

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.

http://kshoop.com

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

Blog tour banner for The Fern Flower by Kathleen Shoop

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I’m welcoming Anthea Laurelton and Fearless Hearts Forbidden Love to the blog #HistoricalRomance #SpartanRomance #HistoricalFantasy #HeartsOfSparta #FearlessHeartsForbiddenLove #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

I’m welcoming Anthea Laurelton and Fearless Hearts Forbidden Love to the blog #HistoricalRomance #SpartanRomance #HistoricalFantasy #HeartsOfSparta #FearlessHeartsForbiddenLove #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

I’m welcoming Anthea Laurelton and Fearless Hearts Forbidden Love to the blog #HistoricalRomance

Here’s the blurb

To save her city, she must risk her life.

To fulfil his oath, he must harden his heart.

Together, they stand to lose everything.

Spartan warrior, Diokles, has waited years for the opportunity to right a failure that torments his heart and integrity. Sent to hunt down a threat to Sparta, this campaign may be his final chance to restore his honour and uncover the traitor whose actions blighted his life. Success is at his fingertips, but when duty forces him to take an unwilling accomplice, his plans are challenged in ways he never foresaw.

Leandra, high priestess of Apollysis, stands at the edge of revelation and ruin. Haunted by fragments of a forgotten past, she alone can uncover the truth that will save her city. To do so, she must wear the fabled Coronet of Apollo, a sacred act that could cost her life.

Bound together by necessity and desire, captor and captive race into danger the closer they draw to the shrine of Apollo. With a relentless enemy closing in, one who seeks Diokles dead and Leandra for himself, their growing passion becomes both their greatest strength and their most perilous weakness.

In a time where prophecy, honour, and blood rule, love was never part of the plan.

An epic historical adventure romance of bravery, betrayal, and forbidden desire.

Fully edited, revised version of ‘SpartanQuest – Salvation’ with extra scenes.

Triggers: Love scenes on the page – Romance heat level 3. Some battle scenes.

Buy Link

http://www.books2read.com/HeartsofSparta-1

Meet the author

Anthea Laurelton writes sweeping romances inspired by Ancient Sparta and Greek mythology. Her stories combine historical elements, forbidden love, dangerous quests and emotionally complex heroines for readers of mythological and historical fantasy.

A fan of sword and sandal movies, her plots blend slow-burn romance, dangerous quests, warrior culture and family intrigue for readers who crave epic adventures. Falling in love with Greek mythology at the age of thirteen, her love of the Spartans especially, came after reading Roger Lancelyn Green’s THE TALE OF TROY where she cheered on Menelaus to take his queen back!

She left a career in IT to pursue her passion for storytelling and pander to an extremely spoilt German Shepherd whom she refers to as ‘The Muse’.

A former equestrian, Anthea enjoys keeping active and has a bucket list of travel destinations waiting to be fulfilled.

www.anthealaurelton.com

Follow the Fearless Hearts Forbidden Love by Anthea Laurelton blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club

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I’m welcoming G.G. MacLeod to the blog with VIA MALORUM #AncientRome #Agrippina #Messalina #DarkRomantasy #PsychThriller #Giallo #BlogTour #ReaderReach #TheCoffeePotBookClub #YardeBookPromotions

I’m welcoming G.G. MacLeod to the blog with VIA MALORUM #AncientRome #Agrippina #Messalina #DarkRomantasy #PsychThriller #Giallo #BlogTour #ReaderReach #TheCoffeePotBookClub #YardeBookPromotions @GGMacLeod1 @cathiedunn @maryanneyarde @ggmacleod1 @thecoffeepotbookclub @yardereviews

I’m welcoming G.G. MacLeod to the blog with VIA MALORUM #AncientRome #Agrippina #Messalina #DarkRomantasy #PsychThriller #Giallo #BlogTour #ReaderReach #TheCoffeePotBookClub #YardeBookPromotions

Here’s the blurb

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.

Any Triggers: Some rough lesbian sex, moderate violence.

https://books2read.com/u/bMkq6a

Meet the author

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.

Follow the Via Malorum by GG MacLeod blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club

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Book Review. Helen Golden’s A Blighter is Bumped Off-#bookreview #historicalmystery #blogtour #avidreader

I’m delighted to welcome a returning Helen Golden to the blog with her new book, A Blighter is Bumped Off-#bookreview #historicalmystery #blogtour #avidreader @rararesources

I’m delighted to welcome a returning Helen Golden to the blog with her new book, A Blighter is Bumped Off #bookreview #historicalmystery #blogtour #avidreader

Here’s the blurb

The only thing worse than a persistent suitor? A dead one on your lawn.

London, 1892. Alice, Duchess of Stortford, has returned to town determined to enjoy her first Season as a wealthy widow. But instead of balls, flirtation, and whispered gossip, she finds herself besieged by ambitious bachelors—none more persistent than the insufferably smooth-talking Miles Fonthill. When Alice firmly refuses his sudden proposal, she assumes the matter is settled.

Instead, he turns up dead in her garden.

The police are happy to call it a tragic accident. Alice is less convinced.

Why was Miles climbing over her garden wall in the middle of the night? Why had he become so determined to win her favour? And what did he really want?

As Alice begins to dig into Miles’ final days, her search leads her into the glittering heart of London society, where old loyalties run deep, secrets are guarded fiercely, and reputation matters more than truth. But when whispers of the mysterious Order of the Golden Key begin circling dangerously close to her own late husband’s name, Alice realises this death may be far more complicated than one unwelcome suitor meeting an unfortunate end.

And if someone is willing to kill to keep their secrets…this Season may prove positively deadly.

Perfect for fans of feisty female sleuths, Victorian High Society, and secret scandals, all served with a dash of humour and a cup of tea.

Purchase Link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blighter-Bumped-Duchess-Stortford-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0FWC6CBLC

https://www.amazon.com/Blighter-Bumped-Duchess-Stortford-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0FWC6CBLC

My Review

A Blighter is Bumped Off is the third full-length novel in the Duchess of Stortford cosy historical mystery series. I’ve read them all.

It’s good to be back with Lady Alice, and this time she has a right old pickle on her hands. Her reputation is at stake, and ladies of the Ton do not like having their reputation imperilled.

With the aid of her trusty allies, Lady Alice determines to get to the bottom of the puzzling mystery of how the body of her ex-suitor came to be found in her garden and very enjoyable it is too. She uncovers some delightfully dodgy dealings as she hunts down the truth with the aid of her trusty servants, and te aid of her PI and none other than Sherlock Holmes.

Another fun, historical story with a good dash of cosy, and just the sort of mystery I like to read.

Check out my reviews for the books in Helen Golden’s Right Royal Mystery series, featuring one of Lady Alice’s descendants.

Spruced Up For Murder

For Richer, For Deader

Not Mushroom For Death

A Dead Herring

A Cocktail to Die For

A Death of Fresh Air

I Kill Always Love You

A Murder Most Wilde

And my review for the prequel in the new historical mystery series, as well as the full-length novels.

An Heir is Misplaced

A Husband is Hushed Up

A Dowager is Done-In

Meet the author

Helen Golden spins mysteries that are charmingly British, delightfully deadly, and served with a twist of humour.

With quirky characters, clever red herrings, and plots that keep the pages turning, she’s the author of the much-loved A Right Royal Cozy Investigation series, following Lady Beatrice and her friends—including one clever little dog—as they uncover secrets hidden in country houses and royal palaces. Her new historical mystery series, The Duchess of Stortford Mysteries, is set in Victorian England and introduces an equally curious sleuth from Lady Beatrice’s own family tree—where murders are solved over cups of tea, whispered gossip, and overheard conversations in drawing rooms and grand estates.

Helen lives in a quintessential English village in Lincolnshire with her husband, stepdaughter, and a menagerie of pets—including a dog, several cats, a tortoise, and far too many fish.

If you love clever puzzles, charming settings, and sleuths with spark, her books are waiting for you.