Have a look at FATE: Tales of History, Mystery and Magic, a new release! #Anthology #ShortStories #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalMystery #HistoricalFantasy @HelenHollick @cathiedunn

FATE: Tales of History, Mystery and Magic

By Annie Whitehead, Jean Gill, Marian L Thorpe, Helen Hollick, Alison Morton, Elizabeth St.John, R. Marsden, Anna Belfrage, J. P Reedman, Debbie Young

If you had a crystal ball to predict what lay ahead, would you be tempted to use it? Or would you leave the future to the turn of Fate?


Tales of Variety. Tales of History, Mystery and Magic – some comprising just one of these popular fiction genres, others, a mild mixture of all three. Perhaps you prefer historical fiction rather than a story about magic or fantasy? Maybe you enjoy exploring new themes or prefer sticking to the familiar? Historical fiction can often inform, imparting knowledge of the past, of its events and its people. Stories of mystery exercise the ‘little grey cells’ as Poirot would say, while fantasy and magic create new worlds and awed wonder.

Whatever result, this is where anthologies come into their own, and where short stories are often appreciated as enjoyable, entertaining, quick or easy reads shown through the eyes of a variety of extraordinary characters and situations. In this instance: an Anglo-Saxon woman facing the consequence of conquest, the pursuit of alchemy, the concern of a mother for her daughter, the shifting of time, the necessity of hidden identity, souls who will linger as ghosts, a warning from the supernatural, the necessity for (justifiable?) revenge. All mingled with the rekindling of romance through a mutual quest, and the preparations for a Cotswold village celebration. (Along with a good tip if illicitly snaffling cakes.) 

The binding theme? Destiny... Kismet... FATE!

Publication Date: 16th June 2025

Publisher: Taw River Press 

Pages: 244

Genre:  anthology: short stories of history, mystery and magic

Grab a copy HERE!

This novel is free to read with #KindleUnlimited subscription.

Authors!

IN THE SHADOW OF GHOSTS BY HELEN HOLLICK

Does the fate of those who survive linger forever?

About Helen:

Known for her captivating storytelling and rich attention to historical detail, Helen’s historical fiction, nautical adventure series, cosy mysteries – and her short stories – skilfully invite readers to step into worlds where the boundaries between fact and  fiction blend together.

Helen started writing as a teenager, but after discovering a passion for history, was initially published in 1993 in the UK with her Arthurian Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy and two Anglo-Saxon novels about the events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, one of which, The Forever Queen (USA title – A Hollow Crown in the UK) became a USA Today best-seller. Her Sea Witch Voyages are nautical-based adventures inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy. She also writes the Jan Christopher cosy mystery series set during the 1970s, and based around her, sometimes hilarious, years of working as a North London library assistant.

Her 2025 release is Ghost Encounters, a book about the ghosts of North Devon.

Helen and her family moved from London to Devon after a Lottery win on the opening night of the London Olympics, 2012. She spends her time glowering at the overgrown garden, fending off the geese, helping with the horses and wishing the friendly, resident ghosts would occasionally help with the housework...

Website: https://helenhollick.net/

Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick

A FATEFUL ENCOUNTER BY ALISON MORTON

When time turns in the wrong direction, fate will always step in…

About Alison:

Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her eleven-book Roma Nova thriller series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the ancient Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but with a sharp line in dialogue.

Six years’ military service, a fascination with ancient Rome and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction have inspired her writing. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history. She lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her latest three contemporary thrillers, Double Identity, Double Pursuit, and Double Stakes. 

Website: https://www.alison-morton.com

Amazon Author Page: https://Author.to/AlisonMortonAmazon

FOLLOWING FATE BY ELIZABETH ST.JOHN

A Lost Portrait, a Hidden Conspiracy, and a Second Chance at Love

About Elizabeth:

Elizabeth St.John’s acclaimed historical fiction brings to life her ancestors – remarkable women linked to England’s royalty – offering unique insights into Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times.

Inspired by family archives and historic sites like Lydiard Park and the Tower of London, her novels include The Lydiard Chronicles, The Godmother’s Secret, and The King's Intelligencer, exploring the English Civil War and the mystery of the Princes in the Tower.

Website: www.elizabethjstjohn.com

Amazon Author Page: https://geni.us/AmazonElizabethStJohn

THE BLACK ONYX BOX BY R. MARSDEN

The Bluffer’s Guide to Becoming a Famous Alchemist

About R. Marsden:

R. Marsden is an author and musician, passionate about the Middle Ages. He plays the gittern, a beautiful medieval stringed instrument, ancestor of the guitar; and a thirteenth century recorder, a replica of one which was excavated from medieval ruins in modern-day Poland. He also plays the piano, and there’s nothing medieval about that!

Tales of Castle Rory are Medieval Fantasy Adventures, in which the demesne of Lord Rory of Hambrig is brought to life. Set in the latter part of the thirteenth century, these stories have adventure, mystery and magic at their heart. You’ll also find relationships, romance, friendship and the forging and breaking of ties between people and nations. Running through the Tales are themes of family, loyalty, trust and resilience, together with the other sides of those coins: abandonment, betrayal, loss and disempowerment.

Website: https://talesofcastlerory.co.uk/

Amazon Author Page: https://mybook.to/TalesOfCastleRory

BEWARE THE CROWS  BY ANNA BELFRAGE

Beware the consequences of hatred. Revenge can take many forms…

About Anna:

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 the 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 Readers’ Favorite medals as well as having won various Gold, Silver and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards.

Website: www.annabelfrage.com  

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

DAME FORTUNE’S WHEEL BY J.P. REEDMAN

Fate can be in the hands of others – or held within your own...

About J.P. Reedman:

J.P. Reedman lives in Wiltshire near to Stonehenge. Born in Canada, she has had a lifelong interest in ancient and medieval history, and is often found lurking around prehistoric sites, ruined castles and abbeys, and interesting churches with camera in hand. She became a full-time writer in 2018.

Series include I, Richard Plantagenet, five books chronicling Richard’s life from childhood to Bosworth, and Medieval Babes, a set of standalone novels about lesser-known medieval queens and noblewomen.

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

Amazon Author Page:  http://author.to/REEDMANHISTFIC

SAINTS ALIVE BY DEBBIE YOUNG

When children are not quite the saints we’d like them to be!

About Debbie:

Debbie Young is the author of three series of cosy mystery novels set in the Cotswolds. The Sophie Sayers series starts with Best Murder in Show; the Gemma Lamb series begins with Dastardly Deeds at St Bride’s; and the Cotswold Curiosity Shop series kicks off with Death at the Old Curiosity Shop. She sometimes sends characters from one series to visit those in another.

She also writes short fiction, not all of it crime-related, set in the same world, e.g., Christmas with Sophie Sayers. Her novels are published by Boldwood Books in English, by DP Verlag in German, and by Antonio Vallardi in Italian.

Debbie has recently written her first murder mystery play for performance by her village amateur dramatic group. She is a frequent speaker at events for writers and readers, a course tutor for Jericho Writers, and the founder and director of the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival.

She lives in a Victorian cottage with her Scottish husband, her student daughter, and three cats, and she writes in a little hut at the bottom of her garden.

Website: www.authordebbieyoung.com

Links to buy Debbie’s books:

https://authordebbieyoung.com/books-2/

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Read an excerpt from Keeping the Countess by Lille Moore #HistoricalRomance #HistoricalFiction @XpressoTours

Keeping the Countess

By Lille Moore

In this first installation of the DAMSELS IN DISGUISE series, a passionate clergyman on a mission to steal an earl’s secrets finds himself captivated by a cunning and courageous countess.

Charismatic curate Jonah Sinclair survived the deadly streets of south London with two well-trained fists and divine intervention. He will let nothing—not his vocation, nor his yearning to find love—stop him from pursuing the criminals who killed his father. When he learns the notorious Earl of Rochford could hold the key to retribution for his family, he seizes on the chance to become tutor to the earl’s young ward. But the only trace of Rochford he discovers at the mysterious Ravenglass Hall is his abandoned countess, a woman whose fierce strength stirs a forbidden temptation.

Faith Trenton, Countess of Rochford, is on the brink of ruin. Betrayed and abandoned by her husband, she disguises herself as a man to defend her estate from an embezzling steward. Jonah’s arrival threatens her carefully constructed masquerade, and despite the irresistible spark between them, she must send him packing, or risk having him expose the dangerous secrets she keeps hidden. But when a succession of attacks threatens everything that Faith has fought to protect, she’s forced to place her trust in Jonah, and pray he won’t unravel the truth, or her heart.

Helping Faith could sabotage Jonah’s mission. Loving her might cost him everything.

Publication date: June 24th 2025
Genres: Adult, Historical, Romance 

Grab a copy HERE!

EXCERPT

Sinclair lifted his head and sharp blue eyes met hers. “Lady Rochford, upon my honor to make your acquaintance.”

The assessing way he studied her, and the desk she took refuge behind, undermined the politeness of his greeting. If she wasn’t careful, this attentive man would see right through her, and the deceptions she’d constructed.

“Would you like a refreshment, Mr. Sinclair?” She gestured to the miniature glasses next to the crystal decanter filled with amber liquid.

He acknowledged the offer with another polite tilt of his head and crossed the room, giving wide birth to the crackling fireplace. After offering her a glass, he raised his in salutation and sipped slowly, drawing her attention to his well-shaped mouth.

She had an appalling sense of what those full lips were capable of, beyond reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

“Lady Rochford?”

Faith blinked. “You were saying?”

“Madeira. It’s unusual to serve it as an apéritif.”

“Heavens, I hope we haven’t caused a scandal.” 

“Only if generosity is considered outside of the rules of good society.” A charming grin spread across his face. “This is a very old Madeira, and you do any guest a great privilege in sharing it.”

Pretty words. Delivered with an even prettier smile. She may have overestimated his intelligence if he believed such insipid overtures would lower her guard.

“Are you a connoisseur of spirits?” she asked. “I thought most members of the clergy frowned on imbibing.”

“You’ll find that I subscribe to more liberal views.”

An understatement if ever she heard one. The man was overly familiar in his manner. She suspected his liberal views were the reason he wasn’t ensconced in a parish of his own.

“Madeira is a favorite of mine,” Sinclair added. “My father was a merchant, and it was his primary trade route.”

“It must have disappointed him that your calling prevented you from following in his footsteps.”

“Fortunately, he didn’t live long enough for that particular disappointment. He died when I was young.”

His tone was teasing, but the tightness in his eyes felt weighty to her.

“My sincere condolences,” she murmured.

“Am I correct in understanding that you once called the island home?”

It never was home, she almost confessed, rattled that he was so well-informed. Had the bishop prepared him, or did he have other sources? Surely, the scandal sheets weren’t still writing about her missing husband.

No, she’d wager he’d done his own research. Throughout their conversation, Sinclair had scrutinized the room as if he was compiling a mental inventory. But his focus was divided; his gaze kept sliding back to hers. Likely, because she’d inhaled a little too much Madeira, a little too fast, for it not to be scarring her cheeks with heat.

She couldn’t recall the last time an attractive man had paid her such attention.

“It was a long time ago,” she eventually responded to his question. “And very far from Cumbria. But so is London.”

“The journeys are comparable,” he replied with mock solemnity. “And I must get used to leaving London. My orders will take me to Manchester soon. Unless, of course, you find my services indispensable here.”

He flashed another brilliant grin, which did nothing to assuage her flush. His presumption that such a flirtation might have an effect on her made her more self-conscious.

The man had to leave. Immediately.

Lille Moore writes romance with a twist on time-honored tropes and tales. Her first career in public diplomacy and strategic communications took her across five continents and six of the Seven Seas and spurred a lifelong love affair with uncovering new worlds through storytelling. She lives with her spouse in Texas

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Have a look at The Dutch Muse by Heidi Eljarbo #HistoricalMystery #DualTimeline #ArtMystery #BlogTour @HeidiEljarbo @cathiedunn

The Dutch Muse

By Heidi Eljarbo

A ruthless thief leaves a private Dutch gallery with a coveted seventeenth-century painting. The owner lies unconscious on the floor. Art historian Fabiola Bennett is on vacation in Holland and takes on the case.

Amsterdam, 1973.

It’s late summer, and Fabiola and Pippa join their friend, Cary, for a few days of sightseeing, museums, and riding bikes around the beautiful city.


For the first time in her life, Fabiola feels a pang of jealousy, and rude comments from a gallerist make her doubt her own abilities.


Then, unexpectedly, Cary’s Dutch client, Lennard van de Hoek, is brutally struck down and a baroque portrait by Ferdinand Bol is stolen. Fabiola pushes aside her problems and jumps into danger without hesitation. The list of suspects is long, and with a cold-blooded criminal at large, they must constantly be on the alert.

Amsterdam, 1641.

Ferdinand Bol has completed his five-year training with Master Rembrandt van Rijn and is ready to set up his own studio. The future looks bright, and Ferdinand sets a goal to become a widely sought-after and, hopefully, prosperous master portraitist.


Just when Ferdinand’s career starts to flourish—and patrons and customers discover his exceptional talent—one of his models confesses she’s in deep trouble, and he drops everything to help her.

This is a fast-paced and captivating who-done-it set in the Netherlands—the fourth installment and a spin-off from the Soli Hansen Mysteries.

Publication Date: 17 June 2025

Publisher: Independently published

Pages: 270

Genre: Historical Art Mystery, Dual Timeline, Historical Fiction, Dutch Historical Fiction, Dual-timeline Fiction 

Grab a copy HERE!

This novel is free to read with #KindleUnlimited subscription.

HEIDI ELJARBO grew up in a home full of books, artwork, and happy creativity. She is the author of historical novels filled with courage, hope, mystery, adventure, and sweet romance during challenging times. She’s been named a master of dual timelines and often writes about strong-willed women of past centuries.

After living in Canada, six US states, Japan, Switzerland, and Austria, Heidi now calls Norway home. She lives with her husband on a charming island and enjoys walking in any kind of weather, hugging her grandchildren, and has a passion for art and history. 

Her family’s chosen retreat is a mountain cabin, where they hike in the summer and ski the vast white terrain during winter.

Heidi’s favorites are her family, God's beautiful nature, and the word whimsical.

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Instagram • Pinterest • BookBub • Amazon Author Page • Goodreads • Newsletter

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Have a look at The Weight of Loyalty by Mike H. Mizrahi #HistoricalFiction #WWII @RABTBookTours

The Weight of Loyalty

By Mike H. Mizrahi

“My long-term survival is doubtful under any scenario. Yet, I already defied the impossible by escaping from a watery tomb and swimming to this very spot. But luck is finite—it always peters out.”

As the island of Kefalonia falls under the harsh occupation of Italian soldiers in 1941, British sailor Oliver Graham washes ashore, desperate to evade capture. Rescued by the fierce and determined Natalía Giannatos, he becomes entangled in a web of love, loyalty, and betrayal.

With her brother and fiancé lost to the conflict, Natalía is driven by vengeance against the occupiers and a deepening bond with Oliver. But when an Italian colonel fixates on her, she must navigate a dangerous game of deception to protect her family and village. As Oliver struggles with his hidden heritage and his growing feelings for Natalía, they are thrust into the heart of the resistance, where every choice could lead to freedom or devastation.

In a story that intertwines love and sacrifice against the backdrop of war, The Weight of Loyalty explores the resilience of the human spirit and the lengths one will go to for love. Will Oliver and Natalía’s connection survive the trials of conflict, or will the brutal realities of war tear them apart forever?

Genre: Historical Fiction
Date Published: May 25, 2025

Pages: 375

Grab a copy HERE!

 

 Mike H. Mizrahi and his wife, Karen, reside in Poulsbo, WA. He is a winner of the (indie Reader Discovery Award and a Laramie Finalist in the Chanticleer Book Awards. His other historical novels include The Unnamed Girl, Tattered Coat, and the Great Chattanooga Bicycle Race.

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Read an excerpt from Nero and Sporus by S.P. Somtow #HistoricalFiction #AncientRome #LGBTQFiction #BlogTour @somtow @cathiedunn

Nero and Sporus

By S.P. Somtow

Finally available in one volume! The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters.

The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena.

Publication Date:  May 30, 2025

Publisher: Diplodocus Press

Pages: 750

Genre: Historical Fiction / Historical Biographical Fiction / LGBTQ Interest

Grab a copy HERE!

This novel is free to read with #KindleUnlimited subscription.

EXCERPT

Preparing to go out took us almost until dawn, but I still was not tired.  Just one hour of freedom, I thought, one hour of anonymity.  When we left through the front door, we weren’t noticed.  Gallio’s slaves were probably too busy worrying about whether they would live or die, and they weren’t that familiar with what I looked like.  In Roman society, what you wear identifies you as much as many facial features.

We giggled like children as we left the villa behind us.  Though this was a strange city, it was not cluttered and labyrinthine like Rome.  The real Corinth was long gone, from a series of civil wars; Julius Caesar’s recreation of Corinth was strictly according to the Roman colonial template: here the temples, over there the theater, here again a forum.  

But I felt like a boy again, giddy with short-term freedom, running down an alley with a playmate.  I had not felt this way for a long time.  The unimaginative architecture was not my concern.  We raced down an alley, rounded a temple, startled a dove-seller as he hawked sacrificial birds in cages in front of the Temple of Octavia.

We laughed as he chased the birds, hopping along the steps.

“Let’s help him,” I said to Hylas.

We bent down and started to catch the birds.  They seemed tame, not wanting to fly away.

I realized their wings were clipped.

I handed a bird to the vendor, and he sighed as he returned it to the cage.  “Yes, I know,” he said.  “It saves time.”

“It seems a pity,” I said.  “Birds should fly.”  I thought of my own fate.

“In my country,” he said in a strange accent, “the buyers don’t wring their necks to honor the gods.  In fact, they set them free, to earn merit in their next life.”

“That is a beautiful idea.”

“But what the clients don’t know is … their wings are clipped anyway.  I was a bird-seller’s slave once.  My job was to catch the escaped birds so we could sell them again.  The clients did not know the birds were used again and again, so their intentions were pure.”

“It seems less wasteful than killing them,” I said.

“If me was a bird,” Hylas said — his Greek had not yet caught up with his Latin — “Me rather die than not fly.”

“What country are you from?” I asked him.

“I’m from the very farthest limit of the Hellenic world,” said the vendor, “beyond even the Empire of Caesar.  “I am from Bactria, which is in India.”

“The farthest footfall of Alexander the Great,” I said, remembering some past comment of my tutor Aristarchos.  

“You’ve heard of it!  My, you had a good tutor,” he said.  “You are not who you seem to be, young master.”  We finished caging the birds and the vendor handed us an obol for our efforts.  “Go share a lamb skewer.”

We left the temple steps and turned another corner.  The sun was rising.  I could smell grilled spiced meat and warm bread, and I could tell we were near a market.  “You heard him,” Hylas said in Latin.  “Lamb.”

“You go.”  I had become despondent suddenly.  I could not help thinking of the flightless doves, captured and recaptured to ease the sensibilities of pilgrims.  

Once referred to by the International Herald Tribune as 'the most well-known expatriate Thai in the world,' Somtow Sucharitkul is no longer an expatriate, since he has returned to Thailand after five decades of wandering the world. He is best known as an award-winning novelist and a composer of operas. 

Born in Bangkok, Somtow grew up in Europe and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. His first career was in music and in the 1970s, his first return to Asia, he acquired a reputation as a revolutionary composer, the first to combine Thai and Western instruments in radical new sonorities. Conditions in the arts in the region at the time proved so traumatic for the young composer that he suffered a major burnout, emigrated to the United States, and reinvented himself as a novelist.

His earliest novels were in the science fiction field and he soon won the John W. Campbell for Best New Writer as well as being nominated for and winning numerous other awards in the field. But science fiction was not able to contain him and he began to cross into other genres. In his 1984 novel Vampire Junction, he injected a new literary inventiveness into the horror genre, in the words of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, 'skillfully combining the styles of Stephen King, William Burroughs, and the author of the Revelation to John.' Vampire Junction was voted one of the forty all-time greatest horror books by the Horror Writers' Association, joining established classics like Frankenstein and Dracula. He has also published children's books, a historical novel, and about a hundred works of short fiction.

In the 1990s Somtow became increasingly identified as a uniquely Asian writer with novels such as the semi-autobiographical Jasmine Nights and a series of stories noted for a peculiarly Asian brand of magic realism, such as Dragon's Fin Soup, which is currently being made into a film directed by Takashi Miike. He recently won the World Fantasy Award, the highest accolade given in the world of fantastic literature, for his novella The Bird Catcher. His seventy-plus books have sold about two million copies world-wide. He has been nominated for or won over forty awards in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

After becoming a Buddhist monk for a period in 2001, Somtow decided to refocus his attention on the country of his birth, founding Bangkok's first international opera company and returning to music, where he again reinvented himself, this time as a neo-Asian neo-Romantic composer. The Norwegian government commissioned his song cycle Songs Before Dawn for the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, and he composed at the request of the government of Thailand his Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 which was dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.

According to London's Opera magazine, 'in just five years, Somtow has made Bangkok into the operatic hub of Southeast Asia.' His operas on Thai themes, Madana and Mae Naak, have been well received by international critics. 

Somtow has recently been awarded the 2017 Europa Cultural Achievement Award for his work in bridging eastern and western cultures. In 2020 he returned to science fiction after a twenty-year absence with "Homeworld of the Heart", a fifth novel in the Inquestor series.

Currently he has just finished Nero and Sporus, a massive historical novel set in Imperial Rome.

To support S.P. Somtow's work, visit his patreon account at patreon.com/spsomtow. His website is at www.somtow.com. 

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Enter a GIVEAWAY for a copy of Cinematic Destinies by Patricia Leavy #Romance #Giveaway @GoddessFish

Cinematic Destinies

By Patricia Leavy

For fans of Tessa Bailey and Hannah Grace, Cinematic Destinies is a feel-good, contemporary romance about a trio of adult children searching for love and beauty in the shadow of their parents’ legendary Hollywood fairy-tale romance.

Legendary actor Finn Forrester and his wife philosopher Ella Sinclair Forrester met on the location shoot for Jean Mercier’s film Celebration. The world has been captivated by their fairy-tale romance since Finn famously proposed on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. As the couple now prepares to celebrate their thirtieth wedding anniversary, they wonder if their children will ever find love.

Eldest daughter Betty is excelling in a medical residency program in New York City—and has convinced herself that distancing herself from emotions is the path to success. Youngest son Albert, a recent college graduate, is trying to find his footing in Boston as he struggles with his identity. Free-spirited Georgia, her mother’s spitting image and an actress following in her father’s footsteps, has been cast in Jean Mercier’s final film, mysteriously titled Beauty. When she arrives on set in Iceland and meets her costar, sparks fly. Is history repeating itself? How has growing up in the shadow of the world’s most iconic love story affected each of the Forrester children?

Reviews

“If you’re a romantic with a brain and a heart, this is your jam . . . I closed the book with a full heart and a goofy grin.” Literary Titan, 5-star review

“Cinematic Destinies is a stunning and poignant celebration of romance, the magic of movies, and life itself. The exotic Icelandic film set, well-drawn characters, and smart writing make this book impossible to put down . . . This is a gorgeous novel.” —Laurel Richardson, author of Lone Twin

“Overall, the writing, the characters, the little nods of sizzle, and the brilliant family dynamic make this book a winner. Very highly recommended.”—Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review

“Leavy’s latest must-read novel features a trio of romantic storylines about the quest for love and identity in the shadow of a Hollywood fairy tale . . . Cinematic Destinies is a spellbinding ode to love, art, and what it means to live.” —Mary E. Weems, author of Blackeyed

Genres: Romance

Release Date: 2nd Sept 2025

Patricia Leavy is an award-winning, best-selling author. Formerly Associate Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of Gender Studies at Stonehill College, she has published more than fifty books; her work has been translated into many languages, and she has received more than one hundred book honors. Her most recent novel, Shooting Stars Above, was featured on People “10 Romance Books to Read After Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry.” She has also received career awards from the National Art Education Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, and other organizations. In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and SUNY-New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” In 2024 the London Arts-Based Research Centre established “The Patricia Leavy Award for Arts-Based Research.” Patricia lives in Maine. In addition to writing, she enjoys art, reading, and travel.

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Patricia Leavy will award a free digital copy of her upcoming book CINEMATIC DESTINIES to the first 7500 people who enter the Rafflecopter and one lucky entrant will receive a $150 Amazon gift card.

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Have a look at Bess – Tudor Gentlewoman by Tony Riches #HistoricalFiction #Elizabethan #Tudors #BlogTour @tonyriches @cathiedunn

Bess – Tudor Gentlewoman

By Tony Riches

Bess Throckmorton defies her notorious background and lack of education to become Queen Elizabeth’s Gentlewoman and trusted confidante.

Forced to choose between loyalty and love, duty and desire, will she risk her queen’s anger by marrying adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh without permission?

Entangled in a web of intrigue, from the glittering Palace of Whitehall to the cells of the Tower of London, Bess endures tragedy and injustice, becoming a resilient, determined woman, who takes nothing for granted.

Can she outwit her enemies, protect her family, and claim her destiny in a world where women are pawns and survival is a game of deadly consequences?

This is the true story of the last of the Elizabethans, which ends the story of the Tudor dynasty – and introduces their successors, the Stuarts.

Publication Date: May 2nd, 2025

Publisher: Preseli Press

Pages: 337

Genre: Historical Fiction / Tudor Fiction

Grab a copy HERE!

This novel is free to read with #KindleUnlimited subscription.

Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of Tudor historical fiction. He lives with his wife in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the lives of the early Tudors.

As well as his Elizabethan series, Tony’s historical fiction novels include the best-selling Tudor trilogy and his Brandon trilogy, (about Charles Brandon and his wives).

For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website, and his blog, The Writing Desk, and find him on social media.

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