22/07/2018

BOOKS & MORE BOOKS: THE FITZGERALDS OF DUBLIN, A SAGA OF VICTORIAN IRELAND



Fond of Victorian literature and history? You haven't missed an episode of costume drama series like Victoria?!? You are hooked on 19th century great classic novels?!? Looking for some awesome historical fiction to read which is set just in that fascinating era?  I've got the perfect suggestion for you, a great summer read! You can't miss this book series by Lorna Peel: The Fitzgeralds of Dublin.  Let's start from book 1: A Scarlet Woman

21/07/2018

Q/A REVIEW - THE BEES BY LALINE PAULL




What genre does the book belong to?

Laline Paull’s debut novel is quite difficult to define, to label.  It is a thrilling adventure reminding the bleak atmospheres of dystopian novels and the bitterness of the Orwellian fable, Animal Farm.

What’s the setting of the novel?

This novel has no specific setting in time and a unique, unuasual setting in place: a beehive.

16/07/2018

HAPPY RELEASE DAY TO THE SONGS OF YOU AND ME BY MYLISSA DEMEYERE + GIVEAWAY


Happy Release Day to The Songs of You and Me by Mylissa Demeyere! To celebrate the release of this great book we're giving away $50! 

The Songs of You and Me by Mylissa Demeyere 


 Jane Hartford fell head over heels for Jackson at the tender age of fifteen. She spent most of high school pining for him, until she realized he wasn’t going to see her as anything more than his baby sister’s best friend. Now she finds herself single with a daughter, a broken heart, and songs that remind her of a long lost love. Jackson Wright is a man living with regret. His biggest one, never acting on his feelings for Jane. When he returns to Bellebrook, the town they grew up in, he literally runs into her and his world gets tossed upside down and sideways. This time, Jackson isn’t willing to give up. With a meddling sister eager to push both of them together, he believes things might actually work out. That is, if they can overcome the heavy baggage they both carry. Follow Jackson and Jane as they revisit their past, figuring out what went wrong so long ago. Will they learn they have the power to make things right in the present?  

13/07/2018

BOOK UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT: WINDS OF TIME BY LILLY GAYLE, A TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE







The past is her future, the future, her past, but can she save an innocent man’s life before 
history repeats itself?


As long as Selena Tillman dreams of her ancestor, Mary, who disappeared without a trace in 1871, she’ll never find peace. As long as she dreams of the half-Native American army scout accused of killing Mary, she’ll never find love. Hoping to end the dreams and learn the truth, Selena goes to Texas where Mary and the scout died and sees more than ghosts. She sees a tornado kill Mary in real time before it jumps to the twenty-first century to pull Selena into its vortex and send her back to the nineteenth century. Selena believes she’s fated to prove Dylan’s innocence and save his life, but Dylan isn’t just the man of her dreams; he’s her destiny.

Fed up with the army, bigotry, and women—especially white women, Captain Dylan Casey dedicates himself to solving the mystery of Mary’s disappearance, proving his innocence, and trying to stop a war between the whites and the Indians. Then Mary’s cousin shows up, claiming a tornado killed Mary. Dylan doesn’t trust Selena, but she’s his only ally in Canyon Creek. Yet despite their common goal, growing mutual attraction, and a Comanche shaman’s prophecy of a white woman who will change his destiny and foretell the fate of the Indian Nation, Dylan refuses to take a chance on another spoiled, white woman—until fate changes his mind.

12/07/2018

BLOG TOUR & GIVEAWAY - THE HOPE OF AZURE SPRINGS


The Hope of Azure Springs by Rachel Fordham

 Seven years ago, orphaned and alone, Em finally arrived at a new home in Iowa after riding the orphan train. But secrets from her past haunt her, and her new life in the Western wilderness is a rough one. When her guardian is shot and killed, Em, now nineteen, finally has the chance to search for her long-lost sister, but she won't be able to do it alone.   For Azure Springs Sheriff Caleb Reynolds, securing justice for the waifish and injured Em is just part of his job. He's determined to solve every case put before him in order to impress his parents and make a name for himself. Caleb expects to succeed. What he doesn't expect is the hold this strange young woman will have on his heart. Debut author Rachel Fordham invites historical romance readers to the charming town of Azure Springs, Iowa, where the people care deeply for one another and, sometimes, even fall in love.


  Praise for The Hope of Azure Springs

 “With unusual charm and warmth, Rachel Fordham opens the door to Azure Springs, a place as memorable as the people who inhabit it—namely the unique Em, a hero of a sheriff, and an assortment of heart-tugging, endearing townsfolk. A memorable story of faith, family, and happy endings!” ~Laura Frantz, author of The Lacemaker 

11/07/2018

THE STAGGERING REALITY OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING: AN INTERVIEW WITH RACHEL LINDEN, AUTHOR OF BECOMING THE TALBOT SISTERS


In Becoming the Talbot Sisters (Thomas Nelson), author Rachel Linden hopes to bring a greater awareness to issues important to women around the world and encourage them to live what she describes as “every day brave.”


Becoming the Talbot Sisters tells the story of estranged twin sisters who live very different lives on opposite sides of the world but are drawn to rebuild their relationship in support of one another as they face challenges ranging from miscarriages to sexual assault to career woes. The sisters’ stories draw from many aspects of Linden’s own life as she shares in the interview below.

An author normally works some of herself into her novel. How much of Becoming the Talbot Sisters reflects your own life?

So much of the book reflects my own personal experience! The main themes – women having courage to face infertility and miscarriage as well as sexual exploitation and trafficking – are all very personal for me. I lost my first child to miscarriage, so I identify deeply with that thread of the book. I also worked with a faith-based organization in Europe for seven years, focusing significantly on women who experienced trauma and exploitation, so that theme is one I am very passionate about. The locations in the book are also dear to my heart. I set the book mainly in Budapest where I lived for five years. Parts also take place in Sarajevo and several other fascinating locations around central Europe, all places I enjoy and want to share with readers.

As for the sister-relationship aspect of Becoming the Talbot Sisters, much like Waverly and Charlotte, my sister and I are very different and live geographically far apart. However, we have a harmonious relationship and have grown in friendship more and more as we’ve gotten older unlike the sisters in the book.

09/07/2018

Q/A BOOK REVIEW: THE CURSED WIFE BY PAMELA HARTSHORNE


What genre does the book belong to?

It’s a historical fiction thriller, a genre Pamela Hartshorne is familiar with – and very good at -  since she has already dealt with it in some of her  previous novels, which I have reviewed here at FLY HIGH!

What’s the historical  setting of the novel?

The story takes place in Elizabethan London between 1562 and 1590.

Can you briefly sum up the plot without giving away too much?

Well, this is what you find in the book blurb. I hope it is enough to tickle your curiosity: Mary is content with her life as wife to Gabriel Thorne, a wealthy merchant in Elizabethan London. 

She loves her husband and her family, is a kind mistress to the household and is well-respected in the neighbourhood. She does her best to forget that as a small girl she was cursed for causing the death of a vagrant child, a curse that predicts that she will hang. She tells herself that she is safe.

But Mary's whole life is based on a lie. She is not the woman her husband believes her to be, and when one rainy day she ventures to Cheapside, the past catches up with her and sets her on a path that leads her to the gibbet and the fulfilment of the curse.

07/07/2018

BOOKS & MORE BOOKS - DEBORAH SWIFT'S NEW RELEASE: A PLAGUE ON MR PEPYS


Deborah Swift has been writing successful historical fiction novels about an age less frequently chosen by other writers. We've read plenty of tales set in the fascinating eras of the middle ages or the Tudor years - which Swift herself chose for a few of her novels - but we seldom find adventure or romance set in the 17th century. 

03/07/2018

BLOG TOUR - LONNA ENOX DISCUSSES HER WRITING STYLE AND PRESENTS THE LAST DANCE + GIVEAWAY



What about my style? 

An early reviewer classified my mysteries as "cozy".  They are written in first person and are set in New Mexico.  I like to take the reader with me to places I love, so I incorporate description into the plot.  Readers often say, "I couldn't put it down because I kept turning pages."  I also like to infuse a bit of humor to some characters.   
I write wildlife, religious, and humorous "folksy" articles.  I also write mystery novels.
When writing for the newspaper, Mrs. Head reminded me that people have only limited time or money, so we should make our stories worthwhile.  I use enough description to take the reader with me without their becoming bogged down.  My chapters tend to be short, and I allow actions and dialog to describe my characters more than long passages by the author.  My scenes are less graphic, even when my characters are holding their breaths.
I wrote my first books with crayons on paper bags when I was four years old.  My parents didn't know how I'd learned to read or write.  I filled diaries with stories, wrote a romance during science class in middle school, and entered stories and won first place in my high school literary magazine.  I never stopped writing.  But the first writing for which I received a steady income were articles I wrote and published the first two years after my children challenged me to follow my dreams.  I travelled with a wildlife photographer to Maine and wrote about the puffins, to Bosque del Apache in Socorro, New Mexico, to write about the sandhill cranes.  I sold articles about teaching experiences, and articles about my life in general.  Then one evening, on a first date with Ron Tucker, I watched a young woman dancing.  I began The Last Dance after our marriage.


Lonna Enox