WHAT IF SACRIFICING YOUR DREAM WAS THE ONLY WAY TO GET WHAT YOU REALLY WANTED? TAMERA ALEXANDER, TO WIN HER FAVOR - INTERVIEW + GIVEAWAY

In Tamera Alexander's riveting new novel, a young woman caught in a marriage of convenience must sacrifice everything to save her home, her land, and the people she truly loves. 

Seattle: Against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent times in American history, the post-Civil War era, one woman struggles against prejudice, injustice and suffocating conventions of the 19th century to pursue her dream. Tamera Alexander's To Win Her Favor , the second stand-alone novel in the Belle Meade Plantation series, is already receiving high praise. According to Library Journal, "Strong characters, a sense of the times and the themes of love, friendship and the importance of loyalty and determination make To Win Her Favor a triumph."

Maggie Linden lost nearly everything in the Civil War - including most of her family. She's about to lose her stables and land at Linden Downs and her thoroughbred racing hopes as well. A gifted rider in a world where ladies never race, Maggie is determined that her mare, Bourbon Belle, will become a champion. Indeed, her only hope of saving Linden Downs is if the horse takes the top purse in the inaugural Peyton Stakes, the richest race ever run in America. To give his daughter a chance, Maggie's wily father makes a barter. But his agreement includes one troublesome detail: Maggie must marry a man she's never met - a man she never would have chosen for herself.

An Irishman far from home, Cullen McGrath left a once-prosperous life in England because of a horse-racing scandal that nearly ruined him. He's come to Nashville for a fresh start, hoping to buy land and begin farming, all while determined to stay as far away from thoroughbred racing as possible. With "No Irish Need Apply" signs greeting him at every turn, Cullen finds starting over proves much more difficult than he wagered. When Maggie Linden's father makes him an offer he shouldn't accept, he finds it impossible to refuse.

SPOTLIGHT ON ... REBEL QUEEN BY MICHELLE MORAN + GREAT GIVEAWAY

Out on March 3rd!

I'm really happy to share this awesome upcoming release with you all: Rebel Queen,  a new brilliant historical fiction novel by the internationally bestselling author of Nefertiti and Cleopatra’s Daughter, will be out on March 3rd! Michelle Moran is back with the breathtaking story of Queen Lakshmi—India’s Joan of Arc—who against all odds defied the mighty British invasion to defend her beloved kingdom.

Below this post you can enter a great giveaway contest: it is open internationally, you can win and receive a signed hardback copy as well as gorgeous bangles directly from the author. If you participate in this giveaway, you can receive a free signed bookplate clicking  HERE and entering your details. The giveaway ends on February 9th. Good luck!

About the book

When the British Empire sets its sights on India in the mid-nineteenth century, it expects a quick and easy conquest. India is fractured and divided into kingdoms, each independent and wary of one another, seemingly no match for the might of the English. But when they arrive in the Kingdom of Jhansi, the British army is met with a surprising challenge.

THE HEADMISTRESS OF ROSEMERE, INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR SARAH LADD

Life is unexpected. Each day holds new surprises — some exciting, others unwanted. What matters most is how we respond to those trying situations. Sarah E. Ladd reminds us the importance of clinging to God to get us through the mountains and valleys of life in The Headmistress of Rosemere .  

Ladd hopes The Headmistress of Rosemere, book two of The Whispers on the Moors series,will encourage readers to look for help in the right place. “I think a lot of people look within themselves to try to find answers to their problems,” explains Ladd. “But if we look to ourselves for solutions, we will be disappointed. Instead, we should take our problems, cares, and worries to God and lay them at His feet. Pray about them. Ask God to make His plans known. When we do this, amazing things can happen.”

Interview

Q: The Headmistress of Rosemere is the second book of a series — do you have a common theme or message throughout the Whispers on the Moors series?

I have always loved the Regency period, and I think that a lot of readers (including myself) have a pre-conceived notion of what a Regency heroine should be like. So I really wanted to challenge that – I wanted to explore what would happen if a typically Regency lady went against traditional societal expectations.So when I approached the book in this series I asked myself, “What would a young woman in the Regency period not do?”And the series was born by answering that single question!

WILLIAM & LUCY - INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR MICHAEL BROWN

Have you ever wondered whether the idealized, unreachable beloved of the great classic poets really existed? What they were like in their everyday life? If they were really extraordinary or were made such by the magic created through words by the men they were loved and admired by? Michael Brown transformed one of those ideal figures, William Wordsworth's Lucy, into a real blood and flesh character in his historical novel. In William & Lucy he has created a passionate love story between the great Romantic  poet, William Wordsworth,  and Lucy, the beautiful girl to whom he dedicated a few of his most famous poems. Read my interview with Michael Brown.

William & Lucy is a tale of mystery and love inspired to William Wordsworth’s  so called Lucy poems.  Who was the woman the poet dedicated his poems to?  Did she really exist?

All historical references to the Lucy of Wordsworth’s five LUCY poems are ambigious; there is no recorded history of such a young woman. Some scholars belive Lucy was the embodiement of William’s sister, Dorothy. There are other speculations but that is all they remain. I took the literary license to creat a fictionalized version of Lucy; hoping it might ring true to the story.

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

 Beside the springs of Dove

A Maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love …

MASTERS, WORKERS AND SLAVES - THE MILL, TV SERIES & DVD

The Mill was unfortunately broadcast on Sundays,  while BBC1 The White Queen had been off to a good start  for a few weeks. The scheduling  was unfair, and probably unfruitful,  for Channel 4. Watchers like me, fond of period drama and longing to see both, had to choose. But it was not a huge problem: I saw The White Queen live and recorded The Mill.  I could catch up,  I saw the 4-episode series and it was worth it.

Set in a cotton mill in Cheshire in 1833, The Mill is a very interesting,  original drama based on the real lives of humble young people who lived and worked in that area when the political unrest to obtain more rights for workers was rising.

The idea of using the historical archives of the Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire to tell the story of a social turning point, when workers and activists began to rebel against the use of unpaid child apprentices forced to work 12-hour shifts in dangerous conditions makes this series really realistic and unique.

The series offers a very realistic picture of the working class in the Victorian Age, something I only saw in one other period drama before, BBC North and South (1994) based on Elizabeth Gaskell's novel (1855). The Mill has been defined the anti-Downton Abbey, and it actually is a completely different attempt to period drama.