#RightBackWhereWeStartedFrom #JoyLanzendorfer #HFVBTBlogTours

Right Back Where We Started From by Joy Lanzendorfer

Publication Date: May 4, 2021
Blackstone Publishing
Paperback; eBook, & Audiobook

Genre: Historical Fiction

If misfortune hadn’t gotten in the way, Sandra Sanborn would be where she belongs–among the rich and privileged instead of standing outside a Hollywood studio wearing a sandwich board in the hope of someone discovering her. It’s tough breaking into the movies during the Great Depression, but Sandra knows that she’s destined for greatness. After all, her grandmother Vira crossed the country during the Gold Rush and established the Sanborns as one of San Francisco’s most prominent families, and her mother Mabel grew up in a lavish mansion and married into an agricultural empire. Success, Sandra feels, is in her blood. She just needs a chance to prove it.

In between failed auditions, Sandra receives a letter from a man claiming to be her father, which calls into question everything she believes about her family–and herself. As she tries to climb the social ladder, family secrets lurk in the background, pulling her down. Until Sandra confronts the truth about how Vira and Mabel gained and lost their fortunes, she will always end up right back where she started from.

Right Back Where We Started From is a sweeping, multigenerational work of fiction that explores the lust for ambition that entered into the American consciousness during the Gold Rush and how it affected our nation’s ideas of success, failure, and the pursuit of happiness. It is a meticulously layered saga–at once historically rich, romantic, and suspenseful–about three determined and completely unforgettable women.

Amazon | B&N | BAM | IndieBound | Hudson’s Booksellers

EXCERPT

The image of her mother in her raggedy tea gowns and Gibson hairdo floated in Sandra’s mind like a sunspot. There was so much Sandra didn’t know. Why had her mother left San Francisco in the first place? Her grandparents had died, but Sandra didn’t know the details. And how had Arthur Beard died? Yes, there was an earthquake, but she didn’t know the cause of death. And why had Sandra never inherited any money? Where did it all go? She retrieved the letters from John Hollingsworth from the trash, intending to reread them, and noticed heaviness in one of the envelopes that she’d missed before. Inside was a gray cardboard frame. She pulled up the cover to reveal a picture of Mabel. Sandra’s mouth fell open. In the photo, Mabel was younger than Sandra had ever seen her. She was turned toward the camera, her face at three-quarters profile. Her thick brown hair was swept under a hat and she wore a fur shoulder piece that emphasized a tiny, corseted waist. Even in her confusion, Sandra felt a tickling of pride to see her mother in all her beauty and wealth. On the back was a date stamp: 1904. Two years before Sandra was born. She hated how this was making her feel. She didn’t want to think about any of it. Tomorrow she was going to Central Casting, and she should be focusing on that. This was all a distraction from her plan. Standing, she went to the closet and pulled an orange hatbox from the 24 joy lanzendorfer shelf. It was empty because the hat that was supposed to go in it was still on the costume rack at Rayo Sunshine, along with the dress she’d worn that day. Sandra dropped the letters into the box and shut the lid, thinking that she would ask Mabel about John Hollingsworth later. She didn’t have time right now—she had to get ready for Central Casting—but soon she would find out more. The next time Sandra wrote her mother, she promised herself, she would bring the letters up.

Praise

“In Right Back Where We Started From Joy Lanzendorfer has crafted a terrific first novel, one brimming with energy, wit, and emotional resonance. Sandra Sanborn is a wonderful character, very much alive on the page. And, the novel captures, vividly, some of the crazier times in California’s crazy history. Highly recommended!” –Peter Orner, author of Maggie Brown & Others

“Joy Lanzendorfer’s thrill of a novel, Right Back Where We Started From, tells the story of an engaging young woman, eager to be discovered in 1930s Hollywood. But as she looks to the future, a letter from a man who claims to be her father pulls her to the unknown past. This is a novel of California dreaming, from the Gold Rush to the Hollywood Hills. Lanzendorfer writes with charm, style, and great energy.” –Ellen Sussman, New York Times bestselling author of four novels: A Wedding in Provence, The Paradise Guest House, French Lessons, and On a Night like This

“From the California Gold Rush to the San Francisco earthquake, through the Great Depression and World War II, Joy Lanzendorfer artfully weaves a beautifully textured saga. Yearnings, secrets, and shame shape the lives of three generations of American women as they dare to question the rigid societal expectations that confine them to proscribed roles and stifle ambition. Gripping prose and complex and memorable characters make this shining debut novel a pleasure to read.” –Liza Nash Taylor, author of Etiquette for Runaways and the forthcoming In All Good Faith

About the Author

Joy Lanzendorfer’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, NPR, Smithsonian, Poetry Foundation, and many others. She was included in The Best Small Fictions anthology and was a notable in The Best American Essays 2019. She has been awarded grants and residencies from the Discovered Awards for Emerging Literary Artists, Wildacres Residency Program, and the Speculative Literature Foundation.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Blog Tour Schedule

Wednesday, May 5
Excerpt at Passages to the Past

Thursday, May 6
Review at Crystal’s Library

Saturday, May 8
Review at Reading is My Remedy

Sunday, May 9
Review at Carole’s Ramblings

Monday, May 10
Review at Rajiv’s Reviews

Tuesday, May 11
Excerpt at Books, Ramblings, and Tea

Wednesday, May 12
Excerpt at Bookworlder

Sunday, May 16
Interview at Reader_ceygo

Monday, May 17
Review at Reader_ceygo
Review at Jorie Loves A Story

Wednesday, May 19
Guest Post at Novels Alive

Thursday, May 20
Review at Jessica Belmont

Friday, May 21
Review at Nursebookie

Monday, May 24
Review at Novels Alive
Review at Two Bookish Babes

Wednesday, May 26
Feature at Books, Cooks, Looks

Friday, May 28
Excerpt at Coffee and Ink
Review at The Enchanted Shelf
Review at The Book Club Network

Giveaway

Enter to win a copy of Right Back Where We Started From by Joy Lanzendorfer!

The giveaway is open to the US only and ends on May 28th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Right Back Where We Started From

#AMothersPromise #KDAlden #HFVBTBlogTours

A Mother’s Promise by K.D. Alden

Publication Date: January 19, 2021
Forever/Grand Central
Paperback & eBook; 384 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Based on the true story behind a landmark U.S. Supreme Court Decision, K.D. Alden’s debut is a rich and moving story of one woman’s courage and strength at a pivotal point in America’s history.

Virginia, 1927. A chance to have a family. That’s all Ruth Ann Riley wants. But because she was unwed and pregnant, she was sent away and her baby given to another woman. Now they’re trying to take Ruth Ann’s right to have another child. But she can’t stand the thought of never seeing little Annabel’s face again, never snuggling up to her warmth or watching her blue eyes crinkle with laughter. Good thing she has a plan.

All the rich and fancy folks may call her feeble-minded, but Ruth Ann is smarter than any of them have bargained for. Because no matter how high the odds are stacked against her, she is going to overcome the scandals in her past and get her child back—and along the way, she just may find unexpected friendships and the possibility of love in the most unlikely of places.

“A Mother’s Promise is a powerful, heart-wrenching, ultimately uplifting novel about the bonds of family and one woman’s courage in the face of adversity. K.D. Alden brings history to life with rich storytelling and deep emotion.“―V.S. Alexander, author of The Magdalen Girls

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-a-Million | Hudson | IndieBound | Powell’s | Target | Walmart

Excerpt from A Mother’s Promise, by K.D. Alden
(Copyright 2021; All Rights Reserved.)

Chapter One
Dr. Price wore a three-piece suit with lots of authority and a kind smile.
As superintendent of The Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feebleminded, he looked like God, or at least Ruth Ann Riley’s idea of God. She imagined He would wear a fine-cut, hand-stitched three-piece suit like the good doctor’s, with a white coat over it and have pale, narrow blue eyes, thin, refined lips with neatly trimmed whiskers and a beard. He’d smell nice, too, of shaving cream and cigar smoke and heavy volumes of learning.
Doc checked his gold pocket watch and wrote down the time. Time seemed important to him, not so much to her. Ruth Ann told time by how many peas she got shelled, or by how many shirtwaists, nightdresses, petticoats and overskirts she’d hung on the line.
Doc seemed to want more time, but she wished she had less because it stretched and stretched and it wasn’t ever over with. Not ‘til she went to sleep. Then it started up all over again when the cock crowed.
She didn’t want to be here, the focus of attention. Attention was guaranteed to be a bad thing. Better to be invisible. She tried her best to evaporate, like water into air.
But Doc Price wanted to talk to her again for some reason. He picked up a pen. And a file folder. Then he walked round his monster of a desk to sit down.
Ruth Ann knew he must be very smart, because he had read all those books that climbed his shelves to the very ceiling. She loved books herself—fiction that she snuck out of the Colony library. Not these tomes.
Outside, the wind had picked up, torpedoing poor Clarence’s carefully raked piles of leaves and ruining the handyman’s work. Ruth Ann thought uneasily of what a storm might do to the mountains of laundry she’d wrung out until her arms ached. It all hung on the lines. She peered out the window. In the distance, beyond the neatly landscaped terrace outside of Doc Price’s office, she spied a pair of long-johns kicking, skirts flying up indecently, sheets billowing.
“Sit down,” Doc Price said, waving his hand toward a chair on Ruth Ann’s side of the desk.
She limped to the seat, gritting her teeth and sweating with the pain. She’d dropped an iron on her big toe in the laundry. Gotten screeched at by Mother Jenkins for burning her shoe, and the son of a gun still stunk of fried hide.
Doc Price didn’t seem to notice the smell; his nose was buried in some scribbles in the file.
Ruth Ann wondered if she could ask him to examine her toe. But he looked very busy. And what can he do? Tell me to go barefoot? Can’t do that when you work in the laundry and the kitchen.
Doc asked her questions and wrote down her answers, while she went halfway to somewhere else in her head. She did that a lot.
What’s your name?
Ruth Ann Riley.
How old are you?
Sixteen.
Who is your father?
Cullen Riley.
Where is he now?
Dead.
Who’s your mother?
Sheila Riley.
Where does she live?
Here.
Do you know where you are?
Yes, sir. At the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feeble-Minded.
Do you know why your mother is here?
Yes, sir. She don’t have no other place to live. Ruth Ann winced. She should’ve said ‘doesn’t.’ But Doc didn’t seem to notice.
Do you know why you’re here?
Her face heated. She looked down at her lap, at her red, raw hands with their gnawed nails. She just nodded.
Why are you here?
You know that, sir.
Yes, Ruth Ann. But I need to ascertain whether you know it.
Ascertain. Doc did drop some fancy words.
Ruth Ann? His voice was sharper. Do you understand why you’re here?
Pressure built behind her nose, tingling. It pushed unwilling tears into her eyes. She blinked. “Wasn’t my fault.” She couldn’t look at him. Write that down, mister.
“You’ve said so before.” Doc tapped his pen. “It’s all right. It’s not important.”
The hell it ain’t. Her anger startled Ruth Ann. It was usually like a toothache; a dull pain, but not fierce, like this. It blew away her mental fog. All of her was present now, in this chair in front of Doc.
“Ruth Ann. Why are you here?”
“Can I just see her?” she blurted. She forced her chin up, her eyes to his. “Please? Can I just see my baby?”
Ruth Ann had been an open wound when they took her infant, bundled up and howling.
Doc packed soothing into his voice on purpose, like gauze into that wound. “Little Annabel is with Mr. and Mrs. Dade. You know that.”
“Can’t I hold her . . . just one time?” Meh, meh, meh. She hated the way her voice sounded. Like a goat’s. Bleating.
Doc looked down, shuffled his notes. He sighed. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
Why? She didn’t say it aloud. She knew it was against the rules.
“Ruth Ann. Let’s get back to the matter at hand.”
Right. My matter don’t matter. His does.
“I’m here,” she said, “because I ain’t married and I had a baby. And that’s bad.”
Doc nodded. “And why else are you here?”
She stared blankly at him. Then she remembered. “They say I’m feeble-minded.” News to her.
“And what does that mean, Ruth Ann?”
She looked over at the diplomas. She could easily read the letters that said where he’d studied, even the Latin ones. She’d finished sixth grade before she’d gone to work for the Dade family. “Feeble-minded means that I ain’t smart.”
Doc Price got up from his desk. He walked around it and folded his arms, looking down at her. “Ruth Ann, we’re going to do an operation on you.”
He’s not asking me. He’s telling me. “An operation?” She didn’t like the sound of that.
“Yes. It’s . . . for the greater good.”
#

About the Author

K.D. Alden is the pseudonym of an award-winning author who has written more than twenty novels in various genres. She has been the recipient of the Maggie Award, the Book Buyer’s Best Award, and an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award. A Mother’s Promise is her first historical novel.

K.D. is a graduate of Smith College, grew up in Austin, Texas, and resides in South Florida with her husband and two rescue greyhounds.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, May 17
Review at Nursebookie
Excerpt at Books, Ramblings, and Tea

Tuesday, May 18
Review at Booking With Janelle

Wednesday, May 19
Review at Amanda in PA

Thursday, May 20
Review at Niki Loves to Read

Friday, May 21
Interview at Jathan and Heather

Tuesday, May 25
Interview at Books & Benches

Wednesday, May 26
Excerpt at Coffee and Ink

Friday, May 28
Review at Two Bookish Babes

Giveaway

Enter to win a $25 Gift Card to Amazon or Target!

The giveaway is open to the US only and ends on May 28th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

A Mother’s Promise Tour2

#TheNextShipHome #coverreveal #historicalfiction

The Next Ship Home: A Novel of Ellis Island by Heather Webb

Publication Date: February 8, 2022 Sourcebooks Landmark

Genre: Historical Fiction

Ellis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: “Give me your tired, your poor … your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

A young Italian woman arrives on the shores of America, her sights set on a better life. That same day, a young American woman reports to her first day of work at the immigration center. But Ellis Island isn’t a refuge for Francesca or Alma, not when ships depart every day with those who are refused entry to the country and when corruption ripples through every corridor. While Francesca resorts to desperate measures to ensure she will make it off the island, Alma fights for her dreams of becoming a translator, even as women are denied the chance.

As the two women face the misdeeds of a system known to manipulate and abuse immigrants searching for new hope in America, they form an unlikely friendship―and share a terrible secret―altering their fates and the lives of the immigrants who come after them.

Inspired by true events and for fans of Kristina McMorris and Hazel Gaynor, The Next Ship Home holds up a mirror to our own times, deftly questioning America’s history of prejudice and exclusion while also reminding us of our citizens’ singular determination. This is a novel of the dark secrets of Ellis Island, when entry to “the land of the free” promised a better life but often delivered something drastically different, and when immigrant strength and female friendship found ways to triumph even on the darkest days.

Pre-order now!

Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Amazon | Kobo

Add to your reading list!

Bookbub | Goodreads

About the Author

Heather Webb is the USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author of historical fiction. In 2017, LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association award, and in 2019, MEET ME IN MONACO was shortlisted for both the RNA award in the UK and also the Digital Book World Fiction prize.

Up and coming, Heather’s new solo novel called THE NEXT SHIP HOME: A NOVEL OF ELLIS ISLAND is about unlikely friends that confront a corrupt system altering their fates and the lives of the immigrants who come after them, and it releases in Feb 2022. Also, look for her third collaboration with her beloved writing partner, Hazel Gaynor, THREE WORDS FOR GOODBYE, releasing this July! (2021)

When not writing, Heather flexes her foodie skills, geeks out on pop culture and history, or looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world.

For more information, please visit Heather’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.

Cover Reveal Hosts

A Baker’s Perspective
A Girl Who Reads
Always With a Book
Book World Reviews
Books & Benches
Books, Ramblings, and Tea
Bookworlder
CelticLady’s Reviews
Clarissa Reads it All
Coffee and Ink
Crystal’s Library
Donna’s Book Blog
Girls Just Reading
girl-who-reads
Just One More Chapter
Lost_in_a_book_reviewer
momma_doc_reads
Passages to the Past
rachkmc
Reader_ceygo
Reading is My Remedy
Reading the Past
The Book Junkie Reads
The Lit Bitch
Two Bookish Babes
With A Book In Our Hands

#TheCoronation #JustinNewland #HFVBTBlogTours

The Coronation by Justin Newland

Publication Date: November 5, 2019
Matador
Paperback & eBook; 299 pages

Genre: Historical Fantasy

It is 1761. Prussia is at war with Russia and Austria. As the Russian army occupies East Prussia, King Frederick the Great and his men fight hard to win back their homeland.

In Ludwigshain, a Junker estate in East Prussia, Countess Marion von Adler celebrates an exceptional harvest. But this is soon requisitioned by Russian troops. When Marion tries to stop them, a Russian Captain strikes her. His Lieutenant, Ian Fermor, defends Marion’s honour, but is stabbed for his insubordination. Abandoned by the Russians, Fermor becomes a divisive figure on the estate.

Close to death, Fermor dreams of the Adler, a numinous eagle entity, whose territory extends across the lands of Northern Europe and which is mysteriously connected to the Enlightenment. What happens next will change the course of human history…

“The author is an excellent storyteller.” – British Fantasy Society

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes and Noble

excerpt:

This extract is from Chapter 51. It’s from the point of view of Marion, Countess von Adler. With Christoph, her assistant, and Kadow, the coachman, they are searching for Marion’s daughter, Sisi. Manfred is a skinner, and someone who they think knows where Sisi is hiding.

Christoph wore a look of utter bewilderment. His hunchback seemed more accentuated than ever. He asked, “What is this place?”

She read the sign on the lintel above the white door:

“The Chambers for the Furious.

Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.”

“I’d no idea they were like this,” Christoph said.

“They’re possessed by evil spirits,” Kadow murmured. “I don’t know if I can face these demons.”

“Listen, you must; if Sisi is in there, we must get her out. If not, then Manfred must tell us what he knows.” She was not going to turn back.

Neither Christoph nor Kadow made a move.

“Then I’ll go in there,” she snapped.

The white door creaked as she opened it. She ducked under the lintel. As she stepped into the Löbenicht Lunatic Asylum, she was struck by a blinding light. She pulled the muslin scarf further down over her eyes. No difference! All she could see were black spots, pulsing in and out, like she had accidentally looked directly into the sun and been blinded by its piercing incandescence.

“Help me,” she mumbled. “I can’t see.” She felt vulnerable and just when Sisi needed her most.

“Your Excellency, let’s go back to the main hospital,” Christoph suggested.

“No, we carry on,” she insisted. “We find Sisi. We must. Christoph, take my hand, yes, that’s it. Tell me everything you see.”

“Yes, Your Excellency,” he said. “We’re standing in the middle of a long, curved corridor, which gives way to about twenty cells on each side. Thank the Lord, the cell doors are locked.”

“Can we see inside the cells?” she asked.

“We can, they have viewing slits,” Christoph told her.

“Good,” she said. “Check every one.”

She heard a slit pulled across. She assumed Christoph was looking inside a cell.

“Was she in there?” she asked.

“No, she wasn’t in that one.” His voice was tremulous.

What a relief. Or was it? “Are there no staff?” she asked.

“I’ll see if I can find one,” Kadow said.

“And look for Manfred at the same time,” she called after him.

“I will do that, Your Excellency,” Kadow replied and she heard the sound of his footsteps recede into the distance.

This temporary blindness was hugely frustrating. “Christoph, you are my eyes, speak to me.”

“The corridor is dark, gloomy. My, this is a godforsaken place.” His voice was shot with trepidation.

“Manfred may not be here, but we are,” she said. “I am going to find my daughter.”

About the Author

Justin Newland was born in Essex, England, three days before the end of 1953.

His love of literature began with swashbuckling sea stories, pirates and tales of adventure. Undeterred by the award of a Doctorate in Mathematics from Imperial College, London, he worked in I.T. and later ran a hotel.

His taste in literature is eclectic: from literary fiction and fantasy, to science fiction, with a special mention for the magical realists and the existentialists. Along the way, he was wooed by the muses of history, both ancient and modern, and then got happily lost in the labyrinths of mythology, religion and philosophy. Justin writes secret histories in which real events and historical personages are guided and motivated by numinous and supernatural forces.

His debut novel, The Genes of Isis, is a tale of love, destruction, and ephemeral power set under the skies of Ancient Egypt, and which tells the secret history of the human race, Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

His second is The Old Dragon’s Head, a historical fantasy and supernatural thriller set during the Ming Dynasty and played out in the shadows the Great Wall of China. It explores the secret history of the influences that shaped the beginnings of modern times.

Set during the Enlightenment, his third novel, The Coronation reveals the secret history of perhaps the single most important event of the modern world – The Industrial Revolution.

He lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, April 26
Guest Post at Novels Alive

Tuesday, April 27
Review at Vincent Triola

Thursday, April 29
Interview at Jathan & Heather

Friday, April 30
Excerpt at CelticLady’s Reviews

Monday, May 3
Review at Passages to the Past

Wednesday, May 5
Excerpt at Books, Ramblings, and Tea

Friday, May 7
Review at Bookworlder

Tuesday, May 11
Excerpt at Coffee and Ink

Friday, May 14
Review at Nurse Bookie

Monday, May 17
Review at Libri Draconis

Friday, May 21
Guest Post Historical Fiction Reviews

Tuesday, May 25
Interview at Passages to the Past

Monday, May 31
Review at The Enchanted Shelf

Giveaway

Enter to win a paperback copy of The Coronation! Two paperbacks are up for grabs.

The giveaway is open to the US only and ends on May 31st. You must be 18 or older to enter.

The Coronation

#FollowingSea #LeahAngstman #CoverReveal #HFVBTBlogTours

Out Front the Following Sea: A Novel of King William’s War in 17th-Century New England by Leah Angstman

Publication Date: January 11, 2022 Regal House Publishing Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook; 334 pages

Genre: Historical / Literary / Epic

**Shortlisted for the Chaucer Book Award**

OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a historical epic of one woman’s survival in a time when the wilderness is still wild, heresy is publicly punishable, and being independent is worse than scorned—it is a death sentence.

At the onset of King William’s War between French and English settlers in 1689 New England, Ruth Miner is accused of witchcraft for the murder of her parents and must flee the brutality of her town. She stows away on the ship of the only other person who knows her innocence: an audacious sailor—Owen—bound to her by years of attraction, friendship, and shared secrets. But when Owen’s French ancestry finds him at odds with a violent English commander, the turmoil becomes life-or-death for the sailor, the headstrong Ruth, and the cast of Quakers, Pequot Indians, soldiers, highwaymen, and townsfolk dragged into the fray. Now Ruth must choose between sending Owen to the gallows or keeping her own neck from the noose.

Steeped in historical events and culminating in a little-known war on pre-American soil, OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a story of early feminism, misogyny, arbitrary rulings, persecution, and the treatment of outcasts, with parallels still mirrored and echoed in today’s society. The debut novel will appeal to readers of Paulette Jiles, Alexander Chee, Hilary Mantel, James Clavell, Bernard Cornwell, TaraShea Nesbit, Geraldine Brooks, Stephanie Dray, Patrick O’Brian, and E. L. Doctorow.

Available for Pre-Order

Regal House Print | Amazon Kindle

Praise

“With OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, Leah Angstman reveals herself as a brave new voice in historical fiction. With staggering authenticity, Angstman gives us a story of America before it was America—an era rife with witch hunts and colonial intrigue and New World battles all but forgotten in our history books and popular culture. This is historical fiction that speaks to the present, recalling the bold spirits and cultural upheavals of a nation yet to be born.”
—Taylor Brown, author of PRIDE OF EDEN, GODS OF HOWL MOUNTAIN, and THE RIVER OF KINGS

“Steeped in lush prose, authentic period detail, and edge-of-your-seat action, OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a rollicking good read. Leah Angstman keeps the story moving at a breathtaking pace, and she knows more 17th-century seafaring language and items of everyday use than you can shake a stick at. The result is a compelling work of romance, adventure, and historical illumination that pulls the reader straight in.”
—Rilla Askew, author of FIRE IN BEULAH, THE MERCY SEAT, and KIND OF KIN

“Lapidary in its research and lively in its voice, OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA by Leah Angstman is a rollicking story, racing along with wind in its sails. Though her tale unfolds hundreds of years in America’s past, Ruth Miner is the kind of high-spirited heroine whose high adventures haul you in and hold you fast.”
—Kathleen Rooney, author of LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK and CHER AMI AND MAJOR WHITTLESEY

“Leah Angstman has written the historical novel that I didn’t know I needed to read. OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is set in an oft-forgotten time in the brutal wilds of pre-America that is so vividly and authentically drawn, with characters that are so alive and relevant, and a narrative so masterfully paced and plotted, that Angstman has performed the miracle of layering the tumultuous past over our troubled present to gift us a sparkling new reality.”
—Kevin Catalano, author of WHERE THE SUN SHINES OUT and DELETED SCENES AND OTHER STORIES

“OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a fascinating book, the kind of historical novel that evokes its time and place so vividly that the effect is just shy of hallucinogenic. I enjoyed it immensely.”
—Scott Phillips, author of THE ICE HARVEST, THE WALKAWAY, COTTONWOOD, and HOP ALLEY

“OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a meticulously researched novel that mixes history, love story, and suspense. Watching Angstman’s willful protagonist, Ruth Miner, openly challenge the brutal world of 17th-century New England, with its limiting ideas about gender, race, and science, was a delight.”
—Aline Ohanesian, author of ORHAN’S INHERITANCE

“Leah Angstman is a gifted storyteller with a poet’s sense of both beauty and darkness, and her stunning historical novel, OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, establishes her as one of the most exciting young novelists in the country. Angstman plunges the reader into a brilliantly realized historical milieu peopled by characters real enough to touch. And in Ruth Miner, we are introduced to one of the most compelling protagonists in contemporary literature, a penetratingly intelligent, headstrong woman who is trying to survive on her wits alone in a Colonial America that you won’t find in the history books. A compulsive, vivid read that will change the way you look at the origins of our country, Leah Angstman’s OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA announces the arrival of a preternatural talent.”
—Ashley Shelby, author of MURI and SOUTH POLE STATION

“Rich, lyrical, and atmospheric, with a poet’s hand and a historian’s attention to detail. In OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, Leah Angstman creates an immersive world for readers to get lost in and a fascinating story to propel them through it. A thoroughly engaging and compelling tale.”
—Steph Post, author of HOLDING SMOKE, MIRACULUM, and WALK IN THE FIRE

“It’s a rare story that makes you thankful for having read and experienced it. It’s rarer still for a story to evoke so wholly, so powerfully, another place and time as to make you thankful for the gifts that exist around you, which you take for granted. OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a book rich with misery, yet its characters are indefatigable; they yearn, despite their troubles, for victories personal and societal. Leah Angstman’s eye is keen, and her ability to transport you into America’s beginnings is powerful. With the raw ingredients of history, she creates a story both dashing and pensive, robust yet believable. From an unforgiving time, Angstman draws out a tale of all things inhuman, but one that reminds us of that which is best in all of us.”
—Eric Shonkwiler, author of ABOVE ALL MEN and 8TH STREET POWER AND LIGHT

About the Author

Leah Angstman is a historian and transplanted Michigander living in Boulder. OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, her debut novel of King William’s War in 17th-century New England, is forthcoming from Regal House in January 2022. Her writing has been a finalist for the Saluda River Prize, Cowles Book Prize, Able Muse Book Award, Bevel Summers Fiction Prize, and Chaucer Book Award, and has appeared in Publishers Weekly, L.A. Review of Books, Nashville Review, Slice, and elsewhere. She serves as editor-in-chief for Alternating Current and The Coil magazine and copyeditor for Underscore News, which has included editing partnerships with ProPublica. She is an appointed vice chair of a Colorado historical commission and liaison to a Colorado historic preservation committee.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Medium | Ello | Mailing List

Cover Reveal Hosts

A Darn Good Read Books, Cooks, Looks Bookworlder CelticLady’s Reviews Chicks, Rogues and Scandals Coffee and Ink Donna’s Book Blog Jessica Belmont Little But Fierce Book Diary Novels Alive Passages to the Past Pursuing Stacie Reading is My Remedy The Caffeinated Bibliophile The Enchanted Shelf Two Bookish Babes

ARC Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway</a >

#SigurdsSwords #EricSchumacher #HFVBTBlogTours #historicalfiction #Vikings #Norse #newrelease #KindleUnlimited

Sigurd’s Swords by Eric Schumacher

Publication Date: June 28, 2021
Bodn Books

Series: Olaf’s Saga, Book 2
Genre: Historical Fiction

From best-selling historical fiction novelist, Eric Schumacher, comes the second volume in Olaf’s Saga: the adrenaline-charged story of Olaf Tryggvason and his adventures in the kingdom of the Rus.

AD 968. It has been ten summers since the noble sons of the North, Olaf and Torgil, were driven from their homeland by the treachery of the Norse king, Harald Eriksson. Having then escaped the horrors of slavery in Estland, they now fight among the Rus in the company of Olaf’s uncle, Sigurd.

It will be some of the bloodiest years in Rus history. The Grand Prince, Sviatoslav, is hungry for land, riches, and power, but his unending campaigns are leaving the corpses of thousands in their wakes. From the siege of Konugard to the battlefields of ancient Bulgaria, Olaf and Torgil struggle to stay alive in Sigurd’s Swords, the heart-pounding sequel to Forged by Iron.

Pre-Order on Amazon

About the Author

Eric Schumacher (1968 – ) is an American historical novelist who currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife and two children. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and attended college at the University of San Diego.

At a very early age, Schumacher discovered his love for writing and medieval European history, as well as authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Those discoveries continue to fuel his imagination and influence the stories he tells. His first novel, God’s Hammer, was published in 2005.

To date, Schumacher has published three novels, collectively known as Hakon’s Saga, and one novella. More information about him and his books can be found on his website. You can also connect with Schumacher on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and AuthorsDB.

Book Blast Schedule

Monday, April 26
Passages to the Past

Tuesday, April 27
Jessica Belmont

Wednesday, April 28
Reading is My Remedy

Thursday, April 29
Books, Cooks, Looks

Friday, April 30
Jorie Loves A Story

Monday, May 3
Coffee and Ink