A Novel Tea Evening with Authors ~ Review

Welcome to the Blog Tour for A Novel-Tea Evening with Authors including Lynn Austin, Susie Finkbeiner, Jocelyn Green, Laura Frantz, Kate Breslin, Amanda Barratt, and Joanna Davidson Politano, sponsored by JustRead Publicity Tours!

You are Invited

A Novel-Tea Evening with Authors
September 2, 2023 at 7 p.m. 
Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago

Join us at 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 2, at Chicago’s historic Palmer House Hilton Hotel for a tasteful evening with tea and talk of books, writing, history, and the power of story. Emceed by Chris Jager of Baker Book House, seven novelists will share what inspires them, tales from the research files, what they’ve learned on the journey, and their hope for readers.

Learn More about A Novel-Tea Evening with Authors

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About the Authors

LYNN AUSTIN, whose titles include Long Way Home, Chasing Shadows, and If I Were You. 

Connect with her at LynnAustin.org.

AMANDA BARRATT, whose titles include Within These Walls of Sorrow, The White Rose Resists, and My Dearest Dietrich. 

Connect with her at AmandaBarratt.net.

KATE BRESLIN, whose titles include In Love’s Time, As Dawn Breaks, and Far Side of the Sea. 

Connect with her at KateBreslin.com.

SUSIE FINKBEINER, whose titles include The All-American, The Nature of Small Birds, and All Manner of Things. 

Connect with her at SusieFinkbeiner.com.

LAURA FRANTZ, whose titles include The Rose and the Thistle, A Heart Adrift, and Tidewater Bride. 

Connect with her at LauraFrantz.net.

JOCELYN GREEN, whose titles include The Metropolitan Affair, The Windy City Saga series, and The Mark of the King. 

Connect with her at JocelynGreen.com.

JOANNA DAVIDSON POLITANO, whose titles include The Lost Melody, A Midnight Dance, and The Love Note. 

Connect with her at JDPStories.com.

Purchase Tickets to Attend A Novel-Tea Evening with Authors

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The Lost Melody

A Midnight Dance #2

By Joanna Davidson Politano

Vivienne Mourdant is finally free of her father. But his death has forced her into a time of mourning, preventing her from performing as she wants; no, she needs to. When she receives word that she now has a ward in Hurstwell Asylum, she makes inquiries. But the woman she seeks is not there, nor has she ever been there. Her curiosity piqued, Vivienne decides to find the answers she seeks herself. 

Working at the asylum under a false name, Vivienne soon finds herself getting lost in the darkness that has taken hold of Hurstwell. And unless she guards herself well, she may never leave the place alive.

The Lost Melody is a true Gothic novel. It will drag you into it as a willing victim to its haunting call. Who are all these people trapped within its walls? You, like Vivienne, will be unable to pull yourself away. I have always enjoyed books with a Gothic thread throughout them. An unexplained abandoned tower. Unexplained music in the night. Whispers. And treacherous people undermining your very sanity. There is something to be said for reading these books late into the night as the night closes in around you. And Joanna Davidson Politano does an excellent job setting the mood and feel to create just such a story that one cannot help to be drawn to the plight that Vivienne finds herself in. I highly recommend this book and would say it would make for an intriguing Book Club discussion. 

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book with no expectations but that I provide my honest opinion. All thoughts expressed are my own.

About the Book:

"Haunting. Riveting. Filled with hope."--Michelle Griep, author of Lost in Darkness

When concert pianist Vivienne Mourdant's father dies, he leaves to her the care of a patient at Hurstwell Asylum. Vivienne had no idea the woman existed, and yet her portrait is shockingly familiar. When the asylum claims she was never a patient there, Vivienne is compelled to discover what happened to the figure she remembers from childhood dreams.


The longer she lingers in the deep shadows and forgotten towers at Hurstwell, the fuzzier the line between sanity and madness becomes. She hears music no one else does, receives strange missives with rose petals between the pages, and untangles far more than is safe for her to know.

But can she uncover the truth about the mysterious woman she seeks? And is there anyone at Hurstwell she can trust with her suspicions?

Joanna Davidson Politano casts a delightful spell with this lyrical look into the nature of women's independence and artistic expression during the Victorian era--and now.

PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository |Bookshop.org | Christianbook | BookBub

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About the Author:

Joanna Davidson Politano is the award-winning author of Lady Jayne Disappears, A Rumored Fortune, Finding Lady Enderly, The Love Note, and A Midnight Dance. She loves tales that capture the colorful, exquisite details in ordinary lives and is eager to hear anyone's story. She lives with her husband and their children in a house in the woods near Lake Michigan. 

Connect with Joanna by visiting jdpstories.com to follow her on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.

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The Lady and the Highwayman ~ Review

The Lady and the Highwayman

The Dread Penny Society #1

By Sarah M. Eden

Read by Justine Eyre

The Dread Penny Society has a problem - a new author has overtaken Fletcher Walker in sales. Without his profits, Fletcher and the Society are concerned that their philanthropic endeavors may be hurt. Endeavors to aid the less fortunate and especially the young children at the mercy of those who would use them for nefarious purposes.

Who is Mr. King? This is the question that Fletcher needs to be answered. If Mr. King would aid them in their endeavors all the better. But if he will hinder them and his sales eat into the profits of the other Dreadfuls then they will need to work to topple him from his sales throne. They just need to identify Mr. King, whom no one seems to know. 

When an encounter with Miss Elizabeth Black presents itself, Fletcher appeals to her to help him identify Mr. King. Though Elizabeth is a writer of "silver-fork" novels, something of Mr. King's style leads Fletcher to assume he may be an author of the upper-class writing under a pseudonym to protect his identity. Little did Fletcher realize just how close to the truth he truly was. 

More than a little amused at Fletcher's request, Elizabeth agrees to aid him in his search for the elusive Mr. King. Not to mention she was more than a little intrigued by Mr. Fletcher Walker himself. With a reputation to uphold and a school to run Elizabeth really shouldn't associate with Mr. Walker, but she does enjoy a stimulating conversation and Fletcher Walker provides that.

The Lady and the Highwayman is a delightful read - there are 3 stories within this book as the stories that both Fletcher and "Mr. King" are working on are presented too. It is a wonderful blending that presents itself well and keeps the reader's attention from beginning to end. I especially enjoyed Elizabeth's subterfuge in hiding Mr. King's identity and Fletcher's dogged determination to find him. But as they work towards a common goal they soon realize that they are well on their way to friendship and perhaps something more. But can the social gap between the two be overcome? Only time will tell...

I enjoyed the audio version of this book and it was well-presented. The pacing worked well for me and I really enjoyed the three different stories alternated between. Elizabeth and Fletcher's story style was definitely different but it worked well in bringing the story as a whole together. If you want clean-reading with a Victorian flair you have to give this book a try. 

About the Book:

Elizabeth Black is the headmistress of a girls’ school and a well-respected author of “silver-fork” novels, stories written both for and about the upper-class ladies of Victorian society. But by night, she writes very different kinds of stories—the Penny Dreadfuls that are all the rage among the working-class men. Under the pseudonym Mr. King, Elizabeth has written about dashing heroes fighting supernatural threats and dangerous outlaws romancing helpless women. They contain all the adventure and mystery that her real-life lacks.
 
Fletcher Walker began life as a street urchin, but is now the most successful author in the Penny Dreadful market, that is until Mr. King started taking all of his readers--and his profits. No one knows who King is, including Fletcher’s fellow members of the Dread Penny Society, a fraternity of authors dedicated to secretly fighting for the rights of the less-fortunate.
 
Determined to find the elusive Mr. King, Fletcher approaches Miss Black. As a fellow-author, she is well-known among the high-class writers; perhaps she could be persuaded to make some inquiries as to Mr. King’s whereabouts? Elizabeth agrees to help Fletcher, if only to insure her secret identity is never discovered. 
 
For the first time, Elizabeth experiences the thrill of a cat-and-mouse adventure reminiscent of one of her own novels as she tries to throw Fletcher off her scent. But the more time they spend together, the more she loses her heart. Its upper-class against working-class, author against author where readers, reputations, and romance are all on the line.

The Curse of Misty Wayfair ~ Review

The Curse of Misty Wayfair
By Jaime Jo Wright

If you love a book that has two different threads of time that are woven together by a common factor you will love The Curse of Misty Wayfair. The early 1900s and present-day Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, have one thing in common Misty Wayfair. Who or what is Misty Wayfair you ask? It is from her murder in 1851 that the legends that have haunted Pleasant Valley ever since have come from.

When Thea (Dorothea) Reed photographer of memento mori, also known as a mourning portrait, comes to Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, in 1908 she is looking for clues to her past. A past that she has been lead to believe has roots there. Her only clues - scant memories of her mother and a letter detailing what little was known of her past. But Pleasant Valley seems anything but pleasant with secrets and rumors of a haunting by a woman whose appearance seems to foretell death. And the deaths all seem to be focused upon the Coyle family whom suspicion and rumor swirl in connection to the tale of Misty Wayfair. Thea wants to find the truth of who she is but most seem determined to discourage her attempts and she is warned away from the remaining Coyles, Rose and Simeon. But Thea is drawn to them in their grief and her curiosity keeps her from heeding the well-intentioned advice of the local residents or that of her late employer.

In present-day Pleasant Valley, Heidi Lane is making a visit to the family she has avoided for the last several years. Feeling that she never quite fit in and that she was never good enough for them she went away to college and has been running from her demons ever since. But a letter from her mentally failing mother has her returning to a home she never knew. A happy reunion is not about to happen anytime soon and when Heidi starts experiencing events that have her questioning just what is going on. And worse it seems as if someone is determined to push her mentally over the edge. And the old photograph that she discovered marked Misty Wayfair is seemingly linked to whatever is occurring and Heidi wants answers. But getting answers from her family may be a tad difficult and she's managed to annoy some of the local residents almost immediately, whoops.

The Curse of Misty Wayfair is Contemporary Gothic Fiction at its best. I really liked how the rumors about Misty Wayfair are engaged with by the various characters. Do you believe the souls of the deceased are trapped here forced to wander or did you believe that there is something beyond this that we know and see an afterlife that is not a wandering torment just beyond our physical life? Thea's upbringing was one that believed in spiritual hauntings. Heidi's upbringing was one as the youngest surprise child of a pastor and she chafed at the rules and don't that she felt stifled her. These two women with more than a century dividing them are linked by a place that is about to define what their futures will be but only if they can determine the truth of who they are.

Get ready for some suspense that will keep you reading, as you promise yourself just one more chapter until you reach the conclusion which for both story-threads has some unexpected results. Jaime Jo Wright has again worked wonders with her wordcraft and the winner in this is the reader who picks up this newest work. 

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher with no expectation but that I offer my honest opinion - all thoughts expressed are my own.



About the Book:
Left at an orphanage as a child, Thea Reed vowed to find her mother someday. Now grown, her search takes her to turn-of-the-century Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin. When the clues she finds lead her to a mental asylum, Thea uses her experience as a postmortem photographer to gain access and assist groundskeeper Simeon Coyle in photographing the patients and uncovering the secrets within. However, she never expected her personal quest would reawaken the legend of Misty Wayfair, a murdered woman who allegedly haunts the area and whose appearance portends death. 

A century later, Heidi Lane receives a troubling letter from her mother--who is battling dementia--compelling her to travel to Pleasant Valley for answers to her own questions of identity. When she catches sight of a ghostly woman haunting the asylum ruins in the woods, the long-standing story of Misty Wayfair returns--and with it, Heidi's fear for her own life.
As two women across time seek answers about their identities and heritage, they must overcome the threat of the mysterious curse that has them inextricably intertwined. 

The Haunting of Springett Hall ~ Review

The Haunting of Springett Hall
A Novel
By E.B. Wheeler

She doesn't remember her past, only the blackness.  He knows only as far back as two days ago.  Something or someone has drawn them to Springett Hall. If only they could remember...

The Haunting of Springett Hall is a story of second chances. A second chance at life.  A second chance at love.

Lucy Tregarrick's dissatisfaction with the life she had has lead her to the situation in which she now finds herself.  She has failed at something, if only she could remember what she was attempting before she lost her life.  Philip Ketley is the only resident of Springett Hall who can see Lucy.  Is he the key to helping Lucy overcome her failures?

And what is it about Springett Hall that is so disturbing to all who are in residence at this estate?  What evil lurks between the walls and how is this all connected to Lucy?

This is a story of love and loss.  A story of redemption.  A story that will leave you wondering what will happen next.  If you like spooky you need to pick-up The Haunting of Springett Hall and get lost between the pages.  Perfect reading right before bed, especially after taking a peek at the moon...

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for my honest review and tour participation.

About the book:

Eighteen-year-old Lucy doesn’t know how she became a ghost, but the more she remembers of her life in Victorian England, the more she wants to forget. Her only hope of changing the mistakes of her past is to enlist the help of a servant named Philip—the one living person who can see her. This impossible romance story is filled with delightful period detail and plenty of mystery.

About the author:

E.B. Wheeler grew up in Georgia and California, where she became fascinated by stories of the places around her. She studied English and history at Brigham Young University and earned an MA and MLA from Utah State University. After several years teaching and writing about history, she decided to pursue her other dream of writing fiction. “The Haunting of Springett Hall” is her first novel. She currently lives in northern Utah with her husband, daughters, various pets, and a garden full of antique roses.

Mist of Midnight ~ Review and 2 Giveaways

Mist of Midnight
Daughters of Hampshire
By Sandra Byrd

Mist of Midnight is truly vintage Gothic romance and one you won't want to put down!  A delightfully chilling book filled with intrigue and danger and a mystery woven throughout.

Rebecca Ravenshaw is the sole heir to her family's estate, or so she thought. Returning to England following the death of her parents Rebecca is shocked to learn that a young woman impersonating her has been installed in her home (as her!). Worse the young woman died in a suspicious manner and the estate has been turned over to a distant cousin, a Captain Whitfield.

With no one to verify her identity, Rebecca is unable to lay claim to her home or her inheritance.  Her knowledge of her parents work as missionaries in India is her only hope, but it could take months to validate her.

More puzzling is the identity of the young woman who took advantage of the Indian Mutiny from which Rebecca barely escaped and which claimed the lives of her parents.  How did this impostor know enough to fool those around her.  And even more troubling how did the young woman die? Was it natural causes or was it foul play as has been suggested and implied?  And what role did Captain Whitfield play in the entire situation?

Mist at Midnight is the perfect way to spend the waning hours of the night - mystery, betrayal, intrigue all wrapped in the possibility of romance.  Sandra Byrd has woven yet another masterful tale drawing upon historical fact, her ability to craft fiction and to create characters that have both depth and dimension.

I am excited to see what comes next in this series that has captured my attention with this first offering.  Fans of Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney will enjoy this Victorian era Gothic romance,
And fans of clean romance will enjoy this book with no need to blush.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher Howard Books in exchange for my honest review and tour participation.

Synopsis

In the first of a brand-new series set in Victorian England, a young woman returns home from India after the death of her family to discover her identity and inheritance are challenged by the man who holds her future in his hands.

Rebecca Ravenshaw, daughter of missionaries, spent most of her life in India. Following the death of her family in the Indian Mutiny, Rebecca returns to claim her family estate in Hampshire, England. Upon her return, people are surprised to see her...and highly suspicious. Less than a year earlier, an imposter had arrived with an Indian servant and assumed not only Rebecca's name, but her home and incomes.

That pretender died within months of her arrival; the servant fled to London as the young woman was hastily buried at midnight. The locals believe that perhaps she, Rebecca, is the real impostor. Her home and her father's investments reverted to a distant relative, the darkly charming Captain Luke Whitfield, who quickly took over. Against her best intentions, Rebecca begins to fall in love with Luke, but she is forced to question his motives—does he love her or does he just want Headbourne House? If Luke is simply after the property, as everyone suspects, will she suffer a similar fate as the first “Rebecca”?

A captivating Gothic love story set against a backdrop of intrigue and danger, Mist of Midnight will leave you breathless.

About the author:

Sandra Byrd is a best-selling author and has earned Library Journal's Best Books of the year pick twice, in 2011 for To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn, and in 2012 for The Secret Keeper: A Novel of Kateryn Parr.  She's twice been a Christy Award finalist, for To Die For and for Let Them Eat Cake: A Novel. Roses Have Thorns: A Novel of Elizabeth I published April 2013.

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Lace bookmark giveaway open to US Residents runs February 25th through March 4th! Winner must respond by March 7th with U.S. mailing address or an alternate winner will be chosen.

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Sandra is hosting an amazing giveaway including an Amazon Kindle Voyage, lace bookmarks, a copy of Mist of Midnight, among other fabulous items through March 31st.
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