Book Extract: Shadows in the Ashes by Christina Courtenay
Please join me in welcoming Christina Courtenay to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, Shadows In The Ashes.
Brimming with romance, adventure and vivid historical detail, Christina Courtenay’s gripping dual-time novel travels from the present day to the fires of ancient Pompeii.
The sunlight caught her gold bracelet, sending a flash that almost blinded her.
She closed her eyes, but jumped when the earth started shaking and there was an almighty boom behind her.
Present Day
Finally escaping an abusive marriage, Caterina Rossi takes her three-year-old daughter and flees to Italy. There she’s drawn to research scientist Connor, who needs her translation help for his work on volcanology. Together they visit the ruins of Pompeii and, standing where Mount Vesuvius unleashed its fire on the city centuries before, Cat begins to see startling visions. Visions that appear to come from the antique bracelet handed down through her family’s generations…
AD 79
Sold by his half-brother and enslaved as a gladiator in Roman Pompeii, Raedwald dreams only of surviving each fight, making the coin needed to return to his homeland and taking his revenge. That is, until he is hired to guard beautiful Aemilia. As their forbidden love grows, Raedwald’s dreams shift like the ever more violent tremors of the earth beneath his feet.
The present starts eerily to mirror the past as Cat must fight to protect her safety, and to forge a new path from the ashes of her old life…
Christina has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Prologue
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Book Review: Murder at Merewood Hospital by Michelle Salter
I’m pleased to be welcoming Michelle Salter back to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her latest novel, Murder at Merewood Hospital.
The patients survived the Great War only to face a new danger…
In 1916, Sister Helen Hopgood was sent with a team of nurses to care for wounded soldiers at Merewood Farm, a temporary military hospital in Hampshire.
Now the war is over, only five patients remain – and she is the only nurse. The last ward must close, and Helen is doing all she can to find new homes for the injured servicemen.
Joseph Wintringham has to sell the farm to keep Merewood Manor. But since the murder of Nurse Taplin, locals believe the place is cursed – perhaps by the doomed nurse or by the patients who perished from their war wounds.
Is the hospital haunted? Or is someone very real behind the unnatural deaths that begin on Midsummer’s Night 1919?
Can Helen discover the truth before it’s too late..?
*****
World War One has ended and soon the temporary hospital at Merewood Farm will have to close.
Nurse Helen Hopgood wants to make sure that the injured servicemen that remain in the ward have been moved and are OK, However, someone else has other plans and soon one of her patients is murdered. With everyone seemingly under suspicion, can the perpetrator be found before someone else gets hurt?
I’n such a big fan of Michelle Salter. I was not only excited at the release of this new mystery but was very happy to be part of the blog tour around its release.
by Book Review: The Screenwriter by Amanda Reynolds
I’m pleased to be welcoming Amanda Reynolds to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her novel, The Screenwriter.
Every screenwriter knows the best stories come from the truth…
But the truth can be terrifying
Marnie thought she’d left behind her days of writing ‘celebrity’ tell-all memoirs, but when her big break as a screenwriter turns to dust she’s forced to take another ghost writing job.
Except this time it’s for someone who is actually famous. Or rather, infamous. Blythe Hopper. A reclusive former Hollywood star who recently murdered her screenwriter husband.
And Marnie has her own reasons for wanting to meet Blythe, not least because of an email she received from Blythe’s husband, sent two days after he was shot dead.
But Marnie soon learns Blythe is not a woman to be messed with.
Dark secrets lurk at the Hoppers’ palatial London home – secrets long buried, which Marnie is determined to unearth. At any price.
Because this isn’t just about Blythe’s past.
It’s about Marnie’s too.
*****
With her screenplay about to go into production, Marnie Wilde thought she could finally say goodbye to her career as a ghostwriter but when that falls through, she has no choice but to return to being a ghost. However, needing the job is not the only reason she has decided to help write Blythe Hopper’s memoir. She wants answers but will she find them?
This is the first novel I have read by Amanda Reynolds and I really didn’t know what to expect. The premise for The Screenwriter intrigued me and so I was so excited to be invited onto the blog tour for her latest novel.
Marnie is an interesting yet mysterious character. I like how she was written. There is a slight dark humour to her voice which I loved and it made me warm to her.
by Book Review: An Enchanted Moment on Ever After Street by Jaimie Admans
I’m so excited to welcome Jaimie Admans back to Novel Kicks. She’s here with the blog tour for her latest novel, An Enchanted Moment on Ever After Street, book two in the Ever After Street Series.
A picture-perfect town, a place where dreams come true. Welcome to Ever After Street…
A tale as old as time…
Since her mum’s death, Marnie Platt has shut herself away from everyone who cares about her. Worse, her beloved bookshop on Ever After Street is suffering too. With sales down and the shop’s garden falling into disrepair, Marnie risks losing the very last thing she loves. Until a chance encounter with her surly and reclusive neighbour….
Dark and brooding, Darcy O’Connell likes to keep himself to himself. But when he hears Marnie needs help, he can’t turn his back on her. Soon they are spending most evenings together in her enchanted garden and a friendship starts to bloom…
With the help of old and new friends on Ever After Street, Marnie’s bookshop begins to thrive again, and with Darcy’s kindness, she starts to get her sparkle back too. She just can’t understand why Darcy continues to shut himself away – especially from her. Can she convince him it isn’t too late to embrace life, and maybe love, again?
Because every story, even theirs, deserves a happy ending….
*****
Marnie runs the A Tale As Old As Time bookshop on Ever After Street but after the death of her mother, everything feels as though she is simply treading water and even that is hard going.
When she receives a letter threatening to take away the only thing she has left, she doesn’t know what to do. However, a chance conversation with her ‘scary neighbour’ sends her life into a direction she never thought possible.
When a book features a bookshop named A Tale as Old as Time that is themed around Beauty and the Beast and a cat named Mrs Potts, you’ve pretty much drawn me in to be honest.
It’s evident to see how lonely Marnie is and I wanted to make her a cup of tea, give her a big hug and sit and talk books with her. She felt so relatable to me and someone I would be friends with.
by Book Spotlight: Zero Kill by M.K. Hill
Please join us in welcoming M.K. Hill to Novel Kicks. We are putting a spotlight on his latest novel, Zero Kill.
Meet Elsa Zero: Bad neighbour. Single mother. Ex-deep cover agent.
And right now, the most dangerous person on Earth.
When Elsa’s dull but dedicated boyfriend proposes in a packed restaurant, she doesn’t think her evening can get any worse. But as the clock strikes midnight, her world is turned upside down.
Suddenly Elsa is running for her life, trying to keep her children safe, and desperate to discover what the hell is going on.
Every intelligence agency in the world wants her dead because she’s in possession of a deadly secret – she just has to stay alive long enough to figure out what it is.
But this is Elsa Zero we’re talking about. And it’s a very bad idea to get on her wrong side.
Bursting with tension, twists and humour, this is a brilliantly unique action-thriller perfect for fans of Killing Eve, Lee Child and people who loved watching Nobody and Hunted.
*****
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Zero Kill was released by Head of Zeus – an Aries Book. Click to buy on Amazon UK and Waterstones.
by Book Club
