The Coffee Pot Book Club presents: The Lydiard Chronicles by Elizabeth St.John

Book Title:  The Lydiard Chronicles (A Trilogy)

Author: Elizabeth St.John

Publication Date: 2016-2020

Publisher: Falcon Historical

Genre: Historical Fiction

Any Triggers: No

Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #EnglishCivilWar #FamilyHistory #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-tour-the-lydiard-chronicles-by-elizabeth-stjohn.html 

The Lydiard Chronicles:

The Lady of the Tower (Book #1)

By Love Divided (Book #2)

Written in Their Stars (Book #3)

by Elizabeth St.John

Duty, passion, and power collide in The Lydiard Chronicles, a gripping trilogy inspired by true events. Follow three courageous women—survivors, strategists, and storytellers—who defy the constraints of society to shape their family’s fate and England’s future. Their voices echo through time. Their legacy changed a nation.

The Lydiard Chronicles is an award-winning, best-selling historical family saga which brings to life the remarkable true stories of the St.John family. Spanning three compelling novels—The Lady of the Tower, By Love Divided, and Written in Their Stars—the series follows the legacy of resilient and intelligent women who lived as spies, courtiers, and diarists during England’s most turbulent century, navigating the quicksand of love and war, political upheaval, and personal sacrifice. 

Bound by fierce family loyalty and unforgettable love, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles defy the limits of their time with passion, courage, and unshakable independence. They endure captivity in the Tower of London, exile in the Louvre Palace, and the heart-wrenching divisions of the English Civil War—fighting not just for survival, but for their beliefs, their families, and the right to choose their own fate. Meticulously researched and vividly told, this epic saga reveals how these women created history from the shadows, leaving a legacy of resilience, defiance, and enduring influence.

Rooted in original diaries, letters, and family papers, The Lydiard Chronicles offers an intimate, biographical portrait of women who moved behind the scenes of power. Serving as trusted secret agents, military wives, and confidantes of kings, they were deeply engaged in the political and religious conflicts of their time. Through tragedy and triumph, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles shape their destinies—and the fate of a nation—in this richly researched and vividly told historical epic. 

Universal Series Buy Link: https://geni.us/TheLydiardChronicles

These titles are available to read on #KindleUnlimited

Hot Summer Reads:*Each novel is priced at just 99c / 99p July 1st - 15th, 2025*

A short excerpt from Written in Their Stars

Exiled to France

Frances’s simple story of dragons sustained her as she walked along the Folkestone shore early the next morning, Walter’s guard following closely. The sea lay with an oily tint to it, flat as could be, with just a small wave lapping on the smooth sand. This was not the rough Atlantic she knew from her childhood in Devon. Her county bred navigators and explorers, dragon fighters and adventurers. And yet a squall drifting on the horizon reminded her of the presence of danger on even the calmest water. 

Daybreak melted the fog and burnished the world silver. As she walked by a half dozen one-masted fishing boats tethered to the spit of land, her spirits rose with the sun. Gulls cried as the fishermen readied their boats to catch the morning tide, and a fresh easterly breeze caressed her cheek. She waved Walter’s guard to stay out of earshot and approached the boats.

As an intelligencer, proving her resourcefulness must be a priority. And while Allen slept off the French brandy from the night before, she would take care of this next part of their journey.

“You’ll be wanting passage, my lady?” A voice broke into her thoughts. Was she that obvious?

She turned and faced a man of about Allen’s age and height, shoulder-length blond hair straggling from under a wide-brimmed hat that concealed his expression. His left sleeve was pinned to his chest, flat and empty across the front of a jacket woven of some unidentifiable cloth, beige once and now salt-stained and crusted in white. 

“Yes.” 

The man limped to the boat tied at the end of the small spit, the incoming tide nudging the vessel and rocking it gently in place. His swaying gait mimicked any seafaring fisherman, and yet Frances suspected it came from a wound sustained on a battlefield. Swinging himself on deck, the fisherman deftly sorted his net with one hand, laying it out on the narrow planks and kicking it into place with worn boots.

Holding her guard back five paces, Frances followed him and waited on the shore. The vessel looked seaworthy, solidly made and sitting evenly in the water. Painted a rust colour and thick with a pitch coat below the water line, it appeared well-maintained.

“Tide is best just before sunset,” the man replied, “if you’re not afeard of the darkening. How many are you?” 

“Two and a half.”

The man raised an eyebrow.

“One is a child. She is two.”

The man shrugged and leaned forward to untether his boat. His legs planted wide, he easily moved with the rocking of the swell. “Same risk. Same price. A crown each. Proper coinage. No useless siege money.”

This man assumed a lot and negotiated little. Frances untied the rope and threw it to him. “How can I trust you?” 

“Do you have a choice? You’re not taking a packet boat for a reason.” He caught the rope and coiled it on the deck. “My hut is the third from the end. You can wait there today, for it is safer than the town from those curious about travellers.”

As the boat bobbed away from the land, the man lifted his hand in a gesture that almost appeared a salute.

“God save our king across the sea.” The words disappeared on the morning breeze. Had she really heard them under the slap and murmur of the waves on the sand?

The boat drifted out on the morning sea. A triangular brown sail raised, and a second smaller one at the stern. Frances stood until it disappeared into the rising sun. Beyond the horizon lay France, the king, her future. After a while, she turned. Time enough for daydreaming later.

Frances could not read Allen’s expression as he gazed back towards the cliffs, rearing cream and white from the ocean itself, barricading their precious island from the turbulent sea. The last of the light lingered on the western horizon. He held Isabella tightly in his arms, tucking her inside his coat so just her head peeped out from the dark blue wool. Frances knew Allen needed to embrace his child, protect her from the dragons. As important for him as for her. 

“So we forsake England,” she mused. Unlike Allen, she left no family behind, for hers had departed this earth long ago, before the war. Yet she knew the emptiness that came with leave-takings. This loss encompassed more than family, for it included her country too. Her courage lay as a hard kernel within her heart, for emotion crushed her soul when the boat left land.

“You choose curious words.” Allen stared at the cliffs, his chin resting on Isabella’s bright curls. “We sacrifice much for England, but leaving our family to follow the king is surely not renouncing.”

“Yet we fight from a foreign land, Allen, not on our own shores. Parliament claims our country while we run away.” She was in a strange mood, fey. 

“We are not running away, Frances. We are defending our future and the future of England.” Finally, he dragged his eyes away from the cliffs, now so diminished they became one with the westerly skies. He tucked Isabella closer into his jacket and smiled. “Are you fearful tonight, my love?” 

Her heart swelled as two pairs of bright eyes regarded her, both merry and alight with excitement. Her life, her destiny. Her only family. Isabella struggled and freed her hand, a little pink starfish waving against the brown sail, squealing at the seagulls swooping over the boat.

They laughed at their daughter’s delight. If there was to be a crossing over, a voyage to the unknown such as this, then Frances could not have wished for a smoother sailing or a happier child. 

God willing, their refuge in France would be as harmonious.

***

Elizabeth St.John’s critically acclaimed historical fiction novels tell the stories of her ancestors: extraordinary women whose intriguing kinship with England's kings and queens brings an intimately unique perspective to Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times.

Inspired by family archives and residences from Lydiard Park to the Tower of London, Elizabeth spends much of her time exploring ancestral portraits, diaries, and lost gardens. And encountering the occasional ghost. But that’s another story.

Living between California, England, and the past, Elizabeth is the International Ambassador for The Friends of Lydiard Park, an English charity dedicated to conserving and enhancing this beautiful centuries-old country house and park. As a curator for The Lydiard Archives, she is constantly looking for an undiscovered treasure to inspire her next novel.

Elizabeth's works include The Lydiard Chronicles, a family saga set in 17th-century England during the Civil War, and The Godmother's Secret, which unravels the medieval mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London. Her latest release, The King’s Intelligencer, follows Franny Apsley in the treacherous court of Charles II as she risks everything to uncover the dangerous truth behind the discovery of the princes’ bones.

Website: https://www.elizabethjstjohn.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethJStJohn/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethjstjohn/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethjstjohn/

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@elizabethjstjohn

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethstjohn.bsky.social

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/elizabeth-st-john

Amazon Author Page:     https://geni.us/AmazonElizabethStJohn

Goodreads: https://geni.us/GoodreadsElizStJohn

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents: Shattered Peace – A Century of Silence by Julie McDonald Zander

Book Title: Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence

Series: n/a

Author Name: Julie McDonald Zander

Publication Date: March 27, 2025 (Official book launch was May 10, 2025)

Publisher: St. Helens Press

Pages: 290

Genre: Historical Fiction, Time-slip, World War I

Any Triggers: It contains references to date rape, war violence, post-traumatic stress disorder, and faith and redemption

Twitter Handle: @MacZanderAuthor @cathiedunn

Instagram Handle: @juliemcdonaldzander @thecoffeepotbookclub 

Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlh5nXX9bv8 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/06/blog-tour-shattered-peace-by-julie-mcdonald-zander.html 

Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence 

by Julie McDonald Zander

A forgotten diary. A century-old secret. A town still haunted by its past.

When former Navy Seabee Colleen Holmes inherits an old house in Centralia, Washington, she sees it as a chance to escape her own ghosts and start anew. But as she peels back layers of history within the home’s walls, she unearths long-buried secrets tied to a dark chapter in the town’s history.

Hidden behind crumbling plaster, a faded diary and a bundle of love letters unveil the struggles of a soldier trapped in the trenches of France and the heartbreak of those left waiting at home. Yet the diary’s brittle pages hold more than just longing—they bear witness to the explosive events of November 11, 1919, when a parade meant to celebrate peace erupted into violence and bloodshed.

As Colleen pieces together the tragic choices that shattered lives and fractured a town, she realizes history is never truly buried. The wounds of yesterday still shape today, and the past is not done with her yet.

Inspired by true events, Shattered Peace is a gripping time-slip novel of love, loss, and the echoes of history that refuse to fade. Perfect for fans of The Alice Network and The Girl You Left Behind, this haunting tale of resilience, redemption, and the pursuit of truth will linger long after the final page.

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/4AyWBp 

Julie McDonald Zander, an award-winning journalist, earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from the University of Washington before working two decades as a newspaper reporter and editor. Through her personal history company, Chapters of Life, she has published more than 75 individual, family, and community histories. 

Her debut novel, The Reluctant Pioneer, won a Will Rogers Medallion and was a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Historical Novel.

She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest, where they raised their two children.  

Website:  https://maczander.com/ which takes you to https://mczander2024.ag-sites.net/index.htm

Twitter / X:  https://x.com/MacZanderAuthor and    https://x.com/ChaptersofLife 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563140294856

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliemcdonaldzander/?hl=en

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mczander.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/maczanderauthor/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/julie-mcdonald-zander

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maczanderauthor?lang=en

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Julie-McDonald-Zander/author/B001K8VG86 

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5856830.Julie_McDonald_Zander

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents Nero & Sporus by SP Somtow

Book Title: Nero and Sports

Series: Nero and Sporus

Author: S.P. Somtow

Publication Date:  May 30, 2025

Publisher: Diplodocus Press

Pages: 750

Genre: Historical Fiction / Historical Biographical Fiction / LGBTQ Interest

Any Triggers: Sexuality of various kinds, violence, slavery.

 https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-tour-nero-and-sporus-by-sp-somtow.html 

Nero and Sporus

by S.P. Somtow

Finally available in one volume! The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters.

The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena.

Read an excerpt from Nero and Sporus

Preparing to go out took us almost until dawn, but I still was not tired.  Just one hour of freedom, I thought, one hour of anonymity.  When we left through the front door, we weren’t noticed.  Gallio’s slaves were probably too busy worrying about whether they would live or die, and they weren’t that familiar with what I looked like.  In Roman society, what you wear identifies you as much as many facial features.

We giggled like children as we left the villa behind us.  Though this was a strange city, it was not cluttered and labyrinthine like Rome.  The real Corinth was long gone, from a series of civil wars; Julius Caesar’s recreation of Corinth was strictly according to the Roman colonial template: here the temples, over there the theater, here again a forum.  

But I felt like a boy again, giddy with short-term freedom, running down an alley with a playmate.  I had not felt this way for a long time.  The unimaginative architecture was not my concern.  We raced down an alley, rounded a temple, startled a dove-seller as he hawked sacrificial birds in cages in front of the Temple of Octavia.

We laughed as he chased the birds, hopping along the steps.

“Let’s help him,” I said to Hylas.

We bent down and started to catch the birds.  They seemed tame, not wanting to fly away.

I realized their wings were clipped.

I handed a bird to the vendor, and he sighed as he returned it to the cage.  “Yes, I know,” he said.  “It saves time.”

“It seems a pity,” I said.  “Birds should fly.”  I thought of my own fate.

“In my country,” he said in a strange accent, “the buyers don’t wring their necks to honor the gods.  In fact, they set them free, to earn merit in their next life.”

“That is a beautiful idea.”

“But what the clients don’t know is … their wings are clipped anyway.  I was a bird-seller’s slave once.  My job was to catch the escaped birds so we could sell them again.  The clients did not know the birds were used again and again, so their intentions were pure.”

“It seems less wasteful than killing them,” I said.

“If me was a bird,” Hylas said — his Greek had not yet caught up with his Latin — “Me rather die than not fly.”

“What country are you from?” I asked him.

“I’m from the very farthest limit of the Hellenic world,” said the vendor, “beyond even the Empire of Caesar.  “I am from Bactria, which is in India.”

“The farthest footfall of Alexander the Great,” I said, remembering some past comment of my tutor Aristarchos.  

“You’ve heard of it!  My, you had a good tutor,” he said.  “You are not who you seem to be, young master.”  We finished caging the birds and the vendor handed us an obol for our efforts.  “Go share a lamb skewer.”

We left the temple steps and turned another corner.  The sun was rising.  I could smell grilled spiced meat and warm bread, and I could tell we were near a market.  “You heard him,” Hylas said in Latin.  “Lamb.”

“You go.”  I had become despondent suddenly.  I could not help thinking of the flightless doves, captured and recaptured to ease the sensibilities of pilgrims.  

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/ba90Qx 

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Once referred to by the International Herald Tribune as 'the most well-known expatriate Thai in the world,' Somtow Sucharitkul is no longer an expatriate, since he has returned to Thailand after five decades of wandering the world. He is best known as an award-winning novelist and a composer of operas. 

Born in Bangkok, Somtow grew up in Europe and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. His first career was in music and in the 1970s, his first return to Asia, he acquired a reputation as a revolutionary composer, the first to combine Thai and Western instruments in radical new sonorities. Conditions in the arts in the region at the time proved so traumatic for the young composer that he suffered a major burnout, emigrated to the United States, and reinvented himself as a novelist.

His earliest novels were in the science fiction field and he soon won the John W. Campbell for Best New Writer as well as being nominated for and winning numerous other awards in the field. But science fiction was not able to contain him and he began to cross into other genres. In his 1984 novel Vampire Junction, he injected a new literary inventiveness into the horror genre, in the words of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, 'skillfully combining the styles of Stephen King, William Burroughs, and the author of the Revelation to John.' Vampire Junction was voted one of the forty all-time greatest horror books by the Horror Writers' Association, joining established classics like Frankenstein and Dracula. He has also published children's books, a historical novel, and about a hundred works of short fiction.

In the 1990s Somtow became increasingly identified as a uniquely Asian writer with novels such as the semi-autobiographical Jasmine Nights and a series of stories noted for a peculiarly Asian brand of magic realism, such as Dragon's Fin Soup, which is currently being made into a film directed by Takashi Miike. He recently won the World Fantasy Award, the highest accolade given in the world of fantastic literature, for his novella The Bird Catcher. His seventy-plus books have sold about two million copies world-wide. He has been nominated for or won over forty awards in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

After becoming a Buddhist monk for a period in 2001, Somtow decided to refocus his attention on the country of his birth, founding Bangkok's first international opera company and returning to music, where he again reinvented himself, this time as a neo-Asian neo-Romantic composer. The Norwegian government commissioned his song cycle Songs Before Dawn for the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, and he composed at the request of the government of Thailand his Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 which was dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.

According to London's Opera magazine, 'in just five years, Somtow has made Bangkok into the operatic hub of Southeast Asia.' His operas on Thai themes, Madana and Mae Naak, have been well received by international critics. 

Somtow has recently been awarded the 2017 Europa Cultural Achievement Award for his work in bridging eastern and western cultures. In 2020 he returned to science fiction after a twenty-year absence with "Homeworld of the Heart", a fifth novel in the Inquestor series.

Currently he has just finished Nero and Sporus, a massive historical novel set in Imperial Rome.

To support S.P. Somtow's work, visit his patreon account at patreon.com/spsomtow. His website is at www.somtow.com. 

Author Links:

Website: https://www.somtow.com/ 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/spsomtow 

Twitter / X: https://x.com/somtow 

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/somtow 

Instagram: http://instagram.com/somtow 

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/s-p-somtow 

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APBJXC/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/81037.S_P_Somtow 

Bess by Tony Riches on The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour

Book Title: Bess – Tudor Gentlewoman

Series: The Elizabethan Series, Book #6

Author Name: Tony Riches

Publication Date: May 2nd , 2025

Publisher: Preseli Press

Pages: 337

Genre: Historical Fiction / Tudor Fiction

Any Triggers: n/a

https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-tour-bess-tudor-gentlewoman-by-tony-riches.html 

Bess – Tudor Gentlewoman

Tony Riches

Bess Throckmorton defies her notorious background and lack of education to become Queen Elizabeth’s Gentlewoman and trusted confidante.

Forced to choose between loyalty and love, duty and desire, will she risk her queen’s anger by marrying adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh without permission?

Entangled in a web of intrigue, from the glittering Palace of Whitehall to the cells of the Tower of London, Bess endures tragedy and injustice, becoming a resilient, determined woman, who takes nothing for granted.

Can she outwit her enemies, protect her family, and claim her destiny in a world where women are pawns and survival is a game of deadly consequences?

This is the true story of the last of the Elizabethans, which ends the story of the Tudor dynasty – and introduces their successors, the Stuarts.

 https://mybook.to/BESS 

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Tony Riches is a full-time UK author of Tudor historical fiction. He lives with his wife in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and is a specialist in the lives of the early Tudors.

As well as his Elizabethan series, Tony’s historical fiction novels include the best-selling Tudor trilogy and his Brandon trilogy, (about Charles Brandon and his wives).

For more information about Tony’s books please visit his website, and his blog, The Writing Desk, and find him on social media.

Website: https://www.tonyriches.com/ 

Blog: http://tonyriches.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/tonyriches 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyriches.author/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyriches.author/ 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tonyriches.bsky.social 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Tony-Riches/author/B006UZWOXA 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5604088.Tony_Riches 

Interview with Audio book Narrator Alex Lee.

Today I'd like to do something a  bit different and introduce you to the lovely lady who narrates my books for Audible listeners. For once she has stepped away from the microphone and written a lovely piece. Take it away Alex Lee!

Hello, thank you for hosting me on your blog, Judith. It is great to be here.

There is something transporting and magical about bringing stories to life as a voice actor, escaping some of the day to day stresses and worries and settling down – even if it means disappearing into my converted cupboard under the stairs LOL, to sit motionless in front of an ipad and microphone and  begin to  inhabit  the characters in the books you are narrating.  Feeling and expressing their thoughts, hopes, loves, fears and intentions is the next best thing to stage acting !!.

Narrating and producing audio books, ticks every creative box for me. Being given the opportunity to add another  dimension to an author’s words and plot, giving their cast of characters a range of voices, accents, ages personalities, attitudes and emotions is a huge privilege and a thing I love to do.

I have been lucky to have narrated almost 100 titles across many different genres including, cosy murder mysteries, (currently working on five series) historical fiction, psychological thrillers, romance, literary classics, children’s literature, biographies, adventure, comedy, science fiction and poetry.

I have been so lucky to work with the multi award winning author Judith Arnopp.  I auditioned a few years ago now for Judith’s trilogy, The Beaufort Chronicle but missed the boat as when I went to upload the audition the title had disappeared because Judith had found another narrator. How glad I am that I decided to e-mail Judith and send her my audition - asking if I might be a fit for any of her other books.  Although I was too late for The Beaufort Chronicle Judith thought my voice would suit Anne Boleyn. I was so thrilled, and went on to record one of my favourite of Judith’s books   The Kiss of the Concubine.

I loved narrating this fresh look on Anne and Henry. All Judith’s books have great character development, flowing prose that is a joy to read so that you immerse yourself in the plot.  Another great favourite for me was The Winchester Goose and in particular voicing a Tudor tart with a heart, Joannie Toogood.  Huge fun.

I also narrated Intractable Heart, the story of Katheryn Parr so I have been very close to most of Henry VIII's queens now and love the atmosphere of the Tudor court she creates where you can almost smell it.

I have recently completed A Daughter of Warwick: the story of Anne Neville who was queen to Richard III. It is extraordinary how we know all about Richard yet next to nothing about Anne. Although Judith worries it is not her best work as she wrote it very early on in her career, I enjoyed it immensely. You can listen to a sample on the audiogram below.

Contacting Judith was serendipitous as it marked the beginning of what is now a great collaboration I have now narrated seven of her wonderful titles. I am hoping that I may get to voice the fierce, furious and fabulous queen,  Marguerite of Anjou in her new novel, Marguerite: Hell Hath No Fury! in the future.

Thank you so much for joining us today Alex Lee, our collaboration has opened up a whole new avenue for me as an author.

Here is a link to Alex Lee webpage so you can check out her work with other authors. https://www.alexleeaudio.uk/

You can find my audio books on Audible. If you'd like a FREE listen code for any of the books mentioned, you can approach either Alex or myself, tell us if you need a UK or a US link and we will send one to you.

www.judithmarnopp.com

author.to/juditharnoppbooks

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents: Lady of the Quay by Amanda Roberts

 

Book Title: Lady of the Quay

Series: Isabella Gillhespy Series, Book #1

Author: Amanda Roberts

Publication Date: May 9th, 2025

Publisher: Hickory Press

Pages: 256

Genre: Historical Mystery / Suspense

Any Triggers: n/a

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-tour-lady-of-the-quay-by-amanda-roberts.html 

Lady of the Quay 

(Isabella Gillhespy Series Book 1)

Amanda Roberts

Knowing she is innocent is easy … proving it is hard

1560, Berwick-upon-Tweed, northern England

Following the unexpected death of her father, a series of startling discoveries about the business she inherits forces Isabella Gillhespy to re-evaluate everything she understands about her past and expects from her future.

Facing financial ruin, let down by people on whom she thought she could rely, and suspected of crimes that threaten her freedom, Isabella struggles to prove her innocence.

But the stakes are even higher than she realises. In a town where tension between England and her Scottish neighbours is never far from the surface, it isn’t long before developments attract the interest of the highest authority in the land, Sir William Cecil, and soon Isabella is fighting, not just for her freedom, but her life. She must use her wits and trust her own instincts to survive.

Lady of the Quay introduces an enticing new heroine who refuses to be beaten, even as it becomes clear that her life will never be the same again.

From the author of the award-winning ‘The Woman in the Painting’.

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/317rQa 

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Read a snippet from Lady of the Quay

‘You knew my father well. What did you know of his dealings with Mr Young?’ I twisted my head from the glass so I could watch Will’s reaction. He looked at me with a quizzical expression.

‘They were associates, rivals even. Both burgesses. Common interests. What’s this about? You know this as well as I do. Beyond that though, your father did not confide in me. Why would he?’ 

Will leaned towards me. In the confined space of the window seat we were almost touching. His proximity was intoxicating; his musky smell mingling with the crisp freshness of the outdoor air that clung to his hair and his skin. I stood up and moved towards the warmth of the fire. At once, the freshness was replaced with the bitter tang of smoke. When I turned to face him he was still sitting in the window seat, watching me. He appeared thoughtful, and his shoulders were hunched.

‘What is it Izzy? Let me help you.’

‘You can help me by telling me what you know.’

***

Amanda Roberts has worked as an Editor in business-to-business magazines for over 30 years, specialising in out-of-home coffee, vending and foodservice/catering, including Editor of the global gastronomy title: ‘Revue internationale de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs’.

She currently freelances, editing UK-based healthcare titles – HEFMA Pulse, Hospital Food + Service and Hospital Caterer. She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society and West Oxfordshire Writers. She also volunteers for Tea Books (part of Age UK) to run a book club/reading group for elderly people in the community.

Website: https://amandarobertsauthor.co.uk/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095191090333 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda_roberts_author/ 

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/lady-of-the-quay-isabella-gillhespy-series-book-1-by-amanda-roberts 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Amanda-Roberts/author/B00N0RQBAI  

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231816264-lady-of-the-quay 

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents: Nothing Proved by Janet Wertman

Book Title: Nothing Proved

Series: Regina

Author: Janet Wertman

Publication Date: May 19, 2025

Publisher: Janet Wertman

Pages: 376

Genre: Historical Fiction

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/04/blog-tour-nothing-proved-by-janet-wertman.html 

Nothing Proved 

by 

Janet Wertman

Danger lined her path, but destiny led her to glory… 

Elizabeth Tudor learned resilience young. Declared illegitimate after the execution of her mother Anne Boleyn, she bore her precarious position with unshakable grace. But upon the death of her father, King Henry VIII, the vulnerable fourteen-year-old must learn to navigate a world of shifting loyalties, power plays, and betrayal. 

After narrowly escaping entanglement in Thomas Seymour’s treason, Elizabeth rebuilds her reputation as the perfect Protestant princess – which puts her in mortal danger when her half-sister Mary becomes Queen and imposes Catholicism on a reluctant land. Elizabeth escapes execution, clawing her way from a Tower cell to exoneration. But even a semblance of favor comes with attempts to exclude her from the throne or steal her rights to it through a forced marriage.  

Elizabeth must outwit her enemies time and again to prove herself worthy of power. The making of one of history’s most iconic monarchs is a gripping tale of survival, fortune, and triumph.

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bM8Vrk 

Barnes & Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nothing-proved-janet-wertman/1146831389

Kobo:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/nothing-proved

Apple:

https://books.apple.com/us/book/nothing-proved/id6740549129

By day, Janet Wertman is a freelance grantwriter for impactful nonprofits. By night, she writes critically acclaimed, character-driven historical fiction – indulging a passion for the Tudor era she had harbored since she was eight years old and her parents let her stay up late to watch The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R. 

Her Seymour Saga trilogy (Jane the Quene, The Path to Somerset, The Boy King) took her deep into one of the era’s central families – and now her follow-up Regina series explores Elizabeth’s journey from bastard to icon.

Janet also runs a blog (www.janetwertman.com) where she posts interesting takes on the Tudors and what it’s like to write about them.

Website: https://janetwertman.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janetwertmanauthor/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janet-ambrosi-wertman-b5531aa/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janetwertman/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/janetwertman.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/janetwertman

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/janet-wertman

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Janet-Wertman/author/B01CUSMWFA

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2028387.Janet_Ambrosi_Wertman

Delighted to host Last Train to Freedom by Deborah Swift for the Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour

Book Title: Last Train to Freedom

Series: n/a

Author: Deborah Swift

Publication Date: 8th May 2025

Publisher: HQDigital

Pages: 361

Genre: Historical Fiction

Any Triggers: WW2, so mild violence 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/04/blog-tour-last-train-to-freedom-by-deborah-swift.html 

Last Train to Freedom

by Deborah Swift

'Taut, compelling and beautifully written – I loved it!’ ~ DAISY WOOD

'Tense and thought-provoking' ~ CATHERINE LAW

1940. As Soviet forces storm Lithuania, Zofia and her brother Jacek must flee to survive.

A lifeline appears when Japanese consul Sugihara offers them visas on one condition: they must deliver a parcel to Tokyo. Inside lies intelligence on Nazi atrocities, evidence so explosive that Nazi and Soviet agents will stop at nothing to possess it.

Pursued across Siberia on the Trans-Siberian Express, Zofia faces danger at every turn, racing to expose the truth as Japan edges closer to allying with the Nazis. With the fate of countless lives hanging in the balance, can she complete her mission before time runs out?

‘Such an interesting and original book…. Informative, full of suspense and thrills.’

~ Netgalley Review 

An Excerpt from Last Train to Freedom 

Deborah Swift 

Otto massaged his chest to try to relieve the tension. For more than a year he had done daily battle with the diplomatic mail in the quiet hush of this office. He’d watched spies and diplomats from every country come and go, and all had been received by Sugihara with a polite smile.

He suspected the time for smiling was over.

Sugihara’s diplomatic immunity would cease. Where would he, Otto, go then? He had a doctorate in East Asian languages and civilizations from Harvard but, still, this was his home. And if they had to move, what could he do about his mother? She wouldn’t want to leave. She barely went out of the front door now as it was.

He tidied the pens on his desk back into their pots, stacked his papers into a neat pile again, aware he was procrastinating. How he loved the painting above his desk! The vista of misty sky with a lone tiny figure set against milky half-hidden mountains. He liked the row of minute jade netsuke precisely arranged on the shelf above his desk, the little fox curled around its own tail, the jade frog, the little waterlily that opened to reveal a dragonfly, each one perfect, the size of a single typewriter key.

His eyes grew wet. It seemed strange to carry on as normal when it was all about to end. No, that would never do. He swallowed and stood up, turning to where Sugihara had returned to his desk to ask him if it was okay for him to go home.

Sugihara looked up at the scrape of Otto’s chair and gave him a nod. It was the same routine every day, and Otto was used to his employer’s manner of dismissal. Automatically, he shrugged on his jacket, despite the suffocating temperature, and headed for the door.

Voices beyond the window made him pause to look out and he stopped, a frown on his face. ‘What’s going on outside?’ he asked.

Sugihara came to stand beside him. Below the window a restless queue had formed, despite the late afternoon heat. A crowd dressed for winter, all with anxious faces, shuffling from foot to foot in the wash of low sun. Some carried luggage with them, and one old woman, her head bowed under a scarf, was sitting on her bags, obviously intent on being there for some time.

Sugihara’s eyes remained fixed on them. Without turning he said, ‘Would you mind going out there and asking them who they’re waiting for?’

Otto wasn’t keen on tackling this disturbance, but he could hardly refuse. His leather heels tapped briskly on the stairs as he descended and creaked open the wrought-iron gate at the front of the consulate. At his arrival, the crowd clustered like flies, but Otto closed the gate again and stayed firmly on his side of the barrier. The number of people made him uneasy, and he guessed they must be Jewish because one of the elderly men had the long sideburns, and most were talking in Yiddish. Jews were nothing new in Kaunas, about a quarter of the city’s total population was Jewish and they ran many of the city’s businesses with good-natured efficiency.

‘What is it? What do you want?’ Sweat formed around his collar.

Several men tried to answer all at once and he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Many seemed to be Poles or from other parts whose languages he couldn’t immediately grasp.

‘Slowly!’ he shouted. ‘One at a time.’

‘The Japanese consul is our last hope,’ yelled a wiry youth, gripping on to the metal railings.

‘We want the ambassador to issue transit visas to get us out of Lithuania.’ This older man was clearer and his Lithuanian better. The word ‘visas’ echoed through the crowd.

Otto held up a hand for quiet. ‘Why? What makes you think we can help?’

‘There’s a route to an island – Curaçao, somewhere in the Indies. A Dutch colony.’

It was a name he’d never heard of.

His blank look brought another tumble of words: ‘Vladivostok.’ ‘Shanghai.’ ‘Trans-Siberian Railway.’

‘We can pay,’ shouted a well-dressed woman in a dusty hat, two small children clamped to her skirts. ‘Please. We have to get out, or the Germans will kill us.’

Otto blinked. The Germans. Surely it was the Russians who were the problem right now. A burst of outrage in his chest at the insult to his father and his country of birth. ‘I don’t think we can help.’ He turned to go back inside but caught a glimpse of two men trying to climb, monkey-like, over the fence, and others pulling them back. If he didn’t do something, the whole building might be overwhelmed.

‘All right,’ he said, shouting over the hubbub in Lithuanian. ‘All right! Choose people to represent you. No more than five. Tomorrow five of you can have an appointment with Mr Sugihara to make your request. But only if the rest of you go away immediately.’

‘If we go, more will come,’ the young lad said morosely. ‘And we’ll lose our place in the queue. There are thousands on the way here.’

Thousands coming to queue. For what? Otto felt himself waver. He tried a shooing gesture with his hands. ‘Move away from the fence!’

Nobody moved. They remained stubbornly where they were.

‘We won’t move until we’ve spoken to the consul.’ This man in the grimy yellow cravat had steel in his eyes, and a belligerent tone. Otto took a step back. He felt like an exhibit in a zoo with all these people staring in. He was reluctant to turn his back on them in case they swarmed over, but he mustered his dignity, braced himself, and returned upstairs.

Sugihara was still at the window, calmly looking out, one finger holding open the blind. ‘They look tired, these people.’

‘From what I can make out, they’ve heard we can issue visas to get them through Russia to Japan. They’re fleeing the German army.’

Universal Buy Link: http://mybook.to/TransSiberian

Deborah Swift is the English author of twenty historical novels, including Millennium Award winner Past Encounters, and The Poison Keeper the novel based around the life of the legendary poisoner Giulia Tofana. The Poison Keeper won the Wishing Shelf Readers Award for Book of the Decade. Recently she has completed a secret agent series set in WW2, the first in the series being The Silk Code.

Deborah used to work as a set and costume designer for theatre and TV and enjoys the research aspect of creating historical fiction, something she loved doing as a scenographer. She likes to write about extraordinary characters set against a background of real historical events. Deborah lives in England on the edge of the Lake District, an area made famous by the Romantic Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Website: www.deborahswift.com 

Twitter https://twitter.com/swiftstory

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authordeborahswift/

Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/deborahswift1/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/deborahswift.bsky.social

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/deborah-swift

Amazon Author Page: http://author.to/DeborahSwift

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/deborahswiftauthor/

The Coffee Pot Book Club is pleased to introduce Falling Pomegranate Seeds Duology by Wendy J. Dunn

Book Title: Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Katherine of Aragon Story

Series: Omnibus Edition

Author:  Wendy J. Dunn

Publication Date:  February 28th, 2025

Publisher:  Poesy Quill 

Pages: 1030 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction / Tudor Fiction

Any Triggers: This is a story for adults, with adult themes and situations.

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/04/blog-tour-falling-pomegranate-seeds-duology-by-wendy-j-dunn.html 

Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Katherine of Aragon Story

Wendy J. Dunn

In the Falling Pomegranate Seeds Duology, readers are transported to the rich historical tapestry of 15th and 16th-century Europe, where the lives of remarkable women unfold against the backdrop of political upheaval and personal struggles. 

In the first book, beginning in 1490 Castile, Doña Beatriz Galindo, a passionate and respected scholar, serves as an advisor to Queen Isabel of Castile. Beatriz yearns for a life beyond the constraints imposed on women, desiring to control her own destiny. As she witnesses the Holy War led by Queen Isabel and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, Beatriz dedicates herself to guiding Queen Isabel's youngest child, Catalina of Aragon, on her own path. Beatriz's role as a tutor and advisor becomes instrumental in shaping Catalina's future as she prepares to become England's queen. 

Fast forward to the winter of 1539 in the second book, where María de Salinas, a dear friend and cousin of Catalina (now known as Katherine of Aragon), pens a heartfelt letter to her daughter, the Duchess of Suffolk. Unable to make the journey from her London home due to illness, María shares her life story, intricately woven with her experiences alongside Catalina. Their friendship has endured through exile and tumultuous times. María seeks to shed light for her daughter on the choices she has made in a story exploring themes of friendship, betrayal, hatred, and forgiveness. Through María's narrative, the eternal question Will love ultimately triumph?

Read a Snippet

 María giggled at Catalina’s sour expression as she sat for breakfast. On the table was a dish of grey mass lumped into a bowl. Catalina pushed aside the bowl, reaching for the fresh white bread and hard cheese. She nibbled at these, picked up a goblet and sipped the beer.

 “They cannot expect me to drink this,” Catalina said, pushing the goblet aside too.

 María chuckled again. On one of their first days in England, Catalina had turned to her when first tasting this English brew, whispering for her ears alone: “This is the sponge of ice and vinegar given to our Lord.”

 Gulping back another bubble of laughter, she swilled down a mouthful from the rejected goblet. “I’m becoming accustomed to it. It is different from what we are used to at home, but I do not mind it.”

 Catalina pushed her bowl towards her in answer. “If you like English beer, taste this then.”

 María picked up the bowl, sniffed, and put it down again. “Even for the love of you, I will not eat this. It may be that English dish of sheep brains Doña Elvira told us about.”

 

From All Manner of Things

 

 https://books2read.com/u/bax5n6 

***

Wendy J. Dunn is an award-winning Australian writer fascinated by Tudor history – so much so she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder. 

Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their own holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.

Website: www.wendyjdunn.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorwendyjdunn

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyjdunnauthor/ 

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@wendyjdunnauthor 

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/wendy-j-dunn 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B004FRTZFA 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/197156.Wendy_J_Dunn