Book Spotlight and Giveaway - The Killing at Kaldaire House by Kate Parker

Book Synopsis

A dying man. The painting within her reach. What’s a thief to do?

Talented London milliner Emily Gates creates amazing hats for Society ladies, but to collect from those who don’t pay her bill, she burglarizes their homes. She needs every penny to send her deaf brother to school. Late one night, she sneaks in to find Lord Kaldaire badly injured in his study. Unwilling to abandon him, she calls for help.

When Kaldaire dies without revealing who attacked him, his widow agrees to keep Emily’s secrets ― if Emily will help find her husband’s killer. A bigger danger is a Scotland Yard inspector who threatens to arrest Emily — unless she spies on her father’s family of swindlers and conmen. Worst of all are the attacks from an unknown assailant. What will Emily face first, jail or death?

This cozy mystery is set in the era of My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins, of early automobiles and aeroplanes, and of King Edward VII and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If you enjoyed the Victorian Bookshop Mysteries, you’ll like Emily Gates and the collection of aristocrats and thieves in her world as they step into the 20th century.

Author Bio

Kate Parker has wanted to travel to 1930s England since she read her mother’s Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers mysteries when she was a schoolgirl. After many years of studying science, she decided a time travel machine was out of the question so she found herself limited to reading about the period and visiting historic sites. Her love of this fascinating and challenging period led her to the research from which the Deadly series grew. Eventually, she found it necessary to spend several days in the British Library reading old newspapers, which meant another trip to England. Near Christmas. A sacrifice she’d gladly make every year.

Author Links:
Website:  www.KateParkerbooks.com
Facebook:  www.Facebook.com/Author.Kate.Parker/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/KateParkerbooks
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7123001.Kate_Parker

Purchase Links – Amazon Kindle   Amazon Paperback  B&N    Kobo  BookBub

Giveaway
(1) Copy The Killing at Kaldaire House by Kate Parker - Print U.S. Only - E-Book International

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Dear Abby - Vintage Easter Dogs

Dear Friends,

Just a short and sweet note from me today, wishing you a Happy Easter!   I found a few images of vintage Easter dogs that I thought you might enjoy.

This 1939 illustration by Mabel Rollins Harris features a Cocker Spaniel in an Easter bonnet along with a little girl - and chicks!

A little girl in an Easter bonnet hugs her dog.

A Jack Russell Terrier does not want to share a carrot with some bunny rabbits!

A Scottie dog gets an Easter visitor:

A Cocker Spaniel named Butch wears bunny ears and carries an Easter basket:

 A lovely Dachshund meets a bunny rabbit family:

I hope you enjoyed these vintage images.   Wishing you a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter!

Love,

Abby xoxoxo

Book Review and Giveaway - A Most Noble Heir by Susan Anne Mason

Book Synopsis

When stable hand Nolan Price learns from his dying mother that he is actually the son of the Earl of Stainsby, his plans for a future with kitchen maid Hannah Burnham are shattered. Once he is officially acknowledged as the earl’s heir, Nolan will be forbidden to marry beneath his station.

Unwilling to give up the girl he loves, he devises a plan to elope--believing once their marriage is sanctioned by God that Lord Stainsby will be forced to accept their union. However, as Nolan struggles to learn the ways of the aristocracy, he finds himself caught between his dreams for tomorrow and his father’s demanding expectations.

Forces work to keep the couple apart at every turn, and a solution to remain together seems farther and farther away. With Nolan’s new life pulling him irrevocably away from Hannah, it seems only a miracle will bring them back together.

My Review
A Most Noble Heir is a historical novel set in 1880's England. Nolan Price is happy working in the stables at a Victorian manor house.  However, as his mother is dying she confesses that his father is the Earl of Stainsby, the owner of the estate.  Nolan has planned to marry Hannah Burnham, who works in the kitchen at the estate.  With this news everything changes for them both.  This novel tells the story of Nolan and Hannah, with many unexpected twists and turns on their path to happiness.

I love historical fiction, and especially enjoy Victorian settings.  Susan Anne Mason did a fine job with the manor house setting of this novel.  The period setting and the upstairs-downstairs details were fascinating.

I really liked both Nolan and Hannah.  They are strong, kind, independent people, and I admired the faith that they maintained even in the most difficult of times.  I really was pulling for their happiness!

I found A Most Noble Heir a very engrossing read - to the extent that I stayed up reading past my bedtime!   I could not put this novel down because I really wanted to know how it would all end up.

I recommend A Most Noble Heir for fans of historical fiction, Victorian settings, manor house novels, and Christian fiction.  It is a lovely read, and I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Author Bio
Susan Anne Mason’s debut historical novel, Irish Meadows, won the Fiction from the Heartland contest from the Mid-American Romance Authors Chapter of RWA. Also a member of ACFW, Susan lives outside of Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and two children. She can be found online at www.susanannemason.com.

Giveaway

If you’d like to enter for a chance to win Susan Anne Mason’s Courage to Dream series, plus A Most Noble Heir, here’s your chance!  (Giveaway ends 4/17)

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4664b04915

I received a copy of this book from Bethany House.

Book Review and Giveaway - Lady Helena Investigates by Jane Steen

Book Synopsis
A reluctant lady sleuth finds she’s investigating her own family.

Step into Lady Helena Whitcombe’s world with the first novel in a series that will blend family saga and mystery-driven action with a slow-burn romance in seven unputdownable investigations.

1881, Sussex. Lady Helena Scott-De Quincy’s marriage to Sir Justin Whitcombe, three years before, gave new purpose to a life almost destroyed by the death of Lady Helena’s first love. After all, shouldn’t the preoccupations of a wife and hostess be sufficient to fulfill any aristocratic female’s dreams? Such a shame their union wasn’t blessed by children . . . but Lady Helena is content with her quiet country life until Sir Justin is found dead in the river overlooked by their grand baroque mansion.

The intrusion of attractive, mysterious French physician Armand Fortier, with his meddling theory of murder, into Lady Helena’s first weeks of mourning is bad enough. But with her initial ineffective efforts at investigation and her attempts to revive her long-abandoned interest in herbalism comes the realization that she may have been mistaken about her own family’s past. Every family has its secrets—but as this absorbing series will reveal, the Scott-De Quincy family has more than most.

Can Lady Helena survive bereavement the second time around? Can she stand up to her six siblings’ assumption of the right to control her new life as a widow? And what role will Fortier—who, as a physician, is a most unsuitable companion for an earl’s daughter—play in her investigations?

Amazon | Barnes and Noble

My Review
When we first meet Lady Helena of Lady Helena Investigates, she has just lost her beloved husband, Sir Justin Whitcombe.  Her brothers and sisters have begun inserting themselves in her life and planning her future.  When she meets her husband's physician, Armand Fortier, she is shocked to learn that the doctor thinks her husband was murdered.  There is another mystery involving the tenant farmers on her estate ... and she is beginning studying herbalism as well.

I love historical fiction and especially enjoy historical mysteries.  I found Lady Helena Investigates to be an engrossing novel from the first pages.  Lady Helena is an intelligent, independent thinking woman in early 1880's England.  I really enjoyed seeing her thought process and watching her emerging independence over the course of this novel.  

I also found Armand Fortier a very interesting character, and I liked his interactions with Lady Helena.

The setting was beautifully done.  The author, Jane Steen, has done a fine job of creating a world at the estate and the surrounding village.  The period details were lovely.   I loved some of the old fashioned words and phrases related to herbalism and 1880's life.

The mystery was well done and kept me guessing!   I am glad to read that this is the first in a new series, because I already look forward to reading more.

I recommend Lady Helena Investigates highly for anyone who loves historical mysteries, Victorian manor house settings, and a smart, well written period piece novel.

Author Bio
Jane Steen was born in England and, despite having spent more years out of the British Isles than in, still has a British accent according to just about every American she meets.

Her long and undistinguished career has included a three-year stint as the English version of a Belgian aerospace magazine, an interesting interlude as an editor in a very large law firm, and several hectic years in real estate marketing at the height of the property boom. This tendency to switch directions every few years did nothing for her resume but gave her ample opportunity to sharpen her writing skills and develop an entrepreneurial spirit.

Around the edges of her professional occupations and raising children, she stuck her nose in a book at every available opportunity and at one time seemed on course to become the proverbial eternal student. Common sense prevailed, though, and eventually she had the bright idea of putting her passion for books together with her love of business and writing to become a self-published author.

Jane has lived in three countries and is currently to be found in the Chicago suburbs with her long-suffering husband and two adult daughters.

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

Giveaway
During the Blog Tour we will be giving away two eBooks of Lady Helena Investigates by Jane Steen! To enter, please enter via the Gleam form below. 

Giveaway Rules 
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on April 13th. You must be 18 or older to enter. 
– Giveaway is open to US residents only. 
– Only one entry per household. 
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion. 
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.  
Lady Helena Investigates

I received a copy of this book from Historical Fiction Virtual  Book Tours.

Book Spotlight and Giveaway - Cinco de Murder (A Taste of Texas Mystery) by Rebecca Adler

Book Synopsis

Tex-Mex waitress and part-time reporter Josie Callahan serves up more Lone Star justice in this spicy mystery from the author of The Good, the Bad, and the Guacamole.

It’s fiesta time in Broken Boot, Texas, and tourists are pouring into town faster than free beer at a bull roping for the mouthwatering Cinco de Mayo festivities. Tex-Mex waitress Josie Callahan, her feisty abuela, and even her spunky Chihuahua Lenny are polishing their folklórico dances for Saturday’s big parade, while Uncle Eddie is adding his own spicy event to the fiesta menu: Broken Boot’s First Annual Charity Chili Cook-off.

But Uncle Eddie’s hopes of impressing the town council go up in smoke when cantankerous chili cook Lucky Straw is found dead in his tent. And when Josie’s beloved uncle is accused of fatal negligence, she, Lenny, and the steadfast Detective Lightfoot must uncover who ended the ambitious chilihead’s life–before another cook kicks the bucket.

Author Bio
Rebecca Adler grew up on the sugar beaches of the Florida Gulf Coast. Drawn to the Big Apple by the sweet smell of wishful thinking, she studied acting on Broadway until a dark-eyed cowboy flung her over his saddle and hightailed it to the Southwest.

Prior to writing women’s fiction, Gina always found a way to add a touch of the dramatic to her life: dinner theatre in Mississippi, can-can club in Florida, and playing a giant Furskin in the New York Toy Fair, plus the occasional play and musical.

She’s currently content to pour her melodramatic tendencies into writing her Taste of Texas culinary mystery series. Set in far West Texas, her humorous stories are filled with delicious suspense and scrumptious Tex-Mex recipes. Her alter ego, Gina Lee Nelson, writes sweet contemporary romances with a sweet, Southern-fried flavor.

Author Links
Webpage: www.AuthorRebeccaAdler.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRebeccaAdler/
Twitter: @CozyTxMysteries
GoodReads: http://tinyurl.com/GoodReads-RebeccaAdler 

Purchase Links
Amazon  B&N  Kobo  Google Play  BAM  BookBub

Giveaway
(5) Print Copy - Cinco de Murder (A Taste of Texas Mystery) by Rebecca Adler.  Giveaway ends 3/31.

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