Virtual Book Tour + Giveaway: The Cook's Temptation by @JoyceWayne1951 @HFVBT

HF Virtual Book Tours invites you to join Joyce Wayne as she tours the blogosphere for The Cook's Temptation! Enter the giveaway to win an eBook of The Cook's Temptation or a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Publication Date: February 1, 2014 Mosaic Press

Formats: Ebook, Paperback

Joyce Wayne brings to life the complexities of Victorian life, first in County Devon and then in London’s East End. The ‘big picture’ is about one woman’s life, class conflict, religious intolerance, suspicion and betrayal. The central figure is Cordelia, a strong-minded Jewish woman who is caught between her desire to be true to herself and her need to be accepted by English society.Cordelia Tilley is the daughter of a Jewish mother and an Anglican father. Her mother has groomed her for a life in English society while her father, a tough publican, has shown no tolerance for his wife’s social climbing or the conceits of their perspicacious daughter. Cordelia’s mother dies from typhoid fever, she tries to run the family ‘s establishment, she falls prey to a local industrialist, she gives birth to a son, she is tormented by her husband and his family. Finally, she is rescued by suffragette friends and sets off to start a new life in London.The Cook’s Temptation is about a woman who is unpredictable, both strong and weak willed, both kind and heinous, victim and criminal. It is a genuine Victorian saga, full of detail, twists and turns, memorable scenes, full of drama and pathos.

Praise for The Cook's Temptation

“Joyce Wayne’s debut novel, The Cook's Temptation, has the stately bearing of a nineteenth century novel – the mercilessness of Thomas Hardy, the black allegory of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the tense marriages of George Eliot. It is a story of how people become what you blame them for being.” – Ian Williams, poet and fiction writer, short listed for the 2012 Griffin Poetry Prize

Buy the Book

Amazon CAN

Amazon UK

Amazon US (Kindle)

Amazon US (Paperback)

Barnes & Noble

Book Depository

Chapters.Indigo

Kobo

Mosaic Press

About the Author

Joyce Wayne has an MA in English literature, has taught journalism at Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario, for twenty-five years, and lives in Toronto, Ontario. She was a winner of the Diaspora Dialogues contest for fiction and the Fiona Mee Award for literary journalism. She is the co writer of the documentary film So Far From Home (2010), a film about refugee journalists persecuted for their political views, and various of her other works have been published in Parchment, Golden Horseshoe Anthology, Canadian Voices, and TOK6.

For more information please visit Joyce Wayne's website. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. She is happy to participate in Books Clubs by phone and Skype.

Virtual Tour & Book Blast Schedule

Monday, June 9

Review at 100 Pages a Day

Tuesday, June 10

Book Blast at Bab's Book Bistro

Guest Post & Giveaway at Passages to the Past

Wednesday, June 11

Book Blast at History From a Woman's Perspective

Thursday, June 12

Book Blast at WTF Are You Reading?

Book Blast at I'd So Rather be Reading

Friday, June 13

Book Blast at Literary Chanteuse

Saturday, June 14

Book Blast at A Bookish Affair

Book Blast at Griperang's Bookmarks

Book Blast at Just One More Chapter

Sunday, June 15

Book Blast at Historical Fiction Obsession

Monday, June 16

Review at Book Nerd

Tuesday, June 17

Review at Seaside Book Corner

Book Blast at Lily Pond Reads

Wednesday, June 18

Interview at From the TBR Pile

Book Blast at Historical Tapestry

Thursday, June 19

Review at Flashlight Commentary

Book Blast at Kelsey's Book Corner

Friday, June 20

Interview at Flashlight Commentary

Book Blast at The Mad Reviewer

Saturday, June 21

Book Blast at Bibliophilic Book Blog

Sunday, June 22

Book Blast at Book Lovers Paradise

Book Blast at Historical Fiction Connection

Monday, June 23

Book Blast at History Undressed

Book Blast at CelticLady's Reviews

Tuesday, June 24

Book Blast at Mina's Bookshelf

Book Blast at Peeking Between the Pages

Wednesday, June 25

Review at Svetlana's Reads and Views

Book Blast at Broken Teepee

Thursday, June 26

Review at Caroline Wilson Writes

Friday, June 27

Review at Historical Novel Review

Interview at Oh, For the Hook of a Book

Giveaway

Up for grabs are 3x eBooks of The Cook's Temptation and 3x $10 Amazon Gift Cards! To enter, please complete the Rafflecopter giveaway form below. Giveaway is open to US & Canada residents only.

Giveaway ends at 11:59pm on June 27th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
Winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter on June 28th and notified via email.
Winner have 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Virtual Book Tour Guest Post: Raven's Breath by @TishThawer

Hi! My name is Tish Thawer, author of The Rose Trilogy, and I'm excited to be here today to bring you my newest book RAVEN'S BREATH. It's about a grim reaper named Raven who must race to stop a sinister plan that Death is about to execute which just might destroy her world and everything around her.

Raven's Breath began as nothing more than an image. The wonderful Regina Wamba, of Mae I Design, put up a pre-made cover for sale and that was it––it stole my breath, no pun intended. The story immediately poured into my head and off we went. Raven was born and I was dragged into the world of Purgatory. And today...I'm taking you with me.

Welcome to the world of Death and his Reapers.

From the moment I thought of Purgatory as an actual city I knew it would be gray and gloomy, reminiscent of old London.

 

Death's castle had to be massive and gothic, eerie and foreboding, just like the man himself.

When I began to think of how the Reapers would travel from our human world to that of Purgatory, the idea of using a graveyard was the first thing that entered my mind. Graveyards=death. But the more I thought about it, the clearer it became that it needed to be something elaborate and unique, as it's the only way the Reaper's can enter Purgatory, henceforth the mausoleums.

These portals can transport a Reaper anywhere in the world, each one connecting to a specific place. In Purgatory the mausoleums are located in the portal fields.

In order to make my Purgatory seem like an actual town, it had to have things to do and places to shop. Drey is a tailor in Purgatory and the owner of Drey's Boutique. He supplies Death and the Reapers with their attire, and creates all of Raven's custom clothes. (Having wings isn't easy!)

Gray and gloomy doesn't mean dull. At Digger's restaurant you can relax among the themed atmosphere while enjoying dinner and a drink.

Garrett and Raven like to relax with a drink at their apartments too. Hence, The Last Stop liquor store.

When Death recruited Raven, he promised her an apartment with all the modern conveniences of her human life. Obviously, he was pretty convincing!

I first saw the image of "Svell" on Pinterest and immediately knew I had to write him into my book. You'll have to read what type of beast he is, but I think you'll agree...Svell is badass!

I hope you've enjoyed this peek into Purgatory. There are a lot more interesting places and people to discover in Raven's Breath so I hope you'll grab your copy today!

(All images are fantasy cast images, used in accordance with the Fair Trade Act.)

AUTHOR BIO

Tish Thawer writes paranormal romances for all ages, including her new adult series The Rose Trilogy, and her adult paranormal romance, The Ovialell Series, as well as young adult short-stories. Her magickal elements and detailed world-building are a welcome constant in every novel. 

Before becoming a writer she worked as a computer consultant, a photographer, and a graphic designer. She also operates a custom glass etching business, in addition to being a wife and mother of three wonderful children.

She's been a fan of the paranormal for as long as she can remember. Anything to do with superpowers, myth and magic has always held a special place in her heart. From her first paranormal cartoon, Isis, to the phenomenon that is Twilight, this genre has always been a part of her life.

A common FAQ: "How do you pronounce her last name?

Answer: Think "Bower" or "Thow-er." It's Persian!

AUTHOR LINKS

Website  /  Blog  /  Twitter

Facebook  /   GoodReads  /  Amazon

Raven can breathe life into you, or suck the life from you...the choice is yours!

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die. But what you didn't know...your last thoughts determine whether Raven becomes your Grim Reaper or your Saving Grace.

PURCHASE
Amazon  /  Barnes and Noble

Virtual Book Tour Guest Post: Wiles of a Southern Belle by @EagleandtheSwan

Wiles of a Southern Belle

By Carol Strickland, author of The Eagle and the Swan

In elementary school I docilely attended a weekly dance event called “Genes and Janes.” I swear to God I wore a stiff-ribbed hoop skirt contraption under my red, bell-shaped skirt trimmed with black rick rack—an unthinkable outfit for savvy primary school students today. Why our mothers considered it mandatory for 9-or-10-year-olds to learn square dancing will forever remain a mystery to me, but there was no shortage of boys enrolled, wearing those peculiar string ties and starched, white shirts. We twirled around, dutifully following instructions to “Bow to your partner” and “do-si-do”—now a lost art among children, I suspect.

By junior high, we “popular” kids formed our own dance club. I blush to recall what we named it: The Happy Hipsters. Needless to say, no more square dancing, which was clearly for squares. Our chosen name brazenly declared we ‘tweens were hip. It was the Beatnik era, the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Coolness had penetrated even the mossy, I-like-Ike suburbs of New Orleans. 

Irony was unknown to us. We were all too happy to pose as hipsters, even though we had no hips to speak of and our main concept of hipness was the surly James Dean in Rebel without a Cause. Consistent with our outré status, now there was no de rigueur dress code. We girls all wore pastel party dresses with wide sashes, organza puffed sleeves, and our Pappagallo flats. Boys still wore stiff shirts, their hair slicked down with Brylcreem.

Hipness—or lack thereof—aside, it was considered obligatory for properly brought up Southern children to be skilled in ballroom dancing: the waltz, box step, and cha-cha. I confess we mounted a minor rebellion and demanded the bumptious jitterbug (toe-heel, toe-heel, back-forward), which we so admired on The Dick Clark Show. After all, Elvis Presley had blazed on the scene and there was a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on. But even with rock ‘n roll, it was still an era when dance partners held each other stiffly and joined hands to oscillate and spin. Pre-Twist, in other words.

I was in the awkward stage of cat-eye-glasses (i.e., pre-contact lenses), but at least my dreadful grade-school perm had grown out. Gawky and flat-chested, I had nevertheless imbibed with mother’s milk a Southern Belle’s Code of Feminine Conduct. Not that any modern mother breast-fed her babies. We were all hygienically bottle-fed by black nurses. 

Television, advertising, movies, and accepted formulae decreed that for a girl to be successful in attracting the opposite sex—our primary concern—you had to be (1) pretty, (2) flirty, (3) not ostentatiously smart, and (4) able to convey an impression of hypnotic fascination with whatever a targeted boy wished to expound on. I absorbed the lesson that “good” girls should be seen more than heard. The key to social prominence was to make eye contact (preferably with fluttering lashes and an adoring look of all-consuming interest) while prompting a boy to hold forth. I perfected the ability to ask questions rather than volunteer answers, which actually served me well in my later life as a journalist. A smiling look of utter enchantment hid my inner, blank boredom.

 

In high school, this trajectory led me to become a cheerleader, lustily egging on the boys’ teams to athletic triumphs, and a spot on the Homecoming Court, clutching a bouquet of roses and smiling benignly at the crowd like a mindless beauty queen. I emulated my idol, Jackie Kennedy, wearing a pillbox hat with a little veil and a scratchy wool suit in a tasteful, neutral color.

In this pre-Women’s Lib era, none of our mothers worked outside the home. And even in the moms’ domestic sphere, African-American maids did the grunt work of cooking, cleaning, laundry, and sizeable amounts of childcare. Our mothers were free to play bridge, gossip, possibly tipple, go to Garden Club, and serve on committees espousing good works. In today’s parlance, our role models hardly “leaned in” to grab a place at the power table. They were relegated to a decorative slot as chauffeurs and birthday-party organizers.

This preamble is by way of explaining why I undertook to tell the story of Empress Theodora of 6^th-century Constantinople. My heroine and I couldn’t be more different. I came from an affluent background and was swaddled, coddled, and nearly smothered by parental attention and concern. Theodora, the circus bear-keeper’s daughter, was born into the trashy underclass and became a prostitute at a tender age. While I was dorkily square-dancing, she was developing an infamous reputation as an exotic dancer (OK, a stripper). Maybe it was my feeling of being stifled—judged by external appearance and behavior rather than interior qualities—that drew me to this brassy, outspoken firecracker. Plus my sympathy for her as an abused child who overcame so many handicaps.

Despite her wretched childhood—or maybe because of it—there was something in the way she moved: from the gutter to the top. Theodora made her own way when it seemed as if there was no way for a lowlife like her. She became the most powerful woman of the civilized world, arguably the first female co-ruler of an Empire. 

So here’s a salute to Theodora. She was hardly a role model for a proper Southern lady, but she showed how effective both beauty and brains can be when working in harmony.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carol Strickland is an art and architecture critic, prize-winning screenwriter, and journalist who’s contributed to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and Art in America magazine. A Ph.D. in literature and former writing professor, she’s author of The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in the History of Art from Prehistoric to Post-Modern (which has sold more than 400,000 copies in multiple editions and translations), The Annotated Arch: A Crash Course in the History of Architecture, The Illustrated Timeline of Art History, The Illustrated Timeline of Western Literature, and monographs on individual artists.

While writing on masterpieces of Byzantine art (glorious mosaics in Ravenna, Italy featuring Theodora and Justinian and the monumental Hagia Sophia basilica in Istanbul built by Justinian), Strickland became fascinated by the woman who began life as a swan dancer and her husband, an ex-swineherd.

Knowing how maligned they were by the official historian of their era Procopius, who wrote a slanderous “Secret History” vilifying them, Strickland decided to let the audacious Theodora tell her story. She emerges not just as the bear-keeper’s daughter and a former prostitute who ensnared the man who became emperor, but as a courageous crusader against the abuse of women, children, and free-thinkers.

AUTHOR LINKS

Author Website  /  Book Website
Facebook Page  /  Twitter  /  Pinterest

 

For 1,500 years she has been cruelly maligned by history. Labelled as corrupt, immoral and sexually depraved by the sixth-century historian Procopius in his notorious Secret History, the Byzantine Empress Theodora was condemned to be judged a degenerate harlot by posterity. Until now. Due to a conviction that its contents would only be understood by generations of the distant future, a manuscript that has remained unopened for a millennium and a half is about to set the record straight. It will unravel the deepest secrets of a captivating and charismatic courtesan, her unlikely romance with an Emperor, and her rise to power and influence that would outshine even Cleopatra. This historical novel traces the love affairs, travails, machinations, scandals and triumphs of a cast of real characters who inhabit an Empire at its glorious and fragile peak. It’s the tale of a dazzling civilization in its Golden Age; one which, despite plague, earthquakes and marauding Huns, would lay the foundation for modern Europe as we know it. 

PURCHASE

Amazon