Join us as author Tonya Cam talks about the moving inspiration for her enthralling novel, Learning to Breathe Again! #HistoricalFiction #WomensFiction #RecommendedReading

 

LearNing to Breathe Again: A Novel

The Work of Becoming Trilogy – Book #1

by Tonya Cam

Two women. Lives they didn't choose.
A friendship that dares them to want more.

Miami, 1933. Mary Simons was supposed to fill her scrapbook with photos of her baby's first smiles, locks of fine hair, and handwritten milestones. Instead, she records respiration rates and temperatures, hoping science can save what love can't. When her baby dies, the future she imagined dies with her.

A thousand miles north, Elena Wagner has spent years trying to bury the girl who nursed her mother and sister through their final days. Silk dresses and a husband who adores her keep the grief at arm's length. But an unplanned pregnancy, and a Depression that won't end, threaten to pull her back into the one role she swore she'd never play again.

A chance encounter at the Chicago World's Fair brings the two women together. When circumstances relocate them both to the sugarcane fields of Depression-era Florida, an unlikely friendship becomes the one thing they can't afford to lose. In a time when women are expected to endure in silence, Mary and Elena must decide: keep performing the lives they're supposed to live, or risk it all for the women they might still become.

A character-driven novel about loss, friendship, and courage. Sometimes the hardest thing isn't holding on. It's learning to breathe again.

For readers of Fiona Davis, Kristina McMorris, Marie Benedict, and Lisa Wingate.

Praise for Learning to Breathe Again:

"...a touching tale of love, loss, friendship, and the painful search for new beginnings."

~ Kirkus Reviews

What inspired Learning to Breathe Again?

by Tonya Cam

This novel began with a conversation I almost didn't have.

In the final months of my father's life, he told me things about his childhood he had never shared before. Small, vivid details like the layout of the city block where he grew up, what his parents were like, and stories about the friends he had. He also told me about the brother he never got to meet. A brother who died at the age of one, of asthma. That brother became the inspiration for Janie.

When my father died, writing Learning to Breathe Again was my way to keep both of them alive.

To be clear, this novel is not my father’s story. Mary and Elena grew out of the world he described, along with a lot of what ifs. So did Edward, William, Gertrude, Frank, Dr. Brown, and everyone else who moves through this story. But the world itself is real, and I have tried to fill it with as much honesty as I could.

What started as a way to remember them became a way to find more of myself. Somewhere between his memories and my imagination, I found pieces of my own story I hadn't known were there.

I'm so excited to share this book with you, and I hope you will see pieces of yourself in it as well.

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This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Tonya Cam

Tonya Cam is a third-generation Floridian, a lifelong collector of Depression-era memorabilia, and a writer drawn to women who are not only surviving. They are becoming.

Learning to Breathe Again is her debut novel and the first book in The Work of Becoming Trilogy. It's the story of two women whose lives collide at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and whose friendship reshapes them in the sugarcane fields of Clewiston, Florida. It was inspired by her father's memories growing up, and the older brother he lost before he was born.

When she is not writing, she teaches middle school science in Gainesville, Florida. She is also the author of The Complete Guide to Shirley Temple Dolls and Collectibles.

If you love Fiona Davis, Marie Benedict, Lisa Wingate, or Kristina McMorris, you'll love the stories she writes.

Connect with Tonya:

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Amazon Author Page • Goodreads

Shining a bright book spotlight on The Roll of the Dice by J. A.Quarles #HistoricalFiction #AmericanCivilWar #RecommendedReading

The Roll of the Dice

We Who Endure

by J. A. Quarles

As the fires of war spread across a divided nation, three brothers from Louisiana are swept into the storm that will decide the fate of the Confederacy-and perhaps the future of America itself.

In the bloody aftermath of Fredericksburg, young Confederate officer Johan Lutze escapes Union captivity through courage, cunning, and sheer determination. Returning to General Robert E. Lee's army just in time for the Battle of Chancellorsville, Johan performs an act of heroism that saves the life of the legendary General Stonewall Jackson and thrusts him into the inner circle of Confederate power.

Now, with Vicksburg under siege and the Confederacy teetering between survival and collapse, Johan's bold strategic ideas begin to influence President Jefferson Davis himself. But in Richmond, ambition and politics can be as deadly as bullets, and not everyone welcomes the rise of the young officer from Louisiana.

While Johan helps shape daring military campaigns alongside Generals Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston, his brothers wage battles of their own. Paul Lutze Jr., maimed at Shiloh and fitted with a prosthetic leg, enters the shadowy world of Confederate espionage, where secrets and sabotage may alter the course of the war. Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Jacques Lutze marches north with the ferocious Louisiana Tigers, consumed by grief, vengeance, and a burning desire to kill Yankees before they kill him.

From the fields of Pennsylvania to the banks of the Mississippi, from the halls of Richmond to the courts of Europe and the rising empire in Mexico, the war expands into a conflict of global consequence. Armies maneuver. Governments scheme. Brothers bleed.

And as the summer of 1863 approaches its reckoning, the Lutze brothers will stand at the center of history-where triumph and tragedy walk hand in hand.

Praise for The Roll of the Dice:

"The author did a phenomenal job of utilizing historically accurate settings, people and culture that made this story very believable. The battle scenes were probably my favorite due to the accuracy of military knowledge the author has that truly made me feel like I was right there on the battlefield with the characters. I also enjoyed the multiple perspectives of the different characters as the book doesn’t just focus on one main character’s point of view which kept me engaged and ready to turn the next page. I can’t wait to for the next book to come out!"

~ Amazon 5* Review

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J. A. Quarles

Born and raised in New Orleans, Justin has always had a passion for storytelling. This writing process has always been important to him, a lifelong history nerd, who received a Bachelor’s in History from the University of New Orleans.

After he is done with his day job, Justin loves to come home and play with his two wonderful kiddos and watch movies with his wife.

Connect with Justin:

Website • Historium Press Author Page • Facebook

Amazon Author Page • Goodreads

Shining a bright book spotlight on Beneath David's Throne: Michal's Story by Melissa Alfredson #HistoricalFiction #WomenInHistory #RecommendedReading

Beneath David's Throne:
Michal's Story

by Melissa Alfredson

THEY CALL JERUSALEM DAVID’S TRIUMPH.

Michal calls it her cage.

Once a princess of Israel and the woman who helped secure King David’s crown, Michal now lives as a discarded queen in the palace her husband built upon the ruins of her father’s dynasty. Childless and increasingly sidelined as new wives and their sons rise around her, she clings to the fragile power her name still commands.

But when the house of David fractures under rival claims and hidden betrayals, Michal is drawn into the deadly politics of succession as she fights to protect the young princess Tamar, the one soul in the palace she cannot abandon.

As prophecy closes in around David’s throne and old wounds refuse to stay buried, Michal must confront the legacy of her father, the silence of the husband she once loved, and the God whose purposes she cannot escape.

Darkly lyrical and psychologically charged, Beneath David’s Throne is a work of literary historical fiction steeped in the court intrigue and dynastic politics of ancient Israel. For readers of The Red Tent and The Marriage Portrait, this first novel in the Beneath David’s Throne saga reclaims Michal, daughter of Saul—the forgotten woman who stood closest to David’s throne.

History remembered her as barren. This is the story it left out.

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Melissa Alfredson

Melissa Alfredson is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist with a passion for uncovering the stories history left untold. Her fiction explores the lives of women caught in the shadow of great events, bringing overlooked voices to life through richly imagined, character-driven prose.

Beneath David’s Throne is her debut novel.

Connect with Melissa:

Website • Facebook • Instagram

Amazon Author Page • BookBub • Goodreads