Hello, fans of quality fiction! 📖
Here, at The Coffee Pot Book Club, we have a brand-new feature for you:
"What’s new in ...?"
From this month onwards, we’ll be sharing bookish news from author friends, tour hosts, and our Coffee Pot guests about new releases, book birthdays, special editions, and blog tours featuring new releases.
Here are our recommendations for April 2023:
April 10th, 2023
THE YEAR WE LIVED
by Virginia Crow
*Book Birthday*
It is 1074, eight years after the Battle of Hastings changed the cultural and physical landscape of the country forever.
But England is about to be shaped by another legacy: one which is truly immortal.
Liebling of the Hall, Edith, knows the year will be cursed as soon as the yule block burns out prematurely. Nonetheless, when she meets a mysterious figure in the Fens who claims to be a changeling, she finds herself falling in love with him, ignoring the concern of her brother, Robert, and continuing to visit. But when her brother’s nemesis, Henry de Bois, kidnaps her on one of these visits, events are set in motion which will change England forever.
A gripping historical fiction with an astonishing twist!
April 12th, 2023
QUEEN OF MARTYRS
by Samantha Wilcoxson
*Book Birthday*
How did a gentle, pious woman become known as 'Bloody Mary'?
'God save the Queen! God save our good Queen Mary!'
When these words rang out over England, Mary Tudor thought her troubles were over. She could put her painful past - the loss of her mother and mistreatment at the hands of her father - behind her.
With her accession to the throne, Mary set out to restore Catholicism in England and find the love of a husband that she had long desired. But the tragedies in Mary's life were far from over.
Step into Tudor England.
April 13th, 2023
The Kingmaking
by Helen Hollick
*30th Publishing Anniversary*
&
*Helen’s 70th Birthday Celebration*
The Boy Who became a Man:
Who became a King:
Who became a Legend... KING ARTHUR
There is no Merlin, no sword in the stone, and no Lancelot.
Instead, the man who became our most enduring hero.
All knew the oath of allegiance:
‘To you, lord, I give my sword and shield, my heart and soul. To you, my Lord Pendragon, I give my life, to command as you will.’
This is the tale of Arthur made flesh and bone. Of the shaping of the man who became the legendary king; a man with dreams, ambitions and human flaws.
A man, a warlord, who united the collapsing province of post-Roman Britain,
who held the heart of the love of his life, Gwenhwyfar
- and who emerged as the most enduring hero of all time.
A different telling of the later Medieval tales.
This is the story of King Arthur as it might have really happened...
April 14th, 2023
HER LAST BETRAYAL
by Pam Lecky
*Book Birthday*
“A gripping and thrilling tale….INCREDIBLE!” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
When working for the British Secret Service, Sarah Gillespie can trust no one, not even her closest friends…
London, 1941
After losing her family to a Nazi bomb attack back home in Ireland, Sarah Gillespie joins the British Secret Services to bring them justice.
Partnered with American undercover agent Lieutenant Tony Anderson, Sarah embarks on a dangerous mission that takes her from war-torn London into the black mountains of Wales. But when one of her team is revealed to be a German mole, and enemies begin to close in, what price will Sarah have to pay to save her country—and herself?
A heartbreaking and completely addictive page-turner about one woman’s bravery in WW2 Britain, perfect for fans of Kate Quinn's THE ALICE NETWORK, Suzanne Goldring's MY NAME IS EVA and Ariel Lawhon’s CODE NAME HÉLÈNE.
April 17th, 2023
INCEPTIO
(published March 28th, 2013)
by Alison Morton
*10th Anniversary Special Hardback Edition*
“It's about Roman blood, survival and money. Mostly yours."
In an alternative New York, Karen Brown is running for her life. She makes a snap decision to flee to Roma Nova - her dead mother's homeland, the last remnant of the Roman Empire in the 21st century. But can Karen tough it out in such an alien culture? And with a crazy killer determined to terminate her for a very personal reason?
Stifled by the protective cocoon of her Roma Novan family, deceived by her new lover, she propels herself into a dangerous mission. But then the killer sets a trap - she must sacrifice herself for another - and she sees no escape.
A thriller laced with romance and coming of age, this first in series is Roman fiction brought into the 21st century through the lens of alternative history and driven by a female protagonist with heart and courage.
This 10th Anniversary hardback edition includes bonus content: Three character ‘conversations’, two short stories and the story behind INCEPTIO.
April 18th, 2023
MUSKETS & MASQUERADES
by Lindsey Fera
*New Release*
Jack and Annalisa are married only five months when, enroute to France, a shipwreck separates them. On different shores, each believes the other dead. But when Annalisa learns Jack is alive, she returns to America and discovers much has changed. After a betrayal, she flees town as her alter ego, Benjamin Cavendish, and joins the Continental Army.
Unbeknownst to Annalisa, Jack has also joined the Continentals, harboring shameful secrets from his days in mourning. Against the backdrop of war with Britain, façades mount between Jack and Annalisa, and the merry minuet of their adolescence dissolves into a masquerade of deceit, one which threatens to part them forever.
April 21st, 2023
PAGAN KING
by MJ Porter
*Book Birthday*
From bestselling author, MJ Porter comes the tale of the mighty pagan king, Penda of Mercia.
The year is AD641, and the great Oswald of Northumbria, bretwalda over England, must battle against an alliance of the old Britons and the Saxons led by Penda of the Hwicce, the victor of Hæ∂feld nine years before, the only Saxon leader seemingly immune to Oswald's beguiling talk of the new Christianity spreading through England from both the north and the south.
Alliances will be made and broken, and the victory will go to the man most skilled in warcraft and statecraft.
The ebb and flow of battle will once more redraw the lines of the petty kingdoms stretching across the British Isles.
There will be another victor and another bloody loser.
April 24th, 2023
A MATTER OF FAITH
(released March 20th, 2023)
by Judith Arnopp
*New Release*
Finally free of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII, is now married to Anne Boleyn and eagerly awaiting the birth of his son. In a court still reeling from the royal divorce and growing public resentment against church reform, Henry must negotiate widespread resentment toward Anne. He places all his hopes in a son to cement his Tudor blood line, but his dreams are shattered when Anne is delivered of a daughter.
Burying his disappointment, Henry focuses on getting her with child again, but their marriage is volatile and as Henry faces personal bereavement, and discord at court, Anne’s enemies are gathering. When the queen miscarries of a son, and Henry suffers a life-threatening accident, his need for an heir becomes critical. Waiting in the wings is Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting who offers the king comfort and respite from Anne’s fiery passions.
But, when Anne falls foul of her former ally, Thomas Cromwell, and the king is persuaded he has been made a cuckold, Henry strikes out and the queen falls beneath the executioner’s sword, taking key players in Henry’s household with her.
Jane Seymour, stepping up to replace the fallen queen, quickly becomes pregnant. Delighted with his dull but fertile wife, Henry’s spirits rise even further when the prince is born safely. At last, Henry has all he desires but even as he celebrates, fate is preparing to deliver one more staggering blow.
Henry, the once perfect Renaissance prince, is now a damaged middle-aged man, disappointed in those around him but most of all in himself. As the king’s optimism diminishes, his intractability increases, and the wounded lion begins to roar.
April 25th, 2023
THE QUEEN'S SCRIBE
by Amy Maroney
*New Release*
A broken promise. A bitter conflict. And a woman’s elusive chance to love or die.
1458. Young Frenchwoman Estelle de Montavon sails to Cyprus imagining a bright future as tutor to a princess. Instead, she is betrayed by those she loves most—and forced into a dangerous new world of scheming courtiers, vicious power struggles, and the terrifying threat of war.
Determined to flee, Estelle enlists the help of an attractive and mysterious falconer. But on the eve of her escape, fortune’s wheel turns again. She gains entry to Queen Charlotta’s inner circle as a trusted scribe and interpreter, fighting her way to dizzying heights of influence.
Enemies old and new rise from the shadows as Estelle navigates a royal game of cat and mouse between the queen and her powerful half-brother, who wants the throne for himself.
When war comes to the island, she faces a brutal reckoning for her loyalty to the queen. Will the impossible choice looming ahead be Estelle’s doom—or her salvation?
With this richly-told story of courage, loyalty, and the sustaining power of love, Amy Maroney brings a mesmerizing and forgotten world to vivid life. The Queen’s Scribe is a stand-alone novel in the Sea and Stone Chronicles collection.
Amy Maroney is the author of the award-winning Miramonde Series, the story of a Renaissance-era female artist and the modern day scholar on her trail.
Make sure to check out all these wonderful books.
Happy reading! 🥰⛾
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