Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Blog Tour Excerpt:The Irish Milliner by Cynthia G. Neale

The Irish Milliner
by Cynthia G. Neale


On Sale June 2, 2017
Fireship Press
eBook; 276 Pages
Genre: Fiction/Historical/Romance

It is New York City and the Civil War is brewing. Norah McCabe, an Irish immigrant who escaped the Famine as a child, is now a young widow with a daughter. She is a milliner, struggling to survive in tumultuous times. Norah meets Abraham Lincoln, befriends the extraordinary African-American woman Elizabeth Jennings, and assists the Underground Railroad. She falls headlong in love with Edward M. Knox, son of the famous hat-maker Charles Knox, but he is lace curtain Irish and she is shanty Irish. Edward joins the 69th regiment and leaves for battle. Can their love endure through class differences and war?

This is a story of survival, intrigue, romance, as well as, exploring the conflict of Irish immigrants thrust into a war that threatened to destroy a nation. It is about an Irish-American woman who could be any immigrant today, any woman today, seeking to create beauty and make sense of her life.

“Suddenly the Civil War seems very relevant and Cynthia Neale does a great job of focusing on the role of the Irish in the conflict. And it's great fun to be in touch with her wonderful character, Norah McCabe, again!” ~Mary Pat Kelly, author of Galway Bay and Of Irish Blood

“This timely novel spans centuries to bring to our attention to a topic as old as yesterday, as expedient as tomorrow⎯emigration. Neale's work, written with love and insight, reminds us that our neighbor is all mankind.” ~Tim Pat Coogan, Irish broadcaster, journalist, writer and author of 1916 The Easter Rising, Michael Collins and The Famine Plot

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EXCERPT:

This is an excerpt taken from the scene when Norah goes with her black friend, Elizabeth Jennings, to visit some of the runaway slaves in the basement of the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn, NY. She has been making hats for the Underground Railroad women fleeing to Canada from the south:

Norah is silent and fearful of taking such a powerful charm from this woman. She has never intended to become this entwined with the Negro just because she is friends with Elizabeth Jennings. She wants to leave. She can't get enough air in her lungs and her heart is pacing in her chest like a frightened animal. She doesn't know how to tell Sarah she can't accept this lucky box. Sarah needs it more than she does and Norah doesn't believe in any luck that can double. The woman's own beaten husband made it for her. Why would she give it to her, she wonders. She wants to get back to Katie and Sean and go home for a strong cup of tea.

"Where are the hats that Norah made?" Elizabeth asks, interrupting the interchange between Sarah and Norah.

Sarah rushes to the corner of the room and pulls the bonnets out of a burlap bag. When the women put them on their heads, Norah sees them transformed into free, dignified women in the candlelight. They smile at her and then she carefully places the four-leaf clover charm inside her bodice and near her heart.

The Irish Milliner is on a blog tour!


GIVEAWAY!

To win an eBook of The Irish Milliner by Cynthia G. Neale, please enter via the Gleam form below. Two eBooks are up for grabs!

Rules:

– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on June 9th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open internationally.
– 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.

The Irish Milliner
About the Author:

Cynthia G. Neale is a native of the Finger Lakes region of New York and now resides in New Hampshire. She has long possessed a deep interest in the tragedies and triumphs of the Irish during the Great Hunger.

This is Ms. Neale’s fourth novel. She also writes plays, short stories, and essays, and holds a B.A. in Writing and Literature from Vermont College.

For more information, please visit Cynthia G. Neale's website. You can also find her on FacebookTwitter, and Goodreads.

3 comments:

  1. After watching the book trailer and meeting Neale here on Let Them Read Books, I must read NORAH first. The book trailer is phenomenal. Every book of Neale's sounds like a book for me.

    Again, thanks to Let Them Read Books & HFVBT for the introduction to books worth reading. =)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for sharing this with your lovely readers, Jenny!

    Amy
    HF Virtual Book Tours

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