Blog Tour Excerpt: The King James Men by Samantha Grosser

THE KING JAMES MEN BY SAMANTHA GROSSER

Publication Date: November 20, 2018

Sam Grosser Books

eBook & Paperback; 393 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction/Christian Fiction

Connected by love, divided by faith. A novel of faith, friendship, and betrayal set against the religious turbulence of 17th Century London.

England 1604

Two men, once friends, have long since gone their separate ways. But when the new King James commands a fresh translation of the Bible, their paths are fated to cross again.

For biblical scholar Richard Clarke, the chance to work on the new translation seems like a gift from God, a way back in from the cold where his friendship with Separatist Ben Kemp has kept him for many years. But Richard soon discovers there is a price to pay for his new-found favour, and that price is betrayal. Caught between love for his friend and his faith in his Church, Richard must make a decision that could cost him his soul.

Set against the background of the writing of the King James Bible, and inspired by true accounts of the community who became the Mayflower Pilgrims, The King James Men is a vivid portrayal of the religious struggles of the age, and the price of being true to your faith.

Excerpt:

Richard took another mouthful of the excellent claret.

‘You are staying with the Kemp family during your time in Westminster, I believe?’ Andrewes said.

He shifted in his chair, straightening, clearing his mind to be wary. He had not expected to talk of Ben
Kemp with Andrewes: he had thought such matters lay solely with Bancroft. A puff of resentment billowed inside him that Ben’s return to England could taint even this.

‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘It is very convenient. Only a few streets away. Originally, I took a room by the river but it was damp and unwholesome …’

While his room at Thieving Lane was warm and quiet and comfortable, he thought, its narrow window overlooking orchards and the Tyburn as it flowed on its way to meet the Thames. Dressing this morning, he had seen a pair of swans, graceful and serene against the current.

‘And how are the Kemps?’ Andrewes asked. ‘I hear that trade is going nicely. Master Kemp has
invested in the Levant Company, has he not?’

Richard was impressed. No one could accuse the Dean of not being well informed. ‘They are well.’

‘And the younger Master Kemp is still working for his father?’

‘He has been in East these last seven years. He is only recently returned.’

Andrewes lifted his glass and sipped at his wine, observing his guest with shrewd, deep-set eyes.

Richard shifted again under the scrutiny, a vague and ill-defined sense of guilt threading through him.

‘I met Ben Kemp, many years ago,’ the Dean said. ‘Did you know?’

He knew it well: Ben’s version of the meeting was still clear in his memory, questions in a prison cell. It was hard to match the image with the gentle man before him, but he had never once known Ben to lie. Instinct kept him silent.

‘I thought he looked like a Spaniard.’

‘Yes,’ Richard agreed. ‘His sister too,’ steering the topic away. ‘Though I don’t know where it comes
from. The other sister was as fair as day.’

‘Indeed?’ Then, ‘I understand Bishop Bancroft has asked you to keep an eye on the business of the
younger Master Kemp.’

Carefully, he set his expression to neutral. ‘Yes. That is so.’

Blog Tour Guest Post: The Fisherman's Bride by Catherine Magia

Please join me in welcoming Catherine Magia to Let Them Read Books! Catherine is touring the blogosphere with her historical fiction debut, The Fisherman's Bride, a novel of the wife of St. Peter. Catherine is here today with a guest post about her own spiritual journey and the inspiration for giving a voice to a woman forgotten by history. Read on and enter to win a copy of The Fisherman's Bride!

She has no name. She is not even a footnote. Her tale is hidden behind the well-told fable of her husband, the man who would become Simon Peter, the first Apostle.

Cast off by her family after shunning a wealthy suitor to marry a humble fisherman, her life is fraught with hardship. She endures her husband’s growing restlessness, fish shortages from the Sea of Galilee, and the oppression of an all-powerful Roman Empire over her people. Then her life is forever changed when her dying mother is saved by a miracle performed by a young carpenter—a man who speaks with understanding and acts with compassion. A man who can inspire the extraordinary.

Simon Peter lives on in history as the undaunted martyr of the carpenter. This is the untold story of his young bride. Her journey traverses villages and deserts, love and tradition, and a brewing revolution, to an awakening of faith that challenges everything she has ever known.

My own spiritual journey inspired The Fisherman’s Bride, the journey from brokenness to healing. Eight years ago, I hit the lowest point in my life personally and professionally. I had post-surgical complications at the same time that I was laid off from my job and ended a long term relationship.  I was utterly lost. I traveled and wandered for about a year, searching for my path. Along the way, I learned lessons of authenticity, courage, and humility.  During a retreat in the Shenandoah Valley, being chased by cows with a Bible in hand, I discovered a new inspiration. I imagined the story of a woman who was also abandoned by her husband, a man who left without a word to follow Jesus, a man we know as Simon Peter.

Blog Tour Review: Daughter of a Thousand Years by Amalia Carosella

From the Back Cover:

Greenland, AD 1000

More than her fiery hair marks Freydís as the daughter of Erik the Red; her hot temper and fierce pride are as formidable as her Viking father’s. And so, too, is her devotion to the great god Thor, which puts her at odds with those in power—including her own brother, the zealous Leif Eriksson. Determined to forge her own path, she defies her family’s fury and clings to her dream of sailing away to live on her own terms, with or without the support of her husband.

New Hampshire, 2016

Like her Icelandic ancestors, history professor Emma Moretti is a passionate defender of Norse mythology. But in a small town steeped in traditional values, her cultural beliefs could jeopardize both her academic career and her congressman father’s reelection. Torn between public expectation and personal identity, family and faith, she must choose which to honor and which to abandon.

In a dramatic, sweeping dual narrative that spans a millennium, two women struggle against communities determined to silence them, but neither Freydís nor Emma intends to give up without a fight.

My Thoughts:

Two women, similar struggles, one thousand years apart.

Freydis, only daughter of Erik the Red, is faced with a decision: marry a man she doesn't love or respect in the hopes of one day commanding her own sailing ship, or face an uncertain future under her brother's thumb in a land rapidly converting to Christianity and abandoning the faith and traditions that are so important to her. Against counsel, she chooses marriage and discovers that it still isn't enough to grant her her heart's desire, or to protect her right to worship her gods, particularly Thor, in whom she places her utmost trust and faith. So when a stranger appears offering her physical and spiritual comfort and promising her the life of her dreams if she only stays true to her faith, she accepts and determines to forge her own destiny, though she will have a difficult journey ahead of her.

In the twenty-first century, congressman's daughter Emma Moretti struggles to reconcile her departure from Catholicism with her place in her community and in her own family. But the middle of her father's brutal reelection campaign isn't exactly the best time to announce that she's a Heathen, and her excitement at teaching Norse history at the local college is quickly dampened when her views are challenged in the classroom. To make things worse, a reporter has gotten hold of information about her faith that gives her father's opponent ammunition to take him down right before the election, and Emma has to decide if standing up for her beliefs will cost her more than she's willing to lose.

Blog Tour Review: In Another Life by Julie Christine Johnson

From the Back Cover:

Three men are trapped in time. One woman could save them all.

Historian Lia Carrer has finally returned to southern France, determined to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. But instead of finding solace in the region's quiet hills and medieval ruins, she falls in love with Raoul, a man whose very existence challenges everything she knows about life-and about her husband's death. As Raoul reveals the story of his past to Lia, she becomes entangled in the echoes of an ancient murder, resulting in a haunting and suspenseful journey that reminds Lia that the dead may not be as far from us as we think.

Steeped in the rich history and romantic landscape of rural France, In Another Life is a story of love that conquers time, and the lost loves that haunt us all.

My Thoughts:

"The Cathars believed that death doesn't always mean the end to the soul. They believed the soul of someone who died tragically could remain in some sort of suspended afterlife, seeking resolution through perpetual reincarnation."

Lia Carrer has returned to Languedoc in an attempt to pick up the pieces of her life. After eighteen months of grieving her husband's tragic death, the loss of her teaching job has finally spurred her into rejoining the land of the living, so she accepts friends' invitation to stay in their villa while she works on finishing her dissertation examining the Cathars' belief in reincarnation and following a controversial theory about the murder of Pierre de Castelnau, which touched off a crusade to eliminate the Cathars, considered heretical by the Catholic Church.

She expects to find support from her friend Father Jordi, a Cathar scholar who had encouraged her to explore the truth behind Castelnau's murder, but when she arrives, he is surprisingly discouraging and evasive, even going so far as to avoid her. But she meets Lucas, a handsome stranger working on a book about the Cathar ruins who wants to work with her and seems to know too much about her. And her dreams are haunted by Raoul, a scarred man who calls her by another name and then disconcertingly appears in the flesh. These three men all played a role in the Cathar crusade of 1208, and all three will play a role in helping Lia bring the truth of history to light, and the story unravels in alternating chapters of the present and the past.

Spotlight: Isaac and Ishmael by Mary F. Burns

Please join Mary F. Burns as she tours the blogosphere with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for Isaac and Ishmael: A Novel of Genesis from June 8-26.

Publication Date: November 15, 2014
Sand Hill Press
Formats: eBook, Paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction/Biblical



Isaac and Ishmael attempts to bring to human scale the legends and mythic dimensions of Abraham and Sarah, their sons Isaac and Ishmael, and Isaac and Rebecca’s twin sons Esau and Jacob. Readers will experience the struggles, competition, betrayals and loves of these brothers, fathers and sons caught up in the overarching tension between time and eternity, a place where a new God is coming into being—Yahweh, the uncanny, irascible, mischievous, bargaining God who participated in the life of a new people and compelled them to a new way of being human.

The stormy relationship of Isaac and Ishmael has long passed into a tradition which looks to Isaac as the father of the Jewish people, and Ishmael as the father of the Arab people, particularly in Egypt. Similarly, while Jacob carries on his father’s heritage, becoming the father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, his twin brother Esau, the red-haired archer who sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup, is traditionally said to have departed for the North, and populated what would later become Rome. Isaac and Ishmael explores the thorny, complex yet delicate relations between these brothers and fathers, providing a more human understanding of the differences that arise between individuals and peoples, even now as the ancient tensions in the Middle East continue to flare up in modern confrontations and war. Ever present in the story are the strong, subtle and often ambitious women of Biblical legend: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.

Isaac & Ishmael Available at

Amazon 
Barnes & Noble

Official Book Trailer 

Spotlight: Noah's Wife by T.K. Thorne

Please join T.K. Thorne as she tours with the blogosphere with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for Noah's Wife from December 15-19, and enter to win an autographed copy & magnetic bookmark!

Publication Date: April 17, 2011 | Blackburn Fork Publishing 

Formats: AudioBook, Ebook, Paperback | Pages: 352p
Genre: Historical Fiction

READ AN EXCERPT.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK SAMPLE.

ForeWord Reviews 2009 Historical Fiction BOOK OF THE YEAR.

A novel set in 5500 BCE can’t possibly relate to today’s issues— or can it?

Dysfunctional family relationships • Sexual abuse • Kidnapping • Love triangle •  Religious freedom • Autism • Cultural Change

This award-winning novel touches all of these issues with wisdom and humor.

From the perspective of a young girl with what is now known as Aspergers, Thorne weaves twists into the Biblical story, entwining myth, history, and archaeological findings with her vivid imagination.

Na’amah wishes only to be a shepherdess on her beloved hills in ancient Turkey— a desire shattered by the hatred of her powerful brother and the love of two men.

Her savant abilities and penchant to speak truth forces her to walk a dangerous path in an age of change— a time of challenge to the goddess’ ancient ways, when cultures clash and the earth itself is unstable. When foreign raiders kidnap her, Na’amah’s journey to escape and return home becomes an attempt to save her people from the disaster only she knows is coming.

Watch the Book Trailer

Blog Tour Interview: Pilgrim Footprints on the Sands of Time by Sylvia Nilsen

Please join me in welcoming author Sylvia Nilsen to Let Them Read Books! Sylvia is touring the blogosphere with her debut historical fiction novel, Pilgrim Footprints on the Sands of Time, romance and intrigue set on a pilgrimage trail from England to Spain in the turbulent twelfth century. I worked with Sylvia in designing the cover of Pilgrim Footprints, and I'm happy to have her here today talking about the inspiration for her novel and what the Camino pilgrimage trail means to her. Read on for a chance to win a copy of Pilgrim Footprints on the Sands of Time!

Hi Sylvia! Thanks for taking the time to appear on Let Them Read Books!

It is a pleasure.

You have devoted a good portion of your life to the Camino de Santiago. Can you tell us how the pilgrimage route became so important to you?

I first walked 800 km of the route known as the Camino Frances in northern Spain in 2002. I was very fit and walked long stages, completing the walk from the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in 27 days. This meant walking an average of 30 km per day, although some days were a bit shorter and others much longer.

When I returned home, the Confraternity of St. James of South Africa, which had been established in Cape Town the year before, asked if I would be the local representative in my Province. At our first pilgrim get-together, 12 people came. They told dreamy-eyed stories of communal dinners in lamp light, having their feet washed at pilgrim blessings, and about places I honestly didn’t remember seeing! I was determined to go back, walk slower, and experience these special pilgrim places.

I have returned to the trail – and have done a few other routes – seven times in the last 12 years. I have served in pilgrim shelters, trained South African pilgrims to volunteer in pilgrim shelters, and started a small company that takes pilgrims on the Camino Frances. Writing about the Camino has consolidated all that I know and love about the Camino.

Blog Tour Review: The Mapmaker's Daughter by Laurel Corona

From the Back Cover:

A sweeping novel of 15th-century Spain explores the forgotten women of the Spanish Inquisition

In 1492, Amalia Riba sits in an empty room, waiting for soldiers to take her away. A converso forced to hide her religion from the outside world, She is the last in a long line of Jewish mapmakers, whose services to the court were so valuable that their religion had been tolerated by Muslims and Christians alike.

But times have changed. When King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella conquer Granada, the last holdout of Muslim rule in Spain, they issue an order expelling all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. As Amalia looks back on her eventful life, we witness history in the making—the bustling court of Henry the Navigator, great discoveries in science and art, the fall of Muslim Granada, the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. And we watch as Amalia decides whether to relinquish what’s left of her true self, or risk her life preserving it.

My Thoughts:

The Mapmaker's Daughter tells the story of Amalia Riba, a fictional character who bears witness to the tragic path that leads from the persecution to the expulsion of Jews on the Iberian Peninsula in the latter half of the fifteenth century. She lives a long and eventful life during a turbulent period in history, and along the way she rubs elbows with some of the most famous historical figures of the time, from her childhood on the fringes of Prince Henry the Navigator's court, to tutoring a young Isabella of Castile and bearing witness to Torquemada's inquisition. I was taken with Amalia from the beginning, when we meet her as a small child living as a converso, a person of Jewish descent who lives openly as a Christian. But her mother and grandmother cling to their Jewish heritage, praying and performing rituals in secret, and Amalia embraces this part of her ancestry, cherishing the closeness she feels to these women in their moments of faith. But the world is changing around Amalia, and it becomes more and more dangerous to practice the old faith. As she matures into a young woman, torn between her outward and inward displays of faith, Amalia constantly questions what it means to be a Jew, what it means to be a Christian, and how she can be true to herself in a world where doing so could mean her death.