Let us Talk of Many Things; of Books and Queens and Pirates, of Mystery and Kings...

Thursday, 24 September 2026

Yarde Book Promotions: The Midnight Carousel (A Forest Falls Frolic) by Hanna Park

Welcome to my Blog!
Wander through worlds real and fictional,
meet interesting people, visit exciting places
and find good books to enjoy along the way!

About the Book

The Midnight Carousel (A Forest Falls Frolic)

By Hanna Park

Publication Date: 22nd September 2026

Publisher: Baisong Press

Print Length: 197 Pages

Genre: Romance

Belle Stanhope had plans. Good plans. Practical plans.

None of them involved Hudson Carver.

The florist with the crooked smile had become a distraction she neither wanted nor could avoid. Which was inconvenient, considering the Pretty River Inn and the upcoming bachelor auction left little room for distractions.

For years, Hudson had been content with the life he'd built beneath Christmas Mountain. His flower shop, his workshop, and the friends who had become family were more than he'd ever expected. Then he met Belle Stanhope.

As Christmas approaches, the carousel's calliope sings off-key, and the old magic he'd left behind stirs once more. The life he'd built and the life he wants are no longer the same.

In Forest Falls, wishes have a way of finding the people who need them most.

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link:

https://books2read.com/u/bOBpkA

Author Bio: Hanna Park

I began my writing career in the pre-dawn of a winter morning while my husband snored like a train. We could call my husband the catalyst. If it weren’t for him, I would never have gone to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, feed the cat, and sit on the loveseat in front of the fire. It was there, in those moments of wondrous quiet, that I did something I had never thought possible. I opened my laptop, and while the coffee went cold, I wrote a story. My husband had no idea that these sojourns to the loveseat in front of the fire would become a daily occurrence, that writing would become an obsession, but the cat knew. She knows everything.

I write stories that make you laugh, make you cry, and make you love. Thank you, friends, for reading!

In the beginning, there was an empty page.

I am a writer who lives in Muskoka, Canada, with a husband who snores, a hungry cat, and an almost perfect canine––he’s an adorable little shit.

Social Media Links:

Website: https://www.hannapark.ca

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannaparkwrites/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hanna.park.1485537

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hannaparkauthor.bsky.social

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/hanna-park

Amazon Author Page:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Hanna-Park/author/B0999S2RKX

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21418698.Hanna_Park

Read an excerpt

The Midnight Carousel – Excerpt 4

Belle slowed, a clump of snow landing squarely on top of her hat. She glared upward at the offending branch. The branch remained unapologetic.

I had to look away.

Snow whispered down from a branch as she stepped around a smaller fir and stopped. She studied the tree, her gloved hand brushing a low branch, sending a shower of powder cascading to her feet.

She stopped so suddenly that I knew she’d found it before she said a word. Tree selection worked the same way she made every other important decision, entirely on instinct.

There you are.

The thought slipped through me before I could stop it.

Relief settled through me before I could question why.

Which seemed excessive for a Christmas tree.

The tree stood apart from the others, not perfectly symmetrical. One side grew fuller than the other, having reached toward the light over the years, and the top leaned ever so slightly west under the weight of countless winters.

Slightly crooked. Entirely itself. It wasn't trying to be the prettiest tree in the grove. It was simply the one Belle couldn't walk away from. She had chosen the only tree in the grove that reminded me of people instead of decorations.

She stepped back from the tree, tilting her head one last time, brushing a dusting of snow from her mitten, then turned toward us. "What about this one?"

There was no trace of uncertainty in her voice. She never seemed afraid of choosing. She simply chose.

Mary studied it for only a second before smiling. "Oh, that's a good tree."

Nana Iris circled the tree once, tapping the trunk lightly with her mitten. "Hm."

Belle laughed. "What does that mean?"

I liked her laugh.

"It means I'm consulting the spirits."

Christopher pinched the bridge of his nose. "The tree does not contain spirits."

Nana Iris patted his shoulder. "That's exactly what a man losing an argument with a magical house would say."

The twins immediately declared the tree perfect.

Tinsel barked in agreement, apparently settling the matter.

Christopher appeared outnumbered.

Again.

He looked at the tree, then at the five people smiling back at him.

"I'm beginning to suspect democracy was a mistake."

Farther up the mountain, beyond the upper tree fields and the hidden caverns buried within the cliffs, a bell rang faintly through the stillness. Not loud and not near.

A chill crawled up my spine.

Nick lifted his eyes toward the ridgeline, then he smiled again.

But I had seen it.

He'd heard it too.

Belle stayed beside the tree, one hand resting against the tree, looking perfectly content to wait for the rest of us to catch up.

I liked that.

Standing there in the quiet grove, watching her laugh, felt less like choosing a Christmas tree and more like glimpsing the life I'd tried not to imagine.

Christopher looked toward me.

Then Mary.

Then Nana Iris.

Every single one of them wore the exact same expression.

Traitors.

A smile tugged at Belle's mouth.

"You don't have to."

I crossed the clearing, snow crunching beneath my boots, and wrapped my hand around the saw. "I know."

When I glanced back, Belle was still watching me. Still smiling. That smile followed me across the clearing. It shouldn't have mattered. It always did.

The mountain no longer frightened me as much as the woman standing beside that tree.

Follow the Tour:

YardeReviews and Book Promotion https://maryanneyarde.blogspot.com

via https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com/

Twitter / X Handle: @maryanneyarde

Instagram Handle: @hannaparkwrites @yardereviews

Bluesky Handle:

@hannaparkauthor.bsky.social @maryanneyarde.bsky.social

Hashtags:

#TheJerseyNightingale #EllenRead #YardeBookPromotions #BlogTour #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance #WWIIFiction #WartimeFiction #HistoricalFictionBooks #BookTour #BookBloggers #BookReviews #BookRecommendations #NewBook #BookLovers

Tour Schedule Page:

https://maryanneyarde.blogspot.com/2026/08/blog-tour-midnight-carousel-forest.html

(note: Helen might not have read the featured title yet)

< PREVIOUS POST

scroll down to leave a comment...

You might also like books written by Helen Hollick

Website: https://blog.helenhollick.net/

Amazon Author Page:

https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick

cosy mysteries : historical fiction
nautical supernatural adventure

1066 : King Arthur
ghosts : non-fiction

anthologies

2025 annual award winner

THANK YOU!

Wednesday, 23 September 2026

The Coffee Pot Book Club: Marilee Aufdenkamp Sparrow’s Song

Welcome to my Blog!
Wander through worlds real and fictional,
meet interesting people, visit exciting places
and find good books to enjoy along the way!

About the Book

Book Title: Sparrow’s Song

Author Name: Marilee Aufdenkamp

Publication Date: Anticipated September 19, 2026

Publisher: Old Fort Press

Pages: 292

Genre: Historical Fiction

Any Triggers:

Trigger Warnings (brief, non graphic):

• Two off page suicides

• One short scene involving sexual harassment / coercion

• One brief scene of non graphic violence

Shortly after Kathryn Scheibel leaves her cigar making job in 1917, she enters the Army School of Nursing, a pioneering WWI nurse training program that offers the education she’s longed for but couldn’t afford. More than two decades later, her career carries her, as an instructor, into the Cadet Nurse Corps, the federal WWII nursing education initiative created to support the war effort. There she sees the same pressures she once felt now directed at students with even fewer protections. When two Black students are treated unfairly, Kathryn must decide how to respond.

Sparrow’s Song is a sweeping, intimate novel about resilience and belonging, rooted in the real history of wartime federal nursing education and the evolving landscape of modern American nursing. At its heart is a young immigrant woman pushing herself toward the advantages she’s convinced education will unlock, even as that drive pulls her away from the people and heritage she loves.

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/3GyLvO

Author Bio:

Marilee Aufdenkamp is a retired nurse educator who taught undergraduate nursing for twenty six years before turning her full time focus to historical fiction. She writes early to mid twentieth century stories grounded in immigrant experience and working class life.

Her debut novel, Sparrow’s Song, was inspired by her early nursing career in Nebraska, where she came to admire the Germans from Russia she cared for at the end of their lives.

Originally from Southern California, she has spent her adult life in Nebraska.

Author Links:

Website:

https://marileeaufdenkamp.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/MarileeAufdenkampWriting/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/marileeaufdenkampwriting/

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/55952096.Marilee_Aufdenkamp

read an excerpt

Sparrow’s Song Excerpt 2:

The wedding dinner was served in the evening, followed by dancing. Albert Goeble played the button accordion and the young people celebrated until they were breathless. At midnight the music stopped.

“Come, girls, over here. Everyone gather in a circle around Clara.” Freida, the second bridesmaid, guided Clara to the center of the circle.

One of the boys handed a chair into the circle and Clara was seated. Kathryn’s mouth went dry and her legs began to quiver. She couldn’t keep from glancing at the door.

The young women and older girls laughed and sang as they circled Clara. Kathryn’s heart raced as she joined the rest of the group. Freida removed the crown wreath from Clara’s head and placed it on her lap. A length of fabric that matched Clara’s wedding dress was used as a blindfold. When Clara raised her hand, the singing and circling stopped. There was laughing and shrieking as Clara made her way, blindfolded, toward the girls in one section of the circle. Kathryn leaned so far back to avoid being touched by Clara that she nearly fell into the girl next to her. When Clara touched Bertha Roth, the girls cheered and clapped. Kathryn relaxed.

“Bertha is the next to be married,” they all called out as Clara removed her blindfold and handed her crown wreath to Bertha.

When things quieted down, Kathryn slipped out the front door and started toward home.

“Hey, wait and I’ll walk with you.” Rudy ran toward her.

She looked down the road. It had been a trying day. At well past midnight, it would be nice to have someone to walk home with. “Thank you, Rudy, but why do you want to walk me home when it is out of your way?”

He didn’t answer. As they walked along in the dark, his hand found hers. She stared into the night. How much easier it would be to just give in. Tears collected in her eyes as she trudged forward, her hand limp in Rudy’s palm.

“That was a real nice doin’s,” Rudy said, his voice husky.

She sighed. “Very nice.”

“Sure makes a fella wish he had a wife when he knows he could get called to the war at any time.”

Her heart beat faster and concentrating seemed impossible. Rudy’s hadn’t been one of the early numbers called, but he’d already told her that when he did get called up, he knew the local exemption board would determine him fit for duty.

Rudy let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulder. “It’s nearly three months to the start of Lent. We’d have enough time.”

Kathryn shook free. “Rudy, we aren’t getting married. I agree, you should have a wife to wait for you if you get called to war, but it isn’t me. We want different things for ourselves, you and me. I plan to get an education. Maybe even to leave Gorham, I don’t know yet. But I know that, while the life you could offer a girl would no doubt be perfectly lovely, it isn’t a life I would be happy with and you wouldn’t be happy having me for your wife.” Breathing felt easier now. Whatever the future held, things would work out.

Rudy ran his hand through his hair. “You don’t think I would be happy having you as a wife, but I want to be the one to decide that for myself.”

She felt calm and confident now. “Rudy, why in the world do you think it has to be me? There are plenty of nice girls who would be glad to be married to you.”

“I don’t know. I’ve always known that you’re the one for me. Okay, no wedding for now, but would you do a fella who might be heading off to war soon a favor and at least be my girl for now?”

Kathryn swallowed hard. Gott, help me for what I am about to say. “Okay, Rudy, I’ll be your girl for now.” Inside her gloves, her hands were sweating. At least Großmutter will be pleased. “Here’s the terms, though, no serious business, and mostly just friends. Deal?”

Rudy let out a loud whoop and spun around to face Kathryn. “Deal.”