Let us Talk of Many Things; of Books and Queens and Pirates, of Mystery and Kings...: July 2025

Thursday, 31 July 2025

Rachel's Random Resources Book Tours: A Scottish Lighthouse Escape by Julie Shackman

Rachel's Random Resources
Book Tours

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About the Book

A Scottish Lighthouse Escape

Get ready to fall in love with the brand new romance in the Scottish Escapes series from bestselling author, Julie Shackman.

When romance author Rosie Winters’s own fairytale romance ends with a bang, she’s determined to get away from everything. Packing up her belongings she sets off for the furthest place she can think of: Scotland.

Rosie spent her summers at her late grandmother’s coastal cottage in the Highlands and knows it’ll be the perfect place to wallow for a while. Even better that there’s a gorgeous lighthouse and dolphins in the bay.

What Rosie didn’t expect was to bump into the new lighthouse keeper, Mitch. Despite her recent heartbreak, Rosie finds herself fascinated by the mysterious Mitch. As they spend more time together, is it possible that he needs Rosie every bit as she needs him…

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scottish-Lighthouse-Escape-lighthouse-armchair-ebook/dp/B0D9PLQ25Y

https://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Lighthouse-Escape-lighthouse-armchair-ebook/dp/B0D9PLQ25Y

Author Bio

Julie Shackman is a feel-good romance author from Scotland and is published by the HarperCollins imprint One More Chapter. When not writing or reading, Julie loves to take her Romanian rescue pup Cooper for long walks, working out, watching romcoms and indulging her love of music. A Scottish Lighthouse Escape is her thirteenth novel.

Social Media Links

Website - Julie Shackman Author

Twitter - (2) Julie Shackman (@G13Julie) / Twitter

Instagram - Julie Georgina Shackman (@juliegeorginashackman) • Instagram photos and videos

Facebook - (5) Julie Georgina Shackman | Facebook

https://www.rachelsrandomresources.com/
@rararesources
#RachelsRandomResources

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Wednesday, 30 July 2025

The Coffee Pot Book Club virtual tour of The Will of God by Julian del la Motte

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Book Title: The Will of God

Author: Julian de la Motte

Publication Date: May 13, 2025

Publisher: Historium Press

Pages: 292

Genre: Historical Fiction

"Deus Lo Vult!"

Gilles is the natural son of the Earl Waltheof, executed by William the Conqueror for supposed treachery. Raised in Normandy by Queen Matilda of England, Gilles is a young servant of Robert, Duke of Normandy, when the first call for a Holy War against the infidel and for the liberation of Jerusalem is raised in Christendom. Along with thousands of others, inspired by a variety of motives, intense piety mixed with a sense of adventure and the prospects of richness, Gilles becomes a key and respected follower of the Duke of Normandy and travels through France and into Italy to the point of embarkation for Constantinople and the land of the Greeks.

In this epic first phase of a long and gruelling journey, Gilles begins to discover a sense of his own strengths and weaknesses, encounters for the first time the full might and strength of the Norman war machine and achieves his much coveted aim of knighthood, as well as a sense of responsibility to the men that he must now lead into battle.

The Will of God is the literal translation of the Latin phrase "Deus Lo Vult"; a ubiquitous war cry and a commonly offered explanation of all the horrors and iniquities unleashed by the First Crusade of 1096 to 1099, when thousands of Europeans made the dangerous and terrifying journey to the Holy Land and the liberation of Jerusalem. It is the first of two books on the subject.

Praise for The Will of God:

"De la Motte has superpowers as a writer of historical fiction; he's a warhorse of a writer bred to stun and trample the literary senses. You won't stop turning the pages of The Will of God."

~ Charles McNair, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of Land O'Goshen

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://geni.us/uXe6u

Author Bio:

Julian de la Motte is a Londoner. He graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in Medieval History. He was further awarded a Master of Arts qualification in Medieval English Art from the University of York.

He studied and taught in Italy for nearly four years before returning to the U.K. and a career as a teacher, teacher trainer and materials designer before taking up a new role as a Director of Foreign Languages and of English as a Foreign Language.

Married and with two grown up children, He is now extensively involved in review writing and historical research, primarily on medieval history.

''The Will of God'' [the first of two books on the subject of the First Crusade] is his third novel.

Author Links:

Website:

www.historiumpress.com/julian-de-la-motte

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/julian.delamotteharrison.3

Amazon Author Page:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08XWMRPYK

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/20873400.julian_de_la_Motte

read an excerpt

Excerpt 2:

When his father’s handsome and youthful head was separated from his shoulders, his son Gilles was a sturdy and robust child just over a year old and able to sit up and take note of things immediately around him. His father’s crime had been that of a complicity in a treason that he had failed to explain away with any degree of conviction or success. He may well, on this particular occasion, have been wholly innocent; but it had happened once too often in his brief political career to be overlooked. So, up the little hill just outside Winchester he went. The mother of Gilles, the beautiful Eloise of La Petite Flague, was, of course, devastated and it was said of that truly peerless beauty that her glance remained forever downcast and tragic to the end of her days.

Amongst the local people of the English, the former Earl soon achieved the status of an unacknowledged saint. Even days after the execution his head, or so it was said, when it was reattached to his body for the purposes of a fit and proper Christian burial, bore a sweet smile of utter serenity. Both the head and the body were fresh and bore the strong scent of rosemary and thyme, untouched by the corruption of death. It was not long before stories of miracles began to circulate. Nothing major or cosmic, there was no raising of the dead nor any parting of any waves, but, rather, a localised curing of warts and the removal of blinding headaches from an itinerant cleric in minor orders. As with many saints before him, Waltheof was obliged to start small in his saintly career.

Follow the tour:

Bsky: @cathiedunn.bsky.social

Twitter Handle: @cathiedunn

Instagram Handle: @thecoffeepotbookclub

Hashtags: #TheWillOfGod #HistoricalFiction #Crusades #WilliamTheConqueror #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Tour Schedule Page:

https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/07/blog-tour-the-will-of-god-by-julian-de-la-motte.html

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Tuesday, 29 July 2025

My Coffee Pot Book Club Guest: Marguerite: Hell Hath No Fury! By Judith Arnopp

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About the Book

Marguerite: Hell Hath No Fury!

Publication Date: June 21st, 2025

Publisher: independently published

Pages: 342

Genre: Historical Fiction / Biographical Fiction

Marguerite: Queen of England

From the moment Henry VI's new queen, Marguerite of Anjou, sets foot on English soil she is despised by the English as a foreigner, and blamed for the failures of the hundred years war in France.

Her enemies impede her role as the king’s consort and when Henry sinks into apparent madness, her bid to become regent is rejected. Marguerite must fight, not only for her own position but to maintain Henry’s possession of the crown.

The ambitious Duke, Richard of York, seizes control of the country, thrusting Marguerite aside and inflating the mutual hatred between the houses of York and Lancaster. But the queen refuses to relinquish power and fights determinedly for the rights of her son, Edward of Lancaster.

The long and bitter civil conflict, that has come to be known as the War of the Roses, commences.

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://mybook.to/mhhnf

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Author Bio:

A lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader, Judith holds a BA in English / Creative Writing and a Masters in Medieval Studies. She lives on the coast of West Wales where she writes both fiction and non-fiction. She is best known for her novels set in the Medieval and Tudor period, focussing on the perspective of historical women but recently she has written a trilogy from the perspective of Henry VIII himself.

Judith is also a founder member of a re-enactment group called The Fyne Companye of Cambria which is when and why she began to experiment with sewing historical garments. She now makes clothes and accessories both for the group and others. She is not a professionally trained sewer but through trial, error and determination has learned how to make authentic looking, if not strictly historically accurate clothing. A non-fiction book about Tudor clothing, How to Dress like a Tudor, was published in 2023 by Pen and Sword.

She runs a small seaside holiday let in Aberporth and when she has time for fun, likes to garden and restore antique doll’s houses. You can find her on most social media platforms.

Her novels include:

A Song of Sixpence: the story of Elizabeth of York

The Beaufort Chronicle: the life of Lady Margaret Beaufort (three book series)

The Henrician Chronicle: comprising of:

A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years (Book One of The Henrician Chronicle)

A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the Days of the Phoenix (Book Two of The Henrician Chronicle)

A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, the Dying of the Light (Book Three of The Henrician Chronicle)

The Kiss of the Concubine: a story of Anne Boleyn

The Winchester Goose: at the court of Henry VIII

Intractable Heart: the story of Katheryn Parr

Sisters of Arden: on the Pilgrimage of Grace

The Heretic Wind: the life of Mary Tudor, Queen of England

Peaceweaver

The Forest Dwellers

The Song of Heledd

The Book of Thornhold

A Daughter of Warwick: the story of Anne Neville, Queen of Richard III

Marguerite: Hell Hath no Fury!

Author Links:

Website:

http://www.judithmarnopp.com/

Blog:

http://www.juditharnoppnovelist.blogspot.co.uk/

Twitter / X:

https://twitter.com/JudithArnopp

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/thetudorworldofjuditharnopp

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/tudor_juditharnopp/

Threads:

https://www.threads.net/@tudor_juditharnopp

Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/jarnopp.bsky.social

Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jarnopp/

Book Bub:

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/judith-arnopp

Amazon Author Page:

http://author.to/juditharnoppbooks

Goodreads

: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4088659.Judith_Arnopp

read an excerpt

Excerpt 3:

1481 - Dampierre-sur-Loire, Anjou

I am the dowager queen, and I should be in England, housed in splendour, lauded, pampered, surrounded by royal grandchildren but instead I am exiled, confined to this backwater in France. Queen of obscurity, of notoriety. I curse each day as it dawns, bringing another unendurable four and twenty hours in which to think … to remember. Little more than a pauper, I am a pensioner of King Louis. I am exiled, ousted and excluded from the country over which I once ruled. Defeat sits heavily on me. My body pains me, my heart aches and my mind is tortured. How did it ever come to this?

I am a victim of treason, betrayal and regicide. Yes – regicide, the cold-blooded murder of an anointed king and the theft of his crown. Gentle Henry, my husband was brought low by the ambition of the cursed Duke of York and his devil-spawned son.

Even while serving the fifth Henry in France, York chafed against Lancaster, smarting each time a better man was shown greater favour than himself. He coveted riches, he coveted power, no matter the cost, and he sneered at Henry’s efforts to reign peaceably.

The moment I arrived in England as Henry’s queen, I became the focus for York’s hatred. He despised me as a foreigner and a woman, and believing their claim superior to that of Lancaster, the House of York coveted the crown for years. They misliked the way Henry heeded my advice. My directives influenced the king more often than York’s and oh, how that wounded him!

For a long time, our mutual dislike simmered, increasing and spreading like bubbles in a boiling pot until it became so hot, so virulent that it overflowed, splitting the court asunder and forcing cousin to side against cousin.

As England’s noble houses wrought violence against themselves and kin slaughtered kin, dark clouds gathered over England and the rivers ran with blood. With York so close to the crown he could almost grasp it, civil war was inevitable. Spurred on by his kinsmen and his litter of flea-ridden pups, York reached out for what was mine, and in the end, he took it.

On the day we slew York and his son at Wakefield I thought we had won, but his spawn soon replaced him. The repugnant Edward took up his father’s banner. Edward the regicide, the usurper who killed my son, and murdered my king. They locked me away but even when I begged to be allowed to die, he forced me to live.

My life since has been worse than a thousand deaths.

I can barely recall the young, green girl I once was, unskilled in policy, and a stranger to the country I would come to love.