Tag Archives: Historical Fiction

by | June 19, 2025 · 5:00 am

Cracks Beneath The Surface Blitz

Cracks Beneath The Surface banner

 

Cracks Beneath The Surface cover

 

Titanic Tales of Love and Loss, Book 1

 

Historical Romance, Historical Fiction

 

Date Published: May 28, 2025

 

 

Love. Scandal. Tragedy.

When Maddy weds the wealthy and influential John Jacob Astor IV, she believes
she is stepping into a life of privilege, passion, and promise. But beneath
the dazzling façade of high society, whispers of scandal, resentment,
and betrayal threaten to pull her under. Shunned by New York’s elite for
marrying a man nearly three decades her senior, Madeleine soon realizes that
love in the gilded age comes at a price.

As the Astors embark on their homeward voyage aboard the RMS Titanic, fate
sets a course neither could have foreseen. Amid the grandeur of the
world’s most luxurious ship, tensions rise, secrets unravel, and the
ocean stretches endlessly before them—along with the chasm widening in
their marriage.

But when disaster strikes, will love, wealth, or power matter in the face of
the unthinkable? And when the ice cracks beneath them, will the Astors’
love survive—if they do?


Cracks Beneath the Surface is a sweeping historical romance woven with
heartbreak, resilience, and the echoes of a love tested by time, fortune, and
fate.


Are you ready to set sail on a journey of passion, peril, and the power of a
love that dared to defy the tides of time? Get your copy today and discover
the story behind the headlines.

 

About the Author

Laura McCrum
Laura McCrum is a Scottish author and former business and education
professional whose passion for storytelling has found its voice in both
historical fiction and self-help. Cracks Beneath the Surface is her debut
historical romance novel and the first in the Titanic: Tales of Love and Loss
series—a compelling exploration of human connection, courage, and social
class aboard the ill-fated RMS Titanic. Drawing on meticulous research and a
love for character-driven narrative, Laura brings real historical figures to
life alongside unforgettable fictional characters.

While her Titanic series is published under her real name, Laura also writes
empowering self-help books under the pen name Lamont, including Healing the
Rift with Your Adult Child and The Blended Family Guide, which support readers
through complex personal relationships.

The second book in her Titanic series, The Last Line, follows First Officer
William Murdoch and delves deeper into the lives of both crew and passengers
during the ship’s final days.

Laura’s writing bridges the emotional power of fiction with the insight
and compassion of her self-help work—offering readers both escapism and
emotional resonance. Visit Lauran on her website at www.lmcpublications.com

 

Contact Links

Website

BookBuzz

 

Purchase Link

 

Amazon

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on Cracks Beneath The Surface Blitz

Filed under BOOK BLITZ

Tagged as , , ,

by | May 13, 2025 · 5:00 am

The Midnight of Eights Virtual Book Tour

The Midnight of Eights banner

 

The Midnight of Eights cover

In the Island of Angels Series, Book 2

(Can be read as a standalone)

Historical Fiction

Date Published: 10-28-2024

Publisher: The Book Guild

 

 

 

1580.

Nelan Michaels is a young Flemish, Protestant immigrant who seeks to right
the wrongs committed against his family by Catholic Spain, the most powerful
nation of the time.

On the way to delivering a message to Francis Walsingham, Queen
Elizabeth’s spymaster, Nelan finds a plough head buried in the ground.
It sparks a premonition that shapes his future.

Nelan sets out to find Eleanor, his long lost love. During his search, he
meets a Gypsy shaman who prophesies that he’s to become a Fyremaster
and play a leading role in the unfolding destiny of the Island of
Angels.

In 1588, Nelan meets his destiny on the night of the Harvest Moon off
Calais in France. It was midnight when it happened. His mysterious
intervention changed the course of the sea battle between the English fleet
and the Spanish Armada, and changed England’s destiny.

It was a midnight of eights.

The Midnight of Eights is the final book in The Island of Angels series: a
two-book saga that tells the epic story and secret history of England’s
coming of age during the Elizabethan era.

 

In Book 1, The Mark of the Salamander, Nelan is pressed onto the Golden
Hind. During the circumnavigation, he embarks on a voyage of discovery of
himself, and learns the arcane arts of the salamander, the mysterious spirit
of fire.

 

The Midnight of Eights tablets

EXCERPT

The Midnight of Eights

Except from 

Chapter Thirty Five: Belled and Jessed 

21st August 1588

 

… That day, a messenger delivered a request from Walsingham summoning Nelan to the fox’s den. As he mounted his steed, the flies, gnats, and mosquitoes flitted around, intoxicated by the day’s golden hues. 

On his way to Barn Elms, Nelan pondered how the fleet had achieved the great repulse of the Armada. Curious it was that the two fleets only fully locked horns in French waters, at Calais and Gravelines. It was as if some invisible force separated them one from the other, which only dissolved once both fleets had departed English waters. 

Today, the 21st of August, formed the cusp between the astrological influence of Leo and Virgo, the Queen’s birth sign. He kept wondering about the sign of Leo. Then he got it. It was obvious. He walked around it. The ox-bow was the same shape as the symbol for Leo, a sort of upside-down ‘U’ with curls at either end… ♌ The shape that a bird flying high over that part of the river would see. 

The English fleet had shadowed the Armada from the 29th of July to the 12th of August. This fifteen-day period fell exactly in the middle of the astrological month of Leo, and so filled the hearts of the English mariners with the courage of the king of the beasts.

What of the midnight of eights?

 

About the Author

JUSTIN NEWLAND

JUSTIN NEWLAND’s novels represent an innovative blend of genres from
historical adventure to supernatural thriller and magical realism.

Undeterred by the award of a Maths Doctorate, he conceived his debut novel,
The Genes of Isis (ISBN 9781789014860, Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set
under Ancient Egyptian skies.

His second book, The Old Dragon’s Head (ISBN 9781789015829, Matador,
2018), and is set in Ming Dynasty China in the shadows of the Great
Wall.

Set during the Great Enlightenment, The Coronation (ISBN 9781838591885,
Matador, 2019) speculates on the genesis of the most important event in the
modern world – the Industrial Revolution.

The Abdication (ISBN 9781800463950, Matador, 2021) is a mystery thriller in
which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it
means to abdicate that faith.

The Mark of the Salamander (ISBN 9781915853271, Book Guild, 2023), is the
first in a two-book series, The Island of Angels. Set in the Elizabethan
era, it tells the epic tale of England’s coming of age.

The latest is The Midnight of Eights (ISBN 9781835740 330, Book Guild,
2024), the second in The Island of Angels series, which charts the uncanny
coincidences of time and tide that culminated in the repulse of the Spanish
Armada.

His work in progress is The Spirit of the Times which explores the
traumatic events of the 14th Century on the Silk Road and featuring an
unlikely cast of Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, all shrouded in the mystery
of a nursery rhyme that begins ‘Ring a-ring a-roses’.

Author, speaker and broadcaster, Justin gives talks to historical
associations and libraries, appears on LitFest panels, and enjoys giving
radio interviews. He lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip
Hills in Somerset, England.

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Twitter @JustinNewland53

Goodreads

Pinterest @jnewland0711

Instagram

Book Bub

 

Purchase Links

https://mybook.to/TheMidnightofEights

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RABT Book Tours & PR

2 Comments

Filed under Book Tour

Tagged as , ,

by | April 24, 2025 · 5:00 am

Scars of Sand and Soil Reveal

 

Scars of Sand and Soil cover

Historical Fiction

Date Published: July 24th, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

 

What’s left of a man’s soul when everything he loves is taken
from him?

 

It’s 1864, and Gabriel Cooper couldn’t care less about the
civil war raging around him. Framed for crimes he didn’t commit,
he’s been sentenced to a Confederate chain gang, where swampland
justice rules and alligators prey on the unwary.

So when Colonel Robert Tremont rides into camp offering freedom in exchange
for fighting on the front lines, Gabriel jumps at the opportunity. He
thrives as a soldier, but the end of the war leaves him adrift.

Gabriel ends up in New Orleans, where he meets Simone Livingston, a
fiercely independent woman with hidden scars of her own. Kept on a tight
rein by her overbearing father, Simone only wants freedom—and the
enigmatic Gabriel.

But Gabriel has unfinished business and a mind for vengeance. Will he be
able to create a peaceful life with Simone or will his greed and thirst for
retribution keep them trapped in a dangerous web of deceit—a web
Gabriel fears can only be untangled with murder.

About the Author

Jean Kravitz

As the quintessential queen of “what if,” Jean Kravitz
channeled her active imagination to pen her debut novel, Scars of Sand and
Soil. However, achieving her childhood dream of being a published writer was
not a straightforward path.

Jean earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s
degree in human development and aging from the University of California, San
Francisco. She went into clinical research in pharmaceuticals, but left her
career when her children were born. Then, she picked up writing again, honed
her craft, published articles in a small newspaper, and passionately
immersed herself in historical research.

Jean has many interests, including reading, gardening, needlepoint, and
learning new languages. She lives in Southern California and has a husband,
two daughters, and two cats, Lenny and Penny.

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Tik Tok

 

 

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on Scars of Sand and Soil Reveal

Filed under COVER REVEAL

Tagged as , ,

by | March 14, 2025 · 5:00 am

Wages of Empire Blitz

Wages of Empire banner

 

Wages of Empire cover

Historical Fiction

Date Published: November 30, 2023

 

In the summer of 1914, 16-year-old Evan Sinclair leaves home to join the
Great War for Civilization. Little does he know that, despite the war raging
in Europe, the true source of conflict will emerge in Ottoman Palestine,
since it’s from Jerusalem where the German Kaiser dreams to rule as Holy
Roman Emperor. Filled with such historical figures as Gertrude Bell, T.E.
Lawrence, Winston Churchill, Faisal bin Hussein, Chaim Weizmann, and Achad
Ha’am, “Wages of Empire” follows Evan through the killing
fields of the Western Front where he will help turn the tide of a war that
is just beginning, and become part of a story still being written.

Readers who enjoy Wages of Empire should know that the story continues with
the sequel, Crossroads of Empire, the second book in this series.

About the Author

Michael J. Cooper

Michael J. Cooper emigrated to Israel in 1966 and lived in Jerusalem during
the last year the city was divided between Israel and Jordan. He graduated
from Tel Aviv University Medical School, and after a forty-year career as a
pediatric cardiologist in Northern California, he continues to do volunteer
missions serving Palestinian children who lack access to care.

His historical fiction novels include Foxes in the Vineyard, set in 1948
Jerusalem, which won the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest grand prize and The
Rabbi’s Knight, set in the Holy Land in 1290. Wages of Empire won the
2022 CIBA Rossetti Award for YA fiction along with first-place honors for
the 2022 CIBA Hemingway award for wartime historical fiction.

He lives in Northern California with his wife and a spoiled-rotten cat.
Three adult children occasionally drop by.

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

“X”

Instagram

BookBuzz

 

Purchase Links

Amazon

B&N

 

 

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on Wages of Empire Blitz

Filed under BOOK BLITZ

Tagged as , ,

by | February 26, 2025 · 5:00 am

Übermensch Virtual Book Tour

Übermensch banner

Übermensch cover

Historical Fiction

Published: 1/15/2025

 

 

A murdered boy. Tortoiseshell eyeglasses. A letter written by a young man
to another that reads like a lover’s spat. One portable Underwood
typewriter. Two confessions.

Will Babe and Manny live or die?

 

It’s the early 1920s and arrogant teenagers Noah “Babe” Lieberman
and Roman “Manny” Loewe have it all: money, brains, freedom. They
reside in the same affluent Chicago neighborhood, come from successful,
respectable families, and enjoy privileged lives. Both are intelligent
prodigies who graduated high school early. But Roman, an extrovert, is
handsome and popular whereas Noah is average-looking and spends most of his
time with birds and books. After meeting, they embark on a wild journey of
vandalism, burglary, and arson. Their personal relationship escalates, and
their criminal acts morph into more sinister behavior as the two flout the
laws of the “common” man and live their version of the
Übermensch, or “superman” as defined by Friedrich
Nietzsche.

One hundred years ago, the world was stunned to learn that Nathan Leopold
and Richard Loeb, two wealthy, brilliant university students, had confessed
to kidnapping and murdering fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks. Why did Leopold
and Loeb do it? For “pure love of excitement, or the imaginary love of
thrills, doing something different,” they said.

 

D.L. Scarpe’s Übermensch fictionalizes the Leopold and Loeb case,
focusing on the reason why the gifted teenagers’ lives took such an
unexpected turn, destroyed three families, and captivated the country in
what was dubbed at the time as the “crime of the century.”

Übermensch tablet

EXCERPT

Quotes From the Book…

Man is the cruelest animal.

Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?

What is the truth, but a lie agreed upon?

I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.

Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood. 

If these don’t/won’t work let me know and I’ll come up with something else.

About the Author

D.L. Scarpe

D.L. Scarpe has always had stories rattling around inside her head, locked
up tight, only set free on those endless childhood nights spent swapping
tales with her best friend. The story-weaving continued into
adulthood–her little secret. However, raising a family; managing a
household; building retaining walls, patios, or fire pits from stones (rock
“jigsaw puzzles”); refinishing oak floors and furniture; or
helping her husband on a roof–although she tried to pay attention when
on a roof–kept her too busy for that other side of her to come out.
So, it remained a secret.

But kids grow up and bodies get too tired for physical labor, and now
it’s time to pursue her own passions and dreams. Working on her bucket
list, she picked three things that make her happy, and she’s pursuing
them all with no apologies:

Writing.

Shoes.

Tattoos.

 

Contact Links

Website

Instagram

“X”

Facebook

Threads

 

Purchase Link

Amazon

 

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on Übermensch Virtual Book Tour

Filed under Book Tour

Tagged as , ,