Synopsis

 

If the fate of unrequited love survives fifty-one years, nine months, and four days in Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera, it leads the way for HER: The Flame Tree, a spare, remorseless love triptych that sweeps through the rich panorama of two generations of colonial and post-colonial Vietnam. The hopeless love of a young eunuch for a high-ranking concubine is one of this novel’s three stories that illuminate the oriental mystery of Vietnam, as epic as it is persevering,

Despite a rich trove of documentary films, Western readers know little of the spiritual face of Vietnam. Framed between 1915 and 1993, HER: The Flame Tree begins in Huế, the former imperial capital Vietnam. It is in the Purple Forbidden City, that Canh, the young eunuch, fulfills his vow to be near the girl of his dreams, a villager-turned imperial concubine.

The novel begins with an expatriate Vietnamese man living in the United States who journeys back to Vietnam to search for the adopted daughter of a centenarian eunuch of the Imperial Court of Huế to find out who she really is. His world takes on a new meaning after he becames a part of her life.

Phượng. Her name is the magnificent flame tree’s flowers that grace the ancient capital of Huế. Her father, mentor of Canh the young eunuch, was a hundred-year-old grand eunuch of the Imperial Court, who had adopted and raised her since she was a baby. Their peaceful world suddenly changed when one day, sometime in the early years of the Vietnam war, Jonathan Edward came into their lives. On his quest to search for his just deceased lover’s mysterious birth, there he met Phượng, an exquisite beauty.

Through the eye of her father, history is retold. Just before the fall of the French Indochina during the last dynasty of Vietnam, a young eunuch hopelessly fell in love with a high-ranking concubine. Once the eunuch had secured the concubine’s trust, it became a fatal attraction. The eunuch died. The concubine, still a virgin, lost her mind. Her father said she was possessed by the young eunuch’s spirit who had been madly in love with her.

HER: The Flame Tree does not have the flavor of historical fiction, plot-heavy and sexually graphic. Rather, it is atmospheric and impressionistic, in the style of Snow Falling on Cedars. The magnificent poinciana flowers, which grace the ancient capital of Huế, symbolize farewell in Vietnamese adolescent romance. Its symbolic image befits Phượng for her magnanimous nature and grace, and the scarlet blossoming flowers when Jonathan Edward bids Phượng farewell is beauty without sadness—Wait and Hope.

 

 

 

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Praise

 

“In this almost folkloric saga of a royal eunuch, his adopted daughter and the tragedies and triumphs of love in their lives from the days of the emperor’s court to the war with America, Khanh Ha takes us deeply into the heart of traditional Vietnam in a tale told in such lushly poetic, descriptive language that it immerses the reader deeply and sensually into the gorgeousness of the land, the texture and taste of food, and the complex humanity of the characters. Her: The Flame Tree is an intricately woven, seductively fascinating story of family, sacrifice, loyalty and redeeming love in the face of heart-breaking loss that breathtakingly weaves the lives of individuals we come to know and care about into the saga of Vietnamese—and American—history.” —Wayne Karlin, author of Memorial Days

“Ha evokes a visceral image of Vietnam . . .  A vivid study of a country’s fraught history and how its people struggled to make sense of it.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Her: The Flame Tree is a beautiful novel, rich with evocations of natural setting in coastal Vietnam; remembered action going back more than a hundred years; and characters both extraordinary and poignantly ordinary, developed by layer upon layer of stories.”—Elizabeth Harris, judge and author of Mayhem: Three Lives of a Woman

“Early in Khanh Ha’s latest novel Her: The Flame Tree, the author describes a book made of delicate leaves of gold. Such a volume would be ideal to record this shimmering and often tender tale of love, loss, and memory.” —Steve Evans, author of The Marriage of True Minds

 

 

Excerpt

 

Miss Phượng met the last concubine of Emperor Tự-Ðức when the woman was very old, in the final year of her long life. When the emperor died in 1883, she was only fifteen. She told Miss Phượng she was one hundred and twenty-three now. Small, birdlike, white hair parted in the middle, braided in two small plaits on the sides of her head.

She took Miss Phượng by the hand and led her into the cottage, which sat behind a bamboo hedge in the back of the mausoleum. She served tea from a tiny blue-flowered pot the size of her hand. The nougats she offered were made of egg whites and brown sugar and chopped nuts. Brittle, they melted quickly in the mouth.

“I used to make them for the emperor,” she told Miss Phượng. “A long time ago.” Then regarding Miss Phượng, she nodded, “See the banyan out there?”

It dwarfed the cottage with its shade, like an immense pavilion. Miss Phượng traced its tortuous roots to the steps of the concubine’s home.

“It was a little tree when I came,” the old woman muttered.

“Yes,” Miss Phượng said, “trees outlive us. My father had a magnolia planted outside the Trinh Minh Palace during his service as the grand eunuch for the imperial family. He would be three years older than you, Madam, if he still lived.”

In the deceased emperor’s personal room the old concubine sat down on the carved rosewood bed. Hunched between the parted panels of the yellow mosquito net, she sat amidst her husband’s belongings—the bed, its embroidered mat, the porcelain pillow, the tea, the rice liquor, the areca-nuts and betel leaves and a tiny pot of lime. They were here for him when he returned in spirit.

For one hundred and eight years she replenished them every morning so that when he arrived nothing was missing, nothing was stale. He could read his favorite books. He could write, as was his passion, in his annals, each page of which was a thin leaf of gold. He would find again his gold swords, jade shrubs, his chess men in green and white jade, chopsticks made of kim-giao white wood that turned black against any sort of poison. They were arranged there under glass.

Miss Phượng took the old woman’s hand and led her out of her haunt, passing candle-lit nooks and corners and the eternally mildewed air of the sunless chambers.

 

©Khanh Ha

 

 

Guest Review by Nora

 

A spellbinding novel from one of the greatest authors of our time– ‘Her: The Flame Tree,’ by Khanh Ha, is a one-of-a-kind story that allows the reader to travel deep into the heart of Vietnamese history.

Minh is a Vietnamese man now living in America who returns to his home country to seek out one very special woman and learn her story. Phuong is the adopted daughter of a former court eunuch who spent much of her life caring for her elderly father. Of both Vietnamese and French descent, Phuong knows nothing of her birth parents and has only ever known the love of her adopted father, Canh. But Canh has a storied history as well, and the novel unveils these three different timelines as it goes along.

From the halls of the palace of the Imperial Emperor to the packed streets of the marketplace, ‘Her: he Flame Tree’ takes you on a journey that you won’t soon forget.

I’m a huge fan of Khanh Ha’s writing and have enjoyed several of his books in the past, which is why I had a feeling I would enjoy this one. As an author, he has an undeniable way of crafting an atmosphere that makes the reader feel immersed in the story.

Between that creative blend of Vietnamese and American culture that Ha is so great at illustrating, and the strength and power of the characters, this book was a strong five star read for me!

I can’t imagine a better way to spend a winter evening than enjoying a book by this stellar author. This, being one of my first books of the year, was such a treat for both the heart and mind. I simply cannot wait to read whatever Ha comes out with next! I’m sure it will be extraordinary!

 

 

About the Author

 

Award winning author Khanh Ha is a nine-time Pushcart nominee, finalist for The Ohio State University Fiction Collection Prize, Mary McCarthy Prize, Many Voices Project, Prairie Schooner Book Prize, The University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize, Prize Americana, and The Santa Fe Writers Project. He is the recipient of the Sand Hills Prize for Best Fiction, The Robert Watson Literary Prize in Fiction, The Orison Anthology Award for Fiction, The James Knudsen Prize for Fiction, The C&R Press Fiction Prize, The EastOver Fiction Prize, The Blackwater Press Fiction Prize, The Gival Press Novel Award, and The Red Hen Press Fiction Award.

 

 

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Giveaway

 

This giveaway is for 3 print or ebook copies and is open to the U.S. only.

This giveaway ends on Feb 22, 2024, at midnight pacific time.

Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

After his mother’s death, seventeen-year-old Jubilee Walker asks to join a scientific expedition led by Major John Wesley Powell, a family friend. Powell initially refuses, but Jubil’s persistence and resourcefulness eventually win him a place on Powell’s crew. However, Jubil’s plans for a life of adventure are complicated by his deepening feelings for his best friend, Nelly Boswell, who is reluctant to spend her life with a man who insists on such a dangerous lifestyle. How will Jubil navigate the hardships and lawlessness of the American West? And will he be forced to choose between a life of adventure and the girl he loves?

Jubil’s story draws on the real-life adventures of naturalist, college professor, and one-armed Civil War veteran Major John Wesley Powell during his Colorado River Exploring Expeditions. Powell became the first explorer to summit Longs Peak in the Colorado Rockies and navigate the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, fixing his place in history as one of America’s great explorers.

 

 

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Win a copy on Goodreads (ends January 18th) 

 

 

Excerpt

 

CHAPTER 1

 

In late February, while winter still had a grip on the prairie, Jubilee Walker’s mother fell ill. She was still able to suffer through her work around the farm, but Jubil lay in bed listening to the sound of her cough, staring at the rafters above his loft. In spite of having spent the day cleaning out the barn and the livestock pens, he was not sleepy. In a few hours he would be at it again, splitting and stacking firewood—a never-ending chore. It was not the hard work of farming that weighed on Jubil’s soul but the monotony of it, and constantly being at the mercy of the weather. But then again, unpredictable weather was the only thing that broke the monotony of the chores that went on every day of the year, year after year.

He opened the door to his imagination and allowed it to roam as freely as his saddle horse, Star, turned out to graze without halter or bridle. One of these days, he was going to saddle up Star, taking nothing more than his rifle, a bedroll, and whatever he could pack in his saddlebags and ride west toward whatever adventures lay in his path. Following only his instincts, he would see as much of the world as he could before settling in any one place. How he would earn his daily bread was unclear, but he would hunt, fish, and live by his wits—and take a job now and then to earn a little travel money. That method had worked fine for his uncle Pete for many years until duty called him to the farm and then to war. Jubil’s path would become clearer once he was on it.

His mother coughed again, and his daydreams snagged on reality. He couldn’t imagine telling her that he was leaving her to run the farm on her own so he could ride carefree across the country in search of adventure. He would not lie here pining for a life that drew him away from his responsibility to her and to the memory of his father.

The other complication in this imagined life was Nelly Boswell. He had never spoken of his changing feelings for her and was unsure whether he ever would, but even if she didn’t feel the same, he was not anxious to live his life alone. It was unclear how he might be a husband to Nelly—or anyone else—and a father to their children while living a life of unfettered freedom and adventure.

He rubbed his eyes and told himself, Stop these foolish daydreams. His life was on this farm. If he married, his wife would come to live there with him and his mother, and that was that. He reached for the dime novel atop the stack sitting next to his bed, thinking it might help him sleep, but he had read it, and all of them, more than once. He tossed the book aside and blew out the lantern.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

TIM PIPER: Tim Piper is retired from a long career in Information Technology and has been a lifelong hobbyist musician. In his earlier days, he was an avid hiker and backcountry camper, but his adventures these days are less strenuous and more comfortable. He lives in Bloomington, Illinois, with his cat, Maggie, who is no help with his writing but is a stellar companion. He began his education at Illinois State University as an English major, but life circumstances put him on a more pragmatic path, and he graduated with a BS in Business Admin, a degree he finds appropriately named.

 

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Synopsis

 

An unforgettable tale of courage, compassion, and the pursuit of freedom.

Maggie has always accepted life’s constraints: that is, until she witnesses a breathtaking moment of liberation as a butterfly breaks free from a spider’s web. And this small, defiant act sparks a fire within her soul.

That’s a dangerous thing for a field slave in 1850 Missouri.

As her daughter ascends to the coveted position of personal maid to the Mistress, Maggie’s family is thrust into the intricate dynamics of power and privilege within the House.

But in the shadows, a chance encounter between Maggie’s sons and Preacher, a burly, escaped slave, sets the stage for a risky alliance.

Meanwhile, Lucy, the Master’s lonely daughter, hungers for the warmth and kindness that Maggie effortlessly exudes. The boundaries that separate them are as rigid as the times they live in, but the desire for connection and understanding defies the odds.

Maggie, recognizing an opportunity for freedom, finds herself entwined in a perilous dance between liberation and the relentless pull of her current station.

Will she follow in the path of the butterfly?

 

 

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Excerpt

 

Preacher had run out of Poplar Bluff and never slowed through Perryville. A dog caught him just outside Hannibal. Beating the hound off with a heavy branch, he’d limped free, though days later he could barely crawl. The pain had swelled, and his strength had ebbed.

He’d avoided plantations till now. Old Merlin had told him plantations were perfect—slaves helped slaves, and the masters couldn’t tell one from the other. But most slaves weren’t tall enough to look their master’s prize stallion in the eye, and Preacher could. And some slaves would turn you in for an extra portion of bacon fat. He’d found that out the hard way the night he ran. He’d stuffed food scraps into a feedbag as he had taken to doing several times a week. The next step was to snatch the last few scraps from the master’s ancient hound. The hound never minded—it ate too well and liked its sleep. But that particular night, Old Ned had seen him. The man had nodded friendly-like and started walking away—before Old Ned’s mother appeared and struck her son with a stick.

“He’ll tell the master for bacon,” she’d told Preacher. “Hell, he’d tell just out of spite. You go on now. Get!”

Seeing the look in Old Ned’s eyes, Preacher left the scraps and ran. He ran for six days.

He’d been able to eat here and there, doing some hunting but more stealing from gardens. Hadn’t ate much since that dog bit him. Last night he had crept into the plantation, dug up a potato, and devoured it dirt and all. The scent of honeysuckle had promised a sweet treat, but he found it too much effort to eat. So, he’d hidden in this bush, hoping the bit of food and rest would be enough to keep him going.

He woke to a sound.

“Snatch it off careful,” said a boy’s voice, innocent and unaware of life’s burden. “Now bite round the end, but not all the way. See? Like this.”

“And that drop’s the honey?” said another boy, seemingly younger still and full of wonder.

A movement caught Preacher’s eye, long and black and sliding through the grass toward his bad leg.

“That’s the honey.”

Preacher crept his hand into position. Saying a quick prayer, he grabbed the serpent farther down the body than he’d wanted, but close enough it couldn’t bite him. That dog had outsmarted him, but no damned snake would do the same.

“I thought honey came from bees.”

The reptile thrashed about, rattling the bush until two little heads popped through. “What you doing, mister?” asked the older boy, his eyes wide.

Preacher showed him the black snake. “Looks like I’m saving your ass.”

“Shoot. That’s just a king snake…he can’t hurt nothing.”

Preacher held it out to the boy, who pulled back. He then twisted around and threw it as far as he could.

“What’s wrong with your leg?”

“Hound dog got it.”

The little one finally spoke. “Booker had a hound dog.”

“Buster! Tweed!” called a far-off voice. “You youngins hear me?”

Both boys looked over their shoulders.

“Don’t tell on me,” Preacher whispered. “We men take care of each other.”

The older boy seemed affronted at the accusation. “We won’t tell!”

“Where you boys at? Buster!” The woman’s voice sounded annoyed but with an anxious tone creeping in.

“Our secret from the womenfolk.” Preacher tried to smile.

Then the younger boy burst out, “Mammy!”

There was nothing Preacher could do but lie there and wait. When that third head poked through the flowering branches, the woman’s eyes grew bigger than the boys’ had been.

“His leg is hurt,” the older one told her.

She didn’t reply.

She looked old enough and then some to be the boy’s mammy. Still had muscle, and she was a reasonable size as far as women went, with a faded purple scarf covering her hair. Her eyes were full of some emotion, but Preacher couldn’t guess exactly what. He didn’t know if he was safe or dead where he lay.

 

 

About the Author

 

At the age of three, her father found her with a book in her lap, yelling, “Read, read, read!” He quietly tiptoed away. Jo Sparkes took up a pen soon after.

As a contributing writer for the Arizona Sports Fans Network, where she was called their most popular writer, she garnered popularity with her humorous articles, player interviews and game coverage. Her body of work includes scripts for Children’s live-action and animated television programs, a direct-to-video Children’s DVD, and commercial work for corporate clients.

Her original script, Frank Retrieval, won the 2012 Kay Snow Award for best screenplay. Her fantasy series, The Legend of the Gamesmen, has garnered two B.R.A.G. Medallions and a 2015 silver IPPY award for Ebook Juvenile/YA Fiction.

When not diligently perfecting her craft, Jo can be found exploring her new home of Plymouth, England, where she and her spouse have embarked on a new adventure.

 

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Synopsis

1858. Magic and danger surround Twilight Wild Adams, but she doesn’t really notice—until her 16th birthday. Upon reading her special birthday letter filled with secrets from her beloved GrandMama—abolitionist and champion of a covert mystical sisterhood—everything changes.

Opening her eyes, Twilight speaks out against slavery. But almost everyone around her wants her to keep her beliefs to herself.

Doing what she knows is right and believing her emerging powers will guide her, she rushes in with wild conviction to stop the enslavement of children at a wicked plantation, only to discover what the captives know all too well—survival isn’t freedom.

Richly historical, low fantasy, high tension—Wild Conviction is a coming-of-age, socially conscious, epic adventure with touches of magic and love.

• Sprinkled with Magical Realism.
• Laced with Southern Gothic.
• Steeped in the heated tensions of antebellum America.

Note: For this novel, the author created a scenario within a historical setting in which the terms Rich-tone and Pale are used for skin tone—and without historical and contemporary derogatory terms.

 

 

 

Amazon

 

 

Excerpt

 

Chapter 1

New Realm ~ And An Exchange

Wednesday, June 16, 1858

Late Afternoon Memphis

 

From her shrine honoring beloved GrandMama, Twilight Adams lifted a book of poetry by Phillis Wheatley, pressed it to her chest, and whispered, “It’s time.”

Gingerly, she opened the book and removed her patient gift: a letter that GrandMama, four years ago and near death, had tucked inside.

This was Twilight’s birthday—another one her mother and sisters celebrated by ignoring it.

“By the full moon, I wish they cared.” She sighed, then kissed the letter. “Doesn’t matter. All that matters is this gift, full of love, waiting for me.”

As she’d done countless times, she traced her forefinger along the swooping blue inscription on the back of the folded paper:

Open On Your Sixteenth, Not Before, My Darling Twilight

She took a breath, turned over the tidy dense package of overlapping pages, then slid a letter opener under the rose wax seal embossed with the image of a doe beneath the sweeping branches of a tree. Carefully unfolding the letter, she was surprised to find small gifts: three tiny gems—rose quartz, black obsidian, lapis lazuli—and a thin ring. The gems she recognized as GrandMama’s. The ring was unfamiliar. Positioning the gems and the ring next to GrandMama’s Bible on the small bedside table she had made into a shrine, she, excited, began reading the long-awaited words.

As she read, she could feel GrandMama’s maternal caress. She could hear her soothing voice. But the words jarred her to her very core. After reading twice to be sure, she pressed the letter to her heart, then sank to the floor.

If another Earth realm exists, I’m certain I’ve left the place I know and entered that new world.

She read aloud GrandMama’s final words to her:

Burn this letter.

Instead, she buried it in her left pocket, patted another secret in her right pocket, and strode from the bedroom to the yard. Her electrified mind worked to untangle the letter’s words and how they stitched together her identity.

Who am I?

GrandMama, you told me a lot in my birthday letter, but not nearly enough. It’s time I see what I’ve purposely avoided.

In one swift move, she leaped onto her palomino mare, Spirit. With gliding strides, Spirit nearly flew along the streets—expertly weaving through the relentless march of wagons, gigs, pedestrians, and riders—to the despicable marketplace Twilight called Atrocity Square.

On the auction block, muscles taut, a young man stood. Though Twilight was seated atop Spirit on the far edge of the crowd, she sensed the youth’s quiet defiance, the restraint of his fever to break free, to know for once his life, unowned. Witnessing a person being auctioned caused her to shudder with fury. Raised until age twelve by her abolitionist GrandMama, Twilight wondered how it could be that in America people were sold, bought, owned. She’d always hated slavery. Now, ignited by her birthday secrets, she hated it to the gates of hell.

Two stinky men stood near her. She’d been ignoring the one who first yelled abuse at the enslaved youth on the block then turned to yap lewdly at her. Relentlessly he spewed his wretched breath and words through his missing front teeth. She reached inside her right pocket where, waiting and loaded, a pistol hid. She’d never shot any living thing, not even a heckler. And she didn’t plan to. But if her life, or her virginity, depended on it, she could. Gallatin had taught her well. A sharpshooter, she’d aim to wound. Regardless, being female, she’d probably be noosed for shooting any man, even a predatory breathing manure heap like this one.

 

 

Review

 

This coming-of-age story has a lot of intricate details woven into the story. It is set in the 1850s when times were much different from what we know today. Twilight has just turned 16, and a letter left to her by her grandmother tells of powers and a secret that could jeopardize her whole life.

Twilight is idealistic and wants better for everyone, regardless of race. She is against slavery and seeks to educate and free all those that she can. Her plans are thwarted when she marries Jackson. He is a slick operator and says all the right things but then does the opposite. His father is a piece of work, too. He believes that all pale men are superior to everyone else. He doesn’t even consider anyone else human other than pale men. Not even women!

This book covers about three to four years. It does jump forward, and not every single day is reflected, but if it were, this book would be even longer than it is already. The story moves steadily, not fast, but not too slow. I did feel like there were some parts that were superfluous, such as detailing when different states seceded from the Union during the Civil War. I skimmed those parts. But I do appreciate the author’s attention to detail and to be historically accurate.

I felt like the story picked up at the end as it was all coming to a head. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t go into much detail. I think the book has a happy ending for Twilight, especially when she was at such a low point due to various events.

We give the book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

An author of stories and poetry as portals to possibilities, Mary Dezember writes to inspire champions to find their magic for a new and better day.

Mary believes it helps to make life magical, even if that means simply cuddling a cat, donning a tiara, talking with a unicorn, channeling the muse, or reading a good book. She lives in the Land of Enchantment.

A lover of the beauty and power of language, she states: “We spell words and, arranged well, words can put a spell on us.”

Her debut novel, Wild Conviction: Sixteen is Power (Brilliant Moon Press), and her two books of poetry—Earth-Marked Like You (Sunstone Press) and Still Howling (CreateSpace Independent Publishing)—explore the rite of passage to identity, including the hero’s emotional and intellectual quest.

She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with an emphasis in Comparative Arts from Indiana University. Professor Emeritus of English at New Mexico Tech (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology), she is a scholar of the arts, literature, and writing.

 

 

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The Great Escapes Team is thrilled to share with you the cover for Samantha Larsen’s new book Once Upon a Murder, the 2nd Lady Librarian Mystery which will be released on February 20!

 

 

 

 

 

Once Upon a Murder (A Lady Librarian Mystery) by Samantha Larsen

Publication Date: February 20, 2024
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages

 

Synopsis

 

Miss Tiffany Woodall must sleuth the slaying of a footman to clear her beloved’s name in the second Lady Librarian mystery, in the vein of Deanna Raybourn and perfect for fans of Bridgerton.

1784 England. Officially hired as the librarian for the Duchess of Beaufort, Miss Tiffany Woodall is through with masquerades and murders for good. That is, until she stumbles upon the frozen dead body of former footman Mr. Bernard Coram. The speed with which her peaceful new life is upended is one for the record books: the justice of the peace immediately declares her the primary suspect in the murder.

As Tiffany hunts for the truth to clear her name, she learns that Bernard got into a fight over a woman at the local pub the night of his death–but he was also overheard blackmailing Samir. The justice of the peace arrests Samir, and Tiffany realizes that her life may have more in common with a tragic play than a light-hearted romance.

With her love locked up in jail and her own reputation on the line, Tiffany must attempt to solve the murder before the book closes on her or Samir’s life.

 

 

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Powells Books – Bookshop.org – Target – Walmart

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Samantha Larsen met her husband in a turkey sandwich line. They live in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she spends most of her time reading, eating popcorn, having tea parties, and chasing her four kids. She has degrees from Brigham Young University, the University of North Texas, and the University of Reading (UK). She also writes historical romances under Samantha Hastings.

 

Website

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

From glittering ballrooms to verdant mountains to poverty-stricken slums, A Delicate Marriage takes the reader on a vivid tour of Puerto Rico forty years after becoming a U.S. colony, a time of great change and political turmoil on the island.

Isabela, a wealthy woman, sacrifices her artistic aspirations to marry Marco, a penniless man dedicated to improving conditions on the island. As the island’s insular government enacts pro-U.S. policies, Marco builds a real estate empire while struggling to maintain his populist principles. Meanwhile, Isabela feels unfulfilled in her traditional role as a wife and mother and becomes disillusioned with Marco’s shifting moral compass. She begins to identify with anti-U.S. factions, leading a dangerous double life that puts her family in peril.

As political violence threatens their paradise, Isabela and Marco question whether their marriage, like the island’s relationship with the U.S., should continue. Margarita Barresi’s debut novel celebrates Puerto Rican culture while delving into themes of class, oppression, and the effects of colonialism through the lens of a marriage.

 

 

 

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Praise

 

“Margarita Barresi’s A Delicate Marriage is an electrifying debut … smart, heartfelt and timely… a trenchant portrait of an island and a marriage pushed to the breaking point.”  —    Junot Diaz, author of This is When You Lose Her

“Immersive and interesting, empathetic, and expansive, Barresi skillfully interweaves a love story with the history of Puerto Rico politics. An impressive debut!” — Susie Orman Schnall, author of We Came Here to Shine

“Barresi is a naturally gifted storyteller with a talent for narrative structure…What emerges is a fully three-dimensional portrait of a couple trying to find a way forward in a time of political and social upheaval…An absorbing and deeply nuanced romance.”    —Kirkus Reviews

“Barresi expertly weaves captivating details of Puerto Rican history into this gripping love story.” — Independent Book Review

“A Delicate Marriage, with its blend of glamour, charm, and a nostalgic nod to a bygone era, promises to uplift readers’ spirits on even the dreariest of days, inviting them to revisit the tempestuous yet enchanting landscape of Puerto Rico.” — Literary Titan

 

 

Excerpt

 

The storm raged overnight, and though Marco fought to keep his eyes open, he eventually surrendered to sleep. He woke to the smell of burnt candle wax and the sound of weeping and pulled himself upright to see Padre Palacios holding his mother’s hand, offering the usual platitude, “If he’s gone, my dear, it’s God’s will.”

Marco trembled uncontrollably, his mind refusing to accept the unthinkable. He sprang to his feet, darted to the back of the church, and pounded up the bell tower stairs to the town’s highest vantage point. He scanned the devastated valley for a trace of his father. The countryside, just yesterday a hundred shades of green, appeared denuded as if a giant’s hand had ripped out its flora. Ancient trees lay tortured on the ground, and few homes, including his own, remained standing. The vast detritus of humanity lay scattered: a black cauldron, a doll’s torso, a twisted bicycle. Smashed avocados, plantains and guavas littered the ground alongside pig, chicken, horse, and cow carcasses. The destruction was incomprehensible. Yet the sky shone an incongruous bright blue, as if denying culpability.

Papá, where are you? Marco’s steely grip on the steeple’s railing turned his knuckles white. He stayed there all day, pacing back and forth in the turret, holding vigil for his father.

 

 

About the Author

 

Raised in Puerto Rico by her grandparents, Margarita Barresi grew up hearing stories about the “good old days”—the genesis for this, her first novel. She studied public relations at Boston University, and after a successful career in marketing communications, now devotes her time to writing. Her essays have been published in several literary magazines and compilations. Margarita lives in the suburbs north of Boston with her husband and two Puerto Rican cats, Luna and Rico.

 

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Synopsis

 

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 and Chaim Weizmann, “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 that never ends.

 

 

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Excerpt

 

 

Prologue

 

 

April 18, 1911

Jerusalem

 

THE TEMPLE MOUNT was shrouded in darkness. It was the dead of night yet sounds of digging echoed within the Dome of the Rock.

Gunter von Wertheimer knew the sounds well—the steady scrape of a shovel, the bite of a pick, and the whisper of soil poured from full panniers.

Cloaked in a hooded robe, he stood in the shadow of the shrine and looked up at the sky. Among the bright points of stars, the constellation of the scorpion hovered over the Dome, the sharp stinger formed by a bright star the Arabs called Lasa’a, poised to strike.

As the digging continued, another sound whispered out of the darkness.

“It’s time.”

He knew the voice was that of his friend and fellow archeologist, Rahman B’Shara, a hulking shadow in the darkness.

“You know what you must do,” said Gunter.

“It’s strange, though,” Rahman murmured. “When Walker first came, I thought he was like the others—just another greedy treasure hunter, anxious to get his hands on the golden vessels hidden beneath the Foundation Stone. But once I joined the dig, I couldn’t believe how quickly it was progressing.”

“Do you still believe he’ll break through in the next few days?”

“No. He’ll break through in the next few hours.”

“Because of the spiritualists and clairvoyants he hired?”

“More likely, it’s the unchecked access he’s had to dig for the last two weeks. Walker has a keen sense of which Ottoman officials to bribe—starting with the Turkish governor.” Rahman turned, stepped past Gunter and whispered, “There’s no time to lose.”

“Good luck, my friend.”

“Why do I need luck?”

“You know that better than I. His guards are well armed.”

Rahman smiled, his white teeth flashing in the starlight. “We have something more powerful than their guns.”

“Indeed. We have the power of the Temple.”

“In the end, yes, but I was speaking of a power of this world—the power of the mob.”

“And what a mob!” Gunter agreed. “Thousands of pilgrims in Jerusalem for the Feast of Nebi Musa! When they hear the Temple Mount has been desecrated by treasure hunters, Walker won’t need to enter the Temple to experience divine wrath.”

“Yes! The faithful will be quick to avenge this outrage.” Rahman bolted away, disappearing into the darkness.

Gunter knew he was heading to the Muslim Quarter beyond the northern edge of the sacred precincts. After a few seconds, he heard his voice calling out, echoing among the narrow lanes.

“Sacrilege! The Frengi are breaking the foundation stone! Sacrilege!”

Within seconds, two armed Turkish guards with torches shot out of the shrine and sprinted in the direction of Rahman’s voice.

Gunter flattened himself against the smooth tiles and watched as they came to a stop, apparently despairing as they heard the words Rahman was shouting.

“Arise to vengeance! The Turks have given over the Holy Mountain to the greed of infidels. Avenge the sacrilege! Arise!”

The guards ran back into the shrine and within seconds, Gunter heard the anxious voice of Montagu Walker.

“We must get out of here double quick! Hurry! Take whatever you can carry!”

As he waited in the shadows beneath the arches of the arcade, Gunter knew that Rahman had been the one best suited to infiltrate Walker’s scheme—to expose and stop him. Walker had hired Rahman as his consulting archaeologist to give his treasure hunt the patina of a legitimate excavation—Rahman, who could trace his ancestry in Jerusalem back for a hundred generations.

Though Gunter had also been born in Jerusalem, he was the son of German Templers, and never completely trusted by the local population; suspected of working for the Germans, or the Ottomans, or both.

But Gunter served no colonial empire. He, like Rahman, was a Guardian of the Temple Mount, an order that traced its origins to a time before the holy mountain had a name, a time cloaked in the

shadowed silence before history.

A line of flaming torches appeared along the northern border of the Temple enclosure. Shouts of execration filled the air.

Walker and his crew tumbled out of the Dome of the Rock, struggling with heavy sacks, shovels and picks that scraped and clattered on the paving stones.

“Leave that stuff!” Walker shouted. “Run for your lives!”

They rushed headlong away from the mob, frantically clawing past one another.

Gunter knew they were making for a gap in the southern border of the enclosure.

The mob surged forward in pursuit, the light of a thousand torches beneath the black sky.

Walker was finished.

The passages and chambers within the Temple Mount would remain sealed, as they had been for a thousand years.

But Gunter knew that others would come—drawn by the power and mystery of Jerusalem. And he also knew that the Guardians of the Temple Mount would be watching, and they would never rest.

 

 

About the Author

 

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 40-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.

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Synopsis

 

Long Island, New York, just after World War II, when the country was great for some and not so great for others, home to the Smith family: Philip, a racist Nassau County detective with a secret; his mentally ill wife, Eunice, speeding around the house looking for her coffee can of prescription pills; their oldest son, Philip Jr., aspiring pastor and budding monster; daughter Joyce, with a serious artistic talent that, in the great mall culture, she doesn’t know what to do with; and Oscar, an obese child who wants nothing more than to be a fireman when he grows up.

After surviving her own dysfunctional childhood, Joyce marries Roger, a beeraholic Customs Inspector with whom she would have two Griff, an enterprising lad fully comfortable on the other side of a line, and Stacy, a girl attuned to a dark frequency few can perceive. Decades go by, marriages fall apart, children long to escape, and Joyce struggles to find happiness in her art and life in the only place she would ever know.

 

 

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About the Author

 

Richard Daub grew up on Long Island, New York, where he pilfered milk crates, loitered in bowling alleys, rumbled in shopping mall parking lots, stocked supermarket frozen foods aisles, played guitar, cruised nightclub parking lots for girls, wrote crappy song lyrics, and longed for the day he’d forever leave “Strong Island”.

He fled the Atlantic Northeast for the Pacific Northwest and, in the late 1990s, worked for a company named after a piranha-filled river that sold books on the World Wide Web, where he met his wife.

In the 2000s, he became an inexperienced journalist and quickly rose to international prominence covering the animal pharmaceutical industry.

After toiling in journalism for a number of years and reminding himself that he was but an artist, the author began a career in real estate, selling condos in Harlem until the financial disaster of 2008.

The real estate market having collapsed, he took a factory job and moved with wife and child to Westchester County, New York. After several years of labor, husbanding, and childrearing, he began writing again, waking at 3:00 am until it was time to take the kids to school and go to work, eventually completing The Adventures of Hyperkid, a young adult novel written with his son. He then completed two adult novels, History of von Schatt (1913-1960) and The Island Country, as well as a collection of short stories, The Greater Massapequas—the kind of thing agents and publishers love most, short story collections from unknown writers. Take that to your fiction workshop and smoke it.

History of von Schatt is a novel inspired by a creepy painting hung on in his author’s grandmother’s Long Island home, a portrait of the ship captain grandfather he’d never met, a man so frightening that the author, as a boy, could see fear in the eyes of the grownups whenever they spoke of “The Captain”, who, by then, had been dead two decades, harrowing tales of land and sea they probably never imagined the boy would recall later in life as a toasted journalist.

The Island Country and The Greater Massapequas are drawn from the author’s experience growing up on the desolate, amber-lit streets and mall culture of the Long Island suburbs he longed to get as far from as possible without leaving the country.

He submitted these works to “literary agents”, leeches of a swine publishing industry just as bad, if not worse, than the music industry, the filmmaking industry, and the car rental industry. After recalling that definition of insanity of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, he decided to heed the advice of other successful artists, to make it happen yourself.

The author would eventually realize that he could have written the greatest novel ever and he still would have gotten the same nonresponse. In his exhaustive research, he learned that there are precious few slots for titles from unknown literary writers, especially for those who didn’t hail from one of America’s leading “academic institutions”, or some “workshop” in the middle of a cornfield, or some academia that places undue relevance to the “The” before its name and has fraternities with secret handshakes and professors on the take.

The author, with several completed works in the can and crossing the threshold of fifty, old enough to have written on electric typewriters and word processors and computers with sensitive floppy disks, realized he did not need some promise of commercial success from the leeches and swine, and, that, as an artist, he needed to put his work out there and let the world decide, not some Manhattan socialite.

“It took me fifty years, but now it’s time to do it my way,” said the author recently at a sub-gala affair in south central Westchester County. “I’m not going to live long enough for the publishing industry and its gatekeepers to get their heads out of their ass. It is time to let the world decide.”

 

 

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Synopsis

 

The year is 622 A.D., and the Persian and Byzantine empires have been fighting a war in the deserts since before she was born…

Asana’s life has been one of turmoil and change. Every year found her uprooted and brought to another foreign land to live an austere life in a garrison with her father, an officer in the Persian Army. But the middle of a war is no place for such a gentle soul.

Before long, she is swept away from her family and forced to flee on the back of her beloved horse. Fate leads her into the hands of a handsome and mysterious Roman soldier who sequesters her in a beautiful palace in the heart of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire.

She begins to fall for him, and at last it seems as though she may have found an oasis of happiness in her war-torn world. That is, until news of a Persian army marching toward the city upends her life again, setting in motion an unstoppable chain of events that bring the story to its breathtaking and tragic conclusion…

 

 

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About the Author

 

Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, J.F. Hughes graduated college with a degree in Business. He works full-time as a property manager and moonlights as a music teacher. Creative at heart, Hughes has been actively pursuing his passion for writing and is excited to launch his debut fiction novel, The Gardens of Byzantium.

 

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Synopsis

 

Rich with history, the geriatric romance in Two Rivers entertains and educates. Without fear of causing “discomfort” to some, Two Rivers takes us deep into the lives of two peoples—Africans and Europeans—in 1854 near Charleston, South Carolina.

In Two Rivers, the parallel courtships of enslaved widow Ella wooing 84-year-old widower Posey and Tiffany Plantation manager James’ pursuit of Jacqueline, daughter of a bank president, reveals the side-by-side lifestyles of enslavers and the enslaved.

Attorney James’ dream was to join the elite planter-banker class by any means necessary. Rebuffed by Congressman William Aiken’s daughter, James turned to Jacqueline. Meanwhile, Angolan Ella was determined to marry Posey, whose ancestry was Igbo.

Though enemies from the day James arrived, both Posey and James respected Senator John C. Calhoun—but for vastly different reasons. For James, Calhoun represented the “rule-maker class” he wanted to join. Posey welcomed Calhoun’s prediction of war between white people.

By 1854, the Tiffany family had enslaved over 300 Africans for more than a century on the 1,100-acre slave labor camp that they called the Tiffany Plantation. The Tiffanys were the largest rice producer in South Carolina’s Colleton District. While the toil of enslaved Africans earned untold riches for the Tiffanys, the Africans endured violence inflicted to force increased rice production and profits followed by the indignity of the bodies of loved ones being stolen from their graves and delivered to a medical school.

Rich with history and a cast of unforgettable characters, Two Rivers is a sweeping saga of two peoples—European immigrants and African abductees. Together, they experience courtships, infanticide, homicide, rape, rebellions, revenge, sabotage, storms, high-stakes gambling, grave-robbing, counterfeiting, slave mortgage-backed securities, and more.

“De troubles Posey be sees” in Two Rivers reminds one of Southern Gothic storytelling.

 

 

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Interview with Bob

 

SBR: Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

Bob: Readers can learn more about me than a body needs to know on the “Team” page on my website. I displayed all my books on this page, which includes links to individual book pages for more information. For example, the Two Rivers page includes an “About the Book” message, trailer, free download button for chapters 1-3, and purchase links to retailers in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

SBR: Tell us about the process for coming up with the cover.

Bob: The Two Rivers cover is a photo of a rice harvest painting commissioned by The Rice Museum in Georgetown, South Carolina. I discovered the painting while on a field research trip in 1995 for another book. Twenty-five years later, when I was well into writing the Two Rivers story set on a rice farm, I realized that the painting would make a splendid cover. The cover was produced by a collaboration between the museum’s executive director, museum photographer, my cover designer, and me. The largest rice farms in 1854 were on tidal rivers, hence the title.

SBR: If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?

Bob: That’s a brilliant question. Let’s see. These are the actors that come to mind: Posey would be played by Morgan Freeman, Ella by Viola Davis, James by Tom Cruise, and Penny by Hailey Kilgore.

SBR: Do you have a library membership?

Bob: Yes. Though I have used many public libraries while doing field research, I am a member of only two libraries. I maintain membership in the public library in my former home city of Charlotte, North Carolina, and my current home city of Merida, Yucatan.

SBR: Who is your favorite author and why?

Bob: The late historical novelist Herman Wouk is my favorite author. I remain impressed and inspired by his dedication to thorough field research and authenticity. His work ethic is clear in his companion novels, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. I have done my best to follow his example.

SBR: Who are your heroes?

Bob: Some of my heroes date back to my childhood. So, here’s my list, warts and all: Don Newcombe, Albert Einstein, Herman Wouk, Billie Jean King, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Nina Simone, August Wilson, Ray Charles, Alexandre Dumas, and Barbara Lee. They, like me, had, or have, feet of clay.

SBR: If you could invite one person to dinner, who would it be, and what would you cook?

Bob: I would invite Denzel Washington. I would cook salmon and garlic shrimp, stir-fried mixed veggies, and miniature red potatoes. My garlic shrimp includes diced white onion, real bacon bits, diced white mushrooms, olive oil, butter, Old Bay, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and, of course, garlic.

SBR: oh my, that sounds delicious!  Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions so we could learn more about you.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Bob Rogers is the author of the historical novels First Dark and The Laced Chameleon, which earned critical acclaim from Kirkus Reviews, San Francisco Review, and Baltimore Examiner. Bob is a meticulous researcher, known to spend extra time, magnifying glass in hand, deciphering 18th and 19th-century handwriting for “just the facts, ma’am.” Bob, a former U.S. Army captain and combat leader during the Vietnam War in Troop A, 1/10 Cavalry, finds his topographic experiences useful in field research. If not closeted in libraries or museums, you are likely to find him walking centuries-old rice fields, battlefields, or in a canoe following the river trails of his characters.

He studied at South Carolina State University and the University of Maryland.

Bob tends his flowers, okra, and tomato plants in Mérida, Yucatán, México.

 

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