Book Tour: The Flying Barons of Negriponte by: James Calbraith

 

In the ruins of a fallen Empire, the first ever female pilot takes part in a flying boat race to free her people from the foreign oppression…

Title: The Flying Barons of Negriponte (The Aether Empire Book 1)

Author: James Calbraith

Publication Date: September 20, 2023

Pages: 134

Genre: Historical Fantasy/Candlepunk

They killed her father. They took her ship. But nothing will stop Ikaria's vengeance.

Forty years since Constantinople fell to the Venetian flying citadels, high-altitude Aether racing is the favoured pastime of bored, wealthy Latin nobles. Ikaria, proud daughter of a legendary Aether engineer and one of the best racing pilots in the Aegean, is determined to uncover the truth behind her father's mysterious disappearance at the end of the last Grande Regatta of Negriponte.

Driven by the thirst of vengeance and pursuit of engineering excellence in equal measures, Ikaria vows to win the next Regatta herself - and to find out what really happened to her father. But there's a catch: a new Imperial edict bars her, and anyone not of noble blood, from taking part in Aether races. To her rescue comes Sire Mikhael of Chiarenza - an enigmatic handsome young Greek turncoat in the service of new Latin masters. His motivations unclear, the source of his funds and supplies a secret, Ikaria nonetheless agrees to accept his help: together, they set out to challenge the supremacy of the six Hexarchs, the infamous Flying Barons of Negriponte.

Pick up your copy of The Flying Barons of Negriponte at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJKXXQB1 .

Book Excerpt:

A black-headed gull landed on the bowsprit. It glanced around, confused as to why a small, sleek sailboat suddenly appeared in its path in the middle of a billowing cloud hundreds of feet above the surface of the sea. Its eyes met Ikaria’s; the bird squawked in indignation and spread its wings as if to protest this sin against God and nature. A sudden, violent gust pushed it off the spar. Still squawking in disgust, the gull continued on its way while the boat pushed onwards, deeper into the cloud and out the other side.

A white-washed dot of Saint Elijah’s chapel appeared among the rocky outcrops, marking the eastern end of the Chalcis Pass. Ikaria reached under her tunic and took out a small brass key, inlaid with a piece of ruby glass, hung on a silver chain at her neck. Gingerly, she inserted it into a slot in the side of the Caput Chamber and turned it a quarter to the right. A conduit linking the Inhibitor Retort with the Tribikos Manifold hissed, indicating a forming air gap. She turned the spigot in the nozzle, releasing half a dram of the Inhibitor into the Sublimation Aludel. It took another few moments for the reaction to start. She turned to the Hygroscope and observed the four liquids behind the pane of rock crystal: a mixture of quicksilver, aqua fortis, brine and fish oil, each coloured with a different hue of vitriol, indicated the proportion of gaseous Quintessence – the Naviferous Aether – in the air under the hull. The liquids bubbled behind the crystal, reacting to a sudden change in pressure, then stabilised at the new levels, layer upon layer, at their respective measuring notches carved in the crystal pane. And then – a new layer emerged where there shouldn’t be one: a fifth, ruby-coloured liquid filled out the unmarked space between the quicksilver and aqua fortis.

– Excerpted from The Flying Barons of Negriponte by James Calbraith, Flying Squid, 2023. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

James Calbraith is a Poland-born Scottish writer of history-adjacent novels, coffee drinker, Steely Dan fan and avid traveller.

Growing up in communist Poland on a diet of powdered milk, “Lord of the Rings” and soviet science-fiction, he had his first story published at the ripe age of eight. After years of bouncing around Polish universities, he moved to London in 2007 and started writing in English. Now lives in Edinburgh, hoping for an independent Scotland.

His debut historical fantasy novel, “The Shadow of Black Wings“, has reached Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semi-finals in 2012. “The Year of the Dragon” saga sold over 30,000 copies worldwide.

His new historical fiction saga, “The Song of Ash” has been on top of Amazon’s Bestseller lists in UK for months. 

Connect with James:

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Bookbub | Wattpad | Quora

 

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Review: Madame Pommery Creator of Brute Champagne by: Rebecca Rosenberg

Title: Madame Pommery: Creator of Brute Champagne

Author: Rebecca Rosenberg

Publisher: Lion Heart Publishing

Format: e-book ( 400 p.) Netgalley ARC

Description:

A Champagne Widows Novel

Champagne, France, 1860. Madame Pommery, an etiquette teacher and orphanage founder, loses her husband and is forced to support her family. With no experience, the forty-year-old widow decides to make champagne. Her unique vision is to change it from a sweet dessert beverage to a dry, crisp wine to be enjoyed anytime. When champagne makers refuse to teach her their craft, she forges ahead on her own and secretly begins the excavation of champagne caves under the Reims city dump.

Soon after, her son and her entire crew are conscripted to fight the Franco-Prussian war, leaving Madame Pommery alone to struggle with her champagne dreams. After Napoleon and a hundred thousand French troops are captured, the Prussians invaded France, and Prussian General Frederick Franz occupies Madame Pommery’s house as his army headquarters. Undaunted, Pommery uses her secret wine caves to hide the Francs-Tireurs, resistance fighters for France, while she plans to build a spectacular castle winery above the caves.

But when her former lover, a Scottish Baron, unexpectedly proposes marriage, Madame Pommery must choose between nobility and her passionate quest for fine champagne and the most beautiful winery in the world.

Based on a true story, Madame Pommery is a heroic novel about a mother and widow who fights the Prussians, the social class system, champagne patriarchs, and champagne tastes to create a champagne legacy.

My Thoughts:

This book follows recently widowed Madame Pommery who finds herself in need of money to keep them going she has two companies inherited by her late husband a winery and a wool company.  She decides to ditch the wool and focus all efforts on the winery.  But in a world where women are not dealt with alot can she survive?

She makes bold decisions that are unheard of in this time frame.  Changing wine to what we now know as Brute Champagne in a world where Champagne is sweet as heck. she decides to make it less sweet looking for a dryer Champagne.  

So much happens in this book and you feel pulled in wanting to see how everything plays out especially during a Napoleon France.  She is armed with her wits and a vision no could think would work.  I really enjoyed seeing what she accomplished especially during the time frame!

Anyone who likes historical novels based on things we have now like Brut will appreciate what this author has given us a heck of a story about a wonderful lady!

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Review: The Sister Wives by: Beatriz Williams

Title: The Sister Wives

Author: Beatriz Williams

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: Hardcover ( 389 p.) Personal Purchase

Description:

New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams brings us the blockbuster novel of the season—a spellbinding novel of romance, murder, class, power, and dark secrets set in the 1950s and ’60s among the rarified world of a resort island in the Long Island Sound . . .

In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island in Long Island Sound as a naive eighteen year old, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. Although a graduate of the exclusive Foxcroft Academy in Virginia, Miranda has always lived on the margins of high society. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda is catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister—all long legs and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy Island scion—is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society.

But beneath the Island’s patrician surface, there are really two clans--the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who earn their living on the water and in the laundries of the summer houses.Uneasy among Isobel's privileged friends, Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father keeps the lighthouse with his mysterious wife. In summer, Joseph helps his father in the lobster boats, but in the autumn he returns to Brown University, where he's determined to make something of himself. Since childhood, Joseph has enjoyed an intense, complex friendship with Isobel Fisher, and has a catastrophe that will shatter Winthrop’s hard-won tranquility and banish Miranda from the Island for nearly two decades.

Now, in the summer of 1969, Miranda returns at last, as a renowned Shakespearean actress hiding a terrible heartbreak. On its surface, the Island remains the same--determined to keep the outside world from its shores, fiercely loyal to those who belong. But the formerly powerful Fisher family is a shadow of itself, and Joseph Vargas has recently escaped the prison where he was incarcerated for the murder of Miranda’s stepfather eighteen years earlier. What’s more, Miranda herself is no longer a naive teenager, and she begins a fierce, inexorable quest for justice to the man she once loved . . . even if it means uncovering every last one of the secrets that bind together the families of Winthrop Island. 

My Thoughts: 

This book follows Miranda who has come back home having a career as an actress and married a big name in her world but all is not roses and sunshine.  Then we go back to when her mother married Hugh Fisher after Miranda's father died.  There she meets her new stepsister Isobel and also meets Joseph a local man who lives with his mother at the lighthouse.  Instantly she feels connected to him.

In the present the big mystery is why Joseph killed Miranda's stepfather and how she could still side with him.  Miranda knows there is more to this story then anyone knows and the answers seem to lie at the lighthouse.  

This book really grabbed you with the intrigue of the island and what happened so long ago and why.  I really enjoyed entering into Miranda's world and seeing where it would lead which was everywhere.  Definitely a great summer read for that next beach read!

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Review: The Golden Hour by: Beatriz Williams

Title: The Golden Hour

Author: Beatriz Williams

Publisher: William Morrow

Format: Hardcover (480 p.) Personal Purchase

Description:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives and A Certain Age creates a dazzling epic of World War II-era Nassau—a hotbed of spies, traitors, and the most infamous couple of the age, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The Bahamas, 1941. Newly-widowed Leonora “Lulu” Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the Governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires?

Or so Lulu imagines. But as she infiltrates the Duke and Duchess’s social circle, and the powerful cabal that controls the islands’ political and financial affairs, she uncovers evidence that beneath the glister of Wallis and Edward’s marriage lies an ugly—and even treasonous—reality. In fact, Windsor-era Nassau seethes with spies, financial swindles, and racial tension, and in the middle of it all stands Benedict Thorpe: a scientist of tremendous charm and murky national loyalties. Inevitably, the willful and wounded Lulu falls in love.

Then Nassau’s wealthiest man is murdered in one of the most notorious cases of the century, and the resulting coverup reeks of royal privilege. Benedict Thorpe disappears without a trace, and Lulu embarks on a journey to London and beyond to unpick Thorpe’s complicated family history: a fateful love affair, a wartime tragedy, and a mother from whom all joy is stolen.

The stories of two unforgettable women thread together in this extraordinary epic of espionage, sacrifice, human love, and human courage, set against a shocking true crime . . . and the rise and fall of a legendary royal couple.

My Thoughts: 

This book is intriguing to say the least we meet the King who abdicated his throne for a woman and we need Lulu who is there to write about the couple.  It brings us to Nassau in the Bahamas back during World War II and how the people lived and survived and what happens is so captivating it pulls you in along with a juice murder to boot.

I think anyone who loves historical fiction will love this book as it has you hooked until the last page and we see how it all plays out.

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Review: The Last Collection by:Jeanne Mackin

Title: The Last Collection
Author: Jeanne Mackin Publisher: Berkley Books
Format: Paperback ( 352 p.)

Description:

An American woman becomes entangled in the intense rivalry between iconic fashion designers Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli in this captivating novel from the acclaimed author of The Beautiful American.

Paris, 1938. Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli are fighting for recognition as the most successful and influential fashion designer in France, and their rivalry is already legendary. They oppose each other at every turn, in both their politics and their designs: Chanel's are classic, elegant, and practical; Schiaparelli's bold, experimental, and surreal.

When Lily Sutter, a recently widowed young American teacher, visits her brother, Charlie, in Paris, he insists on buying her a couture dress--a Chanel. Lily, however, prefers a Schiaparelli. Charlie's beautiful and socially prominent girlfriend soon begins wearing Schiaparelli's designs as well, and much of Paris follows in her footsteps.

Schiaparelli offers budding artist Lily a job at her store, and Lily finds herself increasingly involved with Schiaparelli and Chanel's personal war. Their fierce competition reaches new and dangerous heights as the Nazis and the looming threat of World War II bear down on Paris.

My Thoughts: 

This book follows Lily and both Coco Channel and Elsa Schiaparelli as they are at the hight of their career selling clothing to women.  They fight with each other every time you turn around add to that the war is stating to really rage on and you wonder how Paris will fair with it.  Lily and her brother Charlie are visiting Paris and Charlie offers to buy her a dress and she picks on designer over another.  

As the book goes on we see how Lily does and what she does with her life after loosing her husband.  This book was insane the way you walked with Lily and saw what she saw and what she learned from both designers about love and life.

Definitely a great historical fiction book that takes place in Paris while German's are getting closer and what mattered to women back then!

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Review: Lilac Girls by: Marha Hall Kelly

Title: Lilac Girls

Author: Martha Hall Kelly

Publisher: Ballentine Books

Format: Hardcover ( 487 p.) Personal Purchase

Description:

Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this debut novel reveals a story of love, redemption, and secrets that were hidden for decades.

 

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.

 

An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.

 

For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.

 

The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.

My Thoughts:

First off I read Lost Roses before I even heard of Lilac Girls but let me say oh my god you are missing out on a great World War II book this one is told from 3 perspectives one is Caroline Ferriday, the other by Kasia Kuzmerick and the third a German Doctor Herta Oberheuser.

Caroline is doing all she can do to help orphan French children during WWII.  Sending care packages and everything in between when she gets on a mission about rabbits.

Kasia is a young girl who ends up in a bad situation in Poland during the war and winds up at Ravensbruk concentration camp for women.  There nasty experiments are being run on the women depending on how they are.  

Dr. Herta Oberheusaer is treating women at the camp and testing out things on prisoners who the German's claim are guilty and sentenced to death.  

This book was so good along with any book Ms. Kelly writes she really takes the time to offer up a wonderful success to people every time she writes a book.  It's definitely worth the adventure to be able to travel with these amazing women and to hear their story.  I love it so much! 

If you are a WWII buff you will love this story and be pulled into the action and mayhem it offers.

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Review: The Queen's Accomplice by: Susan Elia MacNeal

Title: The Quuen's Accomplice
Author: Susan Elia MacNeal
Publisher: Bantam
Series: Maggie Hope #6
Format: Paperback ( 368 p.) Personal Purchase

Synopsis:

England, 1942. The Nazis relentless Blitz may have paused, but London s nightly blackouts continue. Now, under the cover of darkness, a madman is brutally killing and mutilating young women in eerie and exact re-creations of Jack the Ripper s crimes. What s more, he s targeting women who are reporting for duty to be Winston Churchill s spies and saboteurs abroad. The officers at MI-5 quickly realize they need the help of special agent Maggie Hope to find the killer dubbed the Blackout Beast. A trap is set. But once the murderer has his sights on Maggie, not even Buckingham Palace can protect the resourceful spy from her fate.

My Thoughts:

The blitz's have taken a break and someone has decided to try to emulate Jack the Ripper with young women who work for the SOE.  Maggie Hope is now working for the SOE and one of the agents has been compromised.  Maggie gets called to Downing Street to meet with a local Scotland Yard cop to figure out what is going on with the young women.  

Meanwhile Maggie's sister is with her father on a small release of 9 days to renounce the doctor and the death's they were performing when she is picked up by the underground and a German officer helps her escape by practically throwing her into a car.

Maggie also finds herself having tea with the Queen whose adamant in owing Maggie a favor she she need it at anytime.  This may come in handy to Maggie at some point.

This book had so much going on with different characters Sarah Sanderson is training for a trip to France and finds herself jealous of Maggie's relationship with Hugh even though they broke up and Hugh has his eyes on Sarah.  

I can't get over how the author weaves so many different stories into one book there is definitely a lot going on but it flows so smoothly that it works.  I have read other authors and it doesn't always flow the way it did here. 

Can't wait to read about Paris!

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Review: Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante by: Susan Elia MacNeal

Title: Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante
Author: Susan Elia MacNeal
Publisher: Bantam
Series: Maggie Hope #5
Format: Paperback ( 327 p.) Personal Purchase

Synopsis:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this riveting mystery from Susan Elia MacNeal, England’s most daring spy, Maggie Hope, travels across the pond to America, where a looming scandal poses a grave threat to the White House and the Allied cause.

December 1941. Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., along with special agent Maggie Hope. Posing as his typist, she is accompanying the prime minister as he meets with President Roosevelt to negotiate the United States’ entry into World War II. When one of the First Lady’s aides is mysteriously murdered, Maggie is quickly drawn into Mrs. Roosevelt’s inner circle—as ER herself is implicated in the crime. Maggie knows she must keep the investigation quiet, so she employs her unparalleled skills at code breaking and espionage to figure out who would target Mrs. Roosevelt, and why. What Maggie uncovers is a shocking conspiracy that could jeopardize American support for the war and leave the fate of the world hanging dangerously in the balance.

My Thoughts:

This book follows Maggie and her fellow coworkers at 10 Downing street.  They are all headed to the good old USA at Christmastime.  Maggie and John are hoping to have some time together.  Pearl Harbor has been attacked and Winston Churchill is meeting with President Roosevelt to discuss the war.  Of course Eleanor is causing trouble with some of her causes and Maggie is stuck trying to keep the first lady safe.  Will Maggie succeed or will Eleanor step way out of line?

This book was fun as we got to see what the USA was like during the war.  I love this series with a mix of action, adventure, romance and historical fiction all rolled into one can't wait to see where this series is headed.

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Review: The Prime Minister's Secret Agent by: Susan Elia MacNeal

Title: The Prime Minister's Secret Agent
Author: Susan Elia MacNeal
Publisher: Bantam
Series: Maggie Hope #4
Format: Paperback ( 306 p.) Personal Purchase

Synopsis:

For fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Charles Todd, and Anne Perry, The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent is a gripping new mystery featuring intrepid spy and code breaker Maggie Hope. And this time, the fallout of a deadly plot comes straight to her own front door.

 

World War II rages on across Europe, but Maggie Hope has finally found a moment of rest on the pastoral coast of western Scotland. Home from an undercover mission in Berlin, she settles down to teach at her old spy training camp, and to heal from scars on both her body and heart. Yet instead of enjoying the quieter pace of life, Maggie is quickly drawn into another web of danger and intrigue. When three ballerinas fall strangely ill in Glasgow—including one of Maggie’s dearest friends—Maggie partners with MI-5 to uncover the truth behind their unusual symptoms. What she finds points to a series of poisonings that may expose shocking government secrets and put countless British lives at stake. But it’s the fight brewing in the Pacific that will forever change the course of the war—and indelibly shape Maggie’s fate.

My Thoughts:

Maggie Hope is recovering from her previous adventure in Scotland, when she learns of ballerina's being targeted by someone and Maggie thinks of her friend Sarah.  She rushes reluctantly to solve the issue with the ballerina's before Sarah is a target. Will she figure it out in time or will Sarah be next?

This book had so much going on for Maggie we see a darker side of her dealing with all she had been through plus seeing her go and help her friend.  This is a great series for anyone who loves reading about historical fiction especially during WWII.  

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