This week I am delighted to welcome a newcomer to my blog - author and creative writing tutor Julie Hartley.   Julie is the author of the Second World War story Her Secret Soldier. Her latest title is The Promise She Made, which was published on February 12th.   She is here with us today as part of the Cover Love series, to celebrate the beautiful cover of The Promise She Made.

Cover Love… with Julie Hartley

When I saw the cover for my second historical novel, The Promise She Made, I fell in love with it. My main character, Ruby, is a strong and determined young woman, and the artist captures this perfectly in her expression. As the Battle of Britain rages on in summer 1940, Ruby defies her aunt and her fiancé by booking passage for herself and her little sister to Canada. She’s determined to keep her sister safe – it was her last promise to her dying mother.

The shattered buildings behind Ruby are also significant, and I was thrilled when I saw those. Ruby fails to keep her sister safe because their ship – the SS City of Benares – is torpedoed by the Nazis in the middle of the Atlantic. After little Eliza is reported ‘lost at sea’ Ruby must return to England and put together the shattered pieces of her life. She does this while the London Blitz is underway, so she faces enormous turmoil, inside and out.

I also really liked the colour scheme for this cover – the mauve shades behind the images.

My first novel – Her Secret Soldier – was set in a cottage deep in an ancient forest, and that cover had a blue/green palette, which was perfect.

The Promise She Made is a more urgent, dramatic, emotional tale, and the shades of purple reflect that.

I loved writing this book, which is all about the struggles of a young woman to come to terms with the past and build a meaningful future for herself. It’s also a bit of a mystery tale, too. Ruby trains to be a spy, so she can help defeat the Nazis, who torpedoed a ship full of innocent children – and that’s when she discovers a letter that hints at an unexpected possibility....

Her sister might still be alive.

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Amazon link:

https://geni.us/ThePromiseSheMade

Julie Hartley’s website :

www.juliehartley.co.uk

After Tania Crosse's guest blog last week in which she told us about the background to her new novel, The Butterfly Girl, this week I am delighted to share with you my review of the book.

As regular readers of Tania's novels will expect, this is meticulously reseached story has a strong sense of both place and time as the reader is transported to the West Country in wartime. The scene featuring the bombing of Plymouth is particularly and absorbing. It is impossible not to be moved by the fate of the maternity buildling and those inside it.

The rounded characters are well-developed and authentic. The main character, Pippa, determined to follow her cherished dream of nursing, is appealing and relatable. The author captures the sense of the wartime community - the way people stuck together and supported one another through everything that was thrown at them.

A story of love, tragedy, resilience and hope that will delight Tania Crosse's fans and garner her many more.

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Link to The Butterfly Girl on Amazon

This week, I am delighted to welcome Tania Crosse back to my blog to talk about the inspiration behind her new novel, The Butterfly Girl, which is the eleventh title in her popular Devonshire Series.

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First of all, I must say a huge thank you to Susanna for once again inviting me to be a guest on her blog. I’m not a great fan of technology, but through social media, I have met so many wonderful authors such as Susanna whose books I greatly admire. Not only have I discovered brilliant stories, but I value the friendships I have made with their writers. It really feels like belonging to a special community.

The Butterfly Girl is particularly close to my heart as it is very much inspired by my mother who trained as a nurse during the London Blitz.   She led a remarkable life, and in this novel, I use many of the wartime experiences she related to me, adapting them to become relevant to the plot.   Indeed, a grateful patient wrote her a poem, Nurse Blue Eyes, which gave me the idea for one of the fundamental themes of the story and the creation of Archie Yelland and his poem, The Butterfly Girl, which is central to the drama.

It is, though, in Plymouth and not London where my heroine, Philippa, undertakes her training. Plymouth suffered intermittent raids, some more deadly than others, from July 1940. What is referred to as the Plymouth Blitz, however, took place in the spring of 1941, completely obliterating the city centre. On the second of these horrific nights, the brand new maternity unit of the City Hospital received a direct hit on the nursery, destroying the building and killing numerous babies and small children. The Butterfly Girl is dedicated to their memory. One mother and several nursing staff also lost their lives. The story begins on that brutal night, as seen through Philippa’s eyes.

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But bombing raids and the infernos that rage through Plymouth are not Philippa’s only worries. While her new friend, outspoken fellow probationer nurse Stephanie Chappel, brings her support and companionship, Archie Yelland and his poem unwittingly make her an enemy who will do anything to ruin her career and her future happiness. Philippa must find the strength to fight back against all odds and overcome the obstacles placed in her way.

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If you feel inspired to read The Butterfly Girl, I do hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you would be kind enough to leave a review on Amazon or your preferred platform, it would be very much appreciated. You can also follow me on Twitter/X @TaniaCrosse or on Faceboook where you will find me under Tania Crosse Author.

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Blurb

DON’T MISS THIS BRAND-NEW UPLIFTING WWII SAGA BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR TANIA CROSSE.

A heart-wrenching tale of wartime spirt and the courage of a young nurse during the Plymouth Blitz.

1941. Bombs are raining down on the city. For trainee nurse Pippa Luscombe, tragedy strikes when her hospital takes a direct hit. In one terrifying moment, Pippa’s life is turned upside-down.

With the support of her best friend, fellow nurse Steph, Pippa picks up the threads of her life again. But the incident has left lasting scars. Totally dedicated to her nursing role, she determines never to fall in love and sacrifice her career and freedom.

But one day she discovers she has an unexpected admirer. A patient hands her a piece of paper. A heartfelt note to his butterfly girl.

In this one moment, Pippa’s life is changed once more.

As the war in Europe rages on, Pippa must face some difficult decisions as she experiences both love and loss in search of her own happiness.

Fans of Nadine Dorries, Rosie Goodwin, Dilly Court, Chrissie Walsh, Lizzie Lane, Freda Lightfoot and Sylvia Broady will adore this compelling wartime tale of love and loss, hardship and hope.

READERS LOVE TANIA CROSSE’S HEARTWARMING FAMILY SAGAS:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “If you love family sagas you will love this book . . . I read it in one evening.” Angela S.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Fascinating . . . an interesting plot that reflects the morals of that time.” Carol S.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Maisie is a true hero to root for! Highly recommended.” Paul J.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I really enjoyed this book and did not want to put it down.” Barbara

ALSO BY TANIA CROSSE

DEVONSHIRE SAGAS

Book 1: THE HARBOUR MASTER’S DAUGHTER

Book 2: THE RIVER GIRL

Book 3: THE GUNPOWDER GIRL

Book 4: THE QUARRY GIRL

Book 5: THE RAILWAY GIRL

Book 6: THE WHEELWRIGHT GIRL

Book 7: THE AMBULANCE GIRL

Book 8: THE DARTMOOR GIRL

Book 9: THE GIRL AT HOLLY COTTAGE

Book 10: THE CONVENT GIRL

Book 11: THE BUTTERFLY GIRL

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Link to Tania's author page on Amazon 

I'm delighted to show you the cover and blurb of my forthcoming book, A New Home at the Wartime Hotel, written as Maisie Thomas.

I hope you love the cover. Left to right, the characters are: Lily, Kitty and Beatrice.

Publication day is March 27th. Here are the links for Kindle and paperback.

And here's the blurb:

Manchester, 1941

Kitty learned early on in her marriage that her husband, Bill Dunbar, isn’t reliable with money. So when they inherit the Dunbar family hotel at the start of the war, she's hopeful that their financial worries are over… until the bailiffs turn up! With Bill away fighting, it’s up to Kitty to turn things around for her family, or risk ruin.

Lily worked as a chambermaid at Dunbar’s before the war. She met Daniel there, but their relationship was complicated by class differences and the disapproval of Daniel’s mother. Now Lily is pregnant – and with Daniel away at sea, she is all alone. When tragedy strikes, will Kitty and Dunbar’s come to her rescue?

Beatrice is in her forties, unmarried, and working in a job that exposes her to the harsh realities of poverty and sacrifice. She wonders whether the war might give her the opportunity to change lives for the better - including her own. But when she's accused of a crime she didn't commit, the future looks bleak... until Kitty makes a surprising suggestion.

Can the community around Dunbar’s Hotel pull together and provide a beacon of hope and resilience, in the dark days of war?

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope you enjoyed your festive break. I'm sorry to tell you that we had a sad time over Christmas and New Year, beause our lovely Cassie was taken ill.

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She was humanely put to sleep at home on January 2nd.

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Cassie was 14 years old and we'd had her as a rescue cat from the age of 6. She came to us with her brother Alf, who was her litter-mate. They'd had a very diffficult first six years, to put it mildly, and we spent a long time rehabilitating them.

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This is a typical Cassie-and-Alf pose. Wherever Alf was, Cassie would decide that was where she wanted to be too, and she was always lying on top of him.

When we lost Alf, we knew for some time beforehand that it was going to happen, because he had a medical condition; so, although it was desperately sad to lose him, it wasn't unexpected. But with Cassie, it came completely out of the blue. From her point of view, it was good that it was all over with in a matter of a few days, but for us it was a huge shock and we are still getting used to not having her around any more.

Alf (2010 - September 12th 2022)

Cassie (2010 - January 2nd 2025)

When I get asked about running a blog, one piece of advice I always give is this: Think carefully about the commitment and be honest with yourself about how frequently you are going to be able to publish your blogs. If there's one thing that readers hate, it's a blog that opens with words along the lines of, "Oh my goodness! I've just looked at the date on my last blog - and it was six months ago!"

In ten years of blogging, I've never done anything like that.... until now. My last blog was at the end of November and here we are now just a few days away from Christmas.

Why the silence? Well, this month I've had to get two books edited - the fourth instalment of the Home Front Girls series, A Wedding for the Home Front Girls, and also the first book in my new Maisie Thomas series, which will be another WW2 saga series. I can't tell you the title yet, as I'm still waiting for the Marketing people to confirm it.

Incidentally, here's the cover of Wedding. Isn't it a cracker?

I organise my writing schedule so that doing edits, copy-edits etc for two different publishers gets spread out; but for various reasons, early this month, two books popped up in my inbox twenty-four hours apart, both needing to be edited. Yikes!

To get all the work done before Christmas, everything else basically got chucked overboard. Sincere apologies to you if you are one of my regular blog-followers and you come here every week to find out what's going on in my writing life and to meet my guests bloggers and find out about their books.

Anyway, all the work got done and the two edited books were returned to their respective editors. Phew!

Sending you all warmest wishes for the festive season. See you in the new year xxxx

It was during this week back in 2021, shortly after publication of Christmas with the Railway Girls, that I was finally able to announce on my Maisie Thomas FB page that I also write as Susanna Bavin and Polly Heron.

 

Before that, Penguin, my Railway Gils publisher, had wanted it to be kept a secret because they wanted to establish the Railway Girls series without any other ties, so I was asked to keep quiet about my identity.

 

 

I also want to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to all my readers. Whichever of my three author names you discovered first, I hope it has led you on to read and enjoy books fom the other two as well.

I was looking through an old work diary this week and came across my NaNoWriMo daily word counts for 2018. Has any of you ever done NaNoWriMo? For anybody who hasn't heard of it, that stands for National Novel Writing Month and writers all over the world spend November joining in with the annual madness of trying to write 50,000 words in a month.

If you haven't read this series, these are books 1 and 2 and they're both available on Kindle Unlimited. Here is the link to the Amazon page.

You may be aware that every time a book is borowed from the public library, the author receives a small fee. The borrowing year in the UK is from July 1st to June 30th and the stats are released the following February. In Ireland, the year is the calendar year.

I have just received my borrowing info for Ireland for 2023 and my top 10 most borrowed books are as follows:

Top of the heap is....

....while at number 2 is....

....and at number 3, we have....

... is at number 4.

....and these two beauties share the number 5 slot....

Meanwhile, at number 6, we have....

....and at number 7 is....

....is at number 8....

....and at number 9 is....

....while jointly at number 10 are....

This week I am delighted to welcome Tania Crosse back to my blog to help her celebrate a book-birthday for The Convent Girl. Here's Tania to tell you about it.

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Happy 2^nd Birthday to The Convent Girl

It’s hard to believe that it’s two years since Book 10 in my Devonshire series, THE CONVENT GIRL, was published, so very many thanks to Susanna for helping me celebrate! So what have I been up to in that time? Well, I’ve kept up with all Susanna’s fabulous new stories as well as reading some super books by other wonderful saga authors. After a short break, I began detailed research and then composing Book 11, THE BUTTERFLY GIRL, that’s due for release in January, but that is literally another story!

It's always so exciting when you have a new title published, no matter how many books have gone before, and it was never truer than with THE CONVENT GIRL. To my delight, it reached 45 in Kindle Store Australia, and 154 in Kindle Store UK. The story is particularly close to my heart as it begins in Ireland, based on my own mother’s upbringing in a convent. She was always full of tales from her childhood there, and I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to write some of her memories into a meaningful narrative. You will find more details in the Author’s Notes at the end of the book, but let me just say that when my mother was eleven, she was brought to England by a father she had never met and taken to live in London where she eventually lived through the Blitz. My little heroine is taken to Plymouth where she, too, endures the horrors of heavy Nazi bombings.

So let me tell you a little more about the actual story. During the 1920s, little Maisie O’Sullivan is left to be raised as a charity orphan in a Catholic convent in Ireland. Though she enjoys a happy childhood there, all she ever wants is a family of her own. But when she is twelve, her world is turned upside down by the shocking revelation that her background is not what she always believed. Uprooted from the only life she has ever known, she is transplanted against her will to Plymouth in England, where she learns that being part of a family isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, and that friendship can be far more rewarding.

Eventually she finds happiness and even burgeoning love. But will her convent upbringing hold her back, and with the outbreak of war, what will the future hold for her and for those she holds dear? An horrific tragedy during one of the worst nights of the Plymouth Blitz leads her to commit a desperate act in the name of love and duty, but it means sacrificing her own longed for happiness. Will she be strong enough to live with the consequences?

A powerful, sweeping epic about a young Irish woman’s struggle to reconcile her religious upbringing with the outside world and the horrors of the Second World War.

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The Convent Girl on Amazon (including Kindle Unlimited)

Tania's author page on Amazon