This week, we're pleased to welcome author REBECCA HAZELL with the third in her The Tiger and the Dove series, CONSOLAMENTUM. Join us again on Sunday for an author interview, with more details about the story behind the story. One lucky visitor will get a free copy of the novel in Kindle format. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's post or Sunday's author interview for a chance to win. Winner(s) are contacted privately by email. Here's the blurb.
In the finale of Sofia's memoir, Consolamentum, both
dramatic and poignant, her dreams of home are shattered when her own family
betrays her. Raising her child on her own, mourning the loss of her beloved
knight, and building a trading empire, she seeks safe haven for her child and
herself. Her quest takes her from Antioch to Constantinople to Venice. A
surprise reunion in Venice leads her to France where she runs afoul of the
newly established Holy Inquisition, possibly the greatest challenge she has yet
faced. Can a woman so marked by oppression, betrayal, and danger ever find her
safe haven, much less genuine happiness?
**An
Excerpt from Consolamentum**
Lady
Heloise added, “It is said that Saint Denis rose up after his execution, picked
up his head, and walked a thousand feet before falling again. That is where a
pilgrimage shrine was later founded, but the abbey that bears his name lies
farther to the north. You will soon see that it is quite beautiful and also
very special, for it is where all the kings of Francia have been buried since
it was built. The king, I hear, intends to commission effigies to lie over each
tomb, even of the earliest kings of Francia, like Clovis and Pepin. I find it
very moving, and you must as well; it is good politics.
“Oh,
look, they are already setting up for the October fair; one farmer always sells
the richest cream you ever tasted. Not that I use it for eating: it also works
wonders on the skin.”
As we
passed, I saw many men and a few women setting up booths and stalls and even a
few solid buildings. The aroma of roasting meat drifted across our path.
The fair
was not yet open, but she and several other ladies did fall back to buy
trinkets and, yes, cream, which the vendors were glad to sell them. I made the
mistake of following behind. They were already returning, and I should have
gone with them then, but I was drawn by a tent surrounded by colorful banners depicting
odd-looking symbols. I thought just to look at them quickly and then to return
to ask Heloise what they meant, but a woman dressed in motley came out when I
rode up and began urging me inside her tent to have my fortune told. When I
refused, a gang of hard-looking men suddenly surrounded me.
They
probably had never heard a lady scream, but scream I did, and several knights
in our company were soon bearing down on the ruffians, laying about and quickly
rescuing me. This was shaming enough, but the king and queen heard the noise
and were staring at me as I rode back, red-faced, to join their train. Lord
Joscelin rode back to see me, looking stern. At least he began with, “Are you
all right?” I nodded, looking down, unable to meet his eye. But then he added,
“Don’t do anything foolish like that again. King Louis marked it, and you
especially offended him by seeking out a fortune teller!”
Praise for the trilogy
“How deftly and compellingly Hazell takes the reader with her into that mysterious and exotic world, and makes it all seem so very close to hand!” – Peter Conradi, Fellow of Britain's Royal Society of Literature and author of Iris Murdoch: A Life, and of A Very English Hero.
"I enjoyed watching her morph from a spoiled sheltered princess with slaves of her own, into a tough, savvy survivor, with a new awareness of social injustice. The book is action packed. I couldn't put it down." -- from a review on Amazon.com.
"I got completely caught up in the characters and story and always looked forward to getting back to them. What a fully fleshed and fascinating world you developed and it was wondrous to learn so much about that time and the Mongol culture. Your gifts come out in your lush descriptions of place and objects. All very vivid and colorful." --author Dede Crane Gaston
“Through all of Sofia's treks across miles of various lands and cultures, I am a reader who is ready to continue the journey with her. I highly recommend this series if you love medieval history of the Far East and Asia, and even European areas, or enjoy reading about ancient cultures and religions. Solomon's Bride was even more well-written than Rebecca's first book, stringently researched, artistically detailed, heartfelt, and exciting.” –Erin, Oh, for the Hook of a Book!
The novel is available both in paperback and Kindle versions and through your local bookstore by special order.
Visit other blogs on the tour for reviews, guest posts,
excerpts and giveaways!
About
the author
Rebecca Hazell is an award
winning artist, author, and educator. She has written, illustrated and
published four non-fiction children’s books, created best-selling educational
filmstrips, designed educational craft kits for children and even created award
winning needlepoint canvases. She is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist
lineage, and she holds an honours BA from the University of California at Santa
Cruz in Russian and Chinese history.
Rebecca lived for many years in
the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1988 she and her family moved to Halifax, Nova
Scotia, and in 2006 she and her husband moved to Vancouver Island. They live
near their two adult children in the beautiful Cowichan Valley.
Visit Rebecca:
