Magic Thief of Gavalos (Sequel to Shield of Paladine)
Barbara T. Cerny, 2015
Strategic Book Publishing
495 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781631359415
Summary
Because of Hestia’s unspeakable betrayal, Zeus unwittingly creates his own mortal enemy and sets the path to his own destruction.
Seventeen years have passed on Earth and Amorgos calls Pierre and Elise Tonnelier once again. Through their children’s antics, they find themselves back to a place they never wanted to be. Amorgos is bereft of magic and Elise, as the Redeemer, finds herself reluctantly leading the races to save their world as she finds herself trying to save her marriage.
French teens Elam and Illieya Tonnelier and their friend, Chace Bagot, do the one thing they have been told to never do – touch the Sword of the Western Sun. Its portal stone sends them first to Amorgos and then the Shield of the Palidine sends them to a world worse than Amorgos - Olympus. There they face the gods of Greek mythology and are set on a quest to destroy the most powerful witch who has ever lived, Zeus.
Magic Thief of Gavalos picks up where Shield of the Palidine finishes. This incredible adventure chronicles two journeys: a second of Elise and Pierre on Amorgos and five years in the lives of Illieya, Elam, and Chace as they battle witches and each other. Both groups must come to terms with themselves and their relationships to save Amorgos, Olympus, and their families.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Denver, Colorado, USA
• Education—A.S., Mesa State College; B.S., Arizona State University; M.S., Lehigh University
• Currently—Oakwood, Ohio
Author Barbara T. Cerny grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, which at that time was a small town of 30,000 people.
She left that little burg to see the world, garner three college degrees, and to serve in the US Army. After eight years on active duty and fourteen years in the reserves, she retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2007.
While deployed to the Middle East in 2005, Ms. Cerny finally figured out she had to get going on the real love of her life, writing. She wrote her first two novels during that time and hasn’t stopped. She is presently working on novels number seven, eight, and nine.
When not writing, Ms. Cerny works as an information technology specialist and supervisor for the US Air Force. She lives with her loving husband, their two active teenagers, two needy cats, and two turtles. The turtles patiently watch her write and listen to her intently as she discusses plot lines with them. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Barbara on Facebook...and Twitter.
Book Reviews
(5 Stars) Barbara T. Cerny has created a magical world that rivals that of Tolkien’s Middle Earth in Shield of the Palidine and its sequel, Magic Thief of Gavalos. With a concise summary of the first book as a prologue, you can easily get into the new story, whether you have read the previous one or not. Fantastic creatures, a difficult quest, soaring emotions and intense action keep you enthralled as you follow Elam, Illieya and Chace through torments and triumphs on an alien world. Thoroughly absorbing, Magic Thief of Gavalos is a book you can’t put down. The depth of the author's insight and the emotions portrayed are amazing!
Melinda Hills - Readers' Favorite
I really enjoyed it. It was sadly ironic that the loss of magic on Amorgos was caused by Pierre tossing the shield out of the window to save Elise's life at the end of the first book. But what a great foundation for this fascinating story! It was brilliant to have all the magic that Illieya & Chace brought from Olympus restore the magic on Amorgos! Gave me goosebumps! I loved how Illieya's role as a magic thief and Chace's role as a magic vessel complemented each other. The battle scenes are so good—both when they were trying to capture the creatures on Amorgos and the battle at the mithril mine on Olympus and especially the final battle with the Pantheon. These would play out wonderfully in a movie. [Barbara Cerny has] such a talented imagination!
Ruth Woodman, beta reader
Discussion Questions
1. MToG is a sequel. Could it stand on its own or does it need the Shield of the Palidine to be complete? Do you like series better? Why/why not?
2. Illieya is an intellectual with disdain for those around her that aren’t as well read. Why do you think she was this way? Would the story have been better or worse if Illieya had been more like her brother?
3. Zeus tortures the three teenagers for information on the portal stone and Chace’s inexplicable ability to survive. What was your reaction to this torture? Was it needed? Did it set the stage properly or go to far?
4. What did you think of the ensemble cast of characters? Did they overwhelm you or add fun and flavor? And you imagine a pixie and a giant having a conversation?
5. Is it possible to lose your love like Pierre and Elise did yet find it again? Were you cheering for them or wondering if separation would be best? Would you want to take romance advice from all the male creatures like Pierre tried to?
6. The author really went back and forth between Illieya ending up with Latar or with Chace. Did she make the right decision to have her end up with the other human? Was it right for Elam to end up with Selene? She waited for him for five years until he turned 18. Is this realistic?
7. As the battle in Edessa unfolded, when Chace took off his helmet, was he giving Zeus the middle finger or trying to say something else? What did Elam's comments in French to Zeus portray?
8. Did you find the ending with the female witch taking Zeus's place interesting? How should that play into a future book?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Fling!
Lily Iona MacKenzie, 2015
Pen-L Publishing
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781942428299
Summary
When ninety-year-old Bubbles receives a letter from Mexico City asking her to pick up her mother’s ashes, lost there seventy years earlier and only now surfacing, she hatches a plan.
A woman with a mission, Bubbles convinces her hippie daughter Feather to accompany her on the quest. Both women have recently shed husbands and have a secondary agenda: they’d like a little action. And they get it.
Alternating narratives weave together Feather and Bubbles’ odyssey with their colorful Scottish ancestors, creating a family tapestry. The two women travel south from Canada to Mexico where Bubbles’ long-dead mother, grandmother, and grandfather turn up, enlivening the narrative with their hilarious antics.
In Mexico, where reality and magic co-exist, Feather gets a new sense of her mother, and Bubbles’ quest for her mother’s ashes—and a new man—increases her zest for life. Unlike most women her age, fun-loving Bubbles takes risks, believing she’s immortal. She doesn’t hold back in any way, eating heartily and lusting after strangers, exulting in her youthful spirit.
Readers will believe they’ve found the fountain of youth themselves in this character. At ninety, Bubbles comes into her own, coming to age, proving it’s never too late to fulfill one’s dreams.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• Education—M.As. (two), San Francisco State University
• Currently—lives in San Francisco Bay Area, California
Lily Iona MacKenzie sprouted on the Canadian prairies under cumulous clouds that bloomed everywhere in Alberta’s big sky. They were her first creative writing instructors, scudding across the heavenly blue, constantly changing shape: one minute an elephant, bruised and brooding. The next morphing into a rabbit or a castle. These billowing masses gave her a unique view of life on earth.
As a girl, she prowled the land, talking to chickens and pigs and lambs, creating scenarios for them. She also tried to make perfume from the wild Alberta roses and captured caterpillars, watching with wonder when they transformed themselves into butterflies. Everything around her seemed infused by nature spirits waiting to be released.
She realized that all objects are in motion, waiting for stories to illuminate them. The clouds’ shifting form also schooled her in the various possibilities open to her as a writer. So did Jack Frost’s enchanted creations that enlivened the windows in wintertime, forcing her to view her surroundings as if through a bewitching prism. These early experiences helped her to envision multi-dimensional characters. Magical realism pulses at the heart of her narratives, her work celebrating the imagination.
As an adult, Lily continues to seek instruction about fiction from clouds. Just as they provide the earth with much-needed water, she believes that stories have a similar function, preparing the mind to receive new ideas. Also, conditions inside a cloud are not static—water droplets are constantly forming and re-evaporating. Stories, too, change, depending on who is reading them, each one giving life to its readers.
A high school dropout and a mother at 17, in her early years, Lily supported herself as a stock girl in the Hudson’s Bay Company, as a long distance operator for the former Alberta Government Telephones, and as a secretary (Bechtel Corp sponsored her into the States).
She also was a cocktail waitress at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, briefly broke into the male-dominated world of the docks as a longshoreman (and almost got her legs broken), founded and managed a homeless shelter in Marin County, co-created “The Story Shoppe," a weekly radio program for children that aired on KTIM in Marin County, and eventually earned two Master’s degrees (one in English with an emphasis on Creative writing and one in the Humanities).
She has published reviews, interviews, short fiction, poetry, travel pieces, essays, and memoir in over 150 American and Canadian venues. Fling!, one of her novels, was published in 2015. Her poetry collection All This was published in 2011. Another novel, Bone Songs, will be published in November 2016.
She taught writing at the University of San Francisco for over 30 years, was vice-president of USF's part-time faculty union, and currently is available as a writing coach, tutor, and editor. When she isn’t writing, she paints and travels widely with her husband.
Lily is available to visit reading groups in person (if the group is in the San Francisco Bay Area), via Skype, or by speaker phone. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Lily Iona on Facebook...and watch her on Youtube.
Book Reviews
Fling! is both hilarious and touching, the madcap journey of an aging mother and her adult daughter from cold Protestant Canada into the hallucinogenic heart of Mexico's magic, where the past literally comes to life. Every page is a surprise… A scintillating read.
Lewis Buzbee, author and professor of creative writing - University of San Francisco
I was sold before I even turned the first page. No more than twenty pages in, I struggled to put it down, drawn in by the brief interlacing point of view chapters that leap chronologically and geographically between Scotland, Canada, and Mexico. To say that I was pleasantly surprised by Mackenzie’s charmingly offbeat novel would be an inexcusable understatement. Captivated by the surreal plot, eccentric yet relatable characters, and simple but vivid language, I quickly confirmed my suspicion that Fling! was about far than just a fling (which, in the age of Tinder, has taken on something of an unsavory connotation). With all the lighthearted fun of a fling, this novel also explores the importance of restoring fractured familial relationships, coming to terms with mortality and transience, and maintaining a certain joie de vivre no matter what your age or circumstances.
Karen Lively - California Journal of Women Writers
A 90-year-old woman goes on a trip to Mexico City with her hippie daughter—and runs into several very dead, very funny relatives on the way—in the freewheeling new novel from the Bay Area author, who teaches writing at the University of San Francisco. (One of eight summer reads along with Judy Blume, Bruce Bochy, and other well-known authors.)
San Francisco Weekly
This book is a giddy, breathless, dizzy journey through space and time—pinballing from Isle of Skye in Scotland in the early twentieth century, Canada in the 1950’s and Mexico in 1996. The point of view bounces around quite a bit, and at times I was rather seasick from the view inside Bubbles’ head. That said, Bubbles’ swings in thought, focus, mood and personality were authentic, reminding me of listening to my own grandmother during the middle stages of dementia. It is obvious that the author is familiar with the idiosyncrasies of a free-spirited woman entering her nineties; unwilling to go gently into anyone’s version of “that dark night.” This is a poetic, unconventional, farcical journey through the enigmatic terrain of family relationships, shifting perceptions and lost loves.
Trisha Slay - TrishaSlay.com
Magical realism dominates much of the last third of the book. At times, it feels as if Feather and Bubbles have followed "Alice" down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Except, in this story, Wonderland is rural and impoverished Mexico and it exists on a parallel plane where death is merely another state of living. If you aren't able to take an adventurous vacation this year, Fling! is the next best alternative. You won't soon forget Bubbles whose effervescent name matches her buoyant ability to never act nor succumb to her advanced age.
Audry Fryer - AllThingsAudry.blogspot.com
Fling! is a delightful piece of magical realism that will be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone who loves this often overlooked subgenre. The main characters are funny, quirky and developed in an engaging way as the novel progresses. I was never bored at any moment while reading this amazing piece by MacKenzie.
indtale.com
As the chapters flick backwards and forwards in time following Bubbles back to her childhood in Skye and Feather to her adolescence, we come to see the roots not only of the two women's behaviour but also that in some ways the women are not so dissimilar and are following a family pattern. When in the latter part of the novel Bubbles's mother and grandmother turn up, this family dynamic is expanded and further explored. Many readers will identify with Feather's feelings of frustration, resentment and love towards her mother. And many will enjoy the comedy and zaniness of Bubbles and her adventures. There are times when the reader might feel that she too has been smoking some of Feather's weed. But the novel is more than just a light-hearted read. Of course there is the daughter/mother relationship to consider. But it is also interesting to note the parallels drawn between the Gaelic beliefs of the family's Scottish roots and those they encounter in Mexico. And what is more there are some delightful references to the magic realist tradition for those if us who care about such things.
Zoe Brooks - magic-realism-books.blogspot.com
Bubbles, a sprightly ninety when the novel opens, decides she and Feather must follow in Heather’s footsteps—not vanish into Mexico but simply retrieve Heather’s long lost ashes and perhaps discover what tempted her mother to leave family behind forever. Of course, Feather and Bubbles discover much more: sex, drugs, shamans, a very vital statue, and living, dancing long-dead relatives—including Heather, still wild and spry and generous with motherly advice. With a light but practiced hand, MacKenzie weaves the rich traditions of Skye with the myths and magic of Mexico (and a rather modest portrayal of her hometown Calgary) to explore motherhood, the ties that bind generations of women—and perhaps the secret to happiness itself.
understoreymagazine.ca
Ms. Mackenzie does a wonderful creating the irrepressible Bubbles! The ninety-year-old matriarch not only says what she thinks, but also acts on it, whether it is eating with gusto, dancing, or seducing men young enough to be her grandson! Her colorful remembrances and internal dialogues should delight readers. Feather, her daughter, is a harder character to embrace. She considers herself a self-styled hippie, but often her behavior tends to be more rigid and conservative with her concerns about money, her mother’s mental stability, and control. The author highlights the contrast between who Feather thinks she is and who she really is. The reader tags along as the duo make their way south enjoying the sun, liquid-eyed hunks, and life. Fling! is a self-discovery road trip, and an enjoyable read reminding the reader to chase rainbows while on the right side of the soil.
forums.onlinebookclub.org
Discussion Questions
1. How is magic (or supernatural elements) introduced in the novel?
2. What is its role in the narrative?
3. What kind of reading agreement has to be established between the author and the reader in order for the magical elements to work?
4. Do the magical realist devices disrupt the logic of the story or enhance it?
5. What specific things give this novel a magical quality?
6. Which character or characters do you identify with the most?
7. How does each character (Bubbles and Feather) reveal herself over the course of the novel. At what point do your sympathies begin to change (if they do)?
8. What role does death have in this book?
9. Does Fling! remind you of any other works you’ve read?
10. How did this novel cause you to think differently about mother/daughter relationships or family dynamics?
11. How does the use of time in Fling! contribute to its magical qualities?
12. What do you think are the novel’s main themes?
13. What role does “the goddess” play in Fling!?
14. In what ways does Bubbles seem mythic or ageless? (not mythic in the sense of implausible)
15. How do the characters in Fling! subvert the stereotypes of older adults?
16. What role does the setting have in Fling!?
17. How would you describe the difference between Heather, Annie, Bubbles, and Feather?
18. What role do the men play in this novel?
19. How does Feather get educated about her mother (Bubbles)?
20. Would you classify Fling! as a coming-of-age novel? Why or why not?
21. Did anything surprise you in Fling!? Did you learn something new about being human?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)
Tuscan Rose
Belinda Alexandra, 2010 (2013, U.S. ed.)
Gallery Books
592 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451679076
Summary
A magical, richly woven World War II–era saga filled with passion, secrets, beauty, and horror.
Florence, 1914—
A mysterious stranger known as The Wolf leaves an infant with the sisters of Santo Spirito. A tiny silver key hidden in her wrappings is the one clue to the child’s identity. . . .
Fifteen years later—
Young Rosa must leave the nuns, her only family, and become governess to the daughter of an aristocrat and his strange, frightening wife. Their house is elegant but cursed, and Rosa—blessed with gifts beyond her considerable musical talents—is torn between her desire to know the truth and her fear of its repercussions.
All the while, the hand of Fascism curls around beautiful Italy, and no citizen is safe. Rosa faces unimaginable hardship: her only weapons her intelligence, intuition, and determination...and her extraordinary capacity for love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Belinda Alexandra has been published to wide acclaim in Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Norway, and Spain.Sh e is the daughter of a Russian mother and Australian father and has been an intrepid traveller since her youth.
Her love of other cultures and languages is matched by her passion for her home country, Australia, where she is a volunteer rescuer and caregiver for the NSW Wildlife Information and Rescue Service. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
In the tradition of The Thorn Birds and Corelli’s Mandolin, Tuscan Rose is a sweeping story, taking Rosa from musician, to antique dealer, to nurse, to revolutionary, all the while maintaining her indomitable and loving spirit. There is plenty of intrigue, emotion, and bravery, and a few scenes that will remain with the reader for some time. —Elizabeth Dickie
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. Rosa forms several surrogate families in the absence of a biological one. Do these groups help her find peace with the mystery of her past?
2. Rosa is faced with many impossible choices under Mussolini and during the war. Would you have chosen as she does?
3. Would you be able to fight—and risk your life—for the greater good as Luciano does? Or would you focus on the survival of those closest to you?
4. Rosa’s musical talent takes a back seat to her struggle—and Italy’s struggle—over the years before and during the war. Can you see her finding a way back to performing?
5. How do you respond to Rosa’s ability to "read" the past of objects? Do you think such an ability would be more blessing or burden?
6. Tuscan Rose is divided into parts that could be said to function in the same way as the movements of a piece of music. How else does music color Belinda Alexandra’s writing?
(Questions from the author's website.)
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Shield of the Palidine
Barbara T. Cerny, 2012
Strategic Book Publishing
364 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781631353390
Summary
Finalist - 2015 National Indie Excellence Book Awards
Finalist - 2015 Reader's Favorite Awards
What happens when you throw a spoiled French princess and a stinky peasant boy into the world of Greek Mythology? Chaos, intrigue, adventure, and love.
Accidently discovering a portal between Earth and Amorgos, Pierre and Elise find themselves surrounded by frightful creatures from beyond their imagination.
Princess Elise d’Orleans, niece to King Louis XIII, is a spoiled brat used to having everyone cater to her every need. She hates Amorgos, hates the races of people populating Amorgos, and hates the fact that everyone believes she is their Redeemer, the One to free them from enslavement of their common enemy, the Asmodai.
But most of all, she hates the fact that the only other human in Amorgos is a stinky peasant that doesn't kowtow to her every whim.
Pierre Tonnelier, the village's journeyman cooper, found an extraordinary necklace in the woods outside Chateau de Saint-Germain en Laye, a castle in the French countryside. He is forced to sell this unusual piece to pay off his father's debts. What he didn't contend with was it taking him on a strange journey with an egotistical royal pain in the derriere.
Shield of the Palidine chronicles the journey of Elise to the true Redeemer, of Pierre to a warrior of immense abilities, and their unbridled love, despite all the tensions of class, bigotry, and intolerance.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Denver, Colorado, USA
• Education—A.S., Mesa State College; B.S., Arizona State University; M.S., Lehigh University
• Currently—Oakwood, Ohio
Author Barbara T. Cerny grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, which at that time was a small town of 30,000 people.
She left that little burg to see the world, garner three college degrees, and to serve in the US Army. After eight years on active duty and fourteen years in the reserves, she retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2007.
While deployed to the Middle East in 2005, Ms. Cerny finally figured out she had to get going on the real love of her life, writing. She wrote her first two novels during that time and hasn’t stopped. She is presently working on novels number seven, eight, and nine.
When not writing, Ms. Cerny works as an information technology specialist and supervisor for the US Air Force. She lives with her loving husband, their two active teenagers, two needy cats, and two turtles. The turtles patiently watch her write and listen to her intently as she discusses plot lines with them. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Barbara on Facebook...and Twitter.
Book Reviews
5 Stars: Tremendous action, historical references and fantastic imagination combine in Shield of the Palidine by Barbara T. Cerny to create an excellent story of hope, dedication, loss and love. An incredible number of well-developed characters, both historical and mythical, take part in several quests to find the tools mentioned by the prophecies to aid in the final battle. This story is full of emotion and clearly follows the growth in maturity of the young French princess and the peasant she thinks is beneath her. It is an outstanding book for fantasy readers of all ages.
Melinda Hills, Readers' Favorite
5 Stars: Shield of the Palidine is a great fantasy adventure for young adult readers. The cast of main characters is broken down by geography. It provides a pronunciation guide, and includes information such as fairy, minotaur, gnome, etc. The illustrations are beautifully drawn, and add depth to the story. And I learned a little French.
Jada Ryker, author of the Takes a Dare mystery series
5 Stars: It is in a word, Amazing. This beautiful new world is filled with creatures from Greek Mythology. Centaurs, Griffons, Satyrs, Elves, Witches and more live in this strange new place. Not only do these creatures welcome the human teenagers to their world, they expect them to save it. [Pierre and Elise] embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Cerny has written these adventures with vivid details, characters you will laugh with, cheer for, and come to love as they work together to save their world. I know I certainly did, and cannot wait to read the sequel.
Melissa Brown, author
Discussion Questions
1. SotP is set in the mid-1600s in France. Does this time period work best for this story?
2. Elise is a spoiled brat. Why do you think she acts this way? Would the story have been better or worse if Elise had been a good person at the start?
3. Elise treats Pierre like dirt under her feet. Is this realistic? Pierre fought back, treating her with as much distain. Have you ever felt like someone treated you this way? What was your reaction?
4. Pierre falls in love Elise long before she falls in love with him. Is this possible? Was it love or something else? Have you ever had that kind of slow-building chemistry with someone you've met, either in a friendship or a romantic relationship? Do you believe it's a physical response or an emotional one?
5. Pierre kills many Asmodai after Lomo loses his life. Where do you think he found the strength, fortitude, or hatred (whatever you want to call it) to rush into battle with nary a thought? Did he deserve the berating the centaurs gave him?
6. Did you find the jealousy of Elise toward Anya substantiated? Do people actually fly off the handle like that, not believing in their lovers?
7. If you were writing the ending of Elise and Pierre’s story, what would it be?
8. SotP is the first in a series of four. Is the rest of the series needed or can it stand on its own?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Tressa
Barbara T. Cerny, 2011
Strategic Book Publishing
294 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781631353406
Summary
Driven from her Irish home to the shores of New York, Tressa must face not only the demons of her past but somehow follow her dreams.
Escaping an abusive husband and the tragic loss of her newborn child, Tressa O'Daire leaves her home of Dublin, Ireland, for the unknown shores of New York City. There, she finds work in the powerful Langley family as a nurse-maid to a baby girl. The Langleys allow Tressa, a master baker by trade, to use their baking oven and she starts a business and a new life.
Ethan Langley, crippled in a riding accident that left him bound to a wheel chair, has spent the last eight years in his room escaping the embarrassment to his family and the hatred of his brother, Heaton. The only bright spot in his life is his sister, Sarah; until a certain Irish baker arrives and turns his life upside down.
Their very lives are threatened when the head of the Langley household dies unexpectedly leaving the business and family fortune to Heaton. As Heaton and his wife, Victoria, bring the family to the brink of ruination, Tressa and Ethan must save whatever they can, including the budding love between them.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Denver, Colorado, USA
• Education—A.S., Mesa State College; B.S., Arizona State University; M.S., Lehigh University
• Currently—Oakwood, Ohio
Author Barbara T. Cerny grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, which at that time was a small town of 30,000 people.
She left that little burg to see the world, garner three college degrees, and to serve in the US Army. After eight years on active duty and fourteen years in the reserves, she retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2007.
While deployed to the Middle East in 2005, Ms. Cerny finally figured out she had to get going on the real love of her life, writing. She wrote her first two novels during that time and hasn’t stopped. She is presently working on novels number seven, eight, and nine.
When not writing, Ms. Cerny works as an information technology specialist and supervisor for the US Air Force. She lives with her loving husband, their two active teenagers, two needy cats, and two turtles. The turtles patiently watch her write and listen to her intently as she discusses plot lines with them. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Barbara on Facebook...and Twitter.
Book Reviews
Tressa is a beautiful person who is sensitive to all the relationships around her. She is gutsy enough to start her own business, foresighted enough to plan her future and sensitive enough to care for the less fortunate. Ethan was an equal partner. Though crippled at an early age he was the motivation behind her actions. He too comes out as a strong character as he moves out of his father’s house and makes his own living. He could have depended on Tressa, but he chose to make a life of his own. The best part I loved was the relationship between them. A sweet understand, a camaraderie which encouraged the goodness in each other.
Rubina Ramesh - The Book Club
A nicely written historical romance, with a great heroine. I loved Tressa’s perseverance to do something different than what was expected of women at the time. Her relationship with the servants and younger Langley siblings was entertaining, and I thought she was quite ingenious in finding solutions to her problems. I almost wanted more. It kept me reading to the very last page.
Heather Osborne - Readers' Favorite
A wonderful and compelling storyline that drags the reader into it and makes you want to keep reading right to the very end. There are lots of twists and turns, agonies and ecstasies, and wins and losses.
Veta Lynne Murray, Editor - Muse It Up Publishing
Discussion Questions
1. Tressa is set in the late 1700's early 1800s. Does this time period work best for this story? Could this story happen today?
2. Tressa is a master baker. Very rare for that time period. Did it add to or detract from the story? How?
3. Ethan is handicapped. What do you think of a romantic hero in a wheelchair? Would you be attracted to a man/woman in a wheelchair?
4. In many romance novels, the two main characters fall into bed and love immediately. Is this realistic for the time period? How about for today? Do you like a quick fall then some conflict, or a slow build with the conflict?
5. Tressa starts her own business under the tutelage of Big Mo. She is Irish—very prejudiced against in that time period. Would this really have happened?
6. The author’s favorite statements in the book—“Ethan might have a broken body, but there was nothing broken about his deep and undying love for this Irish woman. In one evening, she proved to him beyond a shadow of a doubt that his manhood was not limited to one region of his body, and that making love was a total body experience.” Is making love a total body experience?
7. If you were writing the ending of Ethan and Tressa’s story, what would it be?
8. What did you think of Tressa’s relationship with Sarah? Was it appropriate? Why/why not?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)