get ready for THE ARCTIC FURY!

I am so delighted to share this news: my next historical novel, THE ARCTIC FURY, is forthcoming from Sourcebooks in December 2020!

December seems simultaneously a long way away and just around the corner, and both are kind of true. The important things are that a) there’s a book and b) I’ve actually finished writing it and c) the cover and the title are both killer.

You know the title — and next week, you’ll get to see the full cover. It’ll be revealed on social media and here on the blog next Thursday, February 20.

In the meantime, here’s a lovely, haunting hint. (I’m already in love with the font. It feels like an appropriately chilly, foreboding font. Brrrrr.)

(And if this whets your appetite for the book, go ahead and add it to your to-read shelf right now on Goodreads!)

#read99women: Gill Paul

Happy Valentine’s Day! Of course as I looked through my collection of yet-to-be-blogged-about #read99women recommendations, I figured today’s story needed to be a love story. But what kind? Romantic love? Family love? A book about a mother’s love for her child, a lighthearted will-they-or-won’t-they romance, an epic tale of passion and betrayal?

Then I decided that no matter what I picked, it would be appropriate, since this whole series is about books we love. And in nearly every recommendation I looked at, my writer friends talked about how they loved or adored the book they’d chosen. Basically, warm fuzzy feelings every day around here.

So I chose the recommendation from Gill Paul, a fabulous author from the UK, whose recommendation is full of book-love and also happens to sound like a fascinating love story of a most unusual sort: THE POISON BED by E.C. Fremantle.

Ah, but first! Gill’s bio: Gill Paul’s historical novels have reached the top of the USA Today, Toronto Globe & Mail and UK kindle charts, and been translated into twenty languages. She specializes in relatively recent history, mostly 20th century, and enjoys re-evaluating real historical characters and trying to get inside their heads.

Gill also writes historical non-fiction, including A History of Medicine in 50 Objects and series of Love Stories. Published around the world, this series includes Royal Love Stories, World War I Love Stories and Titanic Love Stories. She also writes short stories for magazines and speaks at libraries and literary festivals about subjects ranging from the British royal family to the Romanovs, and about writing itself. Her next novel, JACKIE AND MARIA (about Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas) will be published in the US in August 2020 and in the UK in September 2020.

Gill Paul

Gill’s #read99women recommendation is THE POISON BED, by E.C. Fremantle. Says Gill, “I’ve bought this novel for loads of book-loving friends, and they’ve all loved it as much as I do. It’s an instantly absorbing, cleverly written historical mystery, told partly from the point of view of Robert Carr, a handsome, charismatic favourite of King James I, and partly through the eyes of the beautiful Francis Howard, of the famous Howard dynasty. The story opens with Francis being taken to the Tower after confessing to murder – but did she do it?” 

“She was previously married to Essex, a physically abusive and emotionally stunted man who failed to consummate their marriage. Her devious uncle plots to have the union annulled so he can wed her to Carr and thus wriggle into royal favour. Francis and Robert are attracted to each other so it seems a good plan. But in the background there are whispers of witchcraft, punishable by death, and Robert’s ex-lover Thomas Overbury stands in the way.”

“Elizabeth Fremantle’s prose is rich and delicious. She builds a convincing picture of the surreptitious glances and veiled nuances that create intrigue in the shadowy reaches of the English court, where Machiavellian ambition, gossip and self-interest rule. It’s Hilary Mantelesque but sharper and more focused. I knew little of the period, but learned this is the true story of what became a major scandal in the early 17 th century; you can feel in your bones that the research is impeccable. The characterisation of both Francis and Carr is subtle and convincing. She has been groomed to use her womanly wiles to secure her family’s fortunes, but might she have her own plans? Should Robert trust her? Should she trust him? We jump from the present day, as they are held in the Tower trying to save their skins, to the past as their romance develops, layer upon layer. It’s a sensual, addictive novel that gets inside your head, and a portrait of evil you won’t forget in a long time.”

#read99women: Rebecca Hodge

As promised in yesterday’s post, today’s guest is Rebecca Hodge, debut author of WILDLAND! If you missed Barbara Claypole White waxing poetic about WILDLAND yesterday, here’s where you can catch up quick.

Rebecca Hodge is an author of fiction, a veterinarian, and a clinical research scientist who lives and writes in North Carolina. Fiction writing is the space where her creative side comes out to play, and her writing centers on characters who discover that life is not a spectator sport. She has three grown sons, two crazy dogs, and one patient husband. When not busy writing, she loves hiking, travel, and (of course) curling up with a good book. WILDLAND is her debut novel. 

Rebecca Hodge

Rebecca’s recommendation is THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER by Donna Everhart, which was released in early January. “Told with compassion and deft characterization, this is the story of a teenage girl fighting her own demons as she tries to balance allegiance to her father and brother with the illegality of the family business.” It’s set in western North Carolina in the early 1960s, and it sounds amazing. Read Rebecca’s review in full on BookBub here.

interview with Allison Pataki in CHIRB!

Briefly interrupting the steady stream of #read99women recommendations with an interview I didn’t want to lose in the shuffle! I got to ask the delightful Allison Pataki five questions on the occasion of the release of her new novel THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE, and her answers are just wonderful.

One of my favorite lines: “As a writer you want your reader to experience the action of history and the plot up close and in real-time, rather than through a character’s game of telephone. So that can affect the pacing and the narrative at times. Ultimately, isn’t that part of why we love reading historical fiction—because it allows us to enter firsthand into these most compelling and jaw-dropping of historical moments?”

Click to read our interview at the Chicago Review of Books.

#read99women: Barbara Claypole White

Such a busy week for new releases! Seems like all of February is jam-packed with shiny, new, beautiful books. And if your TBR weren’t toppling already, just wait to see what the rest of the month has in store. And it’s leap year besides, so February has 29 whole days of #read99women goodness.

Today’s recommendation — a debut novel “about an extraordinarily courageous woman facing a second round with breast cancer” — comes courtesy of Barbara Claypole White, an amazing writer who tackles writing about mental illness and family tensions with clear eyes and a kind heart.

The bio: Bestselling author Barbara Claypole White was born in rural England, but writes and gardens in the forests of North Carolina. Her passion for chipping away at stereotypes of mental illness inspires quirky stories about troubled but courageous characters, complicated relationships, and crazy critters…topped off with a dollop of hope. She is also an OCD advocate for the A2A Alliance, a non-profit that promotes advocacy over adversity.

Barbara Claypole White

Barbara’s recommendation is WILDLAND, Rebecca Hodge’s debut novel, which she calls “an incredible story of courage, survival, and humanity… I loved every word, every sentence, every plot twist, and every character.” Read the full recommendation on Bookbub by clicking here.

Curious about Rebecca Hodge herself? Tune in tomorrow for her bio and her own #read99women recommendation!

#read99women: Allison Pataki

It is a true pleasure to welcome Allison Pataki to the blog today, the same day her brand-new book THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE hits the stands! I was lucky enough to read an early copy of the novel, so I can wholeheartedly recommend it. I also got to interview Allison for the Chicago Review of Books: you can read that interview here.

More on Allison: Allison Pataki is the New York Times bestselling author of THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE, THE TRAITOR’S WIFE, THE ACCIDENTAL EMPRESS, SISI: EMPRESS ON HER OWN, WHERE THE LIGHT FALLS, as well as the nonfiction memoir BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN PLACES and two children’s books, NELLY TAKES NEW YORK and POPPY TAKES PARIS. Allison’s novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages. A former news writer and producer, Allison has written for The New York Times, ABC News, The Huffington Post, USA Today, Fox News and other outlets. She has appeared on The TODAY Show, Fox & Friends, Good Day New York, Good Day Chicago and MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Allison graduated Cum Laude from Yale University with a major in English and spent several years in journalism before switching to fiction writing. A member of The Historical Novel Society, Allison lives in New York with her husband and family.

Allison Pataki

And Allison’s pick for #read99women is one of my favorites of the past few years: CIRCE by Madeline Miller. Says Allison: “I had not spent much time with The Odyssey or the fables of Greek mythology since Freshman year of college, so I was delighted by Miller's reimagining of the goddess's story on the island of Aiea. Miller's writing is visceral and she draws her characters with richness and power.”

 For more on Allison, her books, and her other recommendations, click through to her BookBub page here.

And THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE isn’t the only great new book out this week! Tune in tomorrow to hear about another brand-new #read99women release, this one “an exhilarating debut novel of one woman's courage in the face of catastrophe.”

#read99women: Kristina McMorris

This is going to be a fun week of #read99women recommendations! Not that they aren’t all fun — they are — but there are some extra-fun connections between the days this week that I’ve been looking forward to.

Up today is the delightful Kristina McMorris, whose latest historical fiction hit is SOLD ON A MONDAY. You know how when someone you know gets really successful, you’re sometimes jealous of that person, except when that person is particularly wonderful, you’re just so happy for them there’s no room for jealousy? That’s how I feel about Kristina. She’s put in hard work for years and when she skyrocketed to the bestseller list it felt like exactly the right thing to happen. Instead of “Aw, why her?” it was all “Yeah! About time!”

Kristina McMorris

The official bio: Kristina McMorris is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her novels have garnered more than two dozen literary awards and nominations, including the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, RWA’s RITA® Award, and a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction. Inspired by true personal and historical accounts, her works of fiction have been published by Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Kensington Books. Her new novel, Sold on a Monday, follows her widely praised The Edge of Lost, The Pieces We Keep, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves, and Letters from Home. Additionally, her novellas are featured in the anthologies A Winter Wonderland and Grand Central. Prior to her writing career, Kristina hosted weekly TV shows since age nine, including an Emmy® Award-winning program, and has been named one of Portland's "40 Under 40" by The Business Journal. She lives with her husband and two sons in the Pacific Northwest, where she is working on her next novel. For more, visit www.KristinaMcMorris.com

So what book does Kristina recommend for the #read99women series? It’s the newest novel from Allison Pataki, THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE, which hits shelves tomorrow. It’s the fictionalized story of the real-life Desiree Clary, whose fortunes and misfortunes alike were intertwined with the lives of Napoleon Bonaparte and his empress Josephine. As Kristina puts it: “Allison Pataki is a masterful historical author at the top of her game….Painstaking research and page-turning prose placed me directly at the side of this remarkable yet lesser-known figure, journeying from innocent girlhood to seasoned royalty, a survivor of guillotine threats, palace politics, and strains of the heart. I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end.”

Here’s the full review.

And if you’re curious to hear more about Allison Pataki or THE QUEEN’S FORTUNE — I’ve got great news for you! Guess who’s up on the blog tomorrow?

#read99women: Lynda Cohen Loigman

Most authors have themes they tend to revisit across books. Personally, I find myself returning over and over to questions of identity and secrecy — my protagonists all seem to undergo name changes at some point in their stories as they change or conceal their identities. It’s just something I keep coming back to, and I’m always exploring it in different ways.

Lynda Cohen Loigman’s novels — THE TWO-FAMILY HOUSE and THE WARTIME SISTERS — both explore what it means to be part of a family, so it made total sense to me when I saw that her recommendation for #read99women has a lot to do with that same theme.

First, Lynda’s bio: Lynda Cohen Loigman grew up in Longmeadow, MA. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. Her debut novel, THE TWO-FAMILY HOUSE, was a USA Today bestseller and a nominee for the Goodreads 2016 Choice Awards in Historical Fiction. Her second novel, THE WARTIME SISTERS, was selected as a Woman's World Book Club pick and a Best Book of 2019 by Real Simple Magazine. She is currently at work on her third novel.

Lynda Cohen Loigman

Her recommendation is THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA by Juliet Grames, an epic debut novel that follows one woman’s life, and the lives of her loved ones, over decades and generations.

Lynda says, “There is nothing I love more than a family story. In THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA, Juliet Grames has gifted readers with a richly layered and multi-generational saga that follows its characters from Calabria to Connecticut in order to trace the mysteries of Stella Fortuna's astonishing life…. No matter your background, you will recognize fragments of your own family dynamics in the pages of this novel - the struggles, the joys, and the long-held secrets that shape our memories and the stories we choose to tell.”

Read Lynda’s full review of THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA on BookBub by clicking here.

And for more on Lynda’s books and other recommendations, click here to follow her on BookBub.

#read99women: Erin Lindsay McCabe

Fun fact: when I need a last name for a character in my books and nothing immediately springs to mind, I usually name end up borrowing a last name from an author I know and/or enjoy. This is how Martha McCabe in WOMAN 99 got her name; and if you’ve seen the name of today’s #read99women guest, you’ve already made the connection.

(I’d actually first considered borrowing Martha’s surname from the wonderful writer Amy Stewart, who graciously gave an early blurb for GIRL IN DISGUISE. But that would have made the character’s name Martha Stewart, which you probably know is already taken. So I swapped a few things around, the character of the nurse in WOMAN 99’s Terpsichore ward got the last name Stewart, and Martha McCabe got her alliteration.)

Author of the novel I SHALL BE NEAR TO YOU, Erin Lindsay McCabe studied Literature at University of California, Santa Cruz, and taught high school English before completing her MFA at St. Mary's College of California in 2010. She has taught Composition at St. Mary's and Butte College and resides in Northern California with her husband and son and a small menagerie that includes one dog, two cats, two horses, twenty chickens, and eight goats.

Erin Lindsay McCabe

Her recommendation THE WITCHFINDER’S SISTER, by Beth Underdown, is set in 1645 England. The novel imagines a fictional sister for the notorious Matthew Hopkins, self-appointed Witchfinder General. Through her eyes we see the horror of what “witch hunt,” now a mere expression, really meant in its day.

Erin praises the book’s writing and the use of historical documents as chapter beginnings, then continues: “But what I liked best of all and what I think is most masterfully done is the way each relationship is portrayed with subtlety and nuance, the way the ease at which people can be manipulated into doing terrible things is explored, and the steady build of dread, as we wonder what, exactly, Matthew (the witch finder) has planned and how much manipulation he is capable of.“

Click here to read the rest of Erin’s recommendation on BookBub.

And I’m trying something new with the format on these posts — want to see the cover of THE WITCHFINDER’S SISTER? Let’s see if it works:

Oooh, pretty.

#read99women: Kate Quinn

Being part of the community of authors is a wonderful thing, and one I never anticipated when I set out to get published. But lo these many years later, my fellow writers—some just starting out, some hugely successful, most somewhere in between—are a big part of what makes all this work worth it. Whatever ups and downs our careers take, we’re part of something bigger, cheering each other on.

And Kate Quinn is one of the greatest cheerleaders I know. Even with her dramatic rise into mega-bestseller territory with THE ALICE NETWORK a couple years back, she still makes time to support other writers with shout-outs, blurbs, joint events, collaborations, and other uses of time that sometimes fall by the wayside when an author finds herself in high demand. When I asked her for a #read99women recommendation even though I knew she was on deadline for her next book THE ROSE CODE, I was both thrilled and not entirely surprised that she made it happen. She’s cool like that.

Her more formal bio: Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with THE ALICE NETWORK and THE HUNTRESS. All have been translated into multiple languages. Kate and her husband now live in San Diego with two rescue dogs.

Kate Quinn

Kate’s #read99women recommendation is a book that centers around, in her words, “a stellar trio of heroines--women I want to hug, women I want to befriend, women I want to be.” BEYOND THE POINT by Claire Gibson is a debut novel about three women who attend West Point on the eve of 9/11 and their lives together and apart.

Read Kate’s review in its entirety on BookBub here; or follow Kate on BookBub for more on her books and recommendations.