It was my pleasure to take part in another historical fiction blog tour hosted by Amy Bruno of HF Virtual Book Tours. Thanks so much to author Sandra Byrd for providing me a copy of the first book in this new series.
LADY OF A THOUSAND TREASURES BY SANDRA BYRD
Publication Date: October 9, 2018
Tyndale House Publishers
Hardcover, Paperback, & eBook; 480 Pages
Series: The Victorian Ladies Series, #1
Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Description
Miss Eleanor Sheffield is a talented evaluator of antiquities, trained to know the difference between a genuine artifact and a fraud. But with her father’s passing and her uncle’s decline into dementia, the family business is at risk. In the Victorian era, unmarried Eleanor cannot run Sheffield Brothers alone.
The death of a longtime client, Baron Lydney, offers an unexpected complication when Eleanor is appointed the temporary trustee of the baron’s legendary collection. She must choose whether to donate the priceless treasures to a museum or allow them to pass to the baron’s only living son, Harry—the man who broke Eleanor’s heart.
Eleanor distrusts the baron’s motives and her own ability to be unbiased regarding Harry’s future. Harry claims to still love her and Eleanor yearns to believe him, but his mysterious comments and actions fuel her doubts. When she learns an Italian beauty accompanied him on his return to England, her lingering hope for a future with Harry dims.
With the threat of debtor’s prison closing in, Eleanor knows that donating the baron’s collection would win her favor among potential clients, saving Sheffield Brothers. But the more time she spends with Harry, the more her faith in him grows. Might Harry be worthy of his inheritance, and her heart, after all? As pressures mount and time runs out, Eleanor must decide whom she can trust—who in her life is false or true, brass or gold—and what is meant to be treasured.
Purchase Links
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Praise for Lady of a Thousand Treasures
“Sandra Byrd’s amazing cast of characters and Victorian settings pull the reader right into the story. I became happily lost in this compelling, lovely book.” -Karen Harper, NYT bestselling author of The Royal Nanny
“Lady of a Thousand Treasures delivers mystery, romance, and suspense in a well-researched Victorian setting.” -Julie Klassen, bestselling author
“I’m always swept away by a Sandra Byrd novel, and Lady of a Thousand Treasures will be long remembered as one of Sandra’s best.” -Jane Kirkpatrick, NYT bestselling author of All She Left Behind
“Sandra Byrd is the rare writer whose evocative, prose grabs hold and doesn’t let go. The Victorian Ladies Series is off to a stunning start!” -Laura Frantz, author of The Lacemaker
“With stunning characters and impeccable research, Sandra Byrd has woven together an exquisite treasure hunt with an ending that will leave you breathless.” -Melanie Dobson, award-winning author of Catching the Wind
“Sandra Byrd’s writing is an absolute piece of art! If I had to sum up this story all in one word, it would be satisfying.” -Michelle Griep, award-winning author of the Once Upon a Dickens Christmas series
My Review
The first thing I noticed about this book was the beautiful cover art...love it!! This is my first read by this author and my first Gothic romance novel and I enjoyed it a lot. This is the first book in a new series called The Victorian Ladies and what a great start.
The author was able to grab my attention and keep it throughout. This is another book where I was able to learn new things. The main character Miss Eleanor Sheffield a talented evaluator of antiquities, able to tell the difference between true artifacts and a fraud.
I highly recommend this to those who love historical fiction mixed with a touch of danger and mystery. I can't wait for the next in this series!
About the Author
Bestselling author Sandra Byrd has published more than fifty books over her editing and writing career. Her traditionally published books include titles by Tyndale House Publishers, Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, WaterBrook Press, a Penguin Random House imprint, and Bethany House. She’s also an independent author.
Sandra’s series of historically sound Gothic romances launched with the best-selling Mist of Midnight, which earned a coveted Editor’s Choice award from the Historical Novel Society. The second book, Bride of a Distant Isle, has been selected by Romantic Times as a Top Pick. The third in the series, A Lady in Disguise, published in 2017 and was named by the American Library Association’s Booklist as one of the Top Ten Inspirational Fiction books of the year.
Her contemporary adult fiction debut, Let Them Eat Cake, which was a Christy Award finalist, as was her first historical novel, To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn. To Die For was also named a Library Journal Best Books Pick for 2011, and The Secret Keeper: A Novel of Kateryn Parr was named a Library Journal Best Books Pick for 2012.
Please visit www.sandrabyrd.com to learn more or to invite Sandra to your book club via Skype. You can also connect with Sandra on Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Goodreads
So excited to be taking part in the Blog Tour for Madam of My Heart by Gini Grossenbacher. I will be sharing an excerpt during my stop. Please be sure to check out the other stops on the tour listed below.
Book Details
Title: Madam of My Heart
Author: Gini Grossenbacher
Publication Date: February 6, 2017
Genre: Historical Fiction/Victorian
Series: American Madams #1
Pages: 476
ISBN-13: 978-0998380605
Baltimore, 1849. During a scandalous crisis, the young Irish Brianna Baird flees her home at Fells Point. With little cash and only a seamstress’s trade, she braves the hypnotic streets of New Orleans. The tantalizing Madam DeSalle lures her to her brothel, then sells her to the dashing but questionable gambler, Edward Spina, who falls in love with her. In a tawdry alliance with these two profiteers, Brianna embarks on a journey through the French Quarter’s debauched and glittering Voodoo world. Facing the horrors of slavery, she triumphs by gaining freedom papers for her maid Emma’s enslaved husband and son. Brianna and Edward escape with them to San Francisco. There she becomes one of the most sought after madams in the gold rush parlor house trade. But will her fame and pluck be enough to save Edward from the Vigilante noose? This is the first book in the American Madams series.
“A debut historical novel that chronicles the struggles, loves, and joys of an exceptional madam in 19th-century America. Grossenbacher’s book, the first in a planned series, dramatizes the early life and busy career of a woman named Brianna Baird. Grossenbacher’s prose is both graceful and inventive. She absorbingly limns the various cities Brianna inhabits, from New Orleans and its ‘web of Creole cottages, chaotic marketplaces, and secretive balconies, simmering outside her window, ‘ to the rowdy atmosphere of frontier-era San Francisco. The occasional marvelous metaphor will surprise readers, as when ‘the truth hit Brianna like a badly aimed bowling pin.’ This isn’t just a novel for lovers of history’s more prurient corners; it’s for everyone who likes well-deployed language and intense stories. A seamier side of American history, engagingly told through one woman’s unexpected adventures.” -Kirkus Reviews, A Recommended Review
Buy Links
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Excerpt:
Madam of My Heart: A Novel of Love, Loss and Redemption
Gini Grossenbacher
JGKS Press, ©2017
Chapter Nineteen: Chocolate Cream Filling
New Orleans, Louisiana
May 1850
Brianna devoured the chocolate cream filling while Nancy hooked her elbow, guiding her from the French Market out onto the street. If the woman threatened her, she could always run back to Poet and Love. On the other hand, DeSalle might be a showier version of her idol, Mrs. Whipple. She’d followed Mrs. Whipple’s every move about the Inn, learning from someone in charge, someone to imitate as she’d planned her own seamstress shop. So, she paid attention while Nancy peppered her with the regulations posted in the upstairs rooms at the parlor house.
As they stepped out onto the street, DeSalle said, “Of course, any men visitors will need my approval. My girls drink no alcohol on the premises at any time. You will not have any money in your possession, since your earnings, room, and board are managed by the house.”
Brianna stopped, struggling with uncertainty. “Does that mean I would have to ask you for any spending money?” Would she like that agreement? Her thoughts returned to Baltimore. A few seamstresses at Miss Osborne’s had told her about such arrangements, when they had worked in-house at a hotel or on a private estate.
Nancy faced her. “Of course, of course, although you’ll have very little use for spending money since the house provides for all your needs.”
Brianna chewed her bottom lip. She and Nancy resumed their walk, stepping around a pile of steamy horse droppings. A milk truck rumbled past, followed by a boy driving a flock of sheep down to the loading docks.
She noticed Nancy’s sideways glance as she spoke. “Above all, chérie, do your best to get along with all the girls at the house. Any fighting or discord and I’ll put you back onto the street to fend for yourself.” The woman’s eyes took on a threatening cast. “You wouldn’t want that again, now would you?”
“No, of course not,” Brianna said. She digested the details along with her chocolat, and
her nervousness lessened. She remembered Father throwing the plates. These were hardly rules.
Not compared to Father’s. She felt a bit of hope and reassurance. She’d do her best to get along.
As long as she worked hard and did her part to be agreeable, DeSalle would meet all her needs.
What more did she deserve? She’d fallen to the bottom of a well and she’d have to claw her way back out.
* * *
Brianna and Nancy DeSalle fell into an easy rhythm on their walk together on Chartres
Street. Their footsteps kept time with a Congolese drummer’s beat. White clouds streaked with gray sailed overhead. They passed the tall, creamy façades of the Presbytère Courthouse and St. Louis Cathedral. The Latin call-and-response of the priest and the congregation floated out
through the open doors. Morning mass, Brianna thought. She peered into the vestibule and down the nave. Outside DeSalle guided her onward through a cluster of artists painting the scene. They dipped their brushes on easels, then dabbed paints on canvases.
A hefty Negro crossed their path as they neared the Cabildo, another tall-columned court
building on her right. The man whistled a song; he pushed a large box on a wheelbarrow toward the wharf. Across from the Place D’Armes, sailing and steam ships anchored at an angle, and around them, the brown Mississippi glistened like café au lait. Steamboats and flatboats frothed the waters as they churned upriver.
A hunchback drove a rickety conveyance between them, the horses kicking up dust and
mud on St. Peter Street. Brianna coughed into her sleeve. This wagon, crammed with colored men, women, and children, creaked by on its way from the slave market. Sweat-lined faces
stared at her, blank, unseeing. Chains jangled against the wood floor. She drew back, picturing the scene a few months ago when Mr. Ginn had told her about the human trade in New Orleans.
He’d told her that white and colored men of means examined naked men, women, and children, then dickered on their worth.
Plantation owners retained all rights to these human lives and their generations. Brianna
had not seen such a cruel display since the time she had witnessed a slave whipping on a dock
back in Fells Point. All the same, she closed her eyes. Please God, help those unfortunates and
me. She followed DeSalle’s abrupt right turn at the red brick Pontalba building onto St. Peter
Street, where shoppers were strolling. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted two men in straw hats. They paused to stare at her and DeSalle from across the narrow street.
Accustomed to flaunting her wares, DeSalle bent down to pick up a leaf, gravity tugging
her breasts from her chemise. The taller man elbowed the shorter at the sight of the madam, but the other’s steady gaze found Brianna’s. She worked to maintain what delicate control she had over herself when all she wanted to do was get to DeSalle’s house. She brushed brioche flakes
from her chin.
The same man removed his hat, bowing in her direction. A man had never hailed her in
such a way before, and Brianna blushed. She felt the encouraging press of Nancy’s arm, so she bent her knee and the men tipped their hats. A laugh ricocheted across the street. What kind of
snicker was it? At first she found it mocking, but the next moment, she thought the men were
being playful, entertaining.
Brianna squinted in order to get a better view of them. The shorter man had slim, dark
features. Spanish or Italian? So many cultures mixed here in New Orleans. She looked at hisolive skin and black moustache. His straw hat glowed white against the dingy building behind him. He wore a pressed linen jacket, red cravat, and fine black leather boots. He looked to be a bit older. A troubling thought took hold. Could he be one of the many gamblers in town?
About the Author:
California author Gini Grossenbacher was a successful high school English teacher until she abandoned grades and term papers, choosing to write historical novels instead. Now she leads small writing groups and coaches other writers. She loves researching the history behind her novels, and enjoys traveling to the setting where they take place. Her hobbies include needlepoint, nature walks, and Scrabble. She lives in the Sacramento Valley where she grew up, east of San Francisco.
Author Social Media Links
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Tour Schedule
During the Blog Tour we will be giving away two copies of Madam of My Heart! To enter, click on the Giveaway link below.
Giveaway Rules
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on April 30th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to US residents only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.
Giveaway
