Book Title: Ugarit: Tales of a Lost City

Author Name: Janet Tamaren

Publication Date: September 2, 2025

Publisher: Historium Press

Pages: 334

Genre: Historical Fiction

 

Any Triggers: battle scenes

Twitter Handles: @JTamaren @cathiedunn @marylschmidt

Instagram Handles: @drtamaren @thecoffeepotbookclub

Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #AncientNearEast #BronzeAge #Ugarit #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/09/blog-tour-ugarit-by-janet-tamaren.html

Book Title and Author Name:

Ugarit: Tales of a Lost City

by Janet Tamaren

Blurb:

A captivating tale of bravery in the face of heartbreak and upheaval.

IN THE SPRING OF 1190 BC, on the sun-drenched shores of the eastern Mediterranean, the thriving city of Ugarit pulses with life, trade, and courtly intrigues. But danger brews beyond its walls.

Yoninah, a gifted healer, offers herbs and amulets to ease her neighbours’ suffering. When a Mycenaean – an ex-soldier from the Trojan War—stumbles into her life, he reawakens memories she thought long buried. Just as whispers of war echo ever closer.

Meanwhile, in the royal court, Thut-Moses is a scribe who was trained in the temples of Egypt. The king is paralyzed by ominous messages: foreign invaders are razing one coastal city after another. As the tide of destruction nears, Ugarit’s fate hangs in the balance.

Torn between loyalty and survival, love and duty, Yoninah and Thut-Moses must each decide: what will they risk to protect what the hold most dear?

Rich with historical detail and inspired by newly-translated cuneiform tablets unearthed form Ugarit’s ashes, UGARIT brings to life the final days of a cosmopolitan world on the brink of collapse – a sweeping tale of courage and resilience at the twilight of the Bronze Age.

Praise for Ugarit:

“A masterfully told tale-rich, riveting, and utterly transporting. I couldn’t put it down.”

★★★★★ – Historical Fiction Review

Excerpt 1:

CHAPTER 1: ATTACK ON THE SUN

At the Healer’s House

IT was early morning at the house on Palace Street. In Yoninah’s workroom, sunlight from the window slits fell onto her tables and shelves.

Yoninah enjoyed this time of day, the quiet time before any clients appeared. She was a healer in the lower city. Her clientele were the sailors wanting ginger to protect against sea sickness or amulets to protect them from the hazards of crossing the Great Sea. And the dockworkers from the harbor, who had aches and pains from lifting heavy storage jars full of grain or ingots of copper. She also saw the young girls seeking love potions to snare a lover, as well as the older women seeking to prevent another pregnancy when they already had several children.

Frequently, Yoninah’s clients would be prostitutes. The women of the night would often have a child or two and would be seeking a way to prevent another pregnancy. Yoninah was invariably kind to these unfortunate women.

Yoninah was a handsome woman in her early thirties. She wore a fine wool tunic, with a bronze pin at one shoulder. Her hair fell in a jumble of soft black waves, setting off her light brown eyes. She was young enough to be sympathetic to the young lovelorn girls and old enough to understand the plight of the women struggling to raise children.

Yoninah arranged her potions and shelves in their jars on her shelves. Then she ground up fresh Valerian roots, for the sleeping draughts her clients invariably sought. She said a quiet prayer to Asherah. A bronze figure of the Goddess stood on a pedestal near her shelves: “Queen of Heaven, give me strength to face the coming day. Give me wisdom in dealing with my clients. Give me patience with those who try my patience.”

Yoninah also prayed to her loved ones in the afterlife: her mother who had taught her the skills of the healer and to her husband who had sheltered her and loved her for the years of their marriage. Her mother had died the year before, her husband five years past. She wished each of them a peaceful sojourn in the hereafter and assured them of her ongoing love.

As she paused for a moment in her work, she heard her daughters call out from the courtyard adjacent to her workroom.

“Mother, come see the birds!”

When she joined them in the courtyard, she saw a wondrous sight: thousands of birds filling the sky. Yoninah knew, from the years she had lived in Ugarit, that this was the time for their annual migration, from their winter homes in Africa all the way to their summer homes in the Aegean. Myriads of doves in formation, their gray wings catching the sun, provided a delightful display.

Her daughters Bat-El and Laylah were admiring the blanket of birds passing overhead. Bat-El, at age ten, was enthralled by the overhead display. She had the light brown eyes and curly black hair of the family. Her older sister, Laylah, was equally beguiled. She was fifteen, with the same black hair and brown eyes. She already had the curvaceous figure of their mother.

Then something odd happened. The sunshine dimmed. It seemed a cloud had passed over the sun, but the sky was cloudless. The cheeping of the birds decreased.. And the morning became darker. The day felt like late afternoon. Finally, the birds grew quiet and stopped flying. They settled on trees all over the city.

“The sun is going away!” Bat-El pointed at the sky.

Yoninah snuck a sideways glance at the sun. It was no longer a bright circle. A third of the sun was obscured by a dark shadow.

“My gods!” said Yoninah. “I have heard of such things. My, the birds, they are so quiet.”

The other animals were quiet too. Goats, sheep, donkeys in their quarters in the neighboring houses, they all fell silent. There was a lull over the land. The unnatural darkness of what should have been a bright morning, and the silence of the animals led to an eerie quiet. Everyone was holding their breath, waiting to find out if the world was coming to an end.

“Is the sun going to come back?” asked the girls.

“It should come back,” said their mother. Although she had personally never witnessed such an event before, she was certainly hoping it would come back.

The day grew even darker. By what should have been late morning, the sun was completely  obscured  by whatever shadow was attacking it. It felt like evening. The birds and other animals remained silent.

Finally, the sun started coming back. The unnatural darkness began to dissipate.

After another interval, the day had fully returned. It was a normal spring morning again. Except by now, it was noon. The donkeys were back to braying and the birds were back to flying. However, Yoninah couldn’t shake an unsteady feeling.

“If the sun could disappear, what other ill-omens are in store for the city?” Yoninah thought to herself.

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bxpykq

Author Bio:

Janet Tamaren is a retired physician who practiced for two decades in rural Kentucky. Now living in Denver with her husband, she enjoys writing and is the author of a medical memoir and a guide to Hebrew Bible stories. She began writing UGARIT during the COVID lockdown.

Author Links:

Website: https://jtamaren.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janet.tamaren

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtamaren/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09FFKGWHM

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21709056.  Janet Tamaren MD

Book Link

From Amazon:

Shepherd’s Texas heart belongs to Loretta.

Having met and fallen in love with Loretta in the Empire State, Shepherd has moved beyond the ruins of his past life. And with Michael now his son, the life he always wanted is in his grasp. Following one of the best summers of his life, with it now being October Shepherd receives a phone call from his best friend. At first surprised by Luke’s sudden wedding invitation, only days away, happiness turns to disbelief and frustration when Luke reveals the name of his bride. How could Luke consider marrying such a terrible woman, who along with Shepherd’s ex-wife, made his life in rural Texas a living hell for too many years.

Agreeing to be Luke’s best man at his wedding, Shepherd prepares himself for an anxious return to Texas. With Loretta and Michael at his side, he hopes his personal demons will not spoil his best friend’s wedding. As he considers what he’s about to endure, he understands that this may be what he needs so he can look to a future beyond the Lone Star State.

My Review:

Some women are twisted. Others are sweet. This book has many of each. A sweet romance filled with heartache and treachery, embezzlement, and fake persons. The good outweighs the bad. Justice prevails. Who will it cost in the end?

Please welcome Judy and Keith to my blog. Good morning. Shall we get started? Please introduce yourself to those reading this blog post.

Judy and Keith both come from a sleepy town in the heart of England and went to the same grammar school, which translates to both middle school and high school in the US.

When they meet new acquaintances, Judy often introduces Keith as her first husband…reactions differ! She always made-up stories for their children, who’d demand ‘tell me a story.’ Sadly, we never got around to writing them down.

In retirement, our grandkids wanted stories, except this time, both Keith and Judy were asked. Keith decided to write them down. ‘Big T’ was the first, about a teddy bear who was a bully, then ‘the Wicked Witch and the Squirrels.’ It was a cold winter, and the witch wanted a fur-coat. They wrote dozens of short-stories for family and friends, using their names for key characters. Some are still available individually, but most are included in one of their anthologies, where the entire family helped with pen and pencil illustrations.

As the grandkids got older, the story content changed and became more mature. Judy and Keith would discuss the plot over a glass of wine, agree the top-level overview, then Keith did the mechanics of filling in the details. Judy would act as critic, editor, and proof reader.

Has writing always been part of your life and when did you “know” that it was time to start writing your first book?

No. We started in retirement. Judy wanted her space and challenged Keith to write a story. The first story was adults only, and published under a different penname. The grandkids were young at the time, and couldn’t read an ‘adult’ story. We asked them what they wanted…and the rest is history.

How difficult was it writing your first book?

The story simply flowed. We write a chapter at a time, following a chronological progression and letting the characters decide on the plot. We honestly believe ‘writer’s block’ is caused by the conflict between a rigid outline and what the characters actually want to do!

Have you ever wanted to give up and what stopped you?

We view writing as a hobby, which sidesteps the issue of monetary rewards. If the desire to write goes away, we will stop writing. So far, we have over 50 titles available on Amazon.

Who is the most supportive of you and your dream to be a writer?

Judy for Keith and vice versa.

Anything specific you want to tell your readers?

About the writing process, we bounce high level plot lines off each other, then let the seeds germinate. This usually happens overnight…and can lead to sleep deprivation. Eventually the characters are happy, and Keith writes the cliff-note version first. Once it’s on paper, Keith can sleep again. As an aside, Judy has the same problem when she writes music. The melodies run around inside her mind until she can write them down on manuscript paper!

Did the cover evolve the same way, or did you work with someone to make it come together for you?

Some covers Keith drew and painted, others friends created for us, some we adapted from photographs we’d taken…and others we picked non-copywrite images.

What are you working on now? Can we get a peek, an excerpt?

Our current project is ‘Touched by Magic,’ and we’re still in the germination phase. In a way, it’s a follow-on to ‘The Magic Aeroplane,’ except the key characters have grown up, and the magical adventures relegated to make-believe!

As it is close to Halloween. We wish to promote “The Wicked Witch Anthology.”

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JB7LV96

Please visit:

www.amazon.com/stores/Judy/author/B013HBQTLM

Author page, www.amazon.com/stores/Judy-and-Keith/author/B0B4TBSWRY and also www.amazon.com/stores/Judy/author/B013HBQTLM

Facebook, www.facebook.com/JudyandKeith

X @JudyandKeith

Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/author/show/50713911.Judy_and_Keith

Amazon, www.amazon.com/stores/Judy-and-Keith/author/B0B4TBSWRY

Instagram, www.instagram.com/judykeithauthor/

BlueSky @judykeith.bsky.social

Book Title: Then Came the Summer Snow

Series: n/a

Author Name:  Trisha T. Pritikin

Publication Date: September 15^th, 2025

Publisher: Moonshine Cove Press

Pages: 328

Genre: Historical Fiction / Dark Humor / Atomic Feminism

Any Triggers: misogynist culture of 1950s; no violence, but cancers in children are a focus, and thyroid cancer treatment.

Twitter Handles: @TrishaPritikin @cathiedunn @marylschmidt

Instagram Handle: @thecoffeepotbookclub

Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #Downwinders #AtomicJustice #1950s #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/08/blog-tour-then-came-the-summer-snow-by-trisha-pritikin.html

Book Title and Author Name):

Then Came the Summer Snow

Trisha T Pritikin

Blurb:

In 1958, Edith Higgenbothum, a housewife in Richland, Washington, downwind of the massive Hanford nuclear weapons production site, discovers that the milk her young son Herbie drinks contains radioactive iodine from Hanford’s secret fallout releases. Radioactive iodine can damage the thyroid, especially in children.

When Herbie is diagnosed with aggressive thyroid cancer, Edith allies with mothers of children with thyroid cancer and leukemia in communities blanketed by fallout from Nevada Test Site A-bomb tests on a true atomic age hero’s journey to save the children.

Praise for Then Came the Summer Snow:

“In Trisha Pritikin’s crisp and sweeping novel, the Cold War comes home to live with a family in Richland, Washington. Not the Cold War of ideologies, but the one that included 2,000+ nuclear tests, and the production of hundreds of tons of plutonium; that contaminated our homes, food and communities; that actually took family members.”

~ Robert “Bo” Jacobs, Emeritus Professor of History at the Hiroshima Peace Institute and Hiroshima City University, author of Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha (Yale 2022).

“Then Came the Summer Snow is like an unexpected gift in its surprise and freshness.  Absurdity informs its realism, its poignancy, and its humor. A troubling, hilarious, weird, and wonderful novel.”

~ Mark Spencer, author of An Untimely Frost

Excerpt #1:

Herb clocks out of work at 5:00 PM on the dot, handing over the film badge and pencil dosimeter that read his daily on-site radiation exposure. Before he’s allowed to leave the reactor, he’s scanned with a handheld Geiger counter, checking for any wayward radioactive particles he might have picked up during the day. If anything’s found, a decontamination shower is the next order of business, followed by a repeat scan until he’s declared “clean.” Only then can he change into his “street” clothes and head home.

On the long bus ride back to Richland, Herb only half listens as the young secretary sitting next to him chatters on about her new life as a married woman. She’s ecstatic at the prospect of raising a family in a ‘safe, clean town like Richland.’  Does he have kids? she asks. “Yes, a son, Herbie.” More questions follow about Herbie’s age, his school, how Herb and Edith like Herbie’s teachers. Herb finally tunes her out, nodding his head and muttering “yah” and “I see.”

Back in town, Herb brushes crumbs off the dashboard and driver’s seat, then climbs into the DeSoto. He’s had the car now for nearly a year. He’s darn proud of it, the 1957 model right off the showroom floor. Featuring the new torsion-air ride, the DeSoto takes corners without lean or sway. The glossy full-color brochure with the photo of the car’s modern “Flight Sweep styling” reeled him right in: “Here is the new shape of motion— long, upswept tail fins, low silhouette (only 4 feet, 7 inches high), plenty of headroom, and 32% more windshield area!! This baby can flick its tail at anything on the road!” Piloting such a fine piece of modern machinery around town makes Herb feel positively regal, the master of his domain.

Herb suspects it was the elegant Frontier Homespun-style grain vinyl interior that convinced Edith to go along with the purchase— when he first brought up the idea of a new DeSoto, Edith insisted that their 1953 Buick Roadmaster still ran just fine. In the end, though, she went along as she always did. Herb bought a new Desoto, and she kept the Roadmaster as “her” car.  She would have preferred a new Dodge Le Femme over the Desoto. After all, the La Femme had that delightful upholstery covered with pink rosebuds on a silver-pink background with pale pink vinyl trim. Why, the 1955 La Femme even came with a keystone-shaped pink calfskin purse that matched the interior of the car, complete with coordinated accessories—a face powder compact, lipstick case, cigarette case, comb, cigarette lighter, and change purse, made with your choice of either faux-tortoiseshell plastic and gold-tone metal, or pink calfskin and gone-tone metal. But she knew Herb would never go for that. He wanted a Desoto, and that was that. The La Femme, after all, was a women’s car.”

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bOOqKE

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Author Bio:

Trisha is an internationally known advocate for fallout-exposed populations downwind of nuclear weapons production and testing sites. She is an attorney and former occupational therapist.

Trisha was born and raised in Richland, the government-owned atomic town closest to the Hanford nuclear weapons production facility in southeastern Washington State. Hanford manufactured the plutonium used in the Trinity Test, the world’s first test of an atomic bomb, detonated July 16,1945 at Alamogordo, NM, and for Fat Man, the plutonium bomb that decimated Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.  Beginning in late 1944, and for more than forty years thereafter, Hanford operators secretly released millions of curies of radioactive byproducts into the air and to the waters of the Columbia River, exposing civilians downwind and downriver. Hanford’s airborne radiation spread across eastern Washington, northern Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana, and entered British Columbia.

Trisha suffers from significant thyroid damage, hypoparathyroidism, and other disabling health issues caused by exposure to Hanford’s fallout in utero and during childhood. Infants and children are especially susceptible to the damaging effects of radiation exposure.

Trisha’s first book, The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices from the Fight for Atomic Justice,  published in 2020 by the University Press of Kansas, has won multiple awards, including San Francisco Book Festival, 1^st place (history); Nautilus Silver award (journalism and investigative reporting); American Book Fest Book Awards Finalist (US History); Eric Hoffer Awards, Shortlist Grand Prize Finalist; and Chanticleer International Book Awards, 1^st Place, (longform journalism). The Hanford Plaintiffs was released in Japanese in 2023 by Akashi Shoten Publishing House, Tokyo. 

Author Links:

Website: www.trishapritikin.com

Twitter / X: https://x.com/TrishaPritikin

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trishapritikinfightingback/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/triesq/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Trisha-T.-Pritikin/author/B086WVVNTY

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19583157.Trisha_T_Pritikin

Atomic Heritage Foundation Interview: https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/trisha-pritikin/

40…had you lived. 35 years ago you died in my arms, and after your ICU nurse pulled your tubes, I rocked you in my arms for at least 25 minutes. No one should battle the battles you had. I love you! Brother loves you. We all love you. #ChildhoodCancer #Cancer

Book Title: The Boat on the Lake of Regret

Series:  The Castle in Kilkenny: Fairy Tales

Author Name: Christy Matheson

Publication Date: 15 July, 2025

Publisher: Buttercup Books (self-published)

Pages: 210

Genre: Fairy tale retelling; historical fantasy

Any Triggers:

I define this series as “high adventure, no gore.” It is suitable for an older teen audience.

There are slight content warnings about unsupportive parents (off-page) and there is a war that is mentioned. The characters are in physical danger, but everyone is fine in the end, and the tone of the book makes it clear that everyone will be fine. Two characters in love spend the night together, but it isn’t even fade-to-black because it isn’t implied that they have sex (I think they cuddle).

Twitter Handles: @CMathesonAuthor @cathiedunn @marylschmidt

Instagram Handles: @Christy_Matheson_Author @thecoffeepotbookclub

Hashtags: #BoatOnTheLakeOfRegret #CastleInKilkennyFairyTales #HistoricalFantasy #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/09/blog-tour-the-boat-on-the-lake-of-regret-by-christy-matheson.html

Book Title and Author Name:

The Boat on the Lake of Regret

by Christy Matheson

Blurb:

He has one last chance to be a fairy tale hero. 

But she didn’t agree to be the damsel in distress.

When her longtime boyfriend unexpectedly slides a ring on her finger, Hannah is whisked from her everyday bedroom to a medieval ball. Hannah knew that Dylan would do anything to prove to her parents that he’s husband material, including going into the Fae world—but she never agreed to go through the Veil herself.

Now one of three princess sisters, Hannah is paired with now-Prince Dylan. But, homesick and blindsided, she pretends the Veil has wiped him from her memory.

As her prince scrambles in vain to be the right kind of hero, Hannah ignores her instincts and follows her new sisters onto a mysterious boat—which promptly sails them into a land of giants, magical traps, and enchanted pianos…and away from Dylan.

Read now to journey back to medieval Ireland, complete with the Fae and mythological monsters, in this fairy tale adventure and sweet “it was always you” romance.

Snippet 4:

Ship takes off:

The wind catches our cloaks when we reach the front of the boat, and Nuala lifts her arms and laughs into the gust. I can’t help but smile too; something about the raw free power of it after this day.

There’s a deep poom above me, as the sail snaps full. It rocks Nuala half off her feet—I grab her, she laughs, I laugh too.

“Wait!” I shake her lightly. “The sail!”

“What about the—” Nuala looks up and goes quiet.

As one, we both turn to the cove, which is a dozen yards away. Two dozen.

“Stop!” someone yells from shore, or many someones. I still can’t see them.

“It’s cozy down here,” Mór calls, “but the waves have come up a bit.”

The sail flutters and snaps full again.

“There’s no one here,” I say, terrified. “How is the ship moving?”

“We’re running straight downwind,” Nuala answers, her voice flat. “Maybe they just left the sail rigged? And the wind changed?”

Even I know that sailors don’t get off a boat and just leave the rigging in place so the first wind will take their boat away.

Behind us, there’s a scream and a splash. We both turn, but can’t see anything behind the headland. The sail is still dropping and then pulling full again, so we’re distinctly moving, but not getting anywhere fast.

Just then, there’s a clatter and the ropes drop loose in the pulleys, the winches on the other side start to turn, and the sail flops against the mast, then pulls towards the side.

There’s still no sailors. At least ones that we can see.

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/hzxiszq79z

Author Bio:

Characters you connect with. Adventure. Love. Family… And endings that are more than a sugar rush. 

When Christy Matheson is not throwing ordinary characters into fairy tales, she is busy raising five children. (Very busy.) She writes character-driven historical fiction with and without fantasy elements, and her “fresh, smart, and totally charming” stories have won multiple awards.

Christy is also an embroidery artist, classically trained pianist, and sews all of her own clothes. She lives in Oregon, on a country property that fondly reminds her of a Regency estate (except with a swing set instead of faux Greek ruins), with her husband, five children, three Shelties, one bunny, and an improbable quantity of art supplies.

Author Links:

Website: https://christymatheson.com

Twitter / X: https://x.com/CMathesonAuthor

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091887100897

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/christy_matheson_author/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/christy-matheson.bsky.social

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/christy-matheson

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@christy.matheson.author

Amazon Author Page:https://us.amazon.com/stores/Christy-Matheson/author/B0D6J2KRLS

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/49771827.Christy_Matheson

Substack: https://unspokenstoriesofwomanhood.substack.com/

Book Link

From Amazon:

Prince Frederik Ian George Vincent of Waltingham and Lady Tatiana have been promised to one another since birth. Soon Frederik will become king and is expected to ascend the throne as a married man. Neither he nor Tatiana want an arranged alliance and have fought the tradition since they were old enough to understand it.

Frederik has come to New York City a week before Christmas to help with a fundraiser for impoverished countries. The moment he arrives to his hotel suite, Ayvri Scott, a member of housekeeping has a clumsy moment with him. It sparks an undeniable attraction and genuine affection. It also stirs phenomenal controversy.

When the prince is asked what he’d like for Christmas his response was to marry someone of his choosing. Will he get his wish?

My Review:

Romes never disappoints, at all. This was a fast read and full of the magic of Christmas along with the struggles of those who work hard whether housemaids or not. No one is immune to heartfelt feelings that some can love to hate one with. Jan adds humor into each page and adding in an orphan’s home makes it even more endearing. Toss in one handsome prince from an obscure English kingdom, his parents who decided at birth who he would marry, and neither one wants to marry to each other, and the fun and a super fast romance blooms!

Book Link

From Amazon:

Malachi Hunter believes in ghosts.
In fact, he’s obsessed with the supernatural, and it’s made him a socially isolated loner. Then a chance encounter with a girl who remembers his dubious reputation from school, and who needs his help, leads him to investigate a haunted house. Although things don’t exactly go according to plan, Mal’s still determined to become a paranormal investigator.

Fiercely independent single mum Teena Maunder believed that she could cope with anything; until a terrifying and baffling haunting starts in her home. Desperate for help, she turns to her policeman brother, who recruits Malachi Hunter. The novice ghost hunter quickly finds himself in real danger, tackling a menacing entity which threatens everyone he cares about!

Author’s Note. Originally published in 2015, ‘The Novice Ghost Hunter’ and ‘A Matter of Faith’ were the first parts of the Ghost Hunter Series. The new edition has been extensively rewritten, and, with the addition of new material, expanded to include both stories.

My Review:

Malachi Hunter is a loner, and interested in all things supernatural and ghostly. He is a novice, but he is also learned, a man who reads books, and monitors all things paranormal on internet sites of quality. A landscaper by trade, just like his father, and a novice paranormal hunter by evening and night. Malachi is asked to help an old friend from the past. Not all goes well, but more is learned about different entities and how to deal with them. Life will never be the same for Malachi, his family, nor his friends. Danger and death are never far away.

Name: Nancy Jardine

Book Title: Tailored Truths

Series: Silver Sampler Series, Book 2

Publication Date: September 12^th, 2025

Publisher: Nancy Jardine with Ocelot Press

Pages: 468

Genre: Historical Fiction; Family Saga; Women’s Fiction

Any Triggers: I don’t think so. (Deaths described but not murder.)

Twitter Handle: https://x.com/nansjar

Instagram Handle: https://www.instagram.com/nansjar2023/

Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #FamilySaga #WomensFiction #Victorian #Scotland #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/08/blog-tour-tailored-truths-by-nancy-jardine.html

Book Title and Author Name:

Tailored Truths

by Nancy Jardine

Blurb:

An engrossing Victorian Scotland Saga (Silver Sampler Series Book 2)

Is self-supporting success enough for Margaret Law or will her future also include an adoring husband and children? She might secretly yearn for that though how can she avoid a repeat of relationship deceptions that disenchanted her so much during her teenage years?

Employment as a lady’s maid, and then as a private tutor in Liverpool in the 1860s bring thrilling opportunities Margaret could never have envisaged. Though when those posts end, her educational aspirations must be shelved again. Reliance on her sewing skills is paramount for survival when she returns to Dundee.

Meeting Sandy Watson means love, marriage and starting a family – though not necessarily in that order – are a striking development though it entails a move north to Peterhead. Yet, how can Margaret shed her fear of commitment and her independence and take the plunge?

Jessie, her sister-at-heart, is settled in Glasgow. Frequent letters are a life-line between them but when it all goes horribly wrong, the contents of Margaret’s correspondence don’t necessarily mirror her awful day-to-day realities.

Just a little sing along…in Victorian Dundee

1860s Dundee

When writing Tailored Truths, I needed to find some evening activities for my main character, Margaret Law. At the beginning of the novel, she pitches up in Dundee at the age of sixteen, no longer having a private tutoring job in Edinburgh.

Since she can’t get a job tutoring, teaching, nor in the line of work like a lady’s maid, she pragmatically takes a job in one of the large Dundee jute mills because she needs to earn money to feed and shelter herself. Most women working in one of the mills would be employed in the main loom weaving rooms; or in the areas where the raw jute bales were softened by the use of whale oil; or perhaps the carding rooms where they produced the hanks needed for weaving. All of those jobs were poorly paid and physically exhausting. The job Margaret finds for herself is just as poorly paid, but it’s in one of the finishing rooms where the jute cloth (of varying grades) was cut and sewn into sacks for things like flour and edible produce. It’s boringly repetitive hemming work, a very long twelve-hour day from 6 am till 6 pm, with a noon dinner break – six days a week.

Evening time, when she can stay awake long enough, is precious. As is her Sunday off work.

Later in the novel, she returns to Dundee and again works in the same mill as before, but it’s in a different kind of finishing room. The best part of her second mill job is that she only works till around 12.30 pm on a Saturday!

So, what activities did I find for Margaret to do in her leisure time? Since she’s addicted to reading, that’s a well-loved activity for her evenings. However, it’s not that easy. She isn’t a member of a lending library. Not only would that entail a fee (annual or monthly), but as a female she would have been ineligible to become a member of most lending libraries at this time. She covets books but buying brand new ones is expensive. A copy of Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities (in a book production and not serialised) might cost around 5/- [five shillings sterling]. A way around this was for Margaret to find the courage to acquire copies of books from a pawn broker shop, at a much reduced price of something more like 1/- per book. There was a stigma attached to entering a pawn brokers so ensuring she was unseen was necessary!

Her best friend Jessie is working as a lady’s maid, a live-in post, so Margaret trades regular letters with her almost-sister that she’s known from the age of four. The drawback here wasn’t having Margaret write lots of missives, but it was to take into account the price of buying paper, ink, quills, and wax to seal them. Then there was the money to post a letter though that was easy enough since all she needed to do was go to the main post office in Dundee and send a letter by buying a pre-paid Penny Red stamp. She could also collect her return letters from the post office.

What she’d really love to do is attend some of the evening lectures on all manner of subjects: science topics, art, architecture. Those events admit men, perhaps a couple at some venues, but not unaccompanied females. The talks were often organized by formal associations (e.g. YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association) but to attend one had to be a member. Margaret cannot find any such club, or association, for women in Dundee. During the autumn and winter, evening walks don’t feature often since it’s too dark to wander the Dundee streets, though there’s more of a possibility during the late spring and summer.

Dundee was actually quite a hotspot of theatre entertainment, there being different establishments offering something to the paying public. When accompanied by a male friend, Margaret can attend the refurbished Kinnaird Hall with its brand new organ (formerly the Corn Exchange) where she can enjoy musical soirees with choirs and solo singers, orchestral music, though sometimes the variety shows held in the hall were a bit on the bawdy side! There were waxworks where a display depicting Queen Victoria was notoriously said to have been set up right next to an infamous murderer! And, of course, Margaret could also be escorted to circus and variety acts in other venues.

When researching, I noticed that some of my timing was just too unfortunate. The bulk of Tailored Truths happens between New Year’s Eve1855 and 1868 (though she’s not in Dundee after June 1866). Some of the more substantial non-wooden theatre venues were only opened in 1866 so a tiny bit of author juggling was necessary to write in scenes where she attended the Theatre Royal in Dundee.

Margaret could have had plenty of opportunities to attend various entertainments if she attended church organized ones but, apart from an initial dabbling at a few events, she prefers her own company, reading something of her own choice. She’s well used to having read her bible growing up but feels she isn’t learning anything new at Bible groups in Dundee, and it’s new educational opportunities that she covets and knows she would thrive on!

Dundee did offer opera at some venues in the late 1860s, but since Margaret has had a taste of attending an opera at the Theatre Royal in Liverpool, in exalted company, she isn’t feeling left out by not attending any in Dundee.

Why Liverpool? Well, that’s another part of Margaret’s story in Tailored Truths.

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Author Bio:

Nancy Jardine writes historical adventure fiction, historical saga, time travel historical adventure and contemporary mysteries. Research, grandchildren, gardening fill up her day in the castle country of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, when not writing or promoting her writing. Interacting with readers is a joy at Book and Craft Fairs where she signs/sells paperback versions of her novels. She enjoys giving author presentations on her books and on Ancient Roman Scotland.

Memberships include: Historical Novel Society; Scottish Association of Writers, Federation of Writers Scotland, Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors. She’s self-published with Ocelot Press.

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