Book Blast: LOVE ACROSS TIME by Beth Ford

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddes Fish Promotions. Beth Ford will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Ashley and Thomas, a medieval knight, are in 1377 England, escaping from present-day immigration authorities intent on capturing Thomas. Having fled to the past to ensure their togetherness, Ashley is faced with adapting to fourteenth-century life, while Thomas, new to his title as Baron after his older brother’s death, is called to Parliament, encountering enemies there and at court as he struggles to build his own alliances.

Ashley's work at a monastic hospital is deemed “miraculous” but draws unwanted attention as potential witchcraft. Meanwhile, becoming embroiled in a political movement, she realizes too late it’s a plot against the King.

How can Ashley conform to social expectations, counter the plot, and still keep her relationship with Thomas, in all the turmoil?

Read an Excerpt

The scene at Newgate was much different than when they had left only a couple of hours before. The crowd of everyday travelers had dispersed, and de Landys’s men had been reinforced, though a few of them lay on the ground with arrows through their chests. Most of them stood with their backs to Ashley and her group, intent on countering the King’s men, who were heaving against the gate to break it down.

The two knights who had agreed to accompany her paused. Ashley glanced up at de la Garde. “This is your moment, Sir Matthew. Your future reputation will depend on what you choose to do now.”

Sir Matthew set his mouth in a grim line. He glanced at his fellow, who nodded at him. They roared past her and attacked the men from behind, slashing swords into backs and necks. Ashley used the distraction to dash into the gatehouse, where she paused only to slide the torch into a handy sconce on the wall. The King’s men were still tied up. She would have to trust that their loyalty to the King held true. Ashley knelt and used her dagger to cut through the ropes, starting with de Mantel.

“What’s the situation?” he asked as soon as he was free of his gag.

“The King’s men are on the other side of the gate. We’ve reinforced them from inside.”

“You? Are there any fighting men in your reinforceme

nts?”

“Yes. Two.” The bloody body of one of the traitors fell into the gatehouse doorway. Ashley forced a smile even though the sight made her gag. “See?”

About the Author

Beth Ford writes historical and time travel stories that transport you in time. She is the author of the novels In the Times of Spirits, Love Between Times, Love Across, Time, and After the Spirits Come: A Continuation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. She also writes the Cassie Woods, Reporter historical mystery romance novella series. Her work has also appeared in a variety of literary journals. She lives in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Website: http://bethfordauthor.com
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Review: WHAT YOU WISH FOR by NL Hinkens

 

Sage and Andrew were married, who “each become lost in their own worlds, buried beneath the weight of their secrets.” The only thing they had in common was their worry over their 20-year-old daughter, Raven, who ran away. Additionally, Sage was being blackmailed for a shady past, Andrew’s torrid affair with a student was coming to light, and now the girl was missing. What a dysfunctional family! It certainly becomes a question of what happened to the missing girl, especially when bloody clothing shows up on the couple, which send both into a deeper spiral of paranoia. Now, the daughter was coming in with her own secrets of the past. This family was being put through the wringer for sure. It was kind of a long story to get through, but the mystery and family dynamics keep your reading for sure. Towards the end, the whole thing turns into a grappling fight for survival. This read surely grabs you!

 

Rating: 4 stars

Review: THE ONE BEFORE by Miranda Smith

 

Madison was engaged to a wonderful man and was searching for her new role in life. There seems to be a mystery on the one that came before—an old girlfriend that drowned a long time ago. Everyone in town says that Cooper killed her. Could Madison’s fiancé be a murderer?

 

This sounded interesting, but it does take a while to get going. It was mostly Madison speculating on the drowning and her assimilating to a new town. One thing that piques your interest is that the dead girl’s mother was out for revenge and wanted to take it out on Madison. Definitely a long story to get through with not much happening.

 

A decent read, but there are other books that are better like The Weekend Away for one.

 

Rating: 3 stars

Review: THE PERFECT SISTER by Stephanie DeCarolis

 

After his sister didn’t show up for her birthday as always promised, Alex knew something was wrong and decided to go on a search for her—her perfect sister. Then she gets to Blackwell Manor, where a frosty aloofness, bitter resentment, and mysterious secrets lied. It seemed everyone at the manor had their own personal feelings about Maddie and Alex. With every little bit she learns, Alex becomes more determined to find her missing sister.

 

The mystery of the missing sister certainly grabs your interest. Book mostly gives you the flashback memories of the characters. Halfway through the book, we get a dead body, which made it better to read. The read was pretty long though, but the premise kept me going. What really happened to Maddie? Where were those texts from “Maddie” really coming from? What was with the Wharf scenes? Who was the narrator there?

 

As we near the end, you just get a massive explosion of unveiled secrets. Turned out to be a good read!

 

Rating: 4 stars

Excerpt: THE NIGHT SHIFT by RJ Blackmore

 

The Night Shift by R.J. Blackmore — Excerpt

At eleven-fifty, the trauma line shrieked. Twice.

First: Male. Twenty-something. GSW to chest. Red Hook parking garage. Unconscious. Blood

pressure crashing. Three minutes out.

Second: Female. Thirties. Pedestrian versus vehicle on icy BQE service road. Conscious but

screaming. Crushed pelvis. Four minutes out.

The clock’s second hand jerked forward with mechanical indifference.

“OR 2 is prepped,” Rachel said, her voice clinical steel. “OR 1 locked up with ortho for twenty

more minutes.”

One room. Two critical patients. Sixty seconds apart. Simple, brutal math.

“Prep OR 2,” Adrian commanded. “Full data on both the moment they land.”

The gunshot victim arrived on a tide of metallic blood-scent and shouted vitals. Twenty-six. No

ID. Shattered phone. The wound gaped — left chest, no exit.

The bullet’s path revealed itself in the body’s desperate language: collapsing lung, shifting

trachea, silence where breath sounds should be. BP 60/nothing and plummeting.

Adrian drove the needle between ribs — hiss of trapped air escaping, pressure gauge jumping,

the man’s oxygen stats climbing three critical points. In that split second, he flicked his tongue

across his gloved fingertip where blood had seeped, back turned to Morgan as she threaded the

IV catheter.

The vision struck him all at once — a single jagged photograph pressed into his mind.

Concrete walls. A bare bulb. A man bolted to a metal chair, hollowed out by fear, then beyond

it. The methodical work of someone without vengeance, without mercy. He saw what remained

of the face.

And then it was gone. He was already moving.

Forty seconds later, they rolled Elena Vasquez in on a stretcher. Nurse, Queens hospital, just

off her shift. A car had smashed over the curb and hurled her eight feet onto frozen concrete.

Her dark hair was plastered to her forehead with blood; frost clung to her lashes. Conscious,

she managed three words through the pain: “My belly’s rigid.” A nurse’s instinct, even now.

Her eyes found his. “Am I going to make it?” Barely a whisper.

Adrian paused between Bay 2 and Bay 3 under the harsh fluorescents. In Bay 3: tension

pneumothorax, a bullet lost somewhere deep in a chest. In Bay 2: Elena’s blood pressure

sinking like a stone, her pelvis threatening to bleed her out. One operating room. Twenty

minutes before the other freed up — time neither of them could afford.

He saw the basement. He heard Elena’s quiet question echo in his mind. He made his choice.

“Ethan,” he said into his radio. “OR 2 — Mrs. Vasquez. I’m on my way.” He turned to Rachel:

“Hold him as long as you can. Everything we’ve got.”

He scrubbed in, letting the cool water sluice over his hands. Christmas Eve. He’d knelt at Mass

on this night once, in another life.