#TheSundayPost | XXIV | About Jorie’s sudden absence online,…. and the sabbatical she’s on from blogging.

Posted Sunday, 10 August, 2025 by jorielov Jorie Loves A Story, Jorie Story, Stories of Jorie 3 Comments

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books.. share them!

Enter your link on the post-

Sundays beginning at 12:01 am (CST) (link will be open all week)

Link back to this post or this blog

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Read this week’s #TheSundayPost!

Jorie’s life behind the blog:

Despite everything going on this Spring, I was still hopeful I could keep reading and keep blogging – as reading has always been able to renew my spirits. Especially if life feels like it is derailing a bit or getting overly stressful. Stories bring me a lot of joy to dissolve inside and find a respite from the afflictions of life. Spring felt different this year all the way round. From the quirky weather to the intensive pollen in the air outside. Not to mention the fact, Mum was boomeranging in and out of the ER like it was suddenly in fashion to know the ER staff by name. Allergy season took on new meaning when you have to defend how you’ve had asthma the whole of your life when your doctor thinks that it’s a new affliction and not an old one that has resurrected itself back into your life. I remember how fun that was for Mum to have to keep going to the ER in order for her primary doctor to acknowledge she was asthmatic. Oy.

By May, I felt we had turnt a corner, despite the fact Spring was also the season we thought we might be losing our time with Dad. He wasn’t doing too well and as the weeks passed, we were preparing ourselves for our final goodbyes as it felt like he might not survive the season. He rallied a bit and came through it despite the fact we still had our concerns about the rest of the year. May was also the month Mum had to have emergency surgery, and it took the rest of the month for her to recover from it. I was trying to focus on Wyrd And Wonder as a wicked good distraction as for a bit there it was a bit touch and go as they felt it would be routine surgery but when it took longer than expected we were all worried. Nurses, surgeon and daughter alike. The month slipped through my fingers and most of the posts I had drafted are still unpublished. I found a lot of wicked good authors who befit the Nautical Fantasy prompts we developed as a team behind Wyrd And Wonder, too. It was one of those enjoyable pursuits of hidden niches of Fantasy that I loved to undertake – despite the fact I didn’t get to properly finish the journey in May.

By June, Mum and I were settling into a regular routine of visiting with Dad whilst I was balancing a full work schedule until I realised I couldn’t continue working full-time at night during the Summer. The weather (ie. the intense heat and humidity) was affecting me something fierce this year and as I noticed my health and wellness declining, I decided to reduce my hours which my boss understood, and we left it open when I’d return to a full schedule as Summer can be a long-standing season here. It was a nice pattern of normalcy after a very difficult Spring.

All along, I was still reading – still working on reviews and attempting to post what I had been working on for Wyrd And Wonder. I was so positive about my progress into certain stories – most of them I received for review – that I felt I could definitely finish them by early June. The best part about life though is we can’t see too far into the future. We might feel blindsided by the way things happen in life, but it is better to greet life as it arrives than to have forewarning about certain things ahead of their occurrence. So, for me, when I was updating about my reading progress on certain stories, I truly was making progress and was hopeful to be able to share my thoughts about them even if a bit after the ending hours of May.

Until my father was hospitalised rather suddenly in the early days of June. It was just ahead of my birthday and I was already stressed at work as we were regularly short-staffed and/or having our shifts changed. I was going with it and pitch hitting as best I could but when Dad was rushed to the ER out of the clear blue, it threw us for a loop. I still remember the night we received the call – we weren’t in towne but we came back immediately and arrived shortly after Dad. It was one of those long nights in the ER and then finally upstairs in the ICU. I was calling out at work for the next day long before we spoke to his doctors as I knew I wasn’t leaving the hospital anytime soon that night. Read More

Posted Sunday, 10 August, 2025 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post

#TheSundayPost | XXV | About Jorie’s Mum and sorting out which stories to read

Posted Saturday, 23 August, 2025 by jorielov Jorie Loves A Story, Jorie Story, Stories of Jorie 1 Comment

[Official Blurb] The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. Link up once a week or once a month, you decide. Book haul can include library books, yard sale finds, arcs and bought books.. share them!

Enter your link on the post-

Sundays beginning at 12:01 am (CST) (link will be open all week)

Link back to this post or this blog

Visit others who have linked up

Read this week’s #TheSundayPost!

Jorie’s life behind the blog:

It has been three weeks now since I shared the news of my father’s passing. The wall of fatigue that has been hitting me in waves whilst I work has been quite intense, but I don’t have the ability to take any more time off from working. I told my night boss I’d be returning to full hours on the 1st of September as well – not because I’m suddenly ready to return to full-time hours but because it’s going to be a necessity. I’ve been trying to moonlight a bit to off-set the lost hours from the night job but it is either wicked good or a lower than hopeful income gap solution. Thereby, I sorted out I need to finish out August on reduced hours but return in September to being double-stacked five days a week.

I’ve also reconsidered getting promoted at my day job – part of my hesitation were the expectations of the new job title and position; as it moves me into management. However, I’ve been running shifts by myself as a lead three times now in the last few weeks and I must confess, I’m enjoying the new challenge of it. Plus, I’m getting good at reading my co-workers – sorting out how to play to their strengths, put them on the right tasks and jobs and manage our time wisely. We’re getting things done on time or early and that makes me happy. I am also feeling more comfortable in this new position I’ll be rising into as previously I wasn’t sure I was ready to tackle it. I know a lot of my reasons for fobbing it off was due to my Dad’s situation.

Even before his health started to decline this year, I felt that I couldn’t take-on more stress and responsibilities than I was already doing on the job. I’ve been doing manager work without the promotion for awhile and I respect that they trust me in that role but to shift into that role officially took me a lot longer to realise I can do it. Now that Dad’s passed on, my upper managers took stock and notice that I really do need to move up and take-on the role I hesitated to accept. I spoke with them about my concerns, and they reassured me that I can play to my strengths and only tackle what I can personally handle whilst delegating other things to my co-workers and co-managers. That felt like a weight lifted. I’m not sure how long it will take to transition into that new role and pay scale but if it happens before the end of the year, I’d feel blessed.

Posted Saturday, 23 August, 2025 by jorielov in Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blogosphere Events & Happenings, Bookish Memes, JLAS Update Post, Jorie Loves A Story, Stories of Jorie, The Sunday Post

Blog Book Tour | Conversing with Deborah Swift about her #HistFic novel “Last Train to Freedom”

Posted Monday, 16 June, 2025 by jorielov Deborah Swift, HQ Digital, Last Train to Freedom 3 Comments

Acquired Book By: When I initially joined this blog tour – I was betwixt and between the medical crises of my mother – from asthmatic attacks to emergency surgery – long before my father was hopsitalised himself this June. It was a medically critical Spring and start of Summer for my family. This is why I pitched the idea of an interview for the blog tour and would follow it with a review of the novel itself – however, the closer the interview came to be revealled the more curious I began of how the story begins – as just the premise itself had me hooked as an eager reader! I decided to read my standard preview of the first twenty-five pages and share those thoughts alongside the conversation I had with Ms Swift. The fuller ruminative thoughts and review will be forthcoming lateron this month of June.

I received a complimentary copy of “Last Train to Freedom” direct from the author Deborah Swift in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

On what intrigued me & convinced me I had to read this novel:

There was a moment in time where I would *devour!* war dramas – my blog’s archives are full to the brim with war dramas and dramatic Historical Fiction stories set during and around different war eras as a whole. I shifted from my focus on the wars themselves to human dramas and human-interest stories set in those generational eras but not entirely focused on the war or the battles in the field themselves. Until I stumbled across this particular novel – and the other series Ms Swift has written. Every so often, I find myself readily intrigued and wickedly convinced that it is time to return to a beloved section of Historical Fiction and resume from whence I had once left off reading the war dramas I once loved so dearly. I had to put them aside years ago when I found them more guttingly emotional to read than uplifting to conclude. Sometimes you have to be honest about what kinds of stories you can handle.

However, having said that – the setting of this novel – the train itself is what convinced me I had to read the story! I’ve been wickedly curious about trains and train travel the full of my life. I’ve had the JOY of riding on trains in the past – from long distance to short commutes – so I know a bit about what is involved on them. I’ve never had a sleeper car but there is something being on a train and getting caught up in the goings-on of the other passengers as well as seeing the landscape change through the windows. It has its own atmosphere and hive of activity as much as the fact that if someone were paying close attention – it is living life in a bit of a fish bowl too. Not much would get past the keenly observant.

Therefore, here are my initial thoughts as I read the first twenty-five pages:

As we enter Zofia’s life, she’s observing how many refugees are flooding into Lithuania. We’ve pulled back the folds of time and have re-visited June of 1940. Where people are escaping with their lives and little else. Yet, Zofia in this moment appears to be calm and going through the motions of making soup – sustenance for more people than it can yield into bowls. Her mind and eyes are alert and her heart tells a a greater story of survival – as Swift etches a lot of emotion and anguish into these short pages – yielding us entrance into Zofia’s state of mind.

Given the immediate threats of war on the persons who are living in affected areas – you can have empathy for Zofia’s own fears – of the unknowns and the uncertainties of what she is about to face or what she cannot, yet fathom will come to pass. War changes everything but it’s the mind that has the hardest time to shift past it. It remembers all.

Swift pulls us directly back into those eerie moments of occupation – where the tanks are in the streets and no one had enough time to heed the warnings of their arrival. They were simply caught unawares and off-guard – rounded up by soldiers (especially the men) and most of the women were left to sort out what would come next in their lives. The towns were plundered and threats were made to some of those left behind – yet, how to stay sane through it all? How to keep you head and plan your next move when your fully aware of the realities of what keeps fear your constant companion?

It was in those tense moments – where Zofia realised that she wasn’t going to be with her Uncle anymore as he was pulled away from her – so forcefully and without mercy. Her brother wasn’t as smart as he was reckless – making impulsive choices that he’d regret one day. Off he’d gone the night before and never returnt home. All for the fancies of a girl and not taking the circumstances, they were finding themselves in seriously.

A moment of choice was before Zofia – and what a choice it was for her to make! She had her go bag and she had courage but where to go? What to do about her brother!? And, worst of all – how to let go of knowing she’d might never see her Uncle alive again? The cruelty of war never lessons.

You felt so anchoured into the footsteps of Zofia that the echoes of the past and the realities she was facing felt all too real as you read her story. By the time I left the text, she had reunited with her brother but convincing him to leave was another battle she’d have to wage with him. He was stubborn but something tells me she will get through to him somehow. The rest of the villagers are afraid for their own lives and are changing their own opinions to match the occupiers of their country. That was a hard bit of truth to read about but one that was expected. Swift holds nothing back to place you directly into the living truth of the moment and gives you a reason to keep turning the pages even if you question if you have enough courage to find out what comes next!

Last Train to Freedom
Subtitle: To share the truth, she must survive the journey...
by Deborah Swift
Source: Author via The Coffee Pot Book Club

1940. As Soviet forces storm Lithuania, Zofia and her brother Jacek must flee to survive.

A lifeline appears when Japanese consul Sugihara offers them visas on one condition: they must deliver a parcel to Tokyo. Inside lies intelligence on Nazi atrocities, evidence so explosive that Nazi and Soviet agents will stop at nothing to possess it.

Pursued across Siberia on the Trans-Siberian Express, Zofia faces danger at every turn, racing to expose the truth as Japan edges closer to allying with the Nazis. With the fate of countless lives hanging in the balance, can she complete her mission before time runs out?

Genres: Historical Fiction, War Drama

Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 978-0008739706

Published by HQ Digital

on 3rd February, 2026

Format: Trade Paperback

Available Formats: Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook

Converse via: #TheCoffeePotBookClub, #HistFic, #HistoricalFiction, and #LastTrainToFreedom

About Deborah Swift

Deborah Swift is the English author of twenty historical novels, including Millennium Award winner Past Encounters, and The Poison Keeper the novel based around the life of the legendary poisoner Giulia Tofana. The Poison Keeper won the Wishing Shelf Readers Award for Book of the Decade. Recently she has completed a secret agent series set in WW2, the first in the series being The Silk Code.

Deborah used to work as a set and costume designer for theatre and TV and enjoys the research aspect of creating historical fiction, something she loved doing as a scenographer. She likes to write about extraordinary characters set against a background of real historical events. Deborah lives in England on the edge of the Lake District, an area made famous by the Romantic Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Posted Monday, 16 June, 2025 by jorielov in Blog Tour Host, Historical Fiction, Indie Author, Reader Submitted Author Interview, The Coffee Pot Book Club

A #HistFic Book Spotlight | “Lady of the Quay” (Isabella Gillhespy series, Book One) by Amanda Roberts

Posted Friday, 13 June, 2025 by jorielov Amanda Roberts, Hickory Press, Isabella Gillhespy series, Lady of the Quay 4 Comments

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

You might be curious where I have been since Wyrd And Wonder concluded – as I had high hopes of getting a lot of wickedly delightful posts ready to share with everyone in the final weeks and days of May. Instead, I was overly exhausted by my Mum’s medical crisis that month and had to let the time run down off the clock and simply rest. I also changed my hours at work for the Summer to have more downtime and to recover my own health and wellness. Meanwhilst, our family was not quite prepared for another medical emergency in the family on the 7th of June. I’ll be sharing the details of that ordeal in another post over the weekend, however, for now, I am celebrating the discovery of this lovely novel and a #newtomeauthor by the pen of Amanda Roberts!

The fantastical stories will be forthcoming this month and over the rest of Summer, don’t worry but for now, I’d like to focus on my JOY and passion for Historical Fiction which has been quite the benchmark of focus on Jorie Loves A Story inasmuch as Fantasy and Science Fiction these past twelve years I’ve been a book blogger. It is the journey of time and feeling as if I’ve had the pleasure of becoming a time traveller through History which benefits me the most by the stories Historical Fiction authors create and develop through their keen eye for detail and their historical nuances of life as it once had been lived in their stories.

What drew my eye into “Lady of the Quay” was the premise of it – a woman who is not only fighting for her right to live but for the innocence she has to prove in order to stay free. I read a bit of a sampling of the story and came to appreciate how the tone of the story was writ. I wish this weren’t a digital first release – as I would be wicked thrilled to read the novel in full via a print edition as I cannot read digitally as most of my followers and bookish friends realise by now.

I happen to have a penchant of interest for these kinds of stories too. Where someone has something to prove and has to set their own mind to righting their own stars into a destiny of their own making. I love the unpredictability of these stories – and how it takes not just raw courage and strength of mind and heart but true grit to rise above circumstances and an unjust pursuit against your own character. I want to take this journey and fall in step with Roberts’ vision of her characters’ adventure. Knowing this is going to be a series is even more brilliant and I shall be cheering from the sidelines this will eventually go into print!

Plus, can we take a moment to appreciate the arrangement of the cover art illustration? I love book covers which either have a hidden message within them or creatively use visual images to convey a message of their own. This one was a bit of a collage effect, and it left a lasting impression.

Lady of the Quay
Subtitle: Isabella Gillhespy series, Book One : Secrets are Dangerous
by Amanda Roberts

Knowing she is innocent is easy … proving it is hard

1560, Berwick-upon-Tweed, northern England

Following the unexpected death of her father, a series of startling discoveries about the business she inherits forces Isabella Gillhespy to re-evaluate everything she understands about her past and expects from her future. Facing financial ruin, let down by people on whom she thought she could rely, and suspected of crimes that threaten her freedom, Isabella struggles to prove her innocence.

But the stakes are even higher than she realises. In a town where tension between England and her Scottish neighbours is never far from the surface, it isn’t long before developments attract the interest of the highest authority in the land, Sir William Cecil, and soon Isabella is fighting, not just for her freedom, but her life. She must use her wits and trust her own instincts to survive.

Lady of the Quay introduces an enticing new heroine who refuses to be beaten, even as it becomes clear that her life will never be the same again.

From the author of the award-winning ‘The Woman in the Painting’.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Feminist Historical Fiction, Suspense

Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

Published by Hickory Press

on 22nd April, 2025

Available Formats: Digital First Release

Converse via: #CoffeePotBookClub, #HistoricalFiction
#HistFic, #IsabellaGillhespySeries and/or #WomensFiction

About Amanda Roberts

Amanda Roberts has worked as an Editor in business-to-business magazines for over 30 years, specialising in out-of-home coffee, vending and foodservice/catering, including Editor of the global gastronomy title: ‘Revue internationale de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs’.

She currently freelances, editing UK-based healthcare titles – HEFMA Pulse, Hospital Food + Service and Hospital Caterer. She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society and West Oxfordshire Writers. She also volunteers for Tea Books (part of Age UK) to run a book club/reading group for elderly people in the community.

Posted Friday, 13 June, 2025 by jorielov in Blog Tour Host, Book | Novel Extract, Book Spotlight, Historical Fiction, Indie Author, The Coffee Pot Book Club

A #HistoricalMondays Book Spotlight | Read this lovely extract from “Tangled in Water” by Pam Records!

Posted Monday, 19 May, 2025 by jorielov #WyrdAndWonder, Historium Press, Pam Records, Tangled in Water 1 Comment

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

I’m quite wicked happy to have found a new time shift narrative – as these happen to be one of my top favourite stories to read! The entire trifecta of time intrigues me to no end in fiction: time travel, time slip and time shift. Everyone has a different approach to writing them – whereas they are across genres of interest, too! Generally, yes, they are rooted in Historical Fiction but I’ve found them in other genres, too, and the best bit about them is how each of them gives us a fresh perspective of how time and story can be told. I especially love discovering how we slip or travel in time too – whereas with time shifting – we’re equally anchoured into two separate moments in time and continue to switch back and forth as the story evolves forward. Or, we begin in one frame of time and then, shift forward or back into another. It just depends on the author’s vision of how the story will become told.

With Tangled in Water, I found it curious how we begin Nattie’s story in the ’30s and then, shift forward into the ’40s – nearly ten years have gone by between both benchmarks of the story, too. I knew it was going to be an interesting story to see the transitions of her character – from a teenager to someone in their twenties – whilst knowing that her life betwixt and between those ages was not an easy one to live.

The timing of featuring this novel is quite lovely too – as I’m in the midst of hosting Nautical Fantasy stories during #WyrdAndWonder. I’ve been seeking out mermaids this month as well, and although this is a story in Historical Fiction, I was happy I could run it during the same month I was focusing of mermaids in other realms. I was curious how much of mermaid lore and mythology might enter into the context of this story and was thankful that my extract today hints towards some of that being part of Hattie’s story and character.

I nearly purchased a copy of this novel but knew the timing to read it was not right for me and thereby, I waited for Summer. I enjoy finding stories like this one – where the odds are stacked against someone and they find a way not only to persevere but to thrive and find a way to create a better tomorrow. I am hoping that this extract might tempt you to want to read the story yourself.

Tangled in Water
Subtitle: The costume could hide her scars but not the truth.
by Pam Records

1932. Natalia is 16 and a bootlegger's daughter, playing the mermaid mascot on a rundown paddlewheel used to entertain brewers and distributors.

A sequined costume hides her scarred and misshaped legs, but it can't cover up the painful memories and suspicions that haunt her. An eccentric healer who treats patients with Old Country tonics, tries to patch wounds, but only adds to the heartache. A fierce storm threatens to destroy everything, including a stash of stolen jewels.

1941. Prohibition is over, but the same henchmen still run the show. Nattie's new mermaid act is more revealing, with more at risk. When the dry-docked paddlewheel is bought by the US Navy for training exercises, the pressure escalates further.

Can Nattie entice a cocky US Navy officer to help her gain access to the ship for one last chance to confront her past, settle scores, and retrieve the hidden loot? Is there a new course ahead?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Feminist Historical Fiction, Time Slip and/or Time Shift

Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 978-1962465915

Published by Historium Press

on 18th March, 2025

Available Formats: Hardback, Paperback

Converse via: #CoffeePotBookClub, #HistFic, #HistoricalFiction,
#FeministFiction and #TimeSlip

About Pam Records

Pam and her husband, Mark, recently uprooted from the Midwest to move to Savannah, Georgia, the perfect place for enjoying the beach, historic architecture and Spanish moss.

She's recently retired from writing content for software companies and now focuses on writing fiction, camping, and exploring historic cities.

Pam is the author of three historic novels.

Posted Monday, 19 May, 2025 by jorielov in 20th Century, Blog Tour Host, Book | Novel Extract, Book Spotlight, Historical Fiction, Indie Author, The Coffee Pot Book Club, the Forties, the Thirties, Time Shift