Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I am wicked delighted to be featuring a lovely #newtomeauthor today – as I recently had the chance to select quite a few Head of Zeus and Aria Fiction novelists to be spotlighting throughout the Spring months this year – wherein I was rather delighted finding so many keenly interesting stories to start seeking out to read! These are stories which dance between Romance & Women’s Fiction – from Contemporary to Historical settings. Being an avid reader of these genres I couldn’t miss the chance to bring the JOY of discovering these lovely authors to my readers of Jorie Loves A Story!
It is my intention to start requesting these novels via my local library if they are not available in audio formats via Scribd. At the moment my library is experiencing an unprecedented sabbatical on requests which put me in a bit of a pickle as I’m an active patron whose constantly requesting purchases every month – which is why I’m simply saving my queue lists and will turn them in once the services resume. For now at least – I can champion the discoveries and the joy of finding the stories whilst hosting the blog tours!
Why I wanted to host a spotlight & extract
for “Home to the Hills”:
As the founder and host of @SatBookChat – I am constantly seeking to find new stories featuring strong women in the centre of Romance & Women’s Fiction. I read an equal amount of Contemporary and Historical stories within these genres of interest whilst encompassing all the lovely sub-niches of their literary styles as well. This New Year 2020 I am also seeking out Feminist Lit which celebrates the kind of stories I am enjoying to discover as well. All of which I try to champion and showcase in the chats I host on Saturdays – wherein writers, readers, book reviewers, book bloggers and the rest of the bookish community on Twitter get to engage with one another. Thereby as a regular reader of these stories I was delighted to find a #newtomeauthor to start seeking out to read!
I have had a penchant of interest regarding war dramas for quite a long while now – however, my interest in reading them has altered slightly from the kinds I used to read in the past. I have been purposely trying to seek out stories about the homefront and/or stories set round a particular set of circumstances a character must overcome rather than strictly seeking out war dramas which are focusing more on the battle of the war itself. I felt for awhile I needed to re-address how I wanted to read war dramas as a lot of the time, whenever I would try to tuck into a traditional war drama – I would start to notice myself pulling out of the context of the setting as I felt I had finally reached the apex of no return.
Being that I still *love!* reading stories set during the war era, I’ve happily re-affirmed this love of fiction by re-finding stories which are an joy to be read. This is how I came to find Home to the Hills which I felt had a very inspiring premise in which I could enjoy getting invested into reading. Especially as this novel is set just after the war ended – of how people had to pick up their lives, forge ahead and find a way to re-define how they were going to live now that peacetime had become restored. You can feel the intensity of their choices – how determined they were to survive in this new environment but also, how heartwarming it would be to realise that they had to begin anew – without knowing what the future would yield.
Did I grab your eye and attention?
Sound like the kind of bookish read you’ve been needing?
Be sure to brew your favourite cuppa and enjoy this extract from the novel.
Home to the Hills
Subtitle: After the war, they must start afresh
by Dee Yates
1945.
After the Second World War, Ellen and her daughter Netta make the journey from Germany back to Scotland. Nestled in the hills of the Southern Uplands is the farm where Ellen grew up – the home she left to be with the only man she's ever loved. She is still haunted by her memories... and the secrets she dare not share with anyone.
Having grown up in Freiburg, farm life is new and exciting to Netta. Determined to be useful, she offers to help new shepherd, Andrew Cameron. But doing so might put her bruised heart at risk... The war took so much from Ellen and Netta. But maybe now the sanctuary of the hills can offer them the hope of a new beginning.
A heartwrenching Scottish saga, perfect for fans of Sheila Jeffries and Katie Flynn.
Places to find the book:
ASIN: B0844S8B64
Published by Aria Fiction
on 19th March, 2020
Published By: Aria Fiction (@Aria_Fiction)
a Digital First imprint of Head of Zeus (@HoZ_Books)
Available Formats: This is a Digital First Release
Converse via: #HomeToTheHills, #HistoricalFiction or #HistFic
Enjoy this Extract from “Home to the Hills”
‘Here you are, ladies,’ he says, putting down the cake with a flourish onto a small table drawn up by the fire. He turns back, fetches the crockery, milk and sugar, and adds water to the teapot. He pours a little milk into the cups and tops each up with the tea with a dexterity born of experience. He passes a cup to each of his visitors and offers them a slice of cake.
‘You did not marry?’ Netta says, with a directness that brings a look of surprise to the man’s face. She has removed her headscarf and he can see the same shock of unruly dark hair and penetrating blue eyes that he recalls from her childhood. He chuckles.
‘I remember you well, lass. I was one of those called out to help when you got lost on the hills that snowy winter. You were lucky to be alive when we found you. No, hen, I didnae marry. I suppose it’s this job – tucked away, miles from the towns and cities, miles from anywhere, ken. I wasn’t always shepherding, mind. The last time we met I was with the gang coming to take over the building of the reservoir at the end of the Great War. I was only seventeen or eighteen, just young enough to escape being called up. Not that I would have been – they were needing the likes of us to finish the work that those German POWs had started.’
Netta glances anxiously at her mother who is listening intently to what Finlay is saying.
‘Did you no’ think they made a good job of it then?’ Ellen asks.
‘The Germans? Aye, they did. But there was a lot of work still to be done. There were certain things they were no’ allowed to do – using explosives, for example.’ He pauses. ‘I heard one of them was killed by a landslide while they were building the retaining wall. Is that right?’
‘Aye,’ says Ellen with a slow nod of her head. ‘Oliver Tauber was his name. He’s buried in the churchyard near the village.’
‘So how is it that you came to live here in the shepherd’s cottage?’ Netta asks.
‘Och, I liked the look of the farm work and I like the countryside hereabouts – so wild and out of the way. I started to help out on the farm as an extra pair of hands, when building stopped for the day. They needed help, shorthanded as they were after the war ended. I helped the farmer here – Kenneth Douglas – and I helped your grandfather after your father was killed and you had all moved away.’
Netta glances again at her mother.
‘Kenneth and Elizabeth Douglas,’ Ellen says, eyes wide with interest. ‘Are they still here? Do they still run the farm?’
‘Aye, still here, though the work is a bit much for him now. I try to take as much of the burden off him as I can.’
‘So you became a shepherd full-time?’
‘Aye. Kenneth offered me a job here. Duncan couldn’t manage on his own, so they took me on. I stayed in the cottage next door and moved into this one when Margaret moved out. There’s a bit more room here. Not that I need it. But the view from the window is even better than next door.’
‘You’ve worked here right through this war then?’
‘That’s right. I would have been on the borderline for enlisting anyway. Too young for the first war and almost too old for the second. In any case I was needed here.’
‘Does anyone else help besides you?’ Ellen asks. ‘After all, it’s a big farm and acres of ground to cover, and Kenneth sounds as though he’ll no’ be up to doing much walking.’
‘There’s a shepherd interested in coming to help around lambing time next year.’ Finlay lifts the lid of the teapot and stares into its dark interior. ‘Just enough for another cup,’ he says and gives each of them a refill. ‘So, ladies, what have you been doing all these years? It’s a gey long time that you’ve been away.’
I like how the introduction to this story is set round how they are going to begin this new journey and how they want to ensure they can pick up from whence they last left off with those persons they once had known. It must have been quite extraordinary to reunite with people they knew so very long ago – people they now must rely on to help them succeed on the farm. It was almost like you could sense they were still trying to sort each other out – see how they might make of go of things and then, of course, find a way to reconnect the lost hours they’d have from one another.
I was quite happy to see the Scottish words were inclusive – as I love linguistics and language patterns in stories. It allows you to have a firmer grasp of the different regional dialects you’re about to encounter whilst also showcasing a different way of spoken speech in everyday life. Being Scottish myself – I love finding stories set there as a way to peer into my own ancestral past and to find out more about Scotland. This is one reason I enjoyed watching the series “Monarch of the Glen” as it wasn’t just a cheeky and fun dramedy but rather a keenly lovely series set in a place you wished you could have walked yourself in the Scottish Highlands!
I am thankful I could share this window into “Home to the Hills” as it definitely is a story I look forward to being able to read myself one day. Perhaps this preview has inspired it to be placed on your own Historical Fiction TBR!?
About Dee Yates
Born and brought up in the south of England, the eldest girl of nine children, Dee moved north to Yorkshire to study medicine. She remained there, working in well woman medicine and general practice and bringing up her three daughters.
She retired slightly early at the end of 2003, in order to start writing, and wrote two books in the next three years. In 2007 she moved further north, to the beautiful Southern Uplands of Scotland.
Here she fills her time with her three grandsons, helping in the local museum, the church and the school library, walking, gardening and reading. She writes historical fiction, poetry and more recently non-fiction.
Occasionally she gets to compare notes with her youngest sister Sarah Flint who writes crime with blood-curdling descriptions which make Dee want to hide behind the settee.
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NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them: I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.
{SOURCES: Book cover for “Home to the Hills”, book synopsis, author photograph of Dee Yates, author biography and the blog tour banners were all provided by Head of Zeus and used with permission. Post dividers and My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Stories in the Spotlight banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
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