Why time bending stories & Historical Romance interest me:
I have had such a wicked sweet affinity for time bending stories in Historical Fiction and Romance, it has truly been a hard route of choice for me to name my top favourites in this particular niche of genre as I went into hosting this lovely blog tour! Over the last eleven years, I’ve read so many dearly beloved reads – the best bit about how time bends inside a storyline and either offers a dual time line of interest such as within Georgia’s Folly or bends it through time shifting and/or time travelling directly is how you can intuit so much out of a story through the different perspectives shared within the same narrative.
I, personally, love this duality to the stories themselves. To tuck close inside one era and then, time jump into another and find both the dimensional resonances of both and/or finding that although similarly different and unique of their own eras – both tend to have connective measures within them which not only carry the plot forward but interconnect the characters as well. Time in this instance is temporal and a bit elusive because of how interwoven the stories become through each writers’ vision of how time can bend and contract and reconnect through different portals of ‘time’.
Similarly, within Historical Romances – I am simply swept away by the idea of ‘visiting’ a different era of History and with each ‘time jump’ I undertake through fiction, the lens provided to me gives me another nudge of insight and knowledge of the Historical past to where I’ve become a time traveller myself. Historical Romances are wicked brilliant in how they encompass both the historical societies in which their characters live and the traditions of the era in which they reside. There is something quite alluring to #HistRom and I’ve been a HUGE appreciator for so many years – even, long before I became a book blogger in (2013)!!
I dearly wanted to purchase a copy of “Georgia’s Folly” for myself – to read with my #ChristmasReads this year, however, it is currently only offered in ebook editions. As many of you know, I can only read stories in print due to chronic migraines – and thereby, part of why I wanted to shine a light on this story is not only to acknowledge that there are readers out here who want to read this story but perhaps, if there is more interest in the story overall – a print edition might be forthcoming at a later date.
This story curates a lot of self-interest for me – especially because I am taken with diaries and Epistolatory Fiction as much as I grew up roaming around antique stores and emporiums of the past. There is something quite wicked for uncovering something old and something tangible from someone elses life in the present which reconnects you to their life in the past. You might never know much about the person as much as the object you’ve found but just to realise that someone else lived an entire life ahead of yours and this one particular object made it through all those years to find its way into your hands is quite a remarkable feat. This is one reason why I love antiques and early attic shoppes because instead of putting all that lovely stuff in the rubbish pile, people find beauty in the objects of the past and many of them still have purpose in our lives now.
Flea markets were part of my childhood as much as estate emporiums and antique stores – you just never knew what you would find for sale ‘right around the corner’ of the next stall or aisle. I had many years of memories walking up and down those aisles and spending whole days at the fleas themselves just engaging with the sellers, browsing what was for sale and walking away with more than a few deals. Likewise, the same was true of auctions and emporiums. These leftover items are connective and tangible portals of time in our living histories. I think that is what drew me into that world to begin with – a way to connect to the past and yet, feel or see a tangible part of that life in the present.
You can see why I’m wicked excited about this novel!
Plus, a part of me wondered – what if you discovered a diary of someone who lived during a certain part of the historical past and you unearthed a similar story? How would it feel to connect to that moment in History but also further research what that discovery meant to those who lived then vs now? So many lovely questions to explore on that note alone! Plus, too, isn’t it curious how diaries withstand time when they usually were used as self-disciplined chronicles of time for their own families?
Georgia's Folly
Subtitle: A Lost Treasures Mystery
by Deborah Chase
Source: Chapter Sampler
For fans of "Antiques Roadshow" and "American Pickers" - this is the one for you!
Beginning at a cluttered flea market and ending at a glittering art auction, Georgia’s Follytells the compelling story that blends past and present and the search for a valuable and elusive antique. Chloe Bishop grew up in foster care. She loves shopping at flea markets, picking up family heirlooms like old pottery or vintage furniture to fill in for the family and home she never had.
As Chloe walks through the Brooklyn Flea Market, she stumbles upon the diary of Miss Georgia Potter, a young woman who had lived in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Civil War. The yellowed pages reveal the impact of the war on daily life and spotlights the role of women including Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton and Louisa May Alcott.
Like Chloe, Georgia Potter was a passionate collector and her diary lists her collection of valuable antiques—including the Holy Grail of 18th century furniture—a Chippendale settee. Well versed in antiques, Chloe is aware that there are only five known examples and a sixth settee would be worth more than $4 million.
Chloe immediately contacts Ben Thompson, the man who sold her the diary. Ben is a picker who drives his RV across America, searching for collectibles to sell to dealers. He is estranged from his wealthy, prominent family who cringe at his chosen career. Ben agrees to take her along to search for the valuable and iconic settee. As Ben and Chloe head to Gettysburg, they are unaware that Gregor Petrov, a shady antiques dealer and Harrison Kent, a respected but unscrupulous art expert are trailing them.
The search for the settee takes Chloe and Ben on fast paced journey from the Gettysburg battlefields to the 18th century street of artisans in Philadelphia to a historic mansion on the banks of the Hudson River. Traveling together in the small RV, Ben and Chloe draw closer. In the confines of the RV, embroiled in an unimaginable quest, Chloe confides that she is also in search for the father she never knew while Ben struggles to explain his complicated family to a woman who never had one.
In a thrilling ending, the rare Chippendale settee is not Chloe’s only valuable discovery.
Places to find the book:
ASIN: B0DGWF6J7G
Published by Historium Press
on 11th September, 2024
Format: Chapter Sampler | Online
Available Formats: Ebook
Converse via: #CoffeePotBookClub, #GeorgiasFolly or #DeborahChase
About Deborah Chase
Deborah Chase grew up in a family filled with art and antiques. On the high end, her uncle, William Lincer, lead violist at the New York Philharmonic, was an art lover whose collection was sold at Sotheby’s. On the low end, her father, writer Allen Chase took her to flea markets and estate sales. He sparked a lifelong fascination with tales of lost treasures that ranged from plundered Egyptian tombs to trainloads of art stolen by the Nazis. It was this love of history and antiques that inspired her first novel, Georgia’s Folly
She was a founding editor of the Berkeley Wellness Newsletter and the author of 12 books including The Medically Based No-Nonsense Beauty Book (Alfred Knopf), Extend Your Life Diet (Pocket Books), Fruit Acids for Fabulous Skin (St Martin’s Press), Every Bride is Beautiful (Morrow), and with her husband Dr Neil Schachter co-author of Life and Breath (Doubleday) and The Good Doctor’s Guide to Colds and Flu (Harper).
The books have been a selection of the Book of the Month Club and her articles have appeared in Ladies Home Journal, Self, Glamour, Redbook, Family Circle, Parents and Good Housekeeping. She is a graduate of Bronx High School of Science and a winner of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. A graduate of New York University she earned a degree with a duel major in journalism and history.
A native New Yorker, Deborah like to spend her weekends at an upstate home where a big kitchen and an endless supply of estate sales indulge her duel passions for cooking and collecting.
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