Publisher: Boldwood Books

Author Interview | In conversation discussing Titanic and setting a #HistRom inside the historical background of its living history as we converse about Jina Bacarr’s newest Historical novel “The Runaway Girl”!

Posted Thursday, 19 March, 2020 by jorielov , , , 0 Comments

Conversations with the Bookish badge created by Jorie in Canva

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

At the close of [2019] I had the pleasure of JOY reading a delightful war drama entitled “Christmas Once Again” – this was a time travelling Historical Romance wherein the method of travel was through the component of a ‘train’. I joyfully talked extensively about this during my #SatBookChat whilst I happily also engaged with my readers talking about the finer points of what made this Historical Romance such a beautifully evocative read! Meanwhile – it was a wicked sweet joy to highlight today’s new release “The Runaway Girl” on my #TopTenTuesday List for Most Anticipated Reads for 2020.

When it comes to reading Historical Romances – I happen to *love!* when a writer captures the truer heart and atmosphere ‘behind’ the romance wherein we get to peer into History’s window and seek out the era of the age in which these characters are alive. We get to understand the breadth of their living realities whilst gaining a foothold into how they are living their lives with the shadow of historical events behind them. Whenever a writer can intersect History with a compelling realistic #HistRom, I am definitely the kind of reader who is oft in search of their collective works because I want to consistently reside in their stories!

This is why when I first learnt about “Christmas Once Again” & “The Runaway Girl” – I knew I wanted those to be purchase requests at my local library. Not just for the joy of my own readerly pleasures but to help other patrons in my local community find inspiration out of a story I personally *loved!* absorbing! You see, I didn’t just read “Christmas Once Again” – I felt convinced I had stepped through its theshold and lived those hours as if I had inhabited the characters directly. I love feeling that pull of narrative – where you are so wholly engaged into a story it doesn’t feel fictional but a realistic impression of a life which is still being lived. Literature is powerful that way and whenever you can find Historical voices of the craft pulling us into the windows of where history and human interest stories can intersect is a wicked wonderful way to spend your readerly hours!

Thus, when I first hear a whispering about “The Runaway Girl” – of how this story was anchoured to Titanic and my own literary and science interest in Titanic – as I loved learning the real-life story of how Titanic was discovered on the ocean floor and the journey of its recovery – I knew immediately that I wanted to live inside this new novel! There is something alluring about Titanic – not the tragedy of how everyone died but how hard they fought to survive – how even in the direness of their hours as the sinking was erasing the calm of where they felt they would be embarking on a new life abroad was instead replacing it with a darkness of uncertainity – they still rallied, they fought the ocean and they tried to make peace with their fate.

At least this is what I observed and understood whilst researching Titanic and of having taking the walking exhibit where I had a third class ticket where someone had gone down with the ship. It was a harrowing walk through because of the way they told the story but also how they left you with haunting reminders of the fragilty of our lives and the uncertain balance of how we all are living with uncertain futures. A sombering contemplation on a good year and a intuitive one during a world crisis.

There is so much I love about the premise of “The Runaway Girl” and it is a pleasure of absolute for me to host my final blog tour hosted by the publisher Boldwood Books to go out with a bit of a signal boost on this novel and a wicked engaging conversation with Ms Bacarr – wherein through our conversation you’ll find notations about the story, her process of writing and the allure of Historical Fiction by a writer as bemused about her own stories & characters as the reader behind Jorie Loves A Story!

This marks my third of three featured posts I’ve be sharing on behalf of Boldwood Books this Spring, 2020. I recently interviewed Jessica Redland on behalf of her Whitsborough Bay series as well as having featured Rosie Clarke to begin this series.

Brew yourself a lovely cuppa

and journey back to Titanic with us today as we uncover “The Runaway Girl”!

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The stories I’m keenly intrigued & excited about by Ms Bacarr:

Christmas Once Again by Jina BacarrThe Runaway Girl by Jina Bacarr

Christmas Once Again (see also Review)

The Runaway Girl (listed as one of my Top Anticipated Reads of 2020!)

Published by: Boldwood Books (@BoldwoodBooks)

Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook

Converse via: #HistoricalRomance or #HistRom
as well as #Titanic and #JinaBacarr

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Posted Thursday, 19 March, 2020 by jorielov in Blog Tour Host, Book | Novel Extract, Book Spotlight, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance Fiction

Book Spotlight | featuring an author Q&A with Jessica Redland about her Whitsborough Bay series! Including audio extracts from Books 2-4!

Posted Tuesday, 17 March, 2020 by jorielov , , , , , , 1 Comment

Stories in the Spotlight banner created by Jorie in Canva.

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

As you know, I love reading Romance & Women’s Fiction stories – I like to hug into series as well which allow you to get to know the characters of a small towne setting wherein you get to interact with everyone in the community and have a lovely feel for the towne itself. Settings like those are amongst my favourites because of the community atmosphere and the ways in which the community itself will band together whenever someone needs assistance. I also like seeing how interconnected small townes are and of course, the natural environs which are surrounding them.

When it comes to this particular series – what first drew me towards wanting to interview the author is the fact it is set near water as those townes are especially keen to visit in stories as the whole sequencing of time is at a different pace than one that would normally be the rhythm of a series set round a larger city. I definitely wanted to ask about how the writer wrote the finer points of the setting – how we might even recognise the IRL towne it is named after and is thereby a composite setting of where people actually live whilst trying to gain a bit of an overview of the series, too.

I’d be curious to learn what kinds of series within either Romance or Women’s Fiction draws your eye when it comes to Contemporaries and what gets you excited if a towne is set by the sea? Is it the setting itself, the pace of living or something more imploring about small towne life that draws you into these kinds of stories overall?

You’ll find extracts from three of the stories in this series attached to this post – which cleverly are not text extracts but rather extracts being featured via YT. These are taken from the audiobook editions of the novels and give you a bit of a glimpse at the narrator’s style of performance whilst also giving you a bit of a sampler of the stories themselves.

This marks my second of three featured posts I’ll be sharing on behalf of Boldwood Books this Spring, 2020. I will be interviewing Jina Bacarr on behalf of her new release “The Runaway Girl” which is dramatic Historical set round Titanic (listed as one of my most anticipated reads for 2020) as well as having featured Rosie Clarke to begin this series.

Brew yourself a lovely cuppa

and enjoy what is revealled about the Whitsborough Bay series!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Whitsborough Bay series:

Making Wishes at Bay View (book one)

New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms (book two)

Finding Hope at Lighthouse Cove (book three)

Coming Home to Seashell Cottage (book four)

Published by: Boldwood Books (@BoldwoodBooks)

Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook

Converse via: #ContemporaryRomance or #WomensFiction
as well as #WhitsboroughBay and #JessicaRedland

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Posted Tuesday, 17 March, 2020 by jorielov in Blog Tour Host, Book | Novel Extract, Book Spotlight, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance Fiction

Book Spotlight | Featuring notes by Jorie and an extract from “Love and Marriage at Harpers” by Rosie Clarke

Posted Monday, 9 March, 2020 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

Stories in the Spotlight banner created by Jorie in Canva.

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

I personally love reading Sagas even before I learnt of the keen tag to browse for #newtomeauthors who are writing this kind of fiction on Saturdays – #SagaSaturday! I’ve had my eye on Saga authors for *years!* – as when I first started book blogging I noticed a lot of lovely releases moving in this direction of Historical Fiction – especially lovely were the fact most of the authors were from Europe and the UK! I have a keen bit of joy settling into a Historical Saga – mostly as I have a personal preference for reading serial fiction as I never quite want to ‘let go’ of characters I have taken a shine on loving to see evolve through their own character arc and journey!

Within a saga, you get the beauty of following them on the next stages of their lives and most likely, the lives of those they love or whom they interact with on a daily basis! A prime example of a Saga I’ve loved discovering is the Daughters of Boston trilogy which kicked off the O’ Connor Saga by Julie Lessman – which is a series told through three separate and yet dearly connected trilogies!

I’ve been seeing updates about Rosie Clarke via Twitter for quite a long while now – her stories set round Harpers I felt would interest me as much as Rachel Brimble’s Pennington’s. This is why when an opportunity came along to host a spotlighted extract from her Harpers Emporium series I was thankful I could be on the blog tour to help introduce this series to my readers. You might have previously seen my review for a Christmas Historical novel by Ms Clarke Christmas is For Children which I read this past December. My readings of this dramatic Historical Fiction story was my first introduction to Ms Clarke’s writing style.

The Harpers series is set within a store – similar to Pennington’s where the fluidity of the series is set round the women who work inside it. I love stories which tackle workplaces such as this one as that is what led me into the Marjorie Corrigan series by Jennifer Lamont Leo!

What I love most about these kinds of series is how you get to hug close to their workspaces, get caught inside their lives and feel a part of the store they’re working at all the same!

This marks my first of three featured posts I’ll be sharing on behalf of Boldwood Books this Spring, 2020. I will be interviewing Jina Bacarr on behalf of her new release “The Runaway Girl” which is dramatic Historical set round Titanic (listed as one of my most anticipated reads for 2020) as well as interviewing Jessica Redland about her series Whitsborough Bay.

Brew yourself a lovely cuppa

and enjoy what is revealled about “Love and Marriage at Harpers”!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Love and Marriage at Harpers by Rosie Clarke

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Welcome to Harpers Emporium (saga series):

The Shop Girls of Harpers (book one)

Love & Marriage at Harpers (book two)

Rainy Days for the Harpers Girls (book three)

← forthcoming in June, 2020!

Converse via: #LoveAndMarriageAtHarpers, #RosieClarke, #Saga or #SagaSaturday
as well as #HistFic and #HistRom

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

add to LibraryThing

Published: 3rd March, 2020 | ISBN: 9781838891831

Oxford St, London, 1913.

The shop girls of Harpers Emporium on Oxford Street are happy in their work and their lives are moving on at quite a pace.

United by the suffragette cause and now living under one roof, some will find love and marriage whilst others experience heartache and
tears.

Harpers is the bond that holds them together, bringing strength through hardship and pain and friendship and love.

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About the Author: Rosie Clarke

Rosie ClarkeRosie Clarke is a #1 bestselling saga writer whose most recent books include The Mulberry Lane series. She has written over 100 novels under different pseudonyms and is a RNA Award winner. She lives in Cambridgeshire. Rosie’s brand new saga series, The Shop Girls of Harpers begins in December 2019.

Follow the author online: Blog | @AnneHerries | FantasticFiction

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Posted Monday, 9 March, 2020 by jorielov in Blog Tour Host, Book | Novel Extract, Book Spotlight, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance Fiction

A very special #blogmas Christmas Eve with a time travelling war drama #ChristmasReads selection by Jorie | “Christmas Once Again” by Jina Bacarr

Posted Tuesday, 24 December, 2019 by jorielov , , 2 Comments

#blogmas 2019 badge created by Jorie in Canva.

Borrowed Book By: I came to find out about this Historical Time Travelling Christmas war drama through my interactions with Historical Fiction novelists via #HistFicChat as hosted by Vivan Conroy. Ms Bacarr happened to have been one of the guests during the chat and I became dearly fascinated by the premise of the story! Afterwards I made a note to see if I could put in a request for the novel in print and/or audiobook – I submitted a print request to my local library and a digital audiobook request to my regionally local library – of the two I happily received the news the local library was able to acquire a print copy allowing me to read this during #blogmas. Unfortunately, the regional library was unable to acquire the digital audiobook. The print copy similar to the other book requests I submit was for the finished version of the novel any reader could purchase themselves; not a library specific copy or edition.

Therefore I borrowed a print copy of “Christmas Once Again” from my local library and I was not obligated to post a review and are sharing my ruminations with my readers for my own edification as well as happily sharing my bookish life with my readers and visitors alike. The Press Materials however were provided by the author and are used with permission at my request to be used on this review once I decided to write one as well as for being featured on the book spotlight I posted ahead of her guest appearance on @SatBookChat.

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On how I came to find this author:

It was all because of #HistFicChat — there are moments on Twitter which randomly give me a lot of bookishly geeky happiness, such as interacting with authors in chats! It isn’t just the authors I invite into my own chat @SatBookChat but the authors I happily engage with in other chats, like #HistFicChat and others like it. Over the years, some of the chats have closed down, others went on an unexpected hiatus like Ms McCabe’s #HistoricalFix and others, I might have wandered away too long to return (ie. #LitChat). Still what is joyful about the experience of engaging with the bookish within book world through this medium is that there is generally a new chat popping up and arriving into my feeds; giving me a new and refreshed chance to interact with #newtomeauthors such as Ms Bacarr!

When I learnt of the release for Christmas Once Again I knew I wanted to see if my local library could purchase it in time to read by Christmas! What I hadn’t expected was reading it in the golden hours of having it a bit too long due to my father’s medical crisis & my Winter cold which took me offline for a week and afflicted me with a bit of amnesia when it came to my library account! I completely lost track of ‘where’ I was with my borrows both for print and audio – so I quickly made amends to get this novel & Ms Royce’s novel back to the library for the next borrowers in queue to read them before Christmas!

I also had the pleasure of hosting Jina Bacarr during one of my 2019 @SatBookChat‘s! The archived conversations are available to be seen in @SatBookChat’s Moments.

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Notation about Cover Art: Ever since I first saw the cover art for ‘Christmas Once Again’ I have been struck by the look on the woman’s face, the placement of the train in the background behind her and the airplane flying over her right shoulder. Every detail in the cover art seemed to be pointedly aimed towards having us understand the story and the setting in which it takes place – I love when cover art matches the story like this and the choices in bold colours truly were the right call!

A very special #blogmas Christmas Eve with a time travelling war drama #ChristmasReads selection by Jorie | “Christmas Once Again” by Jina BacarrChristmas Once Again
by Jina Bacarr
Source: Borrowed from local library, Purchase REQ | local library

All she wants for Christmas is to save the man she loves…

On a cold December day in 1955, Kate Arden got on a train to go home for Christmas.

This is the story of what happened when she got off that train. In 1943.

In 1943 Kate Arden was engaged to the man she loved, Jeffrey Rushbrooke. She was devastated and heartbroken when he was called up for wartime duty and later killed on a secret mission in France.

But what if Kate could change that? What if she could warn him and save his life before Christmas?
Or will fate have a bigger surprise in store for her?

Christmas Once Again is a sweeping, heartbreakingly romantic novel - it's one woman's chance to follow a different path and mend her broken heart...

Genres: Christmas Story &/or Christmas Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Time Travel Fiction, War Drama



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 9781838893668

Also by this author: Author Interview with extract with Jina Bacarr

Published by Boldwood Books

on 10th October, 2019

Format: Trade Paperback

Pages: 300

Published by: Boldwood Books (@BoldwoodBooks)

Available Formats: Trade paperback, Audiobook and Ebook

Christmas Romance Book Icon made by Jorie in Canva.

Converse via: #ChristmasRomance and #HistRom as well as #TimeTravel war drama

About Jina Bacarr

Jina Bacarr

I started out working as a reporter writing articles for a travel magazine based in Beverly Hills and then for a computer magazine, as well as writing for academia, radio commercials, and PR copy. I’ve had three plays produced in Malibu, California and I worked for a time writing children’s and daytime TV before publishing nonfiction books about Japan, and then later fiction.

In addition to my WW 2 time travel romance, CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN, I’ve written a Civil War time travel in 1862 Virginia at the Battle of Antietam, a WW 2 Christmas novella in war torn Italy between a GI and a nun, an erotic novella about a hunky Scrooge from Wall Street, contemporary and historical erotic romance novels, and non-fiction books about Japan.

I enjoy writing to classical music with a hot cup of java by my side. I adore dark chocolate truffles, vintage anything, the smell of bread baking and rainy days in museums. I’ve always loved walking through history—from Pompeii to Verdun to Old Paris.

The voices of the past speak to me through carriages with cracked leather seats, stiff ivory-colored crinolines and worn satin slippers. I’ve always wondered what it was like to walk in those slippers when they were new.

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

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Posted Tuesday, 24 December, 2019 by jorielov in #blogmas, #JorieLovesIndies, 20th Century, Blog Tour Host, Christmas Romance &/or Holiday Story, Flashbacks & Recollective Memories, Indie Author, Realistic Fiction, Romance Fiction, Second Chance Love, Singletons & Commitment, Sweet Romance, the Fifties, The World Wars

#SatBookChat early #blogmas Spotlight | featured guest Jina Bacarr highlighting her #ChristmasReads time travelling war drama “Christmas Once Again” with a #chaptersampler extract!

Posted Saturday, 23 November, 2019 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

#SatBookChat Jina Bacarr badge created by Jorie in Canva.

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

You might have seen me happily chattering about today’s featured #SatBookChat guest author during a recent #HistFicChat!? Ever since then – I’ve quite literally been stalking my local library for updates on my purchase request – as I found out within a very short window they accepted the purchase for this novel, however, what I hadn’t known is *when!* the book would arrive into the library and thus, be available for me to pick it up to borrow and read!

More uniquely – nearly all of my purchase requests this year were accepted *and!* I had a limited time window to read them (per why I did not finish most of them yet) as other patrons discovered the stories in the card catalogue and fetched them for their own readerly exploration! This title isn’t any different than those – as I have to read and sort out my thoughts for it to run during #blogmas before it needs to be returnt to the library on the 27th!

Now, normally that might sound like a long time (a proper fortnight) however between a major blog crisis (ie. Friday-Monday major technical issues where I couldn’t access my blog properly and it delayed all my posts for #SciFiMonth) and a severe migraine (ie. Sunday-Thursday) – you can see why my #HoHoHoRAT was less ‘ho ho ho’ and more ‘oh no no no’ angsty oy vie!

I dearly wanted to read it before #SatBookChat today as well – but I had to reconcile that I’ll be reading it this week instead – whilst only getting to dip my toes into the opening chapter or so ahead of happily chattering about the elements inside it which make my bookish heart swoon!

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This also marked a new transition of cross-social promotion for @SatBookChat as the author kindly created a short video which she shared via her feeds for #Instagram and within her #InstaStories (also on Instagram)!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Jdh4ZgUN7/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

As you can see – this is one of those #ChristmasReads which gave me wicked sweet expectations of joy to be discussing during #SatBookChat and it is a delight of joy I can share this preview of the novel with my readers, visitors & chatters alike before we go LIVE @ 11a NYC | 4p UK | 8a PST to interact directly with Ms Bacarr and find more reasons to hug close to the story and bring a bit of war era loveliness in our holiday reads this festive season 2019!

I hope you’ve brewed a cuppa to enjoy the information on this spotlighted post in conjunction with @SatBookChat whilst taking time to visit our past chats archived via the Moments on the chat’s feeds via Twitter. This chat will be archived after it concludes and a bit lateron from there to allow everyone the chance to interact, share and respond.

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Without further adieu,
I give you my fifth #SatBookChat spotlight”
wherein you can learn a bit more about the author & her story.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Christmas Once Again by Jina Bacarr

All she wants for Christmas is to save the man she loves…

On a cold December day in 1955, Kate Arden got on a train to go home for Christmas.

This is the story of what happened when she got off that train. In 1943.

In 1943 Kate Arden was engaged to the man she loved, Jeffrey Rushbrooke. She was devastated and heartbroken when he was called up for wartime duty and later killed on a secret mission in France.

But what if Kate could change that? What if she could warn him and save his life before Christmas?
Or will fate have a bigger surprise in store for her?

Christmas Once Again is a sweeping, heartbreakingly romantic novel – it’s one woman’s chance to follow a different path and mend her broken heart…

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com Read More

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • #blogmas 2019
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Posted Saturday, 23 November, 2019 by jorielov in #SatBookChat, Twitterland & Twitterverse Event