Guest Post and Giveaway: Consolamentum by Rebecca Hazell

Hey everyone! Today I'm bringing you a splendid guest post from Rebecca Hazell! Her newest (and last) entry in The Tiger and the Dove series is Consolamentum.

Check out the blurb and read the GP!

About the book

In the finale of Sofia's memoir, Consolamentum, both dramatic and poignant, her dreams of home are shattered when her own family betrays her. Raising her child on her own, mourning the loss of her beloved knight, and building a trading empire, she seeks safe haven for her child and herself. Her quest takes her from Antioch to Constantinople to Venice. A surprise reunion in Venice leads her to France where she runs afoul of the newly established Holy Inquisition, possibly the greatest challenge she has yet faced. Can a woman so marked by oppression, betrayal, and danger ever find her safe haven, much less genuine happiness?
 

The novel is available both in paperback and Kindle versions and through your local bookstore by special order.

Rebecca Hazell is a an award winning artist, author and educator. She has written, illustrated and published four non-fiction children’s books, created best selling educational filmstrips, designed educational craft kits for children and even created award winning needlepoint canvases. She is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, and she holds an honours BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz in Russian and Chinese history.


Rebecca lived for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1988 she and her family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in 2006 she and her husband moved to Vancouver Island. They live near their two adult children in the beautiful Cowichan Valley.

Visit Rebecca:

Website | Goodreads | Facebook

Previous stop on the tour (10/1): The True Book Addict

Next stop on the tour (10/7): Historical Fiction Connection

FINDING HER WAY IN DARK TIMES

           

So much has changed in our world since the thirteenth century, from our values to our sophisticated technology, including mass communications, to the fact that there are billions more people on Earth. A woman visiting us from that time would be lost in amazement. But there is also much that she would find familiar; human nature, for instance, hasn’t changed.

In a way, the story of Sofia, a princess who lost everything to war and now only seeks love and safe haven, is reflected in the lives of many people today. And those of us not displaced by catastrophe also wish for these things; we all face an unstable global economy, war, intolerance, and a vague sense of threat.

So Sofia’s story is our story, too. For those who are new to my books, here’s a snapshot overview: captured and enslaved by a Mongol lord whose peoples are invading her Rus homeland and beyond (The Grip of God), she has escaped into Iran and fallen into the hands of the Nizari, known today as the Assassins (Solomon’s Bride). From there she flees to the Crusader state of Antioch, where she falls in love. The novel ends with her beloved knight leaving on Crusade and her sailing to Constantinople, hope and fear warring in her heart: will she see him again?

In Consolamentum, when destiny forces her to move from Constantinople to Venice, and then to France, she meets with attempts at mind control (the Inquisition) that we still face in other forms (Fascism, for instance, or biased news reporting). Now she must find new ways to survive and to find the happiness that has seemed to elude her for so long.

What makes Sofia special is that she is so independent, constantly struggling, often successfully, against the impact of war and of cultures that don’t value women.  She also takes an open-minded interest in everything and everyone she encounters. Despite her many moves, some of them forced on her, she remains observant, kind hearted, and intelligent. Seeing through her eyes, the reader can feel how universal the human heart, with its aches and joys, really is.

While Sofia’s far-flung adventures may seem farfetched in outline form, in fact people were as on the move then as we are today. It might have taken longer for someone to travel from Tehran to Antioch, but people did it all the time. This was when the Polo brothers crossed an entire continent twice, once in the middle of a civil war among the Mongols.

My hope is that Sofia, with her longing for love and her willingness to see with an open heart, will inspire my readers to connect both with her ability to adapt to a changing world and with their own. I invite you to journey with her on her final adventures, as she discovers new lands, a new life, and, perhaps, new love.

Giveaway:

One lucky person will win the ENTIRE series ( 3 books!!) *Kindle Editions*

Post a comment about the book or series. EASY PEASY!

I will select the winner around Oct. 25th.