Do you love historical fiction? What makes you choose one book over another? For most of us, the cover is the first thing that attracts our attention.
Each month I will be choosing my ‘Pam’s Pick’. Hopefully, you will be intrigued enough to look beyond the covers I feature and find your next favourite author. If a cover interests you just click on the image to learn more about the book and buy if you wish.
And the not so small print: the judge’s decision is final (that would be me!) and is highly subjective.
Please note this is a cover competition only and does not constitute a review of any of the books featured. It’s up to you to explore. Happy Reading!
My May winner is:
Perception & Illusion by Catherine Kullmann
One of the joys of my teenage years was the discovery of the novels of Georgette Heyer (yes I’m a bit of a fan!!). So, when a cover is submitted that takes me back to all of those happy hours, it had to be a winner. So few Regency covers are contemporary images which is such a shame. Images from the time ring far truer than modern models photoshopped over stately homes. Lovely choice, Catherine, and looking forward to reading the book soon.
Cast out by her father for refusing the suitor of his choice, Lallie Grey accepts Hugo Tamrisk’s proposal, confident that he loves her as she loves him. But Hugo’s past throws long shadows as does his recent liaison with Sabina Albright. All too soon, Lallie must question Hugo’s reasons for marriage and wonder what he really wants of his bride.
Perception & Illusion charts Lallie’s and Hugo’s voyage through a sea of confusion and misunderstanding. Can they successfully negotiate the Rocks of Jealousy and the Shoals of Perplexity to arrive at the Bay of Delight or will they drift inexorably towards Cat & Dog Harbour or the Dead Lake of Indifference?
As ever, there was stiff competition this month for the top spot. Here are the runners up in no particular order.
Stolen by marauding Danes, Helena’s desperate to escape their camp. Her unlikely savior comes, a fierce Viking chieftain named Hakan, who takes her to the frozen north. Hakan wants to lay down his sword and live a peaceful farmer’s life. Past betrayal left him cold to love, yet the Frankish woman who keeps his longhouse thaws his icy heart.
Helena wasn’t born a slave. She wants nothing more than to return home, yet her stoic master fascinates her .. he’s as bold as the wild northlands. But war is brewing – a kingdom’s in the balance and Hakan must take up his sword. Can the Viking warrior defend his homeland and keep the woman he loves?
Mary is a nursing sister at Lancashire prison camp for the housing and treatment of German POWs. Life at work is difficult but fulfilling, life at home a constant round of arguments, until Frank Shuttleworth, a guard at the camp turns up. Frank is difficult to love but persistent and won’t leave until Mary agrees to walk out with him.
When one of their freinds is captured and sold into slavery in the land of the Rus, the children of the old chieftain and their comrades decide to risk everthing to rescue him. Little do they know what awaits them when they embark on the Viking ship, the ‘Eagle’. In addition to the dangers of the sea voyage, they must face the villainy of a traitor, marauding pirates and robbers, before they end up in a seemingly hopeless situation as slaves in a quarry. To add to their problems, they learn that they have provoked the anger of the new chieftain of thier island home and have been banished.
**FINALIST: The Chanticleer Goethe Awards for Late Historical Fiction**
Who is the young woman with the haunting gaze in Gustav Klimt’s 1917 masterpiece, The Women Friends?
Selina Brunner is running from the demons of her past, cut off from her family in a sleepy Tyrolean village, and lost in the soulless city of Vienna, where everything – even one’s very existence – is a lie.
When, amidst growing fear of sinister developments in Vienna, an exotic stranger comes to town, Selina finds old passions reignited and her whole world turned upside down.
The Women Friends: Selina is the first in a series of fictional tales about the women who inspired this great artist.
Pam Lecky Books 
Thank you, Pam. I chose this picture because of the tension between the couple which mirrors the tension between Lallie and Hugo as their new marriage falters.
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It’s a great cover Catherine – wishing you every success with this, your second novel. A little birdie tells me number three may be out this year.
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Reblogged this on Judith Barrow and commented:
Thrilled to be one of the runners up in Pam’s Historical Fiction Cover with Pattern of Shadows
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Thank you, Pam. Thrilled to be amongst these great covers.
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