The King’s Champion by Nancy Northcott: The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour

Today, I am delighted to host Nancy Northcott for the blog tour for her new release, The King’s Champion, Book 3 in The Boar King’s Honor Trilogy. Nancy has kindly provided an excerpt (please see below)

You can follow the full tour here: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/05/blog-tour-kings-champion-by-nancy-northcott.html

The King’s Champion by Nancy Northcott

The Boar King’s Honor Trilogy

A wizard’s misplaced trust

A king wrongly blamed

A bloodline cursed until they clear the king’s name.

Book 3: The King’s Champion

Caught up in the desperate evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France in the summer of 1940, photojournalist Kate Shaw witnesses death and destruction that trigger disturbing visions. She doesn’t believe in magic and tries to pass them off as survivor guilt or an overactive imagination, but the increasingly intense visions force her to accept that she is not only magically Gifted but a seer.

In Dover, she meets her distant cousin Sebastian Mainwaring, Earl of Hawkstowe and an officer in the British Army. He’s also a seer and is desperate to recruit her rare Gift for the war effort. The fall of France leaves Britain standing alone as the full weight of Nazi military might threatens. Kate’s untrained Gift flares out of control, forcing her to accept Sebastian’s help in conquering it as her ethics compel her to use her ability for the cause that is right.

As this fledgling wizard comes into her own, her visions warn of an impending German invasion, Operation Sealion, which British intelligence confirms. At the same time, desire to help Sebastian, who’s doomed by a family curse arising from a centuries-old murder, leads Kate to a shadowy afterworld between life and death and the trapped, fading souls who are the roots of her family’s story. From the bloody battlefields of France to the salons of London, Kate and Sebastian race against time to free his family’s cursed souls and to stop an invasion that could doom the Allied cause.

The King’s Champion concludes Nancy’s Northcott’s exciting Boar King’s Honor Trilogy.

The King’s Champion – Universal Buy Link

Buy Links, Book 1 & 2:

This series is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

The Herald of Day – Universal Buy Link
The Steel Rose – Universal Buy Link

The King’s Champion – Excerpt

From Chapter 1 – The trucks carrying Kate and other soldiers arrive on the outskirts of Dunkirk.

Refugees fleeing south clogged the road. Men and women with weary, defeated faces dragged carts or carried bundles. Some bore children on their backs, the little ones’ eyes wide and full of dread. A lucky few actually had horse-drawn carts, likely farm wagons, with belongings and family jammed into them. The soldiers and their trucks moved through the mass at a crawl.

At last, as the day waned, the truck ground to a halt, apparently on the outskirts of a town. The ruined buildings lining the road stood between two and four stories tall. Some were narrow, while others had as many as six windows across. None of them had any glass remaining, and chimneys stood like grim sentinels where upper floors and roofs had been blasted away.

“Everybody out,” someone called from the front of the truck.

Kate scrambled out with the men around her. They melded into the ranks of the infantry.

“Road’s blocked ahead,” the stocky man climbing down from the cab announced. “It’s faster to go on foot. The Jerrys have destroyed the port. We’re to head for the beaches on its east side.” He left the engine running and removed the radiator cap.

Kate had seen soldiers do that before. The engine would eventually seize, making it useless to the Nazis.

She fell in with the men around her. No one had more than a pack and his rifle. Deserted buildings lined the road, their doors and windows gaping, empty holes revealing shadowy piles of rubble within. Here and there, the setting sun hit a west-facing window and illuminated the wreckage inside.

There was still enough light for photos. Kate dug out her camera. Stepping out of the mass, she clambered onto a chunk of broken masonry that looked like part of a brick wall.

Ahead, a giant pillar of smoke filled the horizon. An acrid whiff of something that might’ve been burning oil rode the breeze.

She opened her camera, focused on the men marching toward her, and clicked the shutter. Then she faced forward to capture the men marching away. The photos might be a little underexposed, but maybe she could fix them in the darkroom.

Closing the camera took only a moment. There might be other opportunities, though, so she held onto it as she joined the men marching past.

When they eyed her curiously, she smiled.

“Kate Shaw. Consolidated News Union.” She offered her hand to the man on her right. He shook it carefully, with hardly any pressure.

“What’s your unit, and how has it been for you fellows?” she asked. Assuming they were all North Yorkshire Fusiliers might be a mistake. As soldiers raced for the beach, units became jumbled. Or so she’d heard.

Before the men could answer, someone up front shouted, “Take cover!”

Everyone looked up. A trio of planes headed their way, swooping low.

“Messerschmitts!” a man farther forward yelled.

The fighters could strafe, and everyone on the road was exposed. They all dashed for the nearest buildings. Huddled in a wrecked kitchen with two of the men, Kate did what she’d done so many times since the fighting started. Clenching her fists, she closed her eyes and thought, Don’t see us. Don’t see us. Don’t see us.

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Author Bio:

Nancy Northcott’s childhood ambition was to grow up and become Wonder Woman.  Around fourth grade, she realized it was too late to acquire Amazon genes, but she still loved comic books, science fiction, fantasy, history, and romance.

Nancy earned her undergraduate degree in history and particularly enjoyed a summer spent studying Tudor and Stuart England at the University of Oxford. She has given presentations on the Wars of the Roses and Richard III to university classes studying Shakespeare’s play about that king. In addition, she has taught college courses on science fiction, fantasy, and society.   

The Boar King’s Honor historical fantasy trilogy combines Nancy’s love of history and magic with her interest in Richard III. She also writes traditional romantic suspense, romantic spy adventures, and two other speculative fiction series, the Light Mage Wars paranormal romances and, with Jeanne Adams, the Outcast Station space mystery series.

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