France Book Tours

A Star for Mrs. Blake,
by
April Smith

(historical fiction)

 Published September 23, 2014
at Penguin Random House

352 pages

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(Hardcover, paperback, ebook, audio)

   

Yes, I’m the same April Smith
who writes the FBI Special Agent Ana Grey Mystery/Thriller,
but I’ve taken a new direction into suspenseful historical fiction.
A STAR FOR MRS. BLAKE, set in the 1930s,
tells the untold true story of the Gold Star Mothers pilgrimages to Europe
to visit the graves of their loved ones killed during WWI.

My latest novel, HOME SWEET HOME, takes place in 1950s South Dakota,
where a family becomes the victim of a witch hunt during the McCarthy era.

Where do I get such wide-ranging ideas?
I grew up in the Bronx, New York, where the Kingsbridge Road Branch public library
was the center of my universe.
There it was safe and warm — the library was a tiny space above a dry cleaners —
and I was free to explore everything from science fiction to James Bond.
I moved to Los Angeles to write and produce TV shows
— most recently the miniseries, Mrs. America, starring Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly,
but I am still, firmly and forever, happy in the world of books.

Visit her website,
or connect with her on Facebook  and Twitter
You can also contact her here
Check her IMDb page!

 Giveaway:
1 participant will receive a signed copy of this book

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Monet & Oscar,
by
Joe Byrd

(historical fiction)

 Published March 10, 2021
at Giverny Books

300 pages

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Buy it here

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VIDEO PRESENTATION
montage from a webinar

Joe Byrd:
“I first found Claude Monet while sitting among 300 students in a college Humanities 101 class.
He spoke to me.
He told me about color, brush strokes, and impressions rather than photographic reproduction of live scenes.
He became a lifelong friend who helped a boy from West Virginia’s coal region learn about art.

Twenty-five years later, I began researching Claude Monet.
After reading and re-reading the art books I had collected, I purchased more in-depth biographies.
Most notably, Daniel Wildenstein’s “Monet: The Triumph of Impressionism,” a four-volume set that contains every one of Monet’s paintings plus an extensive history of Monet’s life.
Ross King’s “Mad Enchantment” was another revealing account of Monet’s final years.
I also attended Japanese woodblock print exhibitions in San Francisco and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and every art museum in Paris and many across the US.

At last, I was getting a clearer picture of Monet, the times in which he worked, and his fellow painters.
This thirty-year research project led me to commit to writing a book about Monet, his personal life, and his family.
After ten years of writing and rewriting the opening scene in my head and the pandemic lockdown hit, I finally sat down to write.

I chose to write a novel instead of a biography because fiction makes history easier to understand.
This historically accurate novel is the result of my years of discovery.
I hope you will feel my effort has been worthwhile and that your time has been well spent reading “Monet & Oscar: Essence of Light.”

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on Twitter

Check Giverny Books

 Giveaway:
10 participants from any country
will receive a digital copy

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Café Unfiltered,
by
Jean-Philippe Blondel

(literary fiction)

 Published July 11, 2023
at New Vessel Press

232 pages

***

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Bookshop
New Vessel Press
Amazon

***

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At a classic café in the French provinces, anonymity, chance encounters, and traumatic pasts collide against the muted background of global instability.

Jean-Philippe Blondel, author of the bestselling The 6:41 to Paris, presents a moving fresco of intertwined destinies portrayed with humor, insight, and tenderness.
In the span of twenty-four hours, a medley of characters retrace the fading patterns of their lives after a long disruption from Covid. A mother and son realize their vast differences, a man takes tea with a childhood friend he had once covertly fallen for, and a woman crosses paths with the ex who abandoned her in Australia.
Amidst it all, the café swirls like a kaleidoscope, bringing together customers, waiters, and owners past and present.

Within its walls and on its terrace, they examine the threads of their existence, laying bare their inner selves, their failed dreams, and their hopes for the uncertain future that awaits us all.

Jean-Philippe Blondel
was born in 1964 in Troyes, France,
where he lives as an author and English teacher.
His novel The 6:41 to Paris
has been acclaimed in both the United States and Europe.

Check the publisher’s website
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and on Twitter

Review copies are currently available
on Edelweiss Plus