Sandra Schwab and A Novel Take PR visit the clubhouse with the Yuletide Truce blog tour! The author invites you into the author's den and hosts a pretty awesome giveaway: 3 copies of any back list book! Good luck!
Title:Yuletide Truce
Publisher: Sandra Schwab
Release Date (Print & Ebook): 22 September 2017
Length (Print & Ebook): 18,000 words
Subgenre: historical romance, Victorian romance, mm romance, holiday romance
Links:
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/2940154716328
Book blurb:
London, 1845
It's December, Alan "Aigee" Garmond's favorite time of the year, when the window display of the small bookshop where he works fills up with crimson Christmas books and sprays of holly. Everything could be perfect — if it weren't for handsome Christopher Foreman, the brilliant writer for the fashionable magazine About Town, who has taken an inexplicable and public dislike to Aigee's book reviews.
But why would a man such as Foreman choose to target reviews published in a small bookshop's magazine? Aigee is determined to find out. And not, he tells himself, just because he finds Foreman so intriguing.
Aigee’s quest leads him from smoke-filled ale-houses into the dark, dingy alleys of one of London's most notorious rookeries. And then, finally, to Foreman. Will Aigee be able to wrangle a Yuletide truce from his nemesis?
Quotes from Sandra Schwab about the book:
Yuletide Truce is a feel-good enemies-to-lovers holiday romance that takes you on a sweeping journey to Victorian London, to fog-filled streets and smoke-filled taverns, to Fleet Street, where news are made, and to Bethnal Green, where once a crime lord ruled as supreme master. Meet those who criticized a rich ruling class that clung to its old privileges, and those who eked out a meagre livelihood on the streets of the metropolis. Yuletide Truce not a story about rich people, but a story about two ordinary men — because everybody deserves a happily-ever-after, and I want to challenge the idea that it's somehow only straight, white, rich people whose stories deserve to be told.
Quotes from other authors about the book:
“Sandra Schwab's Yuletide Truce is charming and witty, and I thoroughly enjoyed the peep into Victorian literary culture. The relationship between the proudly self-made Aigee and carelessly arrogant Foreman unfolds through dueling book reviews and salon repartee, but also in wonderfully drawn London streets and rickety boarding houses. The cross-class romance is a terrific cup of holiday cheer.” --Emma Barry, author of the Fly Me to the Moon series with Genevieve Turner
“Yuletide Truce is warm and cozy, just what I want out of a holiday romance. Aigee is a total cinnamon roll and it was lovely to see him happy.”--Cat Sebastian, author of The Ruin of a Rake and The Soldier’s Scoundrel
Excerpt
Confronting Foreman in the Cider Cellars, a tavern:
Aigee pushed forward through the crowd in the direction Sherrick had indicated, and sure enough: over there, a table in the corner had been taken by four men from About Town, among them Christopher Foreman—that mop of golden curls was unmistakable. He was lounging on his chair, long legs stretched out in front of him.
Aigee took a deep breath. “Mr. Foreman. A word, if you please.”
Very slowly, the blond head turned, golden brows arched delicately. “Dear me. If it isn’t Munro’s pup,” Foreman drawled.
It wouldn’t do, Aigee told himself, to lose his temper and plant a wallop onto Foreman’s arrogant nose. Not in a crowded tavern, where a good quarter of the men present were happily belting out the chorus to a song about a milkmaid and a magic flute.
It was the kind of song that would have made moralists turn pale, if not fall into a dead faint.
Not that Aigee hadn’t heard worse.
He pasted a pleasant smile on his face. “Mr. Foreman, I’m sorry my reviews don’t appeal to you. However, I don’t see why you should take such umbrage, considering that Munro’s is a rather small magazine. Perhaps it is time to focus your ire on somebody else’s work. Preferably work from a magazine equal to About Town.”
The golden brows rose even higher. “So the pup talks?”
The other men at the table chuckled.
Inwardly, Aigee gritted his teeth, but still kept his voice pleasant. “I fail to understand why you hold me in such dislike, Mr. Foreman, but I would ask you not to take it out on my employer.”
Foreman flicked a lazy hand, as if he were swatting away an annoying fly. “Dislike? You must have misunderstood me.” His voice turned venomous. “Why should a pup like you interest me? It’s your simpering reviews I hold in contempt. Puff pieces to boost your employer’s sales.”
By now, several men were listening in on their conversation.
“Hear, hear!” somebody said. “I thought puffing went out of fashion in the thirties.”
“So last century,” somebody else muttered.
This time, Aigee allowed his teeth to show. “Puffing? I write nothing that I don’t mean. And we all want to make a living.”
Foreman’s glittering gaze swept over him. “I have no objection to you making a living, Mr. Garmond. As long as it doesn’t involve writing literary reviews.” His lips curved into a taunting smile. “Surely it should be obvious that somebody like you has no business writing them.”
Aigee felt each word as if it were a slap. There was a great rushing noise in his ears, and suddenly, all the sounds in the tavern seemed to come from very far away.
In the Author's Den
Thank you so much, Boy Meets Boy Reviews, for helping me to celebrate the release of my Victorian holiday romance Yuletide Truce! Have you ever wondered what the workplace of an author might look like, especially the workplace of an author who writes historicals? Well, my study looks very much as you might expect: there are books everywhere. And I mean, EVERYwhere.
I like having my research books close by when I write, so I can quickly look up what kind of food a soldier in the Roman army would have grabbed for dinner from a foodstall 2000 years ago or what kind of furniture you might have found in a drawing room in 1817.
These days, most of my books are written on my old AlphaSmart, a sturdy, lightweight computer substitute that was developed for schools back in the 1990s. Because it's relatively small, it leaves plenty of space on my desk for…well…research books. And for a nice cup of tea! ☺
Now, some books require special equipment and special care: When 150 pounds of Punch, the satirical Victorian magazine, moved in with me seven years ago, I got a book pillow, so I wouldn't damage the volumes by opening them too far and breaking the spine.
While I'm researching and writing, my writing buddies cheer me on: This little dude, the Roman duckie, offers excellent support when I write about grumpy Roman centurions. ☺
But my absolute favorite place for writing? That's my little camper trailer Miss Hetty, whom I bought last year. Though she is already 17 years old, she is still in great shape, and she has found a new home at a camping site not far from where I live. This is where I wrote most of Yuletide Truce (covered in bug repellant to ward off the horseflies and wasps). Even on rainy days, the view is fantastic!
Author Bio:
Award-winning author Sandra Schwab started writing her first novel when she was seven years old. Thirty-odd years later, telling stories is still her greatest passion, even though by now, she has exchanged her pink fountain pen of old for a black computer keyboard. Since the release of her debut novel in 2005, she has enchanted readers worldwide with her unusual historical romances (some of which she now uses to shamelessly fangirl over Punch, her favorite Victorian magazine).
She holds a PhD in English literature, and in autumn 2015, she appeared on the BBC documentary Great Continental Railway Journeys to talk about another favorite topic of hers, the Grimms’ fairy tales (while walking through a rather muddy stretch of the Black Forest) (there were a lot of slugs, too).
She lives in Frankfurt am Main / Germany with a sketchbook, a sewing machine, and an ever-expanding library.
Connect with Sandra:
Website: http://www.sandraschwab.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScribblingSandy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scribblingsandy/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/SandraSchwab
Win 3 copies of any backlist book by Sandra Schwab:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
