Category: Time-Travel Romance

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Murder at the Moulin Rouge by Carol Pouliot

MURDER AT THE MOULIN ROUGE

by Carol Pouliot

November 3 – 28, 2025

Virtual Book Tour

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for MURDER AT THE MOULIN ROUGE (A Blackwell & Watson Time-Travel Mysteries Book #5) by Carol Pouliot on this Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links, and a Promoamp giveaway. Enjoy!

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Book Description

Paris, 1895. When a cancan dancer at the Moulin Rouge falls to her death from the top of one of Montmartre’s highest staircases, the police dismiss it as an accident. But, Madeleine was one of Toulouse-Lautrec’s favorite models, and the artist is certain she was murdered. Enter Depression-era detective Steven Blackwell and 21st-century journalist Olivia Watson who travel back in time to Paris to hunt down the killer. Before long, they learn that a second dancer—a ballerina and favorite model of painter Edgar Degas—has died. Two dancers dead in two weeks. Two artists grieving. Is the killer targeting young dancers, or, does this case involve the enigmatic Paris art world?

From the moment Steven and Olivia arrive, Steven is out of his element. The small-town cop has no idea what techniques the French police use in 1895. Worse, he has no official status to investigate murder in one of the world’s largest cities. The sleuths soon discover disturbing secrets at the Paris Ballet. And when Olivia insists on going undercover to visit a suspect’s house alone, Steven fears he’s made the biggest mistake of his life.

Travel back in time with Steven and Olivia, as they enter the back-stabbing world of dance in one of the world’s greatest cities. Murder at the Moulin Rouge is their most daring and dangerous case to date.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242072783-murder-at-the-moulin-rouge?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=JiTm6J5ZU4&rank=1

Murder at the Moulin Rouge

Genre: Traditional Police Procedural with a Time-Travel Twist; Historical Mystery.
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
Number of Pages: 325

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

MURDER AT THE MOULIN ROUGE (A Blackwell & Watson Time-Travel Mystery) by Carol Pouliot is an intriguing historical mystery as well as a time-travel romance all intertwined with memorable protagonists. This is the fifth book in the series, and they keep getting better and more captivating with each story. I do recommend reading them in order, while the crime plots are completed in each book, the main protagonists, Steven and Olivia’s relationship continues to progress and evolve over the series.

Depression era detective Stephan Blackwell and 21st century journalist Olivia Watson are relaxing after their last adventure, when they are shocked by the appearance of Steven’s deceased artist mother as her younger self asking them to return with her to Paris in 1895 to help her friend, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. One of his models, Madeleine, from the Moulin Rouge has been murdered, but the Paris detectives have called it an accident. Henri has set Stephen up with a detective friend from the Surete Nationale and the three set out to discover who killed Madeleine.

The sleuths discovered Madeleine started at the Paris Ballet but moved to the Moulin Rouge. They also discover another young ballerina died from poison just a few weeks before. Are the two cases connected? Stephen and Olivia are both trying to uncover a killer while trying to navigate a time where both are trying to fit in.

I always enjoy a trip through time as Olivia helps Stephan with his cases in 1934, but this book takes both to a completely new city and time period, Paris in 1895. The descriptions of the historical artists who inhabited the city at this time and the life of the fictional dancers pulled me in and I felt like I was there. The intricately plotted and paced crime mystery kept me turning the pages and I was very satisfied with the conclusion. The research is evident in the details of the city and inhabitants’ lives. Stephen and Olivia’s relationship continues to grow even with the difficulties of living in different moments in history. I always look forward to getting the next book in this series with its great mix of history, crime mystery, and romance.

I highly recommend this engaging historical mystery/time-travel romance in the Blackwell & Watson Time-Travel Mystery series.

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Excerpt

Chapter One

December 25, 1934

Knightsbridge, New York

“I need you to come to Paris.”

“You need what?” he asked.

Detective Steven Blackwell stared at the younger version of his mother standing in the room that had been her studio. Jaw dropped, eyes like saucers. He could barely speak.

“I need you—and your friend Olivia, if you like—to come to Paris. There’s been a murder and the police aren’t doing anything,” said Evangéline. “I thought I heard a voice a minute ago. Was that Olivia? Why don’t you get her? She’s probably wondering what’s going on.” 

In a daze, and feeling like he had no control over his actions, Steven turned away from the vision of his mother and stumbled out into the hallway. He saw Olivia still waiting in the doorway at the end of the hall. Her hand flew to her chest, and she heaved a great sigh. “Oh, my God, you’re okay! What’s going on? I thought I heard voices. Is somebody here?” As he came closer, she noticed the look on his face. “What’s wrong? You look funny.”

“It’s my mother. My mother’s here.”

“What?”

“She looks as real as you do, but she’s young, around our age. She said she needs me to go to Paris. And you should come too.”

“What?” For one terrifying moment, Olivia wondered if a year of grieving had unhinged Steven’s mind. How could his mother be here? Evangéline Neuilly Blackwell died last January.

Steven repeated Evangéline’s instructions. “She said I should come get you.” He held out his hand. Olivia took it and stepped over the threshold into 1934. 

They moved slowly down the hall then paused at the doorway to look at each other. Steven squeezed her hand.  Olivia nodded. They both took a deep breath then entered Evangéline’s studio.

There in the shadowy room stood a beautiful woman, shoulder-length copper hair shining in the lamplight. She was slender, taller than average, and wore a stunning emerald dress, the kind French women wore to perfection. A wool coat with a fur collar had been thrown over the back of a chair. She held out her hand toward Olivia.

“Hello. I’m Evangéline Neuilly. I’m so happy to meet you.”  

Olivia had always wanted to meet Steven’s exotic-sounding mother—a famous French artist—but that possibility had died along with Evangéline. Or so she had thought. Olivia told herself to close her mouth, which had fallen open, and shook the woman’s hand. “Olivia Watson.”

Evangéline looked at Steven. “I can tell you’re surprised to see me. I must not have told you about my ability to time travel. Surely, you wondered why you can? And if your father or I also had that ability?”

“Eh, no. Not really.”

Evangéline rolled her eyes and gave Olivia a look that said, Men, huh?

Olivia couldn’t help grinning.

“Well,” Evangéline opened her arms wide, “here’s the answer to your unasked question. You got it from me.”

Olivia recovered first. “So, Evangéline, you traveled here from…when?”

“1895. And I really need your help. Both of you.” She shook her head and waved her hand back and forth. “I know. I know. You have a lot of questions. Let’s go downstairs and have something to drink. I’ll tell you what has happened.”

They trouped down the stairs and into the living room. 

“I know I must have lived in this house for some time and I assume I decorated this room….” Evangéline turned to Steven for confirmation. 

“Yes, we lived here about twenty years or so before you….” He swallowed hard.

“Before I died,” she whispered, then patted his hand. “Pauvre chouchou. Poor sweetheart. I’m so sorry. But, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know when. Of course, I have an idea. But not the exact date.” She opened a door in the sideboard. “Bon! A bottle of red.” She handed the wine to Steven.

Still dazed, he opened it and poured a glass for each of them. Evangéline curled up in a leather chair. Steven and Olivia sat facing her on the couch. 

His mother took a sip and pursed her lips. “Not bad. So, listen, we must act fast. A young girl has been killed but the police do nothing. They say it was an accident. We know it was not. I want you to find out who killed Madeleine Gervaise.”

His cop’s instincts kicked in, and Steven found himself intrigued. Who was Madeleine Gervaise? How did she die? Why do the police think it was an accident? And what was her connection to Evangéline?

Suddenly, Steven remembered something Sherlock Holmes once said: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” And with that assurance, he snapped out of his stupor and accepted his mother’s bewildering appearance. He leaned forward. 

“All right, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I can and will go to Paris. Answer these questions.” He ticked them off his fingers. “Why do the police think it was an accident? How do you know it wasn’t? When did this happen?”

Evangéline placed her feet on the floor and mirrored him, ticking her answers off her fingers. Olivia almost laughed at the two of them. Talk about a chip off the old block, as her grandfather used to say. “She fell on one of the tall staircases in Montmartre. The police say she slipped on the ice. My friend Henri knows the human body and how it works. He says the…how do you say ‘marks of black and blue’?”

“Bruises,” Olivia chimed in. “We also say black-and-blue marks.”

“Ah! Bon. Henri says the bruises prove someone pushed her. It happened late Sunday night, early Monday morning. Today is already Wednesday. That is why we must move fast.”

Steven groaned, thinking of the days lost. “Is Henri a doctor?”

“No, an artist. But, believe me, Steven, he knows the body. If Henri says she was pushed, she was pushed.”

“So, again, if we were to do this, how would it work?”

“We must go with all speed. That means we must travel in Olivia’s time in one of those fast aeroplanes. That’s how I got here so quickly.”

“Wait, how do you know about Olivia?”

“Oh, mon Dieu, the questions! It is a long story but if it will help speed this up…last summer, I traveled to 1934, to America, with someone on business that had nothing to do with you or my future. When I was in New York City, I saw a photograph in a newspaper of the painting I’m working on right now. The article said a museum in Chicago had bought it and gave information about me, you, and your father. While my friend was completing his business, I had a couple of days to myself, so I took a train here and came to this house. Naturally, I was curious, so I came in and looked around. You really shouldn’t leave your doors unlocked, you know. Anyway, I saw the photograph of Olivia on your dresser. You have her name and the year 2014 written on the back. I realized you had inherited my ability to time travel and that Olivia also had the gift.” Evangéline blew out her cheeks. “Can we not return to the problem at hand now?” 

Steven grinned. “Yeah, okay. You know, I always thought you learned English when you moved here with Dad. You speak really well.” 

She rolled her eyes. “As you must know, my father is a professor of English at the Sorbonne. He taught me when I was a child.” She took a drink of her wine. “Now, to our problème…I went through the portal in Paris, from 1895 to Olivia’s time.”  

“Why did you go into Olivia’s time?”

“If you keep interrupting me, we will never get anywhere. Just listen.” Evangéline took another drink of wine and went on. “Time is of the essence, as it’s already been almost three days. We must travel into 2014 and go to New York City as quickly as possible. Someone there will help us with what we need. Tomorrow night, we’ll fly to Paris. Once we’re there, we’ll travel back to 1895.”

“You make it sound easy. But I have so many questions,” Steven persisted. “How are we going to pay for all this? How do I get a passport fast enough to fly tomorrow? What about other things we might need?”

His mother tilted her head toward the ceiling and sighed. “You think I have come all this way without a plan? Before I left, Henri gave me a sketch. There’s a man in New York City—you will soon learn we have travel agents in cities all over the world who help us. This man in New York City, a place called Brooklyn, is selling the sketch for me, so we’ll have plenty of money. He’ll make a passport and other documents for you, Steven, just as someone in Paris made mine so I could come here.” Evangéline turned to Olivia. “Do you have a passport? Do you drive an automobile?”

“Yes. And I have a car.”

“Can you take us to New York City tomorrow morning so we can get Steven’s documents and the money to buy our tickets for the aeroplane? We must leave for Paris tomorrow night.”

“Sure. Listen, Evangéline, I’m sorry to hear about your friend Madeleine.”

“Thank you. She was lovely—a dancer and one of Henri’s favorite models. Such a waste.” 

“Who is Henri? And why would anybody buy one of his sketches?”

“Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I think he is well known in your time, Olivia.”

“Toulouse-Lautrec?” Olivia gasped. “He’s a friend of yours?”

“Yes, and he’s now your employer.”

Olivia’s jaw dropped. 

Evangéline reached out toward Steven with her empty wineglass then settled back in the chair after he’d refilled it. “Now, let us talk about tomorrow. You must both pack a small bag. Steven, bring any tools or objects you will need to investigate. I don’t know what they might be, but that is most important. When we travel to my Paris in 1895, you can borrow clothes belonging to my friend Théo. He’s away on business right now. His wardrobe is filled with additional items—suits, shirts, collars, and so forth. There’s a cloak and hat as well. Olivia, we’re about the same size. I’m happy to share my clothes with you. I have plenty of skirts and dresses. I have an extra cloak, too. Just bring your personal things.”

Suddenly, Steven realized he had been given a gift. After a long, difficult year of grieving, he had the chance to spend time with the woman who would become his mother. How could he possibly say no?

“I’m sorry, but I have to interrupt again,” Steven said, grinning at Evangéline. “Before it gets too late, I need to call the chief to tell him a family emergency has come up and I need a few days off.” He stood and headed for the phone, then stopped. He turned around and walked back to Evangéline. “I know this is going to be weird for you. You don’t even know me yet. But I have missed you so much!” And he bent down and kissed his mother’s cheek.

***

Author Bio

A former language teacher and business owner, Carol Pouliot writes the acclaimed Blackwell and Watson Time-Travel Mysteries, traditional police procedurals with a seemingly impossible relationship between a Depression-era cop and a 21st-century journalist. With their fast pace and unexpected twists and turns, the books have earned praise from readers and mystery authors. Carol is a founding member of Sleuths and Sidekicks, 4 mystery writers who have banded together to share their love of mysteries, immediate Past President and Program Chair of her Sisters in Crime chapter, and Co-Chair of Murderous March, an online mystery conference. When not writing, Carol can be found packing her suitcase and reaching for her passport for her next travel adventure.

Social Media Links

www.carolpouliot.com
Sleuths and Sidekicks
Amazon Author Profile
Goodreads
BookBub – @cpouliot13
Instagram – @carolpouliotmysterywriter
Pinterest – @cpouliot13
Facebook – @WriterCarolPouliot

Purchase Links

Amazon – https://pictbooks.tours/3NsOyxER

BN – https://pictbooks.tours/Qo6UYxwv

BookShop.org – https://pictbooks.tours/vanURNyy

Goodreads – https://pictbooks.tours/lwwWrSX7

BookBub – https://pictbooks.tours/PgZWfR46

Publisher – https://pictbooks.tours/gteCEMSW

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PROMOAMP GIVEAWAY

https://www.promoamp.com/c/murder-at-the-moulin-rouge-carol-pouliot

Feature Post and Book Review: The Poisoner’s Ring by Kelley Armstrong

Book Description

A modern-day homicide detective is working as an undertaker’s assistant in Victorian Scotland when a serial poisoner attacks the men of Edinburgh and leaves their widows under suspicion.

Edinburgh, 1869: Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life in Victorian Scotland. Her employers know she’s not housemaid Catriona Mitchell—even though Mallory is in Catriona’s body—and Mallory is now officially an undertaker’s assistant. Dr. Duncan Gray moonlights as a medical examiner, and their latest case hits close to home. Men are dropping dead from a powerful poison, and all signs point to the grieving widows… the latest of which is Gray’s oldest sister.

Poison is said to be a woman’s weapon, though Mallory has to wonder if it’s as simple as that. But she must tread carefully. Every move the household makes is being watched, and who knows where the investigation will lead.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61885093-the-poisoner-s-ring?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=hkLfREb9hS&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE POISONER’S RING (A Rip in Time Book #2) by Kelley Armstrong is the second book in this historical mystery/time-travel romance mash-up featuring a modern-day female homicide detective who is sent back in time into the body of a Scottish Victorian house maid. These books, at least books one and two, I feel need to be read in order because the first book focuses more on all the character development, how they all interact, and the problems caused by the time-travel, while the second book is focused more on a historical murder mystery.

Mallory is still carrying out the role of house maid for Dr. Duncan Gray and his sister, Isla, while she really wants to be more of an assistant to Duncan who is an undertaker, who also moonlights as a medical examiner. Duncan becomes involved with a case of a supposed poisoning ring which soon includes his older sister when she is accused of poisoning her husband. Mallory, Isla, and Duncan all work together to investigate the murders to exonerate Duncan and Isla’s sister to save her from the hangman’s rope.

I enjoyed the first book, but I liked this one even more because the characters are more settled in their belief in Mallory’s time-travel and the focus was more on a very well-paced and plotted Victorian murder mystery. It kept me guessing until almost the end and was a satisfying solution. The characters make me keep coming back for more. While they follow the rules for their time in Scottish Victorian history, they are also educated and open minded not only to Mallery’s story, but also for their time. Ms. Armstrong brings in serious topics such as racism, varied sexual orientations, and extreme poverty and handles each with not only comparisons between Duncan’s Victorian feelings and beliefs, but also Mallory’s more modern understanding. The chemistry and dialogue between Duncan and Mallory lead to not only serious discussions, but also humorous moments. I am looking forward to following their partnership and relationship in future books.

I highly recommend this mash-up series with memorable characters and intriguing historical mysteries.

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About the Author

Kelley Armstrong believes experience is the best teacher, though she’s been told this shouldn’t apply to writing her murder scenes. To craft her books, she has studied aikido, archery and fencing. She sucks at all of them. She has also crawled through very shallow cave systems and climbed half a mountain before chickening out. She is however an expert coffee drinker and a true connoisseur of chocolate-chip cookies.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KelleyArmstrongAuthor

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kelleyarmstrong.bsky.social

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-poisoner-s-ring-by-kelley-armstrong

Blog Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The Dressmaker’s War by Michelle Vernal

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE DRESSMAKER’S WAR by Michelle Vernal on this Bookouture Books-On-Tour blog tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section, and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!

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Book Description

She gazes at her mother’s face in the black and white photograph, her vision blurring as tears build. Could this wartime wedding portrait be the key to finding out why her mother went missing, all those years ago?

Brides of Bold Street is filled with beautiful, brand-new ivory gowns. But dressmaker Sabrina loves it when brides-to-be wear vintage, family heirloom dresses. Seeing wedding day photographs of future mothers and grandmothers beaming – as if knowing the happiness they feel will be passed down to their daughters – is a bittersweet reminder of the mother she’s never known.

And as she and her handsome beau, Adam Taylor, start talking about marriage, not having her mother by her side weighs on Sabrina’s heart more and more each day.

But when a bride walks into the store with a family dress made of rare parachute silk from World War Two, Sabrina feels hope rise again in her chest. Because the bride also has a photograph. A photo Sabrina is sure shows her mother’s face…

With the answers to what happened all those years ago almost within reach, Sabrina decides to risk another journey through the past – and this time, with Adam by her side. He’d never let her travel alone, to a time when air raid sirens broke the silence of the night and bombs fell on Liverpool.

Together, will they finally solve the mystery of Sabrina’s real family? Or will the dangers of the darkest days of World War Two prevent Adam and Sabrina from returning to their own time?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232542182-the-dressmaker-s-war?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=PQe5Y30IXG&rank=4

Purchase link: https://geni.us/B0F2SVYS6Lcover

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE DRESSMAKER’S WAR (Brides of Bold Street Book #3) by Michelle Vernal is another captivating dual timeline adventure featuring wedding dress maker, Sabrina in 1982 Liverpool, England who is able to time slip into the past. While each book has Sabrina helping a different couple in different years and could be read as standalone stories, I preferred reading them in order as those around Sabrina continue to evolve in their relationships to Sabrina in her present.

In 1982, Sabrina’s work at Brides of Bold Street and her relationship with Adam are going well and right now she has no plans to attempt a time slip to find the mother she was separated from. When a bride-to-be walks into the shop to have her grandmother’s dress altered for her own wedding, she shows Sabrina a wedding photo from her grandmother’s wedding. Sabrina is shocked to see not only herself and her boyfriend, Adam, in the photo, but she is sure she sees her mother’s face also.

Now in 1945, Sabrina and Max have slipped to the day before the celebrations for VE Day and to meet Lily, whom readers have been following in the other of the dual timelines in this story. Before the time slip, we follow Lilly’s young life during the war up to the time she meets Sabrina.

A night around the celebratory VE DAY bonfires changes everything for Sabrina.

Every book just gets better and better. I love this series and all the characters; both the main group that appear in every book and the new couple we are introduced to in each past story. This book once again had me completely engrossed as I turned the pages. Ms. Vernal’s descriptions of each time period pulled me right into the era’s history and clothing and it is especially fun and brings back good memories when she lists what music Sabrina and her friends are listening to in 1982. This is a beautiful story that is full of emotional ups and downs, love, family, and surprising revelations.

I highly recommend this mash-up of time travel, romance. and mystery!

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About the Author

Michelle Vernal is a New Zealand author who writes stories that will take you onto the page with her characters and make you feel part of their lives. She writes with humor and warmth, and her readers describe her books as unputdownable, feel good and funny. Her writing has been likened to Maeve Binchy but with a modern-day vernacular. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Love Stories Award. In 2020 she won the Reader’s Favorite Gold Medal Award for Chick lit, and in 2021 was shortlisted for the Page Turner Book Awards.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.michellevernalbooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michellevernalnovelist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellevernalnovelist/

Newsletter sign up: https://www.bookouture.com/michelle-vernal

Feature Post and Book Review: Anywhen by Beth Duke

Book Description

Baezy is born in 2069, the centennial of the legendary Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Everything peace, love, and flower power is celebrated that year in a wave of nostalgia that takes over fashion, music, and the public’s imagination. She grows up listening to and loving the artists of that time, dreaming of witnessing everyone from Joan Baez to Santana in person. When presented with the opportunity to time-travel, Baezy immediately chooses Woodstock as her destination. She plans to enjoy a glorious weekend of vibrant sights and sounds; her bell bottoms and a peasant blouse are packed for the adventure and she’s excited to surprise her great-great-great-grandmother, Kelly Adams.

While Baezy’s certainly not a typical Woodstock attendee, Kelly isn’t either. She is at the very beginning of a stellar career researching artificial intelligence in the 1960s, and will later develop much of what will lead to the utopian society Baezy lives in. Kelly’s future family is immensely proud of her historic accomplishments.

The contrast between Baezy’s 2101 and 1969 is stunning from her first moment. Woodstock exceeds her wildest expectations, but holds far more than an introduction to her distant grandmother. Baezy quickly finds herself in life-altering situations she could never have anticipated.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220605667-anywhen?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=J1xDbP33VR&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

ANYWHEN by Beth Duke is a mash-up of genres; time travel, historical fiction, romance, and sci-fi all centered around time traveler, Baezy, who assumes the name and identity of Sarah while in the past.

Baezy was born in 2069, which is the centennial of the legendary Woodstock Music Festival and is named after the singer Joan Baez. Baezy is excited that for her birthday in 2101, her mother has arranged a three day TIP (Time Insertion Protocol) for her to travel back to Woodstock in the year 1969 not only for the live performances she has studied and loves, but to also meet her three times over grandmother on her maternal side, Kelly Adams, who was a brilliant mathematician at MIT and an originator of AI.

While Baezy’s time insertion does not go exactly as planned, she is able to find the group of six that have gone to Woodstock together including Kelly. Baezy is very excited to meet Kelly, but their interactions lead to problems. Her naivety, beauty, and lack of complete understanding of 1969 slang and sayings leads her into conflict with Kelly’s group except for Jack, who is a teacher and sympathetic to Baezy’s differences. Baezy hopes to avoid the others and just enjoy the rest of the Woodstock performances with Jack, but every decision she makes could lead to future changes she could never anticipate.

I enjoyed the mixed genre plot throughout this story very much. The time travel, the futuristic Unity and the historic Woodstock, also with discussions of the Vietnam war were all well written. Unity may have no war or hunger, but it is still not a future I would hope for. The scenes of Woodstock are entertaining and nostalgic. I loved Baezy and her emotional awakening and evolution throughout the story, it was Kelly and the females in the travel group that I found immature for their ages and off-putting, so much so that I almost put the book down for good. I am glad I carried on though for the remainder of Baizy’s storyline.

This is a story that will capture many differing types of genre readers and satisfy them all.

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About the Author

Beth Duke is an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author and the recipient of numerous honors for her fiction on two continents.

She is eyeing the other five.

Her book TAPESTRY was the Bronze Medal Winner in Southern Fiction in Publishers’ Weekly’s 2020 Readers’ Choice Awards, an Award-Winning Finalist in the 2020 International Book Awards, and a Five Star Readers’ Favorite Award Winner.

Beth lives in the mountains of her native Alabama with her husband, Jay, and an assortment of dogs—including a recently-rescued coonhound named Daisy who has stolen her heart. Beth is the adoring and proud mother of Jason and Savannah. She is a constant reader, travel aficionado, and likes to pretend she’s in baking competitions.

She also finds great joy in joining book clubs for discussion (usually via Zoom). If your group would like to schedule a date, please email beth@bethduke.com.

Her books DELANEY’S PEOPLE, DON’T SHOOT YOUR MULE, IT ALL COMES BACK TO YOU, TAPESTRY, and DARK ENOUGH TO SEE THE STARS are all love letters to her home state.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.bethduke.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethidee

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onlythebethforyou/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/beth-duke

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: When She Dreams by Amanda Quick

Book Description

Maggie Lodge, assistant to the reclusive advice columnist known only as Dear Aunt Cornelia to her readers, hires down-but-not-quite-out private eye Sam Sage to help track down the person who is blackmailing her employer. Maggie and Sam are a mismatched pair. As far as Sam is concerned, Maggie is reckless and in over her head. She is not what he had in mind for a client but he can’t afford to be choosy. Maggie, on the other hand, is convinced that Sam is badly in need of guidance and good advice. She does not hesitate to give him both.

In spite of the verbal fireworks between them, they are fiercely attracted to each other, but each is convinced it would be a mistake to let passion take over. They are, after all, keeping secrets from each other. Sam is haunted by his past, which includes a marriage shattered by betrayal and violence. Maggie is troubled by intense and vivid dreams–dreams that she can sometimes control. There are those who want to run experiments on her and use her for their own purposes, while others think she should be committed to an asylum.

When the pair discovers someone is impersonating Aunt Cornelia at a conference on psychic dreaming and a woman dies at the conference, the door is opened to a dangerous web of blackmail and murder. Secrets from the past are revealed, leaving Maggie and Sam in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance.

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Elise’s Thoughts

When She Dreams by Amanda Quick, is a story with lies, murder, blackmail, and drugs. This series takes place during the 1930’s in the small town of Burning Cove, California with some recurring characters.

The opening scene sets the atmosphere for the rest of the plot.  Maggie Lodge enters the office of Dr. Oxlade for a session about her lucid dreams. Unbeknownst to her, he gives her a drug called the enhancer. He is hoping to control her dreams, actions, and mind. As Maggie is fighting the effects of the drug, she barely escapes from the office.

Lucid dreams become almost a character in the story. People dreaming are aware that they are dreaming. During the dream someone may gain some amount of control over it to try to become aware of their consciousness.

Maggie must also deal with the fact that someone is blackmailing her employer, Dear Aunt Cornelia, an advice columnist. She hires private eye and former policeman Sam Sage to help find the blackmailer.  The investigation leads them to a conference on psychic dreaming where Maggie realizes Dr. Oxlade is also attending. It seems some women who were lucid dreamers are being killed.  As tensions rise and the murders increase, Maggie and Sam realize they are in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance. They enlist the help of the series recurring characters Raina Kirk, a private detective and investigator, plus Luther Pell, to find information that will help to connect all the murdered women.

The relationship between Maggie and Sam is a delight. Their snarky, intimate, verbal fireworks conversations are enjoyable. But they also realize there is a passionate chemistry between them. What they must overcome are the secrets kept from each other. Both are haunted by their pasts.

Once again readers will not be disappointed with this 1930s mystery. This intriguing and suspenseful story is full of twists. A bonus is how Quick intertwined the information about lucid dreaming into the story.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Amanda Quick: The story idea comes from the fact that I am personally intrigued with dreaming. One of the most interesting types is lucid dreaming where someone knows they are dreaming.  The goal is to control the dream and solve problems that someone could not solve while awake. For example, rewrite nightmares or sad dreams to find peace. This was a hot topic in the thirties. Now on online there are many people looking it up.  It is like waking up before falling off a cliff or in my case learning to fly.

EC: There are all types of dreams in the book, what are the differences?

AQ: Lucid dreaming is real. Astral projection is junk science, pure fantasy.  It is when someone thinks they can travel in their dreams as their soul moves to another location. Latent psychic senses have someone believing they have a psychic vibe yet are not aware of it. This is also a scam.

EC:  How would you describe Maggie?

AQ:  Maggie is a lucid dreamer who can control her dreams, which allows her to see things in a different light.  She is adventurous, outgoing, and a modern woman. She is very smart, independent, bold, a little reckless, unpredictable, and confident. Maggie wants to do the right thing and wants to find answers.

EC:  Why does she have an aversion to marriage?

AQ: She had a very close call when her fiancé wanted to marry her for her money and then he was going to send her off to an asylum. In those days it was not hard to get a woman committed against her will. This is why she is wary of marriage.

EC:  Sam Sage versus Sam Spade?

AQ: I did not even try to hide it and had fun playing off the character.  I was going for the iconic 1930s hardboiled private eye.  My character Sam Sage is much nicer and a lot more honorable. Sam Spade is from The Maltese Falcon, an American icon.  I put this quote in the book, Sam Spade is “arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic ass, with the moral code of an alley cat…he isn’t interested in justice…and a lousy detective.” His goal is to prove he is the smartest guy in the room. I wanted my character to be in the same occupation but with better personality traits.

EC:  How would you describe Sam Sage?

AQ:  He is really interested in justice and doing the right thing.  Sam is the classic good guy, very protective.  Some people see him as world weary and wise cracking.

EC:  What about the relationship between Maggie and Sam?

AQ:  They play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses.  She is reckless and he is a ‘by the books guy’.  They are very passionate about each other.  Each sees the underlying strength of the other and trusts each other.

EC:  Next books?

AQ:  It will be another Jayne Castle Dust Bunny book, a futuristic romantic suspense novel, titled, Sweet Water and the Witch, coming out September 30th.  The next Amanda Quick book is out a year from now, titled The Bride Wore White.  A woman wakes up in the honeymoon suite with a dead body next to her. Raina Kirk and Luther Pell have become the anchor characters for the series and will be in every book as cameo players.

Thank you!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Speakeasy: A Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for this first book in a new series – SPEAKEASY: A Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas on this Virtual Author Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section, the author’s social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!

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Book Description

In 2019, A West Village Nightclub Singer, Roxie Raines, stumbles through a basement doorway into the past and finds herself in Roaring Twenties New York, with all its dangers, secrets, excitement, and romance.

Roxie Raines lurches through a secret basement doorway in 2019, and time-slips back to New York’s raucous Roaring Twenties. While she dazzles the speakeasy crowds with her “modern sound,” she gets trapped in the dangerous web of Frankie Shay, an evil club owner. She struggles to escape his control and return to the basement doorway that sent her to 1925.

When she meets the handsome detective, Jake Kane, it’s love at first sight, but Jake has a secret past, and her own time travel secret makes him suspicious.

Roaring Twenties New York comes alive with flappers, gangsters, romance and speakeasies and Roxie’s stunning rise to stardom could come with the price of losing both the man she loves and her own life.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60592112-speakeasy?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=bpKHMinHIf&rank=1

SPEAKEASY: A Time Travel Novel

by Elyse Douglas

Publisher:  Broadback (April 5, 2022)
Category: Time Travel, Historical Fiction Romance
Tour Dates May 3-June 30
ISBN: 979-8423229016
Available in Print and ebook, 375 pages

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

SPEAKEASY: A Time Travel Novel (Book #1) by Elyse Douglas is an entertaining and smart time travel romance set in New York City in 1925. I have read other time travel romances by this author and always enjoy them. While this is the first book in a new series, it does have a complete plot without a cliffhanger.

In August of 2019, Roxie Raines is a struggling singer/pianist who loves performing the old classics. After her performance in Speakeasy, a New York club in Greenwich Village, she follows a local street person who has broken in to the basement and watches him vanish through a blue lit whole in the wall. When she is startled by the bar cat, Roxie falls through, too.

Roxie wakes in the alley behind The Black Cat in New York City in 1925. Roxie finds herself held by a mob boss who discovers her talent. Roxie loves the praise she gets for her performances, but she wants her freedom. She has no connection to the outside world excerpt for the postcards she drops from her hotel room window asking for rescue. She is discovered and rescued by a handsome personal detective and his assistant, but Roxie still does not who to trust with her past. It is 1925 and mob bosses, bootleggers, bribed politicians, and dirty cops are all fighting for their piece of the action.

Can Roxie find her way back to 2019 and does she even want to?

This is a fun romp through New York City in 1925. Roxie is a talented heroine who is capable in the present world, but much more suited to the 1920’s. Jakes’s story just keeps becoming more complicated as more of his personal life secrets are revealed and his dilemma between what he considers the honorable solution versus what he personally wants. The romance progresses at a believable pace and is appropriate to the time-period. The description of clothes, locations, laws, and personal rights was well researched and interesting. The only thing that slightly bothered me was the main antagonist, Frankie Shay, at times seems more of a caricature than a fully fleshed character, but he still fit with the overall suspense plot.

I really enjoy Ms. Douglas’ time travel romances and I am looking forward to seeing where the next novel in this series takes me.

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Excerpt

SPEAKEASY

Elyse Douglas

Twenty-six-year-old Roxie Raines took the subway down to Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village and hurried off in a warm, August rain.  It was nearly dark, and the shimmer of streetlights on the wet streets made it seem later than it was.  She glanced up to see a tall construction crane, quiet now but surely swinging about during work hours.  Another high rise?  Did New York City really need another luxury high rise?  There was an “old” part of Roxie, a part that longed for the old New York she’d seen online and in old black-and-white movies, before the glass towers, the needle-pointed, multimillion-dollar condos, and the encroaching chain stores took over.

Cars splashed water, taxis honked, and a thin, dripping pan handler shook his chipped cup for loose change, little mumbles moving his lips. 

Roxie glanced at him and thought it odd that he wore retro clothes, scuffed wing-tipped shoes, slacks with no crease, a matching suit coat, and an open collar white shirt.  His old-fashioned, gray fedora was tilted right, low over his brow, and a large mole on the left side of his nose helped give him a menacing look.  Still, she felt compassion for him.  He seemed strangely out of place under the yellow smudge of light from an overhead streetlamp, and he seemed utterly lost in the lonely, silver rain.

Fumbling with her umbrella, Roxie stopped, dug into the pocket of her yellow rain jacket, found three quarters, and dropped them into the panhandler’s cup.  He nodded, his vacant eyes staring ahead.

“Isn’t there a shelter nearby you can go to?”  Roxie asked.

He didn’t look at her, and his response was incomprehensible.

“Can I help you go somewhere and get out of this rain?” Roxie asked, seeing he was soaked, water dripping from the brim of his tattered hat.

He slowly turned to her, his eyes glassy and wide.  “Do you know where you come from, girlie?” he asked, in a low, gravelly voice that sounded like a threat.  “Do you know how you got here, doll?  Are you stranded, too?”

Roxie felt a shiver ripple up her spine and she didn’t answer.

He flashed her a crooked gash of a grin.  “No… I see it in you.  You don’t know where you are or how you got here.  You’re lost.  Just like me, doll, you’re lost.”

And then he laughed, a sinister laugh.

Spooked, Roxie whirled around, thrust her umbrella toward the rain and charging wind, and headed off toward Charles Street, her sneakers soaked, her capri jeans damp, and her chin-length, blonde hair gone wild and frizzy. 

“What the hell was that all about?” she mumbled to herself, quickening her steps, and not looking back at the man.  And then she thought, How do people get so lost and so crazy?

Roxie had a gig that weekend in a Greenwich Village bar called Speakeasy.

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About the Author

Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the married writing team Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington.

She and her husband, Douglas Pennington, have completed many novels, including The Other Side of Summer, The Summer Letters, The Christmas Eve Series, Time Visitor, Time Change, The Summer Diary, and The Christmas Diary Series.

Social Media Links

Website: www.elysedouglas.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/douglaselyse
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elyse.authorsdouglas

Purchase Link

Amazon

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Rafflecopter Giveaway

“http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e23ee71d1542/”