NAKED: A Novel of Lady Godiva by Eliza Redgold (VBT, guest post, excerpt and GIVEAWAY) GFT

It is my pleasure to have a guest post from author Eliza Redgold, who shares her thoughts on...


-->

Q. What would be your dream place to visit and why?
 

A:          If you are a ‘kindred spirit’, familiar with the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, you will know why my dream place as a writer and a reader is Prince Edward Island. And I went there!

Green Gables, as readers know, is the fictional home of Anne of Green Gables, the heroine of the famous children’s books. The story books, written in the early 20^th century, have stood the test of time and remain children’s classics to this day. Children still warm to the red haired, feisty orphan Anne, who always managed to find herself in a scrape, often caused by an over active imagination and romantic nature, but whose intelligence and integrity usually won through.

In a plot twist, Anne was not real, but Green Gables was. It was the real life home of cousins of the author Lucy Maud Montgomery, who grew up on Prince Edward Island, where she wrote Anne of Green Gables. Today, visitors can go to the Green Gables farmhouse, which is designed to look as if the fictional Anne really did live there. It is a somewhat confusing experience to peer into the upstairs rooms that has been recreated as ‘Anne’s bedroom’, where her famous puff sleeved dresses hang: fiction and reality almost dizzyingly blur.

When I visited Prince Edward Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, I discovered Anne of Green Gables tourism has grown into one of the major Prince Edward Island industries. The area around Cavendish, the fictional ‘Avonlea’ from the books, which contains Green Gables and Montgomery’s childhood home, has been made into a National Park. It is an area of such subtle, delicate beauty that it is easy to see why. Whether you want to roam through ‘The Haunted Wood’ or ‘Lover’s Lane’ featured in the Anne books for literary, aesthetic or botanic reasons, you will not be disappointed.

Prince Edward Island, or PEI as it is known, lives up to the fiction it has inspired, with its red clay roads, spectacular seas, rugged cliffs, delicate wildflowers, and lush grass. Dotted all over the landscape are gracious painted wooden farm houses and steepled churches of austere beauty. The island has an extraordinary sense of timelessness. It certainly gave me ‘scope for the imagination’!

***********************************

Naked: A Novel of Lady Godiva

by Eliza Redgold

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Historical Romance/Fiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

We know her name. We know of her naked ride. We don’t know her true story.

We all know the legend of Lady Godiva, who famously rode naked through the streets of Coventry, covered only by her long, flowing hair. So the story goes, she begged her husband Lord Leofric of Mercia to lift a high tax on her people, who would starve if forced to pay. Lord Leofric demanded a forfeit: that Godiva ride naked on horseback through the town. There are various endings to Godiva’s ride, that all the people of Coventry closed their doors and refused to look upon their liege lady (except for ‘peeping Tom’) and that her husband, in remorse, lifted the tax.

Naked is an original version of Godiva’s tale with a twist that may be closer to the truth: by the end of his life Leofric had fallen deeply in love with Lady Godiva. A tale of legendary courage and extraordinary passion, Naked brings an epic story new voice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

EXCERPT

If the rider heard he made no sign. Clad in a silver helmet and armored in brown leather, he galloped under the arches, my warning ignored. His great black horse circled the courtyard, raising dust as he halted in front of the steps.

For a moment he didn’t move. Nor did I, except to tighten my fingers on the handle of my blade.

He lifted off his helmet.

A pair of piercing eyes met mine.

This is not Thurkill.

The knowledge flashed into my brain. The man in front of me was tall and strong. Many years younger than my father, perhaps thirty years of age, his face a tanned brown. His hair, tawny as an owl wing, fell to the studded collar of his armor, its leather stretched across his shoulders.

He spoke. “You are Godiva.”

Hawk high I lifted my head. “I am. Who are you? Why have you come to my lands?”

Dirt swirled in the air as his horse hoofed the ground. River deep turned his gaze as he took me in, lingering on the thick braid that fell over my shoulder to brush to my thigh.

 “Well?” A flame flickered though me, hotter than fear. A flame I’d never known.

 “Who are you?”

Amazon
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

ELIZA REDGOLD is an author, academic and unashamed romantic.

Eliza Redgold is based upon the old, Gaelic meaning of her name, Dr Elizabeth Reid Boyd. She was born in Irvine, Scotland on Marymass Day and currently lives in Australia. She has presented academic papers on women and romance and is a contributor to the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Romance Fiction. Eliza has also written two upcoming Victorian historical romances for Harlequin Historical. Look out for ‘Enticing Benedict Cole’ in November 2015.



Naked: A Novel of Lady Godiva was released internationally by St Martin’s Press New York in July 2015.



Follow Eliza Redgold on

Twitter: @ElizaRedgold
Facebook
Pinterest
or subscribe to her newsletter

*******************************

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway


The tour dates can be found here