West Of Santillane by Brook Allen

West Of Santillane

By Brook Allen

Publication Date: March 8th, 2024

Publisher: Dawg House Books

Pages: 376

Genre: Historical Fiction / Women in History

Desperate to escape a mundane future as a Virginia planter’s wife, Julia Hancock seizes her chance for adventure when she wins the heart of American hero William Clark. Though her husband is the famed explorer, Julia embarks on her own thrilling and perilous journey of self-discovery.

With her gaze ever westward, Julia possesses a hunger for knowledge and a passion for helping others. She falls in love with Will’s strength and generous manner, but, like her parents, he is a slave owner, and Julia harbors strong opinions against slavery. Still, her love for Will wins out, though he remains unaware of her beliefs.

Julia finds St. Louis to be a rough town with few of the luxuries to which she is accustomed, harboring scandalous politicians and miscreants of all types. As her husband and his best friend, Meriwether Lewis, work to establish an American government and plan to publish their highly anticipated memoirs, Julia struggles to assume the roles of both wife and mother. She is also drawn into the plight of an Indian family desperate to return to their own lands and becomes an advocate for Will’s enslaved.

When political rivals cause trouble, Julia’s clandestine aid to the Indians and enslaved of St. Louis draws unwanted attention, placing her at odds with her husband. Danger cloaks itself in far too many ways, leading her to embrace the courage to save herself and others through a challenge of forgiveness that will either restore the love she shares with Will or end it forever.

Praise for West of Santillane:

'"West of Santillane" is not just an account of historical events but also a story of love, resilience, and self-discovery. Brook Allen successfully blends romantic, historical, and adventurous elements, offering readers a captivating and memorable reading experience. The book is a warm recommendation for those who appreciate well-documented historical fiction and engaging life narratives.'

~ The Historical Fiction Company

'Brook Allen’s novel West of Santillane is guaranteed to tug at your heartstrings, so have some tissues nearby. This book is so captivating that it begs to be adapted into a movie. Seeing these characters brought to life on the big screen would be amazing. This book will definitely be remembered as one of my favourite reads of the year.'

~ Ellie Yarde, 5* Editorial Review, The Coffee Pot Book Club

Excerpt

Christmas passed with no sign of Will, and for me there was a saturating profusion of whens.

When would he arrive? When would the wedding be? When would we depart for St. Louis?

For nearly all of December, I listened for riders approaching the house. Whenever I heard hoofbeats, I ran to the window. When that happened on a blustery, chilly late afternoon, I set Master Shakespeare aside, scrambling to the window and wiping frost from the pane.

Not him. Not yet.

Instead, it was an armed soldier with a padlocked saddlebag, making me wonder what sort of official business he had at Santillane. By the time I reached the front door, he had dismounted and was busy unlocking the bag, drawing out a small parcel, neatly wrapped. 

While I swung open the front door, Mama was calling for Megg to warm some tea on the stove for the traveler. 

“Greetings, miss,” the young man said. “I’m looking for Miss Julia Hancock.”

My heart thudded. “I’m Miss Hancock.”

“Miss Hancock, I’ve ridden from Washington City to convey warmest regards from President Jefferson,” he announced, climbing the stairs. “This here is a wedding gift from the president himself.” 

He presented the parcel, and I accepted. Utterly astonished, I wandered into the library’s privacy with it.

“Please,” Mama invited, bustling to the entrance toward the soldier. “It’s freezing outside. Do go around the side of the house to the kitchen. We’ve warmed some tea for you, and my woman Megg will see you’re given a hot meal before you continue on.”

“Many thanks, ma’am. That’s greatly appreciated.”

Once she’d shut the door, Mama came up behind me, where I was admiring the packaged gift. “What is it?” she asked, insistently peering over my shoulder.

“I don’t know—”

“Well, open it, child!”

I peeled away the outer layer of wrapping carefully to find a smoothly sanded and polished flat-latched box of walnut with a crisp note of official presidential stationery attached. 

“Oh, Julia, he’s written you a private note.”

Blinking at my own disbelief, I lifted the folded stationery, feeling the raised print under my fingertips. It was engraved with the presidential seal and Jefferson’s name. Beneath was his message—the author of our Declaration of Independence had written me in his own bold script: 

My dearest Miss Hancock,

I’m sure there are hardly words to express the delight and happiness you must feel as you celebrate the advent of your marriage. If William Clark has chosen you as his bride, then I can only assume what an upright and purposeful woman you must be. Therefore, I beg you to accept this small gift, representing the sentiments I hold, not only of your worthy person, but of Clark’s esteemed service and character—all of which I hold dear. May your days together be many and full of joy.

I am indeed in your service and in the service of our beloved country,

Th. Jefferson, President of the United States

“Oh, Julia—open it!” Mama fussed again.

In disbelief, I set the note aside upon one of our library tables. Using my finger, I slid the box’s delicate brass latch up to the right. The lid released, and I opened it the rest of the way, gasping. Beneath a protective flap of emerald satin was a magnificent brooch of carnelian and gold, and on either side were displayed matching earrings. They were exquisite, and not even my parents had ever gifted me with such extravagance. 

I stared at Mama, shaking my head, stunned. “How can I accept this? It’s far too rich for me.”

Ever so gently, she placed her hands upon my face and whispered, “Daughter, you are marrying into greatness, and even our president recognizes that fact. You will accept it with humility, with dignity, and wear these baubles in St. Louis with pride, where people will be amazed that the president sends you such.”

I was humbled. 

What an incredible time this was—a year full of newness, a year of firsts. 

Like receiving gifts from the president.

Buy Link: Universal Buy Link

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Brook Allen

Author Brook Allen has a passion for history. Her newest project, West of Santillane spotlights history from a little closer to home in Botetourt County, Virginia. It’s the story of Julia Hancock, who married famed explorer, William Clark. Each character of this thrilling, adventurous period was researched throughout southwest Virginia and into Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Idaho, and North Dakota. It launched in March of 2024.

 

Brook belongs to the Historical Novel Society and attends conferences as often as possible to study craft and meet fellow authors. In 2019, her novel Antonius: Son of Rome won a silver medal in the international Reader’s Favorite Book Reviewers Book Awards, then won First Place in the prestigious Chaucer Division in the Chanticleer International Book Awards, 2020. West of Santillane garnered international attention in Summer 2025 by becoming a Silver Medalist in the Independent Publishing Book Awards for best Mid-Atlantic Fiction. Also, it was a finalist for the Virginia Romance Writers Holt Medallion. Most recently, Brook appeared in Season 8 of Blueridge PBS’s WRITE AROUND THE CORNER.

Though she graduated from Asbury University with a B.A. in Music Education, Brook has always loved writing. She completed a Masters program at Hollins University with an emphasis in Ancient Roman studies, which helped prepare her for authoring her award-winning Antonius Trilogy.

Brook recently retired from public education and her personal interests include travel, cycling, hiking in the woods, reading, and spending downtime with her husband and big, black dog, Jak. She lives in the heart of southwest Virginia in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains.

Connect with Brook:

Website • Twitter / X • Facebook • Bluesky 

Threads • Instagram • BookBub

Amazon Author Page • Goodreads

Five Minute History with Cathie Dunn

 

Five Minute History with Cathie Dunn

What would you do if you discovered human bones beneath your kitchen floor? 

That’s the question Maddie asks herself in Love Lost in Time, when she makes the grim discovery during renovation works in her inherited cottage near the historic fortress of Carcassonne.

Well, my former neighbours in a French village in the Minervois kept them! Yep. They had discovered a femur and part of a skull when they refurbished the kitchen of their old village house, and one late night after the village fête, they showed them to us. It transpired that our quartier had been built on the remains of an ancient Visigoth necropolis. Cool, or what?!

I was so excited to handle the bones – carefully, of course – and I immediately wondered about them. Who did they belong to? What’s the story behind them? And so, the idea for the modern part in Love Lost in Time revealed itself. Human bones beneath a kitchen floor! With a paranormal twist, of course…

But what about the historic part of this dual-timeline project? What about the person those bones belonged to? What was their story? I had to poke my nose into local history.

I know very little about Visigoths, but plenty about the early medieval era in mainland Europe, so when I researched the family tree of local lords, I came across a man called Bellon (‘Bello’ in those Latin chronicles) who was supposed to have been the first Count of Carcassonne. At the same time, the Franks under leadership of Charlemagne pushed into Septimania, as the area here was called then. So the two men would have likely had dealings with one another.

Septimania at the time was unruly. The Umayyad Caliphate had pushed northwards from the Iberian Peninsula, occupying the ancient settlements of Narbonne and Béziers near the western Mediterranean Sea. Life in the towns was surprisingly calm – both Muslims and Christians practiced their religion alongside each other, under Umayyad rules.

The country inland was different. Ancient Visigoth settlements rebelled against the conquerors – both Umayyad and Franks – but they weren’t able to withstand the force of Charlemagne’s troops. Carcassonne was already a fortress, ever since Roman times, and Count Bellon exerted his influence across the region from his stronghold. He could keep an eye on movements on all sides across the plain, and on the Pyrenean Mountains in the south. And he appears to have supported the Franks.

Now, let’s get back to those bones! Whose are they? Bellon had sons. His and their names are recorded. But what about his wife? Who was she? Didn’t she have a name? The chroniclers of the day clearly didn’t think her worthy of mentioning. Very sad indeed. Another woman lost in the mists of time.

But that omission allowed me to bring her back to life, and to breathe life into those bones. Nanthild is entirely fictional, but it could indeed have been that Bellon married to forge an alliance. It was the done thing. So, given his alliance with the Franks, what about a Frankish lady? The circle closed, and we meet Nanthild, daughter of a Frankish count, wife of Bellon, and Countess of Carcassonne.

In recent years, my focus has turned towards forgotten women in history – and there are so many. The further we go back in time, the less we hear about them. Early medieval chroniclers really don’t seem to have liked women. Perhaps the occasional queen or empress, in conjunction with their husbands / fathers / sons, of course. But in their own right? Rarely. Boo!

But if we, as authors, just manage to introduce a few of these obscure women in our novels, we can ensure that their roles and their names – real or fictionalised – are remembered. We give them a life, a purpose, family. We show their beauty, intelligence, dreams, and capabilities.

I’m quite proud of Nanthild. She is resigned to her fate, as women had to in those days. She marries Bellon, and is fortunate in gaining a brave and fair husband, in a beautiful, sun-drenched if turbulent region. Perhaps it wasn’t so common, and many real women weren’t so fortunate, but I thought Nanthild deserved a good life. Before, you know, fate…

Now, we mustn’t forget about Carcassonne – that ancient fortress on top of a small hill in the plain between two mountain ranges, the Pyrenees to the south and the Massif Central to the north. Inhabited at least since the Bronze Age, it had been a fortified site at least since the Romans held sway in the region.

I often visit ‘la Cité’, as the old town with the fortress up on the hill is called. And when I walk along the old ramparts, through Tour Wisigothe –  one of the oldest towers of the fortifications – I always think of Maddie’s experience in Love Lost in Time. Gulp!

Maybe, if you visit Carcassonne one day, you will have a vision of the distant past. I dare you!

INSERT IMAGE OF CARCASSONNE by Carcassonne Tours. All rights reserved.

Thank you for hosting me today, and letting me ramble on about the distant past of the beautiful region that I now call my home. 

Cathie xx

Love Lost In Time
By Cathie Dunn

Publication Date: 28th November 2018 (ebook)
Publisher: Ocelot Press
Print Length: 274 Pages
Genre: Duel Time-Line / Historical Mystery / Romance

A reluctant daughter. A dutiful wife. A mystery of the ages.

Languedoc, France, 2018

Historian Madeleine Winters would rather research her next project than rehash the strained relationship she had with her late mother. However, to claim her inheritance, she reluctantly agrees to stay the one year required in her late mother’s French home and begins renovations. But when she’s haunted by a female voice inside the house and tremors emanating from beneath her kitchen floorboards, she’s shocked to discover ancient human bones.

The Mediterranean coast, AD 777

Seventeen-year-old Nanthild is wise enough to know her place. Hiding her Pagan wisdom and dutifully accepting her political marriage, she’s surprised when she falls for her Christian husband, the Count of Carcassonne. But she struggles to keep her forbidden religious beliefs and her healing skills secret while her spouse goes off to fight in a terrible, bloody war.

As Maddie settles into her rustic village life, she becomes obsessed with unraveling the mysterious history buried in her new home. And when Nanthild is caught in the snare of an envious man, she’s terrified she’ll never embrace her beloved again.

Can two women torn apart by centuries help each other finally find peace?

Love Lost in Time is a vivid standalone historical fiction novel for fans of epoch-spanning enigmas. If you like dark mysteries, romantic connections, and hints of the paranormal, then you’ll adore Cathie Dunn’s tale of redemption and self-discovery.

Praise 

"From the richness of Charlemagne's court and the regret of a daughter, as she stands over her mother's grave, to the realisation of an enemy and a skeleton under the kitchen floor, Love Lost in Time: A Tale of Love, Death and Redemption by Cathie Dunn is the unforgettable story that traverses two very different times."

The Coffee Pot Book Club, 5* Editorial Review

"The narrative is ripe with emotions as two independent women are pulled in unexpected directions... Both landscapes are beautifully penned for readers to easily get lost in. Additionally, the storylines are engaging, and each helped bring a satisfying conclusion to the other. An enjoyable tale about love, sacrifice, and self-discovery."

Historical Novel Society

Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link
This book is available on #KindleUnlimited

Cathie Dunn

Cathie is an Amazon-bestselling author of historical fiction, dual-timeline, mystery, and romance. She loves to infuse her stories with a strong sense of place and time, combined with a dark secret or mystery – and a touch of romance. Often, you can find her deep down the rabbit hole of historical research…

In addition, she is also a historical fiction book promoter with The Coffee Pot Book Club, a novel-writing tutor, and a keen reviewer on her blog, Ruins & Reading.

 

After having lived in Scotland for almost two decades, Cathie is now enjoying the sunshine in the south of France with her husband, and her rescued pets, Ellie Dog & Charlie Cat. 

She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Richard III Society, the Alliance of Independent Authors, and the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Author Links:

Website 

Instagram

Twitter / X

Facebook

Bluesky

BookBub

Amazon Author Page

Goodreads

Tour Schedule

One Fine Voice by Rebecca Langston-George

One Fine Voice

By Rebecca Langston-George

Publication Date: January 6th, 2026

Publisher: Historium Press

Pages: 143

Genre: Middle Grade Historical Fiction / American Historical Fiction

All her life, Esther Hopkins has been told she has a mighty fine voice.

Still, she can't believe her luck when just days after moving to town, she's invited to sing a solo at the 1923 Independence Day picnic.

But the group sponsoring the picnic is not the benevolent fraternal order they claim to be. Worse, they've recruited her father, the town's freshly ordained Baptist minister, to become their chaplain.

When they target the immigrant family of her new best friend, Esther must risk her father's anger, the KKK's revenge, and her family's safety to follow her conscience, salvage her friendship, and find the strength to speak truth to power even if it costs all she holds dear.

Excerpt

Chapter 18

In the distance something moved. I couldn’t make it out, but by its height I knew it was a person. Along the sidewalk, now crossing toward the park. I held my breath. The figure grew closer then stopped near the benches. I couldn’t see the face, but I had to risk it. “Over here,” I whispered.

She walked toward the sound of my voice. I reached out to touch her shoulder. “Someone saw us the other night. The man in front of the office was Dr. Arnell. Did he tell your family?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t risk his Protestant soul being seen at the house of a Catholic.” She laughed. “Probably afraid we’d try to convert him and make him pray to a saint or something.”

“What about you?” I asked. “Did you get home before your family noticed you were gone?” 

“It all worked out. Mama and my grandparents went to her friend’s house to celebrate afterward.”

That was a relief. Like I’d figured, Dr. Arnell wouldn’t be caught dead at Lombardi’s Feed, even to tell on Mrs. Lombardi’s daughter. “Listen,” I said. “I’m in serious trouble. I can’t see you until school starts. Punishment for sneaking out that night.”

Anne-Marie sucked in her breath. “I didn’t mean to get you in any trouble.”

“It’s okay. I just didn’t want you thinking for the rest of summer I wasn’t your friend anymore.” I paused. “Maybe by September it’ll all blow over. That okay? Still friends?”

In the dark I saw her head bob up and down. “Always friends. I didn’t think you’d come, new girl. Thought you’d be like all the others.”

I winced, hoping she couldn’t see me in the dark. “I have to tell you something,” I said. 

A pair of headlights turned onto the town square. I pulled Anne-Marie against the cover of the tree. The truck rounded the town square slowly, its headlights sweeping along the street before turning back the way it came. 

“That truck just about scared me to death,” Anne-Marie squeezed my hand. “We better get going.”

“Wait. I gotta be honest with you.” Talking to her about it was easier in the dark since I couldn’t see the disappointment I knew my words would bring. “I tried to get out of that singing, but I have to do it. Not because I want to.” I kicked the grass with my toe. “Because my father and Mr. Westin are going to have it in for me if I don’t. Please don’t be mad at me.” 

Anne-Marie’s silence was shattered by a distant noise. Voices whooping and hollering. The volume growing louder, closer, angrier, coming at us. “Run!” she screamed and pushed me away.

She ran toward the feed store, disappearing from view, swallowed in the darkness. I sprinted across the street, my foot hitting the sidewalk pavement just as the headlights swept around the corner, barreling toward me. I dove behind the wooden Indian standing guard at Holland’s store. Peeking from behind the shelter of his carved arm, I saw the back of the pickup was now filled with white-hooded men. Angry and agitated, their hate-filled slurs and obscenities slashed the night’s once gentle slumber.

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link

Rebecca Langston-George

Rebecca Langston-George is the author of nineteen books for young readers including the globally popular For the Right to Learn: Malala Yousafzai’s Story. Though she’s long been known for nonfiction, One Fine Voice is her first middle grade historical fiction. 

A retired teacher credentialed in both single subject language arts for upper grades and multiple subjects for younger grades, Rebecca is a popular school presenter for all ages, encouraging students to investigate and tap into their personal interests when writing.

She serves on the board of The California Reading Association and is the Co-Regional Advisor for SCBWI Central-Coastal California, helping other writers achieve their dreams.

Rebecca splits her time between California’s scenic coast and its agricultural heartland, writing (and mostly rewriting) at one mile per hour on a treadmill desk.

Author Links:

Website • Author Page at Historium Press

Facebook • Twitter / X  • Bluesky • Instagram

Amazon Author Page • BookBub • Goodreads