BOOK INFORMATION
TITLE – Snow in July
SERIES – N/A
AUTHOR – Kim Iverson Headlee
GENRE – Young Adult Paranormal
Historical Romance
PUBLICATION DATE – July 2014
LENTH (Pages/# Words) – 386 pages/94K words
PUBLISHER – Pendragon Cove Press
COVER DESIGNER – Natasha Brown
COVER DESIGNER – Natasha Brown
BOOK SUMMARY
Sir Robert Alain de
Bellencombre has been granted what every man wants: a rich English estate in
exchange for his valiant service at the Battle of Hastings. To claim this
reward, the Norman knight must wed the estate's Saxon heiress.
Most men would leap
at such an opportunity, but for Alain, who broke his vow to his dying mother by
failing to protect his youngest brother in battle, it means facing more easily
broken vows. But when rumors of rampant thievery, dangerous beasts, and sorcery
plaguing a neighboring estate reach his ears, nothing will make him shirk duty
to king and country when people's lives stand at risk. He assumes the guise of
a squire to scout the land, its problems, and its lady.
Lady Kendra of Edgarburh
has been granted what no woman wants: a forced marriage to an enemy who may be
kith or kin to the man who murdered her beloved brother. Compounding her
anguish is her failure to awaken the miraculous healing gift bequeathed by
their late mother in time to save his life. Although with his dying breath, he
made her promise to seek happiness above all, Kendra vows that she shall find
neither comfort nor love in the arms of a Norman…unless it snows in July.
Alain is smitten by Lady Kendra from the first moment of their meeting; Kendra feels the forbidden allure of the handsome and courtly Norman "squire." But a growing evil overshadows everyone, invoking dark forces and ensnaring Kendra in a plot to overthrow the king Alain is oath-bound to serve. Kendra and Alain face a battle unlike any other as their honor, their love, their lives, and even their very souls lie in the balance.
Alain is smitten by Lady Kendra from the first moment of their meeting; Kendra feels the forbidden allure of the handsome and courtly Norman "squire." But a growing evil overshadows everyone, invoking dark forces and ensnaring Kendra in a plot to overthrow the king Alain is oath-bound to serve. Kendra and Alain face a battle unlike any other as their honor, their love, their lives, and even their very souls lie in the balance.
TBR/BUY LINKS
EXCERPT
FIFTEEN THOUSAND MEN and horses
writhed across the valley below, appearing as toys in a children’s game.
Many might consider
war a game, but Sir Robert Alain de Bellencombre, knight of Normandy bound to the
service of Duke William and commander of a unit in the cavalry reserves, did
not number among their ranks.
Edward the
Confessor, King of England via his Saxon father but Norman by his mother, was
dead. This battle, raging near the coastal hamlet called Hastings, would decide
the right of one man to wear the English crown: William the Norman,
acknowledged by Pope Alexander to be Edward’s lawful successor; or Harold the
Saxon, brother of Edward’s wife, the man alleged to be Edward’s deathbed
choice.
Stroking his war
horse’s glossy charcoal neck to calm her, Alain pondered Harold’s claim. It had
to be true. This many men would not sacrifice their lives for a lie. Yet the
vast majority of Harold’s supporters were Saxons harboring no wish to bear the
Norman yoke. Perhaps such men might be desperate enough to fight for a lie that
promised to restore Saxon rule.
A trumpet blared. He
signaled his men forward, couched his lance, and spurred Chou to send her
careening into the melee.
Harold’s shield
wall, which had seemed impregnable, began to crumble under the onslaught of
Alain’s unit, hastened by the desertion of men who no doubt decided they
weren’t quite so willing to die. Their lord stood exposed just long enough for
a Norman archer to sight his mark. Harold fell, screaming and clutching an
arrow that protruded from one eye.
Harold’s supporters
closed ranks around him, blocking Alain’s view and giving him more than enough
to do as the Saxons redoubled their efforts to guard their lord’s body.
A familiar whirl of
colors caught Alain’s attention. The saffron leopard prowling on a green
field—Étienne! A Saxon knight, with a blue arm and fist blazing defiance across
his gray shield, bore down upon Étienne with leveled lance. Étienne tumbled
from his horse. He scrambled to his feet and retrieved his sword, putting it to
good use on the Saxons surrounding him, although the knight who’d unhorsed him
had already ridden in search of other targets.
Lance long since
discarded and sword now rising and falling with fatal precision, Alain surged
to reach his brother’s side. Protection of her youngest son had been their
dying mother’s wish, and he had sworn on his own life to keep Étienne safe.
Before he could
close the distance, another Saxon knight fought past Étienne’s guard to thrust
a war-knife into his throat. Through the visor the knight’s eyes gleamed with
startling, fathomless malice. Alain could only watch in stunned disbelief as he
laid his hand upon Étienne’s chest for a few moments. Uttering a soul-freezing
howl, the Saxon yanked out his seax and disappeared into the press with
Étienne’s shield, denying Alain vengeance.
Shame and grief rent
his heart asunder.
He had failed the
two he loved most; failed them so utterly that he could never beg their
forgiveness in this lifetime.
Pain slammed into
his shoulder, toppling him from the saddle. Étienne’s body broke his fall. He
tried to roll clear, but a spear through his chest pinned him to Étienne. His
gut convulsed, and bile burned his throat. Blinding agony killed his struggle
to free himself. Death’s stench invaded his nostrils.
He closed his eyes
and waited for his final journey to begin.
CHARACTER BIOS
Robert Alain de Bellencombre. Preferring the name Alain for use by close family and
friends, he is a Norman knight in the service of William the Conqueror and a
court favorite. Being the second son of Count Hugh FitzWalter and Countess
Margaret has prevented Alain from inheriting his father’s title and lands,
which caused his first fiancée to jilt him in favor of Alain’s older half
brother Philippe. Alain is the older brother of Étienne de Bellencombre, and
Alain’s failure to protect Étienne at the Battle of Hastings becomes a major
source of grief that Alain must learn to vanquish. The device on Alain’s shield
represents the Norman town Bellencombre, his birthplace: a white rose nestled
in tangle of greenery, on saffron yellow.
Kendra Waldronsdotter. Lady Kendra is the heiress to her father’s estate of
Edgarburh, near London. King William the Bastard has decreed that she marry one
of his knights...perhaps even the very man who had ambushed her brother and
dealt him his mortal wound. Though Kendra cannot bear to imagine what the king
will do to her father or her people if she disobeys this command, she vows that
she will never marry a Norman unless it snows in July. The name Kendra is the
female form of Kendrick, meaning “keen power,” and in fact the Lady Kendra is
heiress, through her mother, to a powerful healing gift that she must learn how
to wield in order to save those she loves.
AUTHOR BIO
Kim Headlee lives on a farm in southwestern Virginia with
her family, cats, goats, and assorted wildlife. People & creatures come and
go, but the cave and the 250-year-old house ruins -- the latter having been
occupied as recently as the mid-20th century -- seem to be sticking around for
a while yet.
Kim is a Seattle native (when she used to live in the
Metro DC area, she loved telling people she was from "the other
Washington") and a direct descendent of 20th-century Russian
nobility. Her grandmother was a childhood friend of the doomed Grand Duchess
Anastasia, and the romantic yet tragic story of how Lydia escaped Communist
Russia with the aid of her American husband will most certainly one day fuel
one of Kim's novels. Another novel in the queue will involve her husband's
ancestor, the 7th-century proto-Viking king of the Swedish colony in Russia. For the time being, however, Kim has plenty of work to do
in creating her projected 8-book Arthurian series, The Dragon's Dove Chronicles,
and other novels under her new imprint, Pendragon
Cove Press. She also writes romantic historical fiction under the pseudonym
"Kimberly Iverson."
AUTHOR FOLLOW LINKS
AUTHOR VIDEO INTERVIEW
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