A Place Called New Hope by Catherine McGreevy -- Book Tour Spotlight + Giveaway

About the Book

Genre:  Historical, Regency, Romance, Suspense
Publisher: Cedar Fort
Publication date: March 13, 2018
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Prompted by her mysterious origins, young English heiress Letty Leighton seeks to establish a Utopian community called New Hope. To do this, however, Letty must marry African explorer Patrick Marlowe, an unconventional man who proves as hard to control as the residents of New Hope. Together they must confront an unknown enemy seeking to destroy both of their dreams. This inspirational romance novel belongs on the bookshelf next to books by Anita Stansfield, and Julianne Donaldson.

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About the Author

Catherine McGreevy
Author of clean, inspirational fiction

The daughter of a foreign-service officer, Catherine McGreevy attended international schools in France, Spain, and Morocco. During her time abroad she learned to appreciate other cultures as well as the ideals that make America special. A true book-worm, she dreamed seeing her own novels on a shelf next to those of her favorite writers, including Mary Stewart and Elizabeth Peters.

After majoring in Communications (Journalism) with a minor in English at Brigham Young University, she later earned her Secondary Education Teaching Credential at Cal State Fullerton, and taught high-school and middle-school English before moving to Northern California.

A history buff, Catherine lives in Northern California’s gold country, where she has been known to don a bonnet and petticoats to re-enact the past with the Sierra Nevada Mormon Pioneers, appearing in parades and at Sutter’s Fort and the Gold Discovery site in Coloma.

Her first historical novel, Chance’s Bluff, was released by Cedar Fort Publishing in January, 2018. A Place Called New Hope follows in March.

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Author Interview

Check out the author interview HERE.

Author’s Top 10
Favorite Authors and Why

I apologize for not including more current authors, of whom there are many I love and read. However these are the ones I have gone back to and re-read over and over throughout my life. They are like comfort food, because I know I’ll always enjoy them, no matter what!

1. Elizabeth Peters AKA Barbara Michaels – Entertaining, funny, and scary. Her characters feel like my best friends, and she puts sentences together so entertainingly that I’ll go back and reread a passage just for the pleasure of enjoying it again. She used to be my two very favorite writers until I discovered “they” were both the same person!
2. Mary Stewart – In many ways, the perfect author. A master of mood and suspense, no one writes as beautifully as she does. As a girl, I wanted to grow up to be as literate as she was, with a poetic quote at hand for every occasion. Alas, that never happened.
3. Victoria Holt – She helped nurture my love for gothics and for stories set in Victorian England. I still love them!
4. Orson Scott Card – A trailblazer and imaginative genius. I saw a play of his at BYU around 1980, before I’d heard of him, and was blown away by how powerful it was. I have followed his career with interest ever since, and feel fortunate to have seen him appear in a panel discussion at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
5. Anita Stanfield – Another trailblazer, writing fiction with Mormon protagonists at a time when this was very rare. I have great respect for her accomplishments and influence.
6. Alistair MacLean – My roommate at BYU introduced me to MacLean’s fast-moving page-turners featuring brave, clever heroes and intriguing suspense without resorting to excessive gore or bad language.
7. M. Montgomery – Anne of Green Gables. Need I say more?
8. Elizabeth Cadell – Sadly, I can’t find her books in libraries any more, but her clever dry-witted romances were more funny than romantic, with captivating and likeable characters. They were often set in Portugal, which I have always wanted to visit because of her vivid descriptions.
9. James Michener – I’ve learned more about history from him than any textbook. People criticize his books for being too long, but I am always sorry when they end. More than anything, his books taught me how the past influenced the world we now live in and how woefully ignorant many are of that fact.
10. S. Forester – I love, love, love the Hornblower series! You feel as if you are standing on the deck of a tall ship with the sea breeze gusting in your face. My late father introduced me to Hornblower, who is the ultimate hero–smart and capable, and yet humanized by his self-doubt.

10 Behind the Scenes Facts
​About the Book

1. Letty is my younger, more idealistic self, when I too thought something should be “done” to cure the ills of the world, and naively believed that the darker side of human nature could be easily curtailed by good intentions.

2. The setting, Victorian England, was inspired by my love of gothic novels growing up. I devoured them like popcorn. Most of those stories were set in England, with a lovely young heroine living in a moldering old manor house, threatened by some male villain. I always wanted to write one of those books myself.

3. Researching Utopian communities for this story showed me that the roots of this movement were much more widespread than I’d expected. The Victorian era was much less stodgy and restrictive than it has been unfairly reported to be. Many currents of imaginative and idealistic thinking flourished during this time although utopians, such as Letty, certainly experienced push-back and persecution.

4. What I saw and learned during several visits to England over the years appears in this novel. For example, the gaol in which young Simon finds himself is modeled after an old prison in York, and I strolled through plenty of beautiful old manor houses like Blackgrave Manor.

5. When I began my writing career, everyone said that “series” were popular with readers, but I had always envisioned each of my stories as stand-alone tales. It occurred to me that using the same setting and families for each novel would make them a sort of series. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that Blackgrave Manor and members of the Marlowe family show up in several of my historical novels.

6. Related to #5: If you’ve read “A Gardener’s Tale,” you may guess correctly that Patrick Marlowe is the grandson of Jonathan Marlowe, and Henry is the son of Lemley, the old gardener.

7. Unlike many writers in this genre, I prefer my main characters to be commoners. This is probably because my ancestors, many of whom came from Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall) were all ordinary, hard-working people. As a patriotic American, raised by a diplomat who endorsed the ideals that make the United States unique, I embrace the notion that all men are created equal. This idea, juxtaposed against the strict class system of Victorian England, lends itself to interesting conflicts.

8. The exploration of Africa during this period was just beginning. People in Europe had never seen animals such as gorillas before, and at first refused to believe they existed. Researching this part of the story was fascinating!

9. Patrick Marlowe is partly modeled on Sir. Richard Francis Burton, an amazingly accomplished man who was one of the first explorers of Africa.

10. Originally, this story had an important subplot involving the discovery of a diamond mine in Africa. I took it out to focus more on Letty’s struggles to make New Hope succeed.​

Snippet

“Ye’ve found it then.” The deep, cracked voice made her jump. Letty twirled, clutching the locket closer. Henry chuckled. “Just now, ye looked as she did. Desperately crawlin’ on your hands through the reeds, as if everything depended on it. But ye’re the one who found it, while the other lass went home empty handed. But that be the way of things, ain’t it? Nothin’s fair, not in this life nor the next.” “She?” “One of yer new ones, there, what ye brought here.” He nodded his grizzled head toward New Hope. “The lively one with the red hair. Her gentleman friend did give the trinket to her, and no sooner had he left than she took it off to look at it and dropped it in the reeds. Careless of her.” Henry seemed to read Letty’s thoughts, as if her face was registering every emotion. “Yes, I saw them in this very spot, many a time, her and her fellow, but never did they know it. I’ve been watching you these ten minutes past, nor did you ever know it neither. Not till I wanted you to.”

Giveaway

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Tour Schedule

April 5-Among the Reads
April 6-Bookworm Nation
April 7-Soulfully Romantic
April 10-Remembrancy
April 12-Paulette’s Papers
April 13-Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic
April 17-Singing Librarian Books
April 18-Mel’s Shelves
April 20-Faery Tales Are Real
April 23-Heidi Reads…
April 25-Locks, Hooks and Books
April 26-Wishful Endings
April 27-Ponderings of a Poet & Procrastinator
April 30-Henry Happens