The Secrets of the Mist - blog tour

BLOG TOUR

Secrets of the Mistby Kate Ryder

About the book

A gorgeous timeslip romance for fans of Kate Mosse, Diana Gabaldon and Barbara Erskine.

Maddie is restless in London. She has friends, a job and a sort-of boyfriend, but something in her life is missing. Then she visits the ancient village of Walditch, deep in the Dorset countryside. Something stirs in her, and on a whim she buys a centuries-old cottage and moves there three months later. Her friends think she's crazy, but for Maddie it feels like coming home.

Late at night in the cottage, Maddie hears strange noises and sees mist gathering indoors and out. When she starts investigating the cottage's history, she becomes drawn into the tragic story of a family who lived here 400 years ago. Meanwhile, Maddie starts to fall in love with a local carpenter – but he has a relationship already...

Can Maddie solve the riddle of the past? What is her connection with the family that lived there so many years ago? And can she and her true love ever be together?

Previously published as The Forgotten Promise.

EXTRACT

As I looked towards the huddle of cottages nestling on the far side of the village green I noticed how still it had become – like an expectant, held breath – and somewhere deep within my soul I felt tendrils of distant memory reach out to me.

The sun was warm on that early summer’s evening and yet I shivered. A thick haze hung in the air and the sounds of the pub seemed muffled, as if the world was somehow suppressed; waiting for something to happen. What, I did not know, but my senses were on high alert. Something was coming. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, I detected the slightest breeze and a wisp of air languidly encircled my body as if investigating me.

I looked towards Dan to see if he had noticed anything, but he seemed distant from me, as if I was cushioned and remote from the world. I didn’t feel threatened. In fact, I revelled in the sensation of that warm, tender kiss of air as it gently caressed me. As if in some way being guided, I watched the shadows fall across the mellow-coloured cottage on the far side of the village green and shivered again.

Earlier that afternoon, when one of the film crew suggested a drink after work at a local pub he’d discovered I was only too pleased to be invited. We had endured a hard day’s filming; one that proved particularly trying for me, having to deal with a star whose ego was extremely large, and I had already used up most of my diplomacy and patience during the previous three weeks’ filming. A bit of good old R&R was in order.

They were a great crowd at Hawkstone Media and I had happily worked there for the past eight years since first arriving in the UK as a fresh-faced, enthusiastic girl from Dublin, full of raw ambition. Ken Hawkstone – the man behind the company – was a demanding, but fair, whirlwind of creative force and he recognised that ambition, offering me numerous breaks along the way. I had worked my way up from continuity girl to assistant director and loved the work, even though it was all-consuming and left little time for anything else.

However, over the past couple of years, I’d found sleep increasingly fitful and was often awake in the small hours battling strange, disconcertingly deep thoughts about the random nature of choice, fate and destiny; thoughts that made no sense at all in the cold light of day. And, although I could never recall the details on waking, I was visited by a recurring dream; one that left a lingering memory of a pair of tender, blue-grey eyes and a feeling of a hand having touched my heart. As the years slipped by, however hard I tried to ignore it, I was aware of an underlying, nagging insistence for change.

The sounds of a busy pub enveloped me as we entered the Blacksmith’s Arms – a charming seventeenth-century country inn with flagstone floors and heavily beamed ceilings. It was obviously a popular haunt. Clusters of people sat in private alcoves enjoying an early evening drink and through an open archway I saw tables being set for dinner. We booked a table for eight o’clock and then, having ordered drinks, walked outside into that early summer’s evening towards the first moment of my future.

I looked across the village green, beyond the massive oak tree standing proudly at its centre, towards the stone cottage and saw a red and yellow ‘For Sale’ board erected in its garden. Again, I detected the slightest breeze and as I watched the shadows from the oak fall across the cottage I shivered involuntarily.

‘Cold, Mads?’ asked Dan, one of the camera crew and my occasional lover.

He was a kindly soul.

‘Not really. I’ve just got this feeling I’ve been here before. Kinda spooky, in a comforting sort of way, if you know what I mean,’ I finished lamely.

He drew me to him and gently squeezed my shoulder. ‘Have you ever been to this part of Dorset?’

‘No, I’ve never been to Dorset before. You know me, Dan. The bright lights, the next drink, the latest wine bar, the hippest party! I’m not a country girl, I don’t know what I’d do with myself all day, and yet…’ I swept my hand before me, acknowledging the village green and the cluster of cottages across the way ‘…this feels so familiar.’

About the author

Kate Ryder writes romantic suspense with a true-to-life narrative. Her passion is writing (a period during which she studied acting only confirmed her preference for writing rather than performing!). Since then she has worked in the publishing, tour operating and property industries, and has travelled widely. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and the Society of Authors. Kate lives in Cornwall with her husband and a newly acquired rescue cat.

In 2017 Kate signed a 4-book publishing contract with Aria (digital imprint of award-winning independent publisher, Head of Zeus). Her first novel, 'Summer in a Cornish Cove', saw her nominated for the RNA's 2018 Joan Hessayon award. Under its original self-published title, 'The Forgotten Promise', ‘Secrets of the Mist’, was shortlisted for Choc Lit's "Search for a Star" and awarded a Chill with a Book "Book of the Month".

Follow Kate:  

Facebook: @Kate Ryder

Twitter: @KateRyder_Books

Buy links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2H1svK5

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2Z3bY2g

iBooks: https://apple.co/2MdJltj

Google Play: https://bit.ly/2Z28DMW

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction