The Queen’s Gamble Virtual Book Tour September 2011

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Join Barbara Kyle, author of the historical novel, The Queen’s Gamble (Kensington Books, August 30, 2011) as she virtually tours the blogosphere in September on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Barbara Kyle

Barbara Kyle is the author of the Tudor-era “Thornleigh” series of novels, which have been published internationally: The Queen’s Captive, The Queen’s Lady, and The King’s Daughter, praised by Publishers Weekly as “a complex and fast-paced plot, mixing history with vibrant characters.” Her new novel, The Queen’s Gamble, will be released on 30 August 2011.

Barbara previously won acclaim for her contemporary novels under pen name ‘Stephen Kyle’, including Beyond Recall (a Literary Guild Selection), After Shock and The Experiment. Over 400,000 copies of her books have been sold.

Barbara has taught courses for writers at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, and is known for her dynamic workshops for many writers organizations. Her popular series of video workshops “Writing Fiction That Sells” is available through her website. Before becoming an author, Barbara enjoyed a twenty-year acting career in television, film, and stage productions in Canada and the U.S.

Visit www.BarbaraKyle.com.

About The Queen’s Gamble

Queen Young Queen Elizabeth I’s path to the throne has been a perilous one, and already she faces a dangerous crisis. French troops have landed in Scotland to quell a rebel Protestant army, and Elizabeth fears that once they are entrenched on the border, they will invade England.

Isabel Thornleigh has returned to London from the New World with her Spanish husband, Carlos Valverde, and their young son. Ever the queen’s loyal servant, Isabel is recruited to smuggle money to the Scottish rebels. Yet Elizabeth’s trust only goes so far—Isabel’s son will be the queen’s pampered hostage until she completes her mission. Matters grow worse when Isabel’s husband is engaged as military advisor to the French, putting the couple on opposite sides in a deadly cold war.

Set against a lush, vibrant backdrop peopled with unforgettable characters and historical figures, The Queen’s Gamble is a story of courage, greed, passion, and the high price of loyalty…

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One Isabel Valverde was coming home. The brief, terrible letter from her brother had brought her across five thousand miles of ocean, from the New World to the Old, and during the long voyage she thought she had prepared herself for the worst. But now that London lay just beyond the next bend of the River Thames, she dreaded what awaited her. The not knowing – that was the hardest. Would she find her mother still a prisoner awaiting execution? Horrifying though that was, Isabel could at least hope to see her one last time. Or had her mother already been hanged? The ship was Spanish, the San Juan Bautista, the cabin snug and warm, its elegant teak paneling a cocoon that almost muffled the brutal beat of England’s winter rain on the deck above. Isabel stood by the berth, buttoning her cloak, steeling herself. The captain had said they were less than an hour from London’s customs wharf and she would soon have to prepare to disembark. Everything was packed; three trunks sat waiting by the open door, and behind her she could hear her servant, sixteen-year-old Pedro, closing the lid of the fourth and last one. She listened to the rain’s faint drumbeat, knowing that she heard it in a way the Spanish passengers could not – heard it as a call, connecting her to her past, to her family’s roots. The Spaniards would not understand. England meant nothing to them other than a market for their goods, and she had to admit it was a backward place compared to the magnificence of their empire. The gold and silver of the New World flowed back to the Old like a river with the treasure fleets that sailed twice a year from Peru and Mexico, making Philip of Spain the richest and most powerful monarch in Europe. Isabel felt the tug of both worlds, for a part of her lived in each, her young self in the Old, her adult self in the New. She had left England at twenty with her Spanish husband and almost nothing else, but he had done well in Peru, and after five years among its wealthy Spaniards, Isabel was one of them. Money, she thought. It’s how the world turns. Can it turn Mother’s fate? She had clung to that hope for the voyage, and now, listening to the English rain, she was seized by a panicky need to have the gold in her hands. She heard her servant clicking a key into the lock of the last trunk. She whirled around. “Pedro, my gold,” she said. She grabbed his arm to stop him turning the key. “Where is it?” He looked at her, puzzled. “Señora?” “The gold I set aside. In the blue leather pouch.” She snatched the ring of keys from him and unlocked the trunk. She rummaged among her gowns, searching for the pouch. The soft silks and velvets slid through her hands. She dug down into the layers of linen smocks and stockings and night-dresses. No pouch. Abandoning the rucked-up clothes, she unlocked another trunk and pawed through her husband’s things, his doublets and breeches and capes and boots. The pouch was not here either. “Open that one,” she said, tossing the keys to Pedro. “We have to find it.” She went to the brocade satchel that lay at the foot of the berth and flipped its clasps and dug inside. “Señora, it’s not in there. Just papers.” “Look for it!” she ordered. He flinched at her tone, and she felt like a tyrant. Not for the first time. He was a Peruvian with the small build of his Indian people which made him look more like a child than a lad of sixteen. He had the placid nature of his people, too, and a deference to authority that had been bred into his ancestors by the rigid Inca culture. When the Spaniards had invaded thirty years ago they had exploited that deference, easily making the Indians their slaves and themselves rich. Isabel hated slavery. Pedro was her servant, but a free person nonetheless. English justice said so. But his docile ways sometimes sparked her impatience, goading her to take the tone of his Spanish overlords, and when she did so she hated herself. “Take out everything,” she told him, less sharply. “Look at the bottom.” “Si, Señora,” he said, obeying. His native tongue was Quechua. Isabel’s was English. Neither of them knew the other’s language. They spoke in Spanish.

Read the Reviews!

“Unfurls a complex and fast-paced plot, mixing history with vibrant characters.”

–Publishers Weekly on The King’s Daughter

“Kyle is adept at layering her tale with colorful descriptions, accurate details and exciting twists within a fast-paced plot designed to keep readers’ attention.”

–Romantic Times on The Queen’s Captive

“Riveting, heady, glorious, inspired.”

–Susan Wiggs on The Queen’s Lady

“Action-packed adventure that expertly blends fiction with history.”

–Publishers Weekly on The Queen’s Gamble “Beyond Her Book” blog

The Queen’s Gamble Tour Schedule

Monday, September 5^th

Guest blogging at Lori’s Reading Corner

Tuesday, September 6^th

Book reviewed at Reviews by Molly

Wednesday, September 7^th

Interviewed at The Hot Author Report

Thursday, September 8^th

Book spotlighted at Books, Products and More!

Friday, September 9^th

Book reviewed at Broken Teepee

Monday, September 12^th

Book reviewed at By the Book

Book spotlighted at The Plot

Tuesday, September 13^th

Book reviewed at Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews

Character interviewed at The Plot

Wednesday, September 14^th

Book reviewed at Always with A Book

Thursday, September 15^th

Interviewed at Pump Up Your Book!

Friday, September 16^th

Book reviewed at Cheryl’s Book Nook

Monday, September 19^th

Interviewed at Paperback Writer

Tuesday, September 20^th

Book reviewed at The Muse in the Fog Book Review

Wednesday, September 21^st

Book reviewed at Books, Belles, and Beaux

Thursday, September 22^nd

Guest blogging at Literal Exposure

Friday, September 23^rd

Book reviewed at Debbie’s Book Bag

Monday, September 26^th

Book reviewed at Passages to the Past

Tuesday, September 27^th

Book reviewed at Splashes of Joy

Wednesday, September 28^th

Guest blogging at Literarily Speaking

Thursday, September 29^th

Book reviewed at The Book Connection

Friday, September 30^th

Book reviewed at Life in Review

Book reviewed at CelticLady’s Reviews

Barbara Kyle’s THE QUEEN’S GAMBLE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR will officially begin on September 5th and end on September 30th, 2011. This tour is filled. Thank you for your interest!

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Maria Andrade, DEFIANCE AND REDEMPTION

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Aiken Brown, SON OF A SOLDIER

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Laura Preble, ANNA INCOGNITO

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Lena Gregory, GRAVE CONSEQUENCES

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Jennifer Chase, FLOWERS ON HER GRAVE

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Elysia Strife, A PROMISE IN ASH

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Miri Leshem-Pelly, SCRIBBLE & AUTHOR

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Shami Stovall, KNIGHTMARE ARCANIST

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Suzanne M. Hurley, THE TEDDY BEAR EYE CLUB

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Sharon House, BRIMSTONE AND WATER

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Bacon Press Books

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T.M. Wallace, WINTERGARDEN

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Lee Papa, TEMPLE OF ALL KNOWING

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Madeline Wynn, DAUGHTER OF THE FALLEN

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Mary Lawlor, FIGHTER PILOT'S DAUGHTER

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Karen-Anne Stewart, ASH TO STEELE

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

-- Sheila Roberts, Author of Winter at the Beach