Echoes of the Past by Evelyn Hood

 

"Bethany was happiest, on board the Fidelty. Like her father and her elder brother she was a child of the sea, treating it with respect but without fear."

Echoes of the Past by Evelyn Hood is a compelling generational saga set in Scotland in 1912.

Echoes of the Past

Can a family thrive after the death of a domineering patriarch?

Buckie, Scotland 1912

One year after Weem Lowrie's death, his wife Jess and children are still living in his shadow, bount by the strict decisions he imposed when he was alive.

Eldest son James and his sister Bethany are trapped in marriages arranged to bolster the value of the family's fishing business. Youngest son, Innes, struggles with the memory of his father's disapproval over his failure to become a fisherman.

James longs to take over as skipper of the family fishing boat, The Fidelity, rather than working for his uncle. Bethany dreams of escaping from her role as a wife and stepmother to two young children and Innes longs for acceptance and respect from his siblings and to be seen as a man. But pursuing these aims only seems to invite new conflict into their lives.

And when Jess's childhood sweetheart returns to Buckie, his attempts to help the family using his wealth and influence seem destined to cause even more chaos.

Storytelling at its best, Evelyn Hood is the original bestselling Scottish saga writer.

Previously published as The Shimmer of the Herring.

The Lowrie family has lived in Buckie for generations. It's a hard way of making a living. Fishing is a men's job, and women are discouraged to even dream about being at sea. 

Bethany longs to sail, however, women are considered to bring bad luck at sea. She is strong, efficient and smart, but it's her older brother James who inherits the family business after their father's passing.

Weem Lowry died a year earlier, and even now his demise hasn't changed the tyrannical decisions he has imposed on his family.

His gravestone carries an inscription, "William James Lowrie, fisherman of the parish Buckie, born 1870, died 21 July, beloved husband of Jess Innes and father of James, Bethany and Innes."

Yet this beloved father ruled his family as a dictatorship. He has forced both of his older children into unwanted relationships because the newly-forged connections propelled him closer to his dream of owning a steam boat. 

Bethany resents being married to a man she doesn't love, and looking after his two small children. She yearns freedom, and cannot forgive her father, who she loved deeply as a child.

"She would have to relinquish something - either the deep love she'd had for the man from her earliest days, or the bitter rage born of knowing that he had used her love and trust to further his own interests, trapping her in the process with a man who meant nothing to her... she must resign herserlf to becoming what Weem had made of her: a wife and mother with no other identity. And she could not do that." 

Weem's decision feels like a betrayal. 

James has a certain degree of freedom, as he does a job he loves. Yet he wants more. He doesn't like to work for his uncle, whose decisions are constrictive.  

"Like his father and sister, James loved the sea more than anything else. He loved its contrary moods - the worst of them as well as the best."

James feels tied to a wife in an unloving relationship. Poor Stella adores him, and he treats her with indifference and even scorn. She seems a failure in his eyes, as she gives birth to three daughters. 

And there is the younger son, Innes, scarred by the contempt and derision bestown on him by his own father, because Innes chooses to work on land rather than become a fisherman. In Weem's eyes, this is an unpardonable sin.

Weem's oppressive legacy keeps hurting his children even after his death. His meek wife Jess hasn't dared to oppose his decisions. The only time she has revolted was to protect her youngest, "she had made sure that Weem - who had loved his children so deeply when they were small, and had used them with such a lack of understanding once they reached adulthood - had not managed to destroy Innes the way he'd destroyed James and Bethany."

Jess can see the difference between her children, their strength and weaknesses.

"Innes had been a loving and giving soul from the moment of his birth, whereas James and Bethany had both shrugged off embraces from an early age."

Will Bethany, James and Innes be ever free from the brutal bonds foisted by their father?

The society of the fishing village is based on patriarachal rules of obeying your parents. The parochial mindset is suffocating, with its petty squabbles and watching your neighbours with a critical eye.  

Life by the sea is portrayed unflinchingly. The back-breaking work of women is described with sympathy and compassion. Once men bring in the fish, women are waiting on the shore to start gutting, salting and packing in barrels. Their lives are hard, but there is dignity and pride in what they are doing.

The background of the fishing village is well-researched and authentic.

I wasn't sure about one of the spicy plotlines, as it didn't feel convincing.

Echoes of the Past is an unsentimental portrayal of the past, a finely crafted tale of tragedy and deception, loss and forbidden love.

Potential triggers: incest.

Purchase Link -

https://mybook.to/EchoesofthePastBook

Author Bio –

The Sunday Times bestselling author of 28 published novels, Evelyn Hood had a variety of jobs, including being a journalist and a poultry farmer. She was a full time writer, best known for her family sagas, set mainly in her home town of Paisley (Renfrewshire) and on the Clyde coast, where she also lived.

 

Social Media Links – 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/16YScQLN3J/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Instagram: @evelynhood52author

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/evelyn-hood

Degustabox November Box

 

Degustabox is a monthly food and drink subscription box. It's an excellent way of discovering new products which have only just appeared in the shops, or those which have been around for a while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I otherwise wouldn't have tried.

Each time a monthly box arrives, its contents are a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet, and would like to have a go, I have a £3off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time), just use code DKRLN when placing an order. 

What did we get in November Box Degustabox?

Leon Brazilian Style Black Beans (£2.50) is a microwave meal, inspired by Leon restaurant menu. This tasty dish is made with cooked black beans, carrots, onion, tomato, celery, chipotle seasoning paste and smoked paprika.

Serve with coconut yogurt and spring onions, red chilli and a sprinkle of parsley for a well balanced meal, full of flavour.

Nutritional information:82kcal and 0.6g of salt per 100g; vegan; source of fibre; no artificial ingredients.

Avaiable in Sainsbury's.

Noisy Snacks Chip Shop Curry Coated Chickpeas (£1.50) are crunchy roasted and coated chickpeas, packed with protein and full of fibre. 

These tasty little snacks are made from all natural ingredients.

Nutritional information: 96kcal and 3.2g of sugar per 25g.

Available in Tesco Express.

Silver Spoon Zesty Lemon Flavoured Icing Sugar (£1.80) will come super handy during this festive season, for all the tasty bakes. Think mince pies, lemon drizzle cake, apple turnovers, etc.

Made with all natural ingredients, you simply add butter or water (or even lemon juice, for a more prominent citrus flavour) to create a smooth, ready to use icing.

Available in Tesco and ASDA.

One Living Brain Health Shot/or Beauty Health Shot (£2) is a soft drink, offering health benefits.

You should receive 1 item in your box. We got Brain Health Shot Cherry Apple, a cherry apple shot with vitamins, minerals, chicory root fibre and water kefir, which helps with better mental performance and less fatigue.

Typical values per 100ml: 31kcal and 5.6g of sugar (one small bottle is 100ml); 20+ super ingredients; your daily dose; vitamins B1, B6, B12.

Flavour-wise, you get a sweet and sour note of cherries balanced with the tart flavour of crisp apples. 

Beauty Shot/Real Radiance is a shot of blueberry, pomegranate, hibiscus, with added biotin, vitamin E, zinc, aloe vera and hyaluronic acid to support healthy hair, skin, nails and cell protection.

Available in Tesco Back of Store with the soft drinks.

Hilltop Blossom Honey (£1.85) is an award-winning honey, amber in colour. It is sweet and has a mild floral scent. 

Lovely to drizzle over hot crumpets or pancakes, added to porridge or tea. The honey has so many culinary uses, from marinades and salad dressing, to bakes of all kinds.

It has a lovely taste, though I prefer to buy honey of single origin, rather than a blend of more than one countries' honeys, as sadly it loses a lot of its health qualities when mixed with different honeys. It is still good for eating and cooking.

Nutritional values: 307kcal and 76g of sugar per 100g.

Available in the major supermarket chains.

Maggi Air Fryer Crispy Southern and Air Fryer Crispy Korean BBQ (£0.99 each) are blends of herbs and spices.

We must be one of a few households who didn't get an air fryer when it has become trendy, and if you don't have one either, don't worry. These blends could be used for cooking in the oven, pan or grill too. Check out www.maggi.co.uk for more information.

You should receive two items in your box. 

Maggi Air Fryer Crispy Coating Southern Style is a mix of breadcrumbs, sunflower oil, dried onion, white egg powder, dried spices, salt etc.

Simply add chicken fillets, sprinkle with seasoned crumbs and cook.

Nutritional values: 218kcal and 0.59g of salt per serving.

Maggi Air Fryer Crispy Coating Korean BBQ Style is a mix of breacrumbs, sunflower oil, dried spices, sugar, dried garlic, dried onion, etc. Also suggested to use with chicken fillets.

Nutritional values: 220kcal and 2.3g of sugar per serving.

Available in major supermarkets and discounter chains.

Waterdrop Microdrink Berry (£7.99) will encourage you to drink more water, adding a full-bodied flavour of blackberry and bluebbery, with a touch of sweetness from apple. This product is made in Germany.

Refreshingly fruity drink, it could be added straight to bottles, allowing cubes to dissolve. My younger son has been enjoying this drink, taking the bottles with him to school.

This is tasty hydration, made easy. Contains zero sugar. Vegan.

Nutritional values: 5kcal and 0g sugar per 500ml.

Available in the major supermarket chains and online at en.waterdrop.com

Poppets Chewy Toffee 39g (£0.60 each) are milk chocolate coated toffees. Quite a retro candy, but with a modern makeover, as you  can spot characters from Wicked on the box.

Soft and chewy toffee in milk chocolate coating, these are lovely treats to share in the cinema or while watching your favourite show on TV.

Nutritional values: 474kcal and 58g of sugar per 100g (one box is 39g).

Available in Morrisons, B&M, Home Bargains, Farmfoods and The Range.

You should receive 2 items in your box.

For Goodness Shakes GLOW Collage Protein Shake Iced Latte and White Chocolate (£2.50 each) are new shakes, packed with protein, calcium and collagen, helping to support healthy skin, hair and nails.

They are lactose free, fat free, contain no added sugar and are only 150kcal. 

Available in two flavours - Iced Latte and White Chocolate. What a way to give yourself a protein and collagen boost!

Available in Sainsbury's, Tesco and online at forgoodnessshakes.com.

You should receive 2 items in your box.

Degustabox Plus subscribers will also have an extra product in their box - CasaFolino Dark Chocolate and Orange Spreadable Cream (£6.99), which sounds lovely.

If you've ordered Degustabox Advent calendar, I bet you're enjoying the contents as much as we do. 

Ripples Through Time by Christina Courtenay (book extract)

I'm thrilled to welcome Christina Courtenay to my blog today and offer an extract from her latest time travel novel, Ripples through Time. 

Ripples Through Time

A love that will change them forever

A treasure that will bring them home

West Mercia, AD 873 – Merewen's settlement is on guard against the outside threat of the ‘Heathen’ Norsemen. But for Merewen, the real threats come from within, as her future is cruelly snatched away from her.

Eirik, a Norseman, finds himself abandoned and injured after his uncle’s plunder of Mercian land goes wrong. He thinks his fate is sealed – until Merewen saves his life.

Hereford, Present Day – Left reeling after a huge betrayal, Alix moves to her grandfather's farm in Hereford to heal her broken heart. There, after being given a family heirloom, she soon finds herself haunted by memories of a life she never lived, a relationship she never had, and a time in which she never existed.

Local farmer Noah is being hounded by the police to find the Viking hoard that his sister and her criminal boyfriend stole from his farm. Noah must prove his own innocence while struggling to decipher the curious connection he has to newcomer Alix – a bond that seems to transcend their own reality.

As they search for the lost treasure, Alix and Noah start to feel the whispers of a love they never expected, one powerful enough to echo through history. 

Purchase Link - https://geni.us/ripplestime

London, present day – heroine discovers betrayal of the worst kind 

 

‘How long do we have to keep sneaking around like this? Can’t we just tell her and get it over with?’ 

 

Alix Howell stopped abruptly at the sound of her younger sister’s voice. It was coming from the mud room beyond the kitchen in their parents’ house, and although Autumn was whispering, the words were still perfectly audible. 

 

‘Patience, baby.’ The voice replying belonged to Alix’s fiancé, Sean, and hearing it made her freeze in shock. ‘We have to wait until the mortgage application for the flat has been approved,’ he continued. ‘You know we need Alix to cover the down payment. It’s not like we can afford it ourselves. Once all the paperwork is signed, it won’t matter so much, and I’ll pay her back when I can. Or you can pay her rent so she can go and live somewhere else. I doubt she’ll want to share with us, even though there are two bedrooms.’ 

 

A muffled giggle was the answer to that statement. What the hell? The pain of betrayal hit Alix right in the middle of the sternum, knocking all the air out of her. She clutched her stomach and tried to breathe while processing what she’d just heard. Her sister was having an affair with Sean? Since when? No. This couldn’t be true. Alix hadn’t noticed him acting any different recently. There had been quite a few late nights in the office and some outings with his mates that he’d claimed were for boys only, but no other red flags. He’d acted as loving as normal. What a consummate liar! She hadn’t suspected a thing. 

 

And what was this about the down payment? Was he seriously planning to use Alix’s life savings, combined with his own meagre contribution, to obtain a mortgage for the flat they were buying together, then dump her? A flat that apparently she was never going to live in. The utter bastard! 

 

So not happening. 

 

After the week she’d had at work – although she didn’t want to think about that right now – this was the last straw. She marched over to the door that separated the mud room from the kitchen and threw it open. 

 

‘No need to wait. I won’t be signing any of those papers now, or providing any money, so you can go ahead and make your relationship official,’ she announced, pulling off the cheap zirconia ring Sean had bought her instead of a diamond one and throwing it at him. It was supposed to have been temporary until he could afford something better, since they’d needed the money for the flat. So much for that. 

 

‘I wouldn’t have been able to afford the mortgage payments anyway, as I quit my job yesterday,’ she added. She hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone yet, and now it probably didn’t matter. It might even be a blessing in disguise. 

 

Autumn and Sean’s stunned expressions and gaping mouths would have been hilarious if the cause hadn’t been so hurtful. Alix didn’t intend to stick around and wait for them to recover, however. No doubt they’d try and come up with some excuse as to why they were perfect for each other. Judging by previous experience, it would involve a variation on the theme of Alix being too serious or boring, compared to her uber-glamorous sister. Autumn was the ‘fun one’ of the two, according to most of their friends. The one with the natural charm and a gift for socialising and hogging the limelight. Whereas Alix was shy and introverted, more interested in reading than partying. 

 

Being less than a year apart, most people had mistaken them for twins when they were children. They did look fairly similar when in their natural state, but Alix always felt overshadowed by her sister. Autumn was a beautician and knew how to enhance her looks; from chemical hair-straightening and lip fillers to a year-round spray tan and hours spent with a personal trainer each week, nothing was left to chance. And it would seem that Sean preferred this improved version of what the gods had given them. He was welcome to it. 

 

‘Alix, wait! I can explain! Stop for a minute …’ 

 

She ignored the increasingly anxious pleas from behind her and swore that this was the last time she’d allow Autumn to steal anything that belonged to her. Her sister had been doing it more or less from birth, and mostly getting away with it too. She had been the golden child for as long as Alix could remember. The one who could do no wrong. As soon as she’d been born, Alix had been effectively sidelined. Autumn had been a beautiful, contented baby, by all accounts, whereas Alix had been colicky and difficult. The new baby was able to charm their parents in a way that Alix had never mastered, and later she had lying down to a fine art as well. More times than she cared to count, Alix had been blamed for every misdemeanour, despite any lack of evidence. It was enough that Autumn turned her limpid gaze on their parents and shed a few theatrical tears. They fell for it every time. There was no competing with her. She always got her way. Well, enough was enough. 

 

Sweeping past their astonished parents, and assorted other relatives who had come over for Sunday lunch, Alix grabbed her handbag and jacket and slammed her way out of the house. Thank goodness she hadn’t completed the flat purchase with Sean yet. She was still sharing a loft apartment with two friends, but that would have to change too. Now that she’d left the job that tied her to the capital, it was time to move somewhere far from London. Anywhere her sister wasn’t living would be fine. 

 

Vindictively, she hoped it would be many years before Sean and Autumn could afford to buy a flat. Her own nest egg would be used to purchase a property that was all hers. 

Author Bio –

Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip/dual time and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a Vice President and former chairman and of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014) and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. RIPPLES THROUGH TIME (dual time historical romance published by Headline Review 21st November 2025) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).

Social Media Links – 

Website:- http://www.christinacourtenay.com

FaceBook:- Christina Courtenay Author Page - https://www.facebook.com/christinacourtenayauthor?fref=ts 

Twitter/X:- @PiaCCourtenay - https://twitter.com/PiaCCourtenay 

Instagram:- @christinacourtenayauthor - https://www.instagram.com/ChristinaCourtenayAuthor/

 Bluesky:- @christinacourtenay.bsky.social - https://christinacourtenay@bsky.social