The Dragon Tree (Dr DuLac book 2) by Julia Ibbotson

 

I'm very excited to be able to share with you a guest post today - please welcome Julia Ibbotson, the author of Dr Dulac series, who is talking about the island setting for her book, The Dragon Tree.

The Dragon Tree  (Dr DuLac series Book 2)

A haunting medieval time-slip

Echoes of the past resonate through time and disturb medievalist Dr DuLac as she struggles with misfortune in the present. She and Rev Rory have escaped to the island of Madeira on a secondment from their posts, yet they are not to find peace – until they can solve the mystery of the shard of azulejo and the ancient ammonite. Viv’s search brings her into contact with two troubled women: a noblewoman shipwrecked on the island in the 14^th century and a rebellious nun at the island convent in the 16^th century. As Viv reaches out across the centuries, their lives become intertwined, and she must uncover the secrets of the ominous Dragon Tree in order to locate lost artefacts that can shape the future.

For fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, Christina Courtenay.

(for A Shape on the Air) “In the best Barbara Erskine tradition …I would highly recommend this novel” -Historical Novel Society

(for the series) “Julia does an incredible job of setting up the idea of time-shift so that it’s believable and makes sense” – book tour reviewer

“The idea of being able to ‘feel’ what happened in the past is enticing … The sense of the island is really wonderful … Julia brings it to life evocatively”  – Joanna Barnden

“an engaging and original time-slip novel that keeps the reader turning the pages…the characters are authentic and the mystery is neatly woven between the centuries … seamless time transitions” – Melissa Morgan

Purchase Link - http://myBook.to/TDT

Madeira: an island setting for The Dragon Tree

What do you think of when you imagine a love story set on a tropical island? Sunshine, heat, turquoise sea, golden beaches? Holding hands along the seafront? Shaped hotel swimming pools, beach bars, cool cocktails?

But The Dragon Tree is a novel of love stories and mystery that intertwine through history, and if you take a look at the image on the front cover you’ll see, beneath the pictures of the women whose lives interweave, a different reflection. Not a hot sexy beach, but a hint of storms  and dark skies. Love stories all have their ups and downs, that’s what makes them gripping page turners, and The Dragon Tree is no exception! But does love survive and flourish in the end? We always hope so.

Madeira, its setting, is certainly a tropical island: sun, sea, and … well not golden sand! There aren’t sandy beaches around Madeira’s glorious coastline (only a couple of imported ones), but there is certainly dramatic scenery, because of its volcanic origins. The vertiginous cliffs drop straight down into the sea, with rocks and volcanic ‘sand’. Its beautiful scenery changes dramatically from the pretty seafront to the vast craggy mountains of the volcanic centre that tower above.

The volcano that became ‘Madeira’ rose from the seabed through the waves some 5 million years ago. Its recorded history has woven through peace and crisis right through from its discovery in 1419, through its own darkness to the island of beauty and relaxation we see today. It has a fascinating history.

So, it became an obvious location for me to set The Dragon Tree, a story of turbulence and secrets and mysteries, against the backdrop of heat and sunshine, love and pain. It was the right place for me to tell my tale of two women reaching out across the centuries to Dr Viv and her ‘hot priest’, Rev Rory.

When they fly in to the island, Viv is looking out of the window of the aircraft – or trying not to! – as it swoops like a bird over the sea, close above the waves, its wings seeming to touch the water. Or the cliffs. Her first wary impression of it is “the sharp golden light on the sparkling deep blue sea and she could almost feel the heat haze rising from the rugged cliffs that appeared to climb steeply up from the edge of the water. She could make out the white painted houses with red tiled roofs clustered closely up every gorge, clinging to the very edge of the radiating ravines that slashed through the towering mountains up into the clouds and the heart of the volcano.”

 

Viv has issues. She knows that her late parents spent one of their final archaeological ‘digs’ on the shore of the island and she has a treasured artefact from them in her memory box, an ammonite fossil, that has become almost a talisman. She is also suffering the aftermath of a horrible miscarriage and is not terribly happy to go to the island with Rory for his secondment for a year. It’s supposed to be a rest and recovery time after the trauma. But it doesn’t turn out at all as expected.

 

She explores the island and its history, trying to make sense of the mysteries, but all the time she’s haunted by something that involves the ammonite. The mystery deepens as her discoveries unfold. Amidst the glorious tropical setting of the present day there is not only love to discover but something much more unsettling: fear.

 

Our feisty heroine determines to discover the secret that lies buried in the island’s history even though it may be a danger to herself and her loved one. There is something about the ammonite and the characteristic blue tiles (the ‘azulejo’) that is pulling her into a connection with a 14^th century young noblewoman who is shipwrecked here with her lover and a 16^th century rebellious nun who falls in love with a poor fisherman.

 

How are they connected to each other, and to Viv? And what do they want of her?