Rebecca Hazell's Consolamentum Brings Us to the End of Sofia's Story - Author Guest Post and {Giveaway}

A LOVE WORTH WAITING FOR?

One of the central themes of my historical trilogy, set in the turbulent 13th century, is love. Those who have read the first two in the series, The Grip of God and Solomon’s Bride, know that in the first volume, its heroine, Sofia, was captured and enslaved by a Mongol lord. While he fell in love with her, she was too angry and wounded by her fall into slavery to even notice how he felt.

Yet as she came to see and appreciate him as he was, she also began to learn what love might mean beyond her childish dreams of a handsome prince who would cherish and protect her. Ironically, her master fit that description and all she wanted to do was escape!

And, in Solomon’s Bride, having fallen into a new form of captivity in Iran (isolation in a harem and then in Alamut, capital of the Assassins), Sofia discovered that love and marriage weren’t necessarily going to be part of her destiny. She married twice, out of necessity, but didn’t find love. Only after she traveled west and met a knight who reminded her of her father (shades of Freud) did she fall in love. But he proved to be both mysterious and elusive until, with a crusade looming, it was almost too late for love; and then both politics and duty came between them. The reader is left wondering whether she can ever find the right man to love.

This question is answered in the third novel, Consolamentum, by which time Sofia has matured and become a woman of the world. She’s no longer naïve about marriage, but she still wants love—as well as independence—more than a wedding ring. So, though she has several suitors, she maintains her solitary life, willing to be content with other sources of love like an orphanage and her love child from a brief affair with her knight.

But this third novel also asks further questions about love: where does loyalty fit in where the king comes first and the wife comes second, how much power can a medieval woman realistically retain when she marries, is it worth giving up your independence for love, and can love survive threats to survival? And ultimately, knowing that lovers will always remain a mystery to each other, how can they find the intimacy of mind and heart that we all yearn for? For Sofia, there are compromises to be made, but in the end, she boldly answers her own question: yes, there is a love worth waiting for!

About the book

In the finale of Sofia's memoir, Consolamentum, both dramatic and poignant, her dreams of home are shattered when her own family betrays her. Raising her child on her own, mourning the loss of her beloved knight, and building a trading empire, she seeks safe haven for her child and herself. Her quest takes her from Antioch to Constantinople to Venice. A surprise reunion in Venice leads her to France where she runs afoul of the newly established Holy Inquisition, possibly the greatest challenge she has yet faced. Can a woman so marked by oppression, betrayal, and danger ever find her safe haven, much less genuine happiness?

The novel is available both in paperback and Kindle versions and through your local bookstore by special order.

About the author

Rebecca Hazell is a an award winning artist, author and educator. She has written, illustrated and published four non-fiction children’s books, created best selling educational filmstrips, designed educational craft kits for children and even created award winning needlepoint canvases. She is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, and she holds an honours BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz in Russian and Chinese history.

Rebecca lived for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1988 she and her family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in 2006 she and her husband moved to Vancouver Island. They live near their two adult children in the beautiful Cowichan Valley.

Visit Rebecca:

Website | Goodreads | Facebook

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Giveaway:

Follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter to enter to win the entire trilogy, The Grip of God, Solomon's Bride and Consolamentum, Kindle editions - open internationally! Good luck!

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