BLAST, BLITZ, PROMOS, REVEALS, & TOURS . . . : TOUR w/EXCERPT - HISTORICAL FICTION

Beyond the Moon
by Catherine Taylor

Publication Date: June 25th 2019

The Cameo Press Ltd

eBook & Paperback; 496 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction/Time Travel

The Book Junkie Reads . . . Review of . . . BEYOND THE MOON . . . I was lost in a beautiful read that held me captive from start to finish. The romance of time travel. The visit back in time to a war torn period. Louisa finds that her life has come to a head when she loses her grandmother. She finds that her life is spinning out of control. Other around her feel that she's so lost that she would try to kill herself. The one saving grace of this was that she finds a door to an option that was not previously available to her. She find Robert. Robert and Louisa find that they are both at points in life that will require them to lean on the other. Even with them being worlds apart in reality.

Robert and Louisa's story was not so much a time travel as it was a slip in time. We find that we get caught up in both Robert's and Louisa's worlds. We find that both places have issues. Both places give each of them reason to want to seek out that slip in time often. The heavy subject of war, mental illness and love at a distance was well received.

The story was rich, strong, informative, and insightful. I was eager to start each new chapter. The depth of detail of the historical time, action, and descriptions were so vividly explained. The information on both the time periods resources for medical and mental illnesses. I found details rich to the point I wanted to know more.

The best part was this was a physical book that I could actually hold in my hands and feel the pages as I turned each one. The print was not too small. The spacing was perfect for not feeling overwhelmed by so many words on one page or pressed too close together. Catherine Taylor picked a publisher that is reader conscious.

BLURB
Outlander meets Birdsong is this haunting debut timeslip novel, where a strange twist of fate connects a British soldier fighting in the First World War and a young woman living in modern-day England a century later.

*Shortlisted for the Eharmony/Orion Write Your Own Love Story Prize 2018/19

In 1916 1st Lieutenant Robert Lovett is a patient at Coldbrook Hall military hospital in Sussex, England. A gifted artist, he’s been wounded fighting in the Great War. Shell shocked and suffering from hysterical blindness he can no longer see his own face, let alone paint, and life seems increasingly hopeless.

A century later in 2017, medical student Louisa Casson has just lost her beloved grandmother – her only family. Heartbroken, she drowns her sorrows in alcohol on the South Downs cliffs – only to fall accidentally part-way down. Doctors fear she may have attempted suicide, and Louisa finds herself involuntarily admitted to Coldbrook Hall – now a psychiatric hospital, an unfriendly and chaotic place.

Then one day, while secretly exploring the old Victorian hospital’s ruined, abandoned wing, Louisa hears a voice calling for help, and stumbles across a dark, old-fashioned hospital room. Inside, lying on the floor, is a mysterious, sightless young man, who tells her he was hurt at the Battle of the Somme, a WW1 battle a century ago. And that his name is Lieutenant Robert Lovett…

Two people, two battles: one against the invading Germans on the battlefields of 1916 France, the other against a substandard, uncaring mental health facility in modern-day England. Two journeys begun a century apart, but somehow destined to coincide - and become one desperate struggle to be together.

Part WW1 historical fiction, part timeslip love story - and at the same time a meditation on the themes of war, mental illness, identity and art - Beyond The Moon sweeps the reader on an unforgettable journey through time. An intelligent read, perfect for book clubs.

For fans of Diana Gabaldon, Amy Harmon, Beatriz Williams, Kate Quinn, Kristin Hannah, Kate Morton, Susanna Kearsley and Paullina Simons.

*NB This novel contains graphic descriptions of war violence and injuries, as well as profanity and mild sex.

Amazon | IndieBound

"A poignant and stirring love story... Taylor’s accomplished, genre-bending book succeeds as a WW1 historical novel and a beguiling, time travel romance... The sharply written narrative deftly moves back and forth between the past and present." — Kirkus Reviews

"A time travel romance, yet so much more than that. It is also an unflinching portrait of the horrors of war, and a look at the torturous extremes a human soul can endure. It is a sonnet to the transformative power of love, even as it is also a criticism of the futility and pointless destructiveness of war." — Shaylin Gandhi, author of By The Light of Embers

EXCERPT

Sussex Downs April 2017

So that’s it then, she thought, I’m all on my own. Not a soul left in the world I can call family any more. Except for my father, of course – but he doesn’t count.

Louisa’s legs ached from the steep climb up the cliff path, but finally she was at the top. She sat down on the chalky, flinty ground and looked out to sea. And her grandmother’s absence hit her with a blow that seemed to knock all the air from her lungs. She lay back, soft and exposed, a snail without a shell, while the ravens and gulls wheeled endlessly overhead, untethered. Had she been cut free from the earth too? she wondered. What held her in this place now? What held her anywhere?

She reached for the old, familiar wooden box she’d brought with her and took out the bottle inside. P. Aubert & Co. Cognac 1915, the label read. It had been given to some great-great-uncle of Granny’s by his commanding officer at the end of the First World War. As a child it had been one of Louisa’s favourite treasures in their overflowing cottage, along with a pair of faded red silk shoes from Imperial China and a set of children’s encyclopaedias from the 1930s.

Granny had always said the cognac must stay in the sideboard, in the dark. But Louisa had taken it out when her grandmother’s back was turned. To her it looked like liquid gold trapped behind the glass, and she hadn’t been able to conceive what it would be like to drink something so old. She’d always imagined it would be like drinking history itself.

And now the time had come to find out. The day of Granny’s funeral merited a drink, and a bloody good one at that. She uncorked the bottle and took a sip, then lay back to savour it. And discovered that it tasted not of honey, as she’d always expected, but of bitter cloves and pepper. It made her nose sting – and was actually rather disappointing. She took another sip and swallowed with difficulty. It scorched its way down, making her eyes water.

‘Well, here’s to you, Granny.’

She raised the bottle to the sky. For that’s where her grandmother would be. She belonged to the elements now, to this huge blue wing of sky, and the sea, shimmering far below. This was where Louisa felt closest to Granny. Here on the white chalk cliffs of the South Downs, where Granny had brought her the first day she’d moved in to Cliff Cottage. The day of her father’s betrayal.

She lay looking up into the endless blue sky. She felt she could lie here forever and never get up again. Then a raven landed a little way off and began to caw at her.

‘Go away, bird,’ she told it. ‘Leave me alone.’ But she could feel it crouching there, watching her, goading her in her grief. Really, was there no place in the whole world where she might have a bit of peace? Not even up here? Eventually, she shooed it away, then took up the bottle once more and swallowed another mouthful of brandy, then another – and another.

And the more she drank, the better it tasted. No longer bitter, but with notes she hadn’t noticed at first – of oranges and aniseed, and some distant, century-ago summer. And her head grew heavier and heavier, until finally the brandy ceased to taste of anything at all.

She jolted awake. It was very dark, and her head was thick and painful.

Where the bloody hell am I?

She sat up. Her senses pitched and lurched. She realised she was lying out in the open and it was raining. Her heart began to pound. She felt for her handbag but couldn’t find it. Through her drunkenness she could tell that she was wet and cold, without being able to properly feel either sensation. The events of the day jumbled past like a stream of mixed-up jigsaw pieces. She tried desperately to put them into order. The funeral, the cliffs . . . the brandy. Oh God, the brandy.

I’m still on the cliff.

Her heart thumped harder. She must have drunk so much she’d passed out. Her thoughts were so saturated with alcohol it was hard to peel them apart, think of what she ought to do. The rain began to fall harder, and her breath came thick and fast, rising fear sharpening her thoughts. She couldn’t work out which direction she was facing. The cliffs were over two hundred feet high, and she couldn’t make out the light from the Beachy Head lighthouse. That could only mean one thing: fog. The Seven Sisters were notorious for the thick mists that swirled in there off the sea.

She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked back and forth, trying desperately to think of what to do. Where exactly was she even? The rock she’d been leaning against earlier wasn’t there any longer. She must have moved. Think – think! Best to stay where she was – yes, wait for dawn. But it was freezing and pouring with rain and there was no shelter. It had been warm for the time of year when she’d driven down and so she’d left her coat in the car.

Oh God, what an idiot she was! She might die of exposure.

Author Info
Catherine Taylor was born and grew up on the island of Guernsey in the British Channel Islands. She is a former journalist, most recently for Dow Jones News and The Wall Street Journal in London. Beyond The Moon is her first novel. She lives in Ealing, London with her husband and two children.