Written by Christina Courtenay
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The blurb:
Ripples Through TimeA 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 ‘Heathen’ Norsemen, but for her the real threats come from within. Eirik, a Viking, 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 – Alix moves to her grandfather's farm in Hereford to heal her broken heart. 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 hounded by the police to find the Viking hoard that his sister and her boyfriend stole from his farm. He must prove his own innocence while struggling with the curious connection he has to newcomer Alix. As they search for the lost treasure, Alix and Noah start to feel the whispers of a love powerful enough to echo through history.
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Magical Places
Have you ever come across a place that feels truly magical? A stone circle or some ancient monument? An old house or ruin perhaps? Somewhere you get an almost tingling feeling, as if the stones or walls have seen so much during the centuries that they are just bursting to tell you.
While doing research for my latest novel, RIPPLES THROUGH TIME, I came across exactly such a place – the so-called Arthur’s Stone in Herefordshire (UK). It’s not just one stone, it’s several, and together they make up a Neolithic chambered tomb (cairn). It is over 5,000 years old and what is left are the large stones that once formed the inner chamber which would originally have been covered by a mound. There are nine upright stone with a capstone on top that is huge – it has been estimated that it weighs more than 25 tonnes.
It is called Arthur’s Stone because it’s linked to a legend about King Arthur killing a giant, but really it has nothing to do with him. Even if he actually existed, the tomb predates him by millennia, but I guess it made for a nice story.
So what does this have to do with my new novel which features Vikings? Well, I needed inspiration for a plot point and this ancient monument proved to be perfect. At the beginning of the story, my hero is wounded and needs somewhere to hide and shelter while he heals. Where better than inside this stone chamber? The upright stones forming the “walls” and the huge slab on top would protect him from the elements, and also from view of anyone approaching.
The whole structure is situated at the top of a hill, so my hero would also be able to see anyone coming which would give him a chance to escape. Excellent! Plus there were probably tales told about the magic of a site like that and the locals might have been reluctant to go there and disturb whatever ancestors were buried underneath. It would all help to keep my hero safe.
On the day I went to see it, other visitors to the monument probably wondered why a crazy woman was crawling underneath and inside the stone structure, but of course I had to find out what it felt like to be in there. How else could I describe what my hero was thinking and seeing? It felt a little bit spooky actually, but also awesome in the sense that you had immense respect for the people who built it so long ago. The thought of that massive stone above my head was a bit scary, but I figured if it had been there for thousands of years, it probably wasn’t about to collapse that very second … and luckily it didn’t!
Besides, my hero is a Viking and they weren’t afraid of anything. A pile of old stones would hold no fears for him. He’d merely see it as a convenient place to convalesce and escape from the rain.
I was very lucky to have Arthur’s Stone near where I live so that I could go and explore it and find the inspiration I needed. It truly felt magical!
| Author Bio – Christina Courtenay |
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 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 20th November 2025) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety). |
| Social Media Links – | |
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