Kicking off the week with an excerpt from Ripples Through Time.
Ripples Through Time
Christina Courtenay
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.
Goodreads | Purchase Links | The StoryGraph
Prologue
The longship glided through the water with a muted hiss, the gaping mouth of its dragon’s-head prow parting the veils of early-morning mist that draped the river. The motley crew of men sitting on their travelling kists along the sides dipped the oars in unison, making only the smallest of splashing noises. Anyone listening would have assumed it was a fish slapping its tail fin above the surface, nothing more.
No one spoke. They all knew what to do and looked to their leader for a signal. He stood in the stern, manning the steering oar while scanning the riverbank for the right place to beach his ship. A collection of roofs came into view, looming in the distance, a few curls of smoke beginning to float up into the sky through the thatch. The inhabitants were stirring, but they’d be sleepy and unprepared when the attack came.
One of the crewmen momentarily closed his eyes. He didn’t want to be here. Had tired of this game of cat-and-mouse they’d been engaged in for years. But loyalty and honour forbade him from rebelling and kept him seated, wordlessly working his oar with the rest of them. When the time came, he would jump over the gunwale, sword in one hand, shield in the other, and sprint towards their unsuspecting victims. Surprise was the key. If your enemy didn’t know you were coming, you always had the upper hand. And by the time they realised what was happening, it would already be too late.
The campaign of terror and plunder would carry on until his uncle had had enough. And that would not be any time soon, if ever, because the man was insatiable.
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).
Website | Twitter/X | Instagram | Bluesky | Facebook
everywhere-and-nowhere.com 