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Ravens Hill blog tour includes an exclusive excerpt below. Enjoy, comment, subscribe, and share.

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Book Title and Author Name:

Ravens Hill

The Atheling Chronicles, Book #5

by Garth Pettersen

Blurb:

When Harald, the second son of King Cnute, returns from fighting the king’s enemies in Northern Wales, he expects his life to return to normal⸺farming in the Midlands, overseeing his few tenants, evening walks with his beloved Selia⸺an idyllic life, far from the power-mongering of King Cnute’s court. But the king has other plans for Harald and his wife—he grants them a large landholding, a gift they cannot refuse.

On arriving at their new holding, Ravens Hill, Harald and Selia receive a tepid welcome⸺from belligerent housecarls, a conniving steward, an uncompromising abbess, bitter at not adding their estate to her abbey lands, a priest with roaming hands, and a grieving daughter of the previous landholder, who has entered the nunnery.

Harald and Selia wish to improve the lot of their tenant farmers but they face obstacles at every turn, and Harald’s generosity is seen as weakness. They also learn the lands come with an unexpected millstone—an unsolved murder. And then the trouble begins.

[Fans of Bernard Cornwell will love Ravens Hill—part of the award-winningAtheling Chronicles series.]

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Link:

https://books2read.com/u/317MEw

Publisher’s Author Page with series links: http://www.tirpub.com/gpettersen

Author Bio:

Garth Pettersen is an award-winning Canadian writer living in the Fraser Valley near Vancouver, BC, Canada where he and his wife board horses. Pettersen has a BA in History from the University of Victoria and is a retired teacher. His short stories have appeared in anthologies and in journals such as Blank Spaces,The Spadina Literary Review, and The Opening Line Literary ‘Zine. Garth Pettersen’s historical fiction series, The Atheling Chronicles, is published by Tirgearr Publishing and is available through most online outlets. Book #4 in the series, The Sea’sEdge, received a first-place Incipere Award. Book #5, Ravens Hill, was released on April 15,2025.

Author Links:

Website:http://www.garthpettersen.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/garpet011

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/writeandride/

Book Bub:https://www.bookbub.com/authors/garth-pettersen

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/garthpettersen

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15059599.Garth_Pettersen

Ravens Hill Blog Tour Excerpt #2

Later, when Selia and I were alone in our bed-chamber, I shared my thoughts.

“I feel as if I have crossed a bridge without knowing it.”

Sitting on the bed in her linen under-dress, Selia unpinned her braid from where she had it wound upon the crown of her head. She untied the braid and taking up the walrus-ivory comb I had given her, began combing out her long fair hair. “And do you feel there is no way back across the bridge?”

“No. I feel the bridge has been swept away.” I pulled my tunic over my head.

“Then you know what that means.”

I gazed at her for a moment. “That we must move forward.”

Selia combed.

“We have not had time to properly discuss the king’s grant,” I said. “Are you pleased, despitewhat Godwin told us about Queen Emma’s interest?”

Selia stopped combing. Her chest rose with the intake of breath. “It pleases me to see youhonored and valued.”

“But?”

“I am pleased that it keeps us in Engla-lond. Though if we had wanted to manage a large estate, we could have stayed in Frisia. I love our steading at Copt Hewick and our life there, Harald. And I have just got you home.”

I sat upon the bed and took her hand. “I love our home, too. And all the time I was away, I longed to be returning to you. But with this estate, this túnortún land, we will be together. We will appraise it together, and decide whether to leave it under management or to work it ourselves.”

“It’s as you say—‘the bridge has gone.’”

“And there is the king’s hand in this. The wealthier and more influential we become, the stronger we will be to withstand the storm when my father passes.”

“When your brother, Harthacnute, assumes the throne.”

I unfastened my soft-leather shoes, slipping off one, then the other. “We can still live in CoptHewick and have property elsewhere, as we do with your Frisian estate⸺providing we have a trustworthy steward on the new property. We can decide after we have ridden the túnland.” I undid my drawstrings and worked my linen breeches down my legs.

Selia pulled loose strands from her comb. “Then I look forward to seeing the estate. Perhaps there are improvements we can make on the land. And perhaps we can help the tenants prosper, perhaps we can even charm the neighboring abbess.”

I stood and tossed my breeches over a storage chest. I gazed at my lovely wife, appreciating her support and partnership, and wishing I could heal the sadness that sometimes gripped her. “My thoughts as well,” I said, and then leaving all thoughts of the future aside, I drew Seliato me and then, in each others’ arms, we lay back on the bed