Blog Tour: Shattered Peace – A Century of Silence by Julie McDonald Zander

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Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence

by Julie McDonald Zander

July 7th, 2025

Publication Date: March 7th, 2025
Publisher: St. Helen's Press
Pages: 290
Genre: Historical Fiction / World War I / Timeslip

A forgotten diary. A century-old secret. A town still haunted by its past.

When former Navy Seabee Colleen Holmes inherits an old house in Centralia, Washington, she sees it as a chance to escape her own ghosts and start anew. But as she peels back layers of history within the home’s walls, she unearths long-buried secrets tied to a dark chapter in the town’s history.

Hidden behind crumbling plaster, a faded diary and a bundle of love letters unveil the struggles of a soldier trapped in the trenches of France and the heartbreak of those left waiting at home. Yet the diary’s brittle pages hold more than just longing—they bear witness to the explosive events of November 11, 1919, when a parade meant to celebrate peace erupted into violence and bloodshed.

As Colleen pieces together the tragic choices that shattered lives and fractured a town, she realizes history is never truly buried. The wounds of yesterday still shape today, and the past is not done with her yet.

Inspired by true events, Shattered Peace is a gripping time-slip novel of love, loss, and the echoes of history that refuse to fade. Perfect for fans of The Alice Network and The Girl You Left Behind, this haunting tale of resilience, redemption, and the pursuit of truth will linger long after the final page.

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Julie McDonald Zander

Julie McDonald Zander, an award-winning journalist, earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from the University of Washington before working two decades as a newspaper reporter and editor.

Through her personal history company, Chapters of Life, she has published more than 75 individual, family, and community histories. Her debut novel, The Reluctant Pioneer, won a Will Rogers Medallion and was a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Historical Novel.

She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest, where they raised their two children.

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Have a sneak peek between the covers of Lady of the Quay by Amanda Roberts #HistoricalFiction #RecommendedReading

Lady of the Quay

Isabella Gillhespie Series, Book #1

by Amanda Roberts

Knowing she is innocent is easy … proving it is hard

1560, Berwick-upon-Tweed, northern England

Following the unexpected death of her father, a series of startling discoveries about the business she inherits forces Isabella Gillhespy to re-evaluate everything she understands about her past and expects from her future.

Facing financial ruin, let down by people on whom she thought she could rely, and suspected of crimes that threaten her freedom, Isabella struggles to prove her innocence.

But the stakes are even higher than she realises. In a town where tension between England and her Scottish neighbours is never far from the surface, it isn’t long before developments attract the interest of the highest authority in the land, Sir William Cecil, and soon Isabella is fighting, not just for her freedom, but her life. She must use her wits and trust her own instincts to survive.

Lady of the Quay introduces an enticing new heroine who refuses to be beaten, even as it becomes clear that her life will never be the same again.

From the author of the award-winning ‘The Woman in the Painting’.

I watched him saunter away, willing him to slip on the icy ground in his fashionable boots, but he was careful, or maybe lucky, and his feet remained in contact with the rough path. I could think of no polite response to his parting jibe. Instead, I bent down and scooped up a handful of snow, which I rolled into a hard ball in my gloved hands and threw, aiming at his retreating back. It landed a little short and shattered into compacted fragments that skittered and bounced after him, as if they were in pursuit. I thought I heard him laugh as he vanished from my sight, swallowed up into the gloom of the town walls on his way back to the quay. 

What had I done to deserve Richard Elliott in my life? What crime had I committed? I had been composed, my thoughts focused in preparation for my meeting with Mr Young, infused with energy and optimism by my visit to the quay. Now I was unsettled, my mind unfocused and flitting away at tangents, and my skin itched with the unpleasant sensation that an army of ants, or a battalion of spiders, were crawling beneath it.

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This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Amanda Roberts

Amanda Roberts has worked as an Editor in business-to-business magazines for over 30 years, specialising in out-of-home coffee, vending and foodservice / catering, including Editor of the global gastronomy title: ‘Revue internationale de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs’. She currently freelances, editing UK-based healthcare titles – HEFMA Pulse, Hospital Food + Service and Hospital Caterer. 

She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society and West Oxfordshire Writers. She also volunteers for Tea Books (part of Age UK) to run a book club / reading group for elderly people in the community.

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