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HER: The Flame TreeHER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha


Publisher:  Gival Press, (October 1, 2023)
Category: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Tour dates: January 16-Feb 23, 2024
ISBN:  978-1940724454
Available in Print and ebook, 280 pages

HER: The Flame Tree

Description HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha



If the fate of unrequited love survives fifty-one years, nine months, and four days in Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera, it leads the way for HER: The Flame Tree, a spare, remorseless love triptych that sweeps through the rich panorama of two generations of colonial and post-colonial Vietnam. The hopeless love of a young eunuch for a high-ranking concubine is one of this novel’s three stories that illuminate the oriental mystery of Vietnam, as epic as it is persevering,

Despite a rich trove of documentary films, Western readers know little of the spiritual face of Vietnam. Framed between 1915 and 1993, HER: The Flame Tree begins in Huế, the former imperial capital Vietnam. It is in the Purple Forbidden City, that Canh, the young eunuch, fulfills his vow to be near the girl of his dreams, a villager-turned imperial concubine.

The novel begins with an expatriate Vietnamese man living in the United States who journeys back to Vietnam to search for the adopted daughter of a centenarian eunuch of the Imperial Court of Huế to find out who she really is. His world takes on a new meaning after he becames a part of her life.

Phượng. Her name is the magnificent flame tree’s flowers that grace the ancient capital of Huế. Her father, mentor of Canh the young eunuch, was a hundred-year-old grand eunuch of the Imperial Court, who had adopted and raised her since she was a baby. Their peaceful world suddenly changed when one day, sometime in the early years of the Vietnam war, Jonathan Edward came into their lives. On his quest to search for his just deceased lover’s mysterious birth, there he met Phượng, an exquisite beauty.

Through the eye of her father, history is retold. Just before the fall of the French Indochina during the last dynasty of Vietnam, a young eunuch hopelessly fell in love with a high-ranking concubine. Once the eunuch had secured the concubine’s trust, it became a fatal attraction. The eunuch died. The concubine, still a virgin, lost her mind. Her father said she was possessed by the young eunuch’s spirit who had been madly in love with her.

HER: The Flame Tree does not have the flavor of historical fiction, plot-heavy and sexually graphic. Rather, it is atmospheric and impressionistic, in the style of Snow Falling on Cedars. The magnificent poinciana flowers, which grace the ancient capital of Huế, symbolize farewell in Vietnamese adolescent romance. Its symbolic image befits Phượng for her magnanimous nature and grace, and the scarlet blossoming flowers when Jonathan Edward bids Phượng farewell is beauty without sadness—Wait and Hope.

Review HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha


‘HER: The Flame Tree’ centers around the life of Phuong. She was adopted by a  eunuch of the Imperial of Huế, in Vietnam. Her name represents the flame tree’s flowers the are all around Huế.

The eunuch had invested in a noodle shop for Phuong to run as a teenager.  He tried to dissuade her, pointing that he could care for her until she marries but she had an independent spirit.  It was while she was working in her noodle shop that she met Jonathan Edward.  He was looking for the daughter of his deceased lover.

Thus begins the story of the eunuch of the last dynasty of Vietnam and his adopted daughter. It covers his young love of high-ranking concubine and how he eventually adopted his daughter, around the fall of the dynasty.

Decades later, Minh, an expat of Vietnam travels back to his home country to speak with Phuong, now an old woman. About her life and that of her father’s.

HER, brings us on a at times, beautiful but at times painful journey as we follow Phuong’s and her father’s journey through time in Vietnam.  Ha’s poetic prose captures the times and place with the force of the powerful flame tree.  He captures the beauty and brutality of life. It is so atmospheric; it just takes your breath away! I have found all of his books to be both beautiful and brutal but this may just be his best one to date! I highly recommend that you read ‘‘HER: The Flame Tree’ and if you haven’t already done so, all of his books.  He just captures the human condition, unconditionally, warts and all in a beautiful, almost spiritual way. 5-stars

About Khanh HaKhanh Ha



Award winning author Khanh Ha is a nine-time Pushcart nominee, finalist for The Ohio State University Fiction Collection Prize, Mary McCarthy Prize, Many Voices Project, Prairie Schooner Book Prize, The University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize, Prize Americana, and The Santa Fe Writers Project. He is the recipient of the Sand Hills Prize for Best Fiction, The Robert Watson Literary Prize in Fiction, The Orison Anthology Award for Fiction, The James Knudsen Prize for Fiction, The C&R Press Fiction Prize, The EastOver Fiction Prize, The Blackwater Press Fiction Prize, The Gival Press Novel Award, and The Red Hen Press Fiction Award.

Website: http://www.authorkhanhha.com
Blog: http://authorkhanhha.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KhanhHa69784776
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorkhanhha
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/khanhha

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Giveaway- HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha



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HER: The Flame Tree by Khanh Ha

Never For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on February 14, 2024
Posted in Book ToursGuest Reviews  | Tagged With: , , , | 1 Comment

Never For Glory by Lloyd LofthouseNever for Glory: Josh Kavanagh Thriller, Book 2 by Lloyd Lofthouse

Publisher: Three Clover Press (June 25, 2023)
Category: Action, Suspense, Thriller, Love Story (but NOT a romance)
Tour dates: January 11-February 22, 2024

ISBN: 979-8988505709
Available in Print and ebook, 293 pages

Never for Glory

Description Never For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse


He’d give his life for his country. But this time, it’s personal.

Josh Kavanagh burns for vengeance. Parachuting with no backup into a lawless area of southern Venezuela, the Special Ops legend is intent on hunting down the rogue agent who put his wife in a coma. But as soon as he gets feet on the ground, the loyal protector discovers he’s dropped into a trap… and a sex trafficking operation run by the Russian mob.

Fighting his way out and desperate to rescue the victims with minimal body count, Josh plans a daring raid on a remote ranch. But after learning the identity of the mastermind behind the hit on a former lover, the talented operative takes the law into his own hands on a hell-bent solo mission for revenge…

Will Josh’s single-minded thirst for justice finish on the wrong side of a gun barrel?

Never for Glory is the pulse-pounding second book in the Josh Kavanagh thriller series. If you like determined heroes, tough conflict ripped from the headlines, and page-turning action, then you’ll love Lloyd Lofthouse’s pursuit of payback.

<Review Never For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse


Guest Review by Mark

‘Sliding his SEAL blade from its scabbard with his right hand from his waist-belt, he didn’t have time to go for a better target higher up, so he went for the man’s liver, buried the blade in it, and twisted.’

Josh Kavanagh has not had a very good run of things lately. And not just because he spends the beginning of this book fighting his way through a landmine-filled patch of southern Venezuela– no, the bad luck began before that.

See, Josh’s wife, Rachel was recently attacked and is now comatose, with little hope of ever regaining consciousness.

Most people might find it difficult to get out of bed under those circumstances, but Josh blocks out his emotions by putting himself entirely into his work. And what is Josh’s work, you ask? He is the commander of a special black ops military group. Which is, of course, not exactly the kind of job where you can call in sick.

Josh and his partner, Cheéte parachute into the Venezuelan countryside to find and capture a man named Damien Bran. Bran is a known sex trafficker and an all-around bad guy. He is also the man that is responsible for Rachel’s attack.

So, it’s safe to say that Josh has several reasons for attempting to capture Bran. But things do not go as easily as Josh plans when he gets his feet on the ground and…you are going to have to read the book to find out exactly what happens!

‘Never For Glory,’ is a dynamite book to sink your teeth into, with lots of heart-pounding action and witty dialog. I had a great time reading this from start to finish and I’m sure that you will, too. If you have not read the first book in the Josh Kavanagh series, ‘The Patriot Oath,’ I would recommend picking that one up as well!

5/5 Stars

About Lloyd LofthouseNever For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse


Multi award winning author, Lloyd Lofthouse is a former US Marine (1965—1968) and combat vet managing PTSD. After the Marines, he went to college and earned a BA in journalism and later an MFA. After working as a nightclub maître d, he taught English and journalism in a public high school. For his first published novel, My Splendid Concubine, Lloyd visited mainland China several times to learn more about that country’s people, culture, and history.

He’s the author of the award-winning novels My Splendid Concubine, Running with the Enemy, The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova, and the memoir Crazy is Normal, a classroom exposé. His short story, A Night at the Well of Purity was named a finalist in the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards.

Websites: http://lloydlofthouse.org/ & https://thesoulfulveteran.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lflwriter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lloyd-Lofthouse-168775989838050/

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Giveaway Never For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse


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Never For Glory by Lloyd Lofthouse

Book Giveaway Winners

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on February 10, 2024
Posted in Book Tours  | Tagged With: | No Comments yet, please leave one

Giveaway Winners

Kiss of Frost and Flame by Ken Czech

With 320 entries, the two winners are:

Renee G and James C.

CONGRATULATIONS!  sTAY TUNED, WE HAVE MORE GIVEAWAYS COMING UP.