The Sleeping Giant by Tammy Lowe is a Stress Busting Book Festival pick #yalit #timetravel #yatimetravel #mustread #giveaway
- N. N. Light
- 8 hours ago
- 5 min read
Title: The Sleeping Giant
Author: Tammy Lowe
Genre: Action-Adventure, YA/Young Adult, Juvenile Fiction, YA Time Travel
Book Blurb:
When a tormented man begs 17-year-old Elisabeth London to travel back in time to save his life, she reluctantly agrees. Assuming Scotland is the destination, she ends up in Ancient Rome instead.
The good news is she finds the man; now a bold 17-year-old named Aquarius. The bad news is he’s an indentured slave, sentenced to death in the arena, and doesn’t even know her yet. Elisabeth helps Aquarius escape and becomes an outlaw herself. Armed with her wits and his rock sling, the new friends are on the run from a relentless slave dealer, Rufus Leptis.
Elisabeth soon realizes she’s not here to save Aquarius from Rufus, but from the doomed city of Pompeii. Although trying to be brave, the thought of remaining in Aquarius’ swashbuckling world a minute longer than necessary is inconceivable.
At least, it used to be.
Before that darn, happy-go-lucky slave stole her heart.
Excerpt:
She ran up the steps to the front door, but stopped when something caught her eye. A streetlight across the road flickered, and a man stood beneath it watching her. He tipped his head in acknowledgment and then walked away. As she watched his familiar, melancholy stride, her hand fell from the handle. She sucked in a quick breath.
He was back.
Elisabeth dropped her school bag on the porch, raced down the stairs and to the edge of the sidewalk, tapping her foot while a lone car rattled past. When the road was clear, she sprinted across the street to the gazebo where he waited.
Could it really be him?
With his back to her, for a moment she felt uncertain. The tattered rags were gone, replaced with a sport coat and jeans.
“David? David Perrier?”
He turned around and a single glance revealed an aching down to the core.
Elisabeth’s breath hitched. “Oh my gosh, it’s really you. I have so many questions. For five long years, I’ve wanted answers and you’re my only hope.”
“Five long years?” He shook his head and the smallest of smiles appeared on his face before disappearing again. “It’s been over three hundred and seventy-five years since you and I last spoke.” David sat on the bench and patted the space next to him. “Sit.”
Elisabeth couldn’t take her eyes off him as she sat. His tidy brown hair was darker than she remembered and a five o’clock shadow hid his fair skin, but those electric blue eyes, framed with thick eyebrows, were recognizable anywhere. “So it is true. You don’t age. You look the same as when I last saw you. Not a day over…nineteen? Twenty?”
David stared at his hands. “Something like that.”
Elisabeth wanted to drop to her knees and beg for answers, but stayed composed. “When we last spoke, in Scotland, you said you knew me.”
“Like the back of my hand.” He turned toward her and took a deep breath. “I know you like the back of my hand.”
Flustered by the intensity brimming in his eyes, Elisabeth struggled to speak. “But… how?”
Instead of answering, he gazed out at the sea as the waves lapped against the shore. “I’m so sorry, but you have to go back,” he said, breaking the silence.
She swallowed the lump in her throat.
“You’re seventeen now. The first time we met, we were seventeen. Remember I told you that you saved my life?”
Buy Links:
Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/36n2mtdd
Google Books: https://tinyurl.com/4cd7uwbh
What’s your favorite way to combat stress?
My favourite way to combat stress it to disappear into my little fairytale garden amongst the flowers with a book in hand.
I collect mostly German and French historical roses, and when they are in bloom, the smell is intoxicating.
One of my roses is the oldest cultivated striped rose in existence. She has a romantic history unlike any other. Henry II had the grave of his mistress and true love, Rosamund Clifford, adorned with these blooms every year—hence its name, Rosa Mundi. After discovering her husband’s affair, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine confronted Rosamund and gave her a choice: death by dagger or poison. Rosamund chose poison.
In the 15th century, Botticelli painted this rose bush in the background of The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child. She’s graced the walls of Pompeian houses, been adored by Egyptians, and now...she grows quite happily in my garden too.
Being Canadian, with our long winters, I like to de-stress during the colder months by lighting one of my candles. I collect Cire Trudon candles — they've been around since 1643 and were the official supplier to the French Royal Court. Marie Antoinette would have been surrounded by their soft glow in her private rooms.
Each scent is a story in itself. One candle smells like the polished floors of Versailles, while another transports me straight to the Tuileries Gardens. One of my favorites, when I’m stressed, is inspired by the journey of water and refers to the myth of Shangri-La. These fragrances are more than just smells; they tell stories and carry me away to different places and moments in time.
Why is your featured book a stress busting read?
The Sleeping Giant is the perfect stress-busting read because it combines adventure, romance, and time-travel in a way that sweeps readers away from their daily worries. The story’s escapism is key—it transports readers to an ancient world filled with swashbuckling adventures where you can’t help but forget about real-world stress.
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Open internationally.
Runs May 1 – 31, 2025
Drawing will be held on June 1, 2025.
Author Biography:
An adventurer at heart, Tammy has explored ruins in Rome, Pompeii, and Istanbul (Constantinople) with historians and archaeologists.
She’s slept in the tower of a 15th century castle in Scotland, climbed down the cramped tunnels of Egyptian pyramids, scaled the Sydney Harbour Bridge, sailed on a tiny raft down the Yulong River in rural China, dined at a Bedouin camp in the Arabian Desert, and escaped from head-hunters in the South Pacific.
I suppose one could say her own childhood wish of time traveling adventures came true…in a roundabout way.
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