April Tea Party ~ Roseanna M. White & AMC's Turn

Welcome to the Tea Party!

With spring officially upon us and espionage in the air, join us today on Long Island ~ the birthplace of American's first spy ring!

Do pull up chair--and make sure it's one with a view of our screen, because today we're not only talking books and tea, we're also taking a sneak peek at AMC's new TV series, Turn ~ featuring the same Culper Ring that Roseanna M. White wrote her series of books about!

Today, we're serving you from Roseanna's own Lefton china tea set.

and featuring her strawberry banana cake

 Do describe for us your historical gown of choice that you've arrived in. Roseanna loves her historical fashion, and though she was tempted to dress in Colonial garb in honor of the blog and Turn, she decided instead to tip her hat to Marietta from Circle of Spies and don a Victorian gown with a butterfly pattern to celebrate the coming of spring.

Now that you're all settled, let's chat about spies! We at the Colonial Quills are very excited that AMC is launching on Sunday a new series set in the Colonial era and following the escapades of the Culper Ring, American's first spy ring. Turn uses as its primary source Alexander Rose's amazing book, Washington's Spies (click here to read the review), which was also the primary source of Ring of Secrets, the first in White's Culper Ring Series. To sweeten it even more for those of us at the CQ, the show was filmed at Shirley Plantation, which has been featured here before!

Turn premiers this Sunday, April 6, at 9 p.m. EST on AMC. It promises to deliver action and depth as it follows Abraham Woodhull ~ Samuel Culper himself! ~ into the world of intrigue. If you haven't seen anything about this show yet, here's a preview!

The series begins when the Culper Ring began, with Benjamin Tallmadge recruiting Abraham Woodhull. The series will incorporate Caleb Brewster, the fearless seafarer, and Austin Roe, a courier. Later the series will no doubt introduce "Samuel Culper, Jr." ~ a.k.a. Robert Townsend, the historical figure seen most often in White's Ring of Secrets.

But where Turn will likely only continue through the Revolutionary War setting, Roseanna White's latter two books delve into the "what if?" of the Culpers. What if they reactivated during the War of 1812? That was the premise of book 2 in the Culper Ring Series, Whispers from the Shadows. 

And then what about the Civil War? By then, espionage was no longer considered such dirty business, and both the Union and Confederacy had spies about everywhere. What if the Culpers were still working behind the scenes, influencing those other secret agents like Pinkerton's Intelligence Agency and the Confederacy's Knights of the Golden Circle?

Circle of Spies follows the great-granddaughter of the Revolution's spies into a show-down between those two groups. Marietta is forced into the Culper Ring when she discovers a KGC castle hidden under her Baltimore home--and is charged with protecting the brooding agent Pinkerton sends in to infiltrate. All her life she had focused on flirtation and had hidden an amazing gift God had given her: a perfect memory. But now she must finally embrace faith and purpose...and learn to trust her own reckless heart.

Today's Giveaways!

#1

We are giving away one copy

(winner's choice of signed paperback or digital)

of Circle of Spies.

To enter for the book, just leave a comment below!

(this is exclusively for Colonial Quills readers!)

#2

A 3-pearl necklace, similar to the one

featured in the Culper Ring Series!

#3

The complete Culper Ring Series

Enter for #2 and #3 through Rafflecopter

(this giveaway is also on www.RoseannaMWhite.blogspot.com)

a Rafflecopter giveaway