11 May Vicky Adin Sarah’s Destiny #HistoricalFiction #VictorianWomen #workingclasswomen #enduringlove #Bristol #widows #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @cathiedunn

FEATURED AUTHOR: VICKY ADIN

I’m delighted to welcome Vicky Adin as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held between April 21st –  May 12th, 2026. Vicky Adin is the author of the Historical Fiction / Women’s Historical Fiction, Sarah’s Destiny (The Ancestors),  published by AM Publishing NZ on April 2025 (354 pages). 

Below are highlights of Sarah’s Destiny, Vicky Adin’s author bio, and her fascinating guest post about the historical research for the novel. 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2026/03/blog-tour-sarahs-destiny-by-vicky-adin.html

HIGHLIGHTS: SARAH’S DESTINY

Sarah’s Destiny
(The Ancestors)
By Vicky Adin

Blurb:

Young Sarah Daniels is the heart, soul and future of The White Hart Inn on the Welsh Back. Alongside the quay and wharves on Bristol’s floating harbour, she dreams of finding love, and a destiny where she can escape the drudgery and tragedy that life usually delivers Victorian women. But dreams are free, and few share her ideals. When reality strikes, and Sarah learns the hard way that life is unkind, one man offers her hope.

Through many decades of heart-aching loss, false promises and broken dreams, the young widow clings to that one hope. With six children to care for, she takes risks few others would consider. She breaks conventions and makes sacrifices to keep that hope alive.

Will her wishes come true, or is she destined to be another unfortunate in the sea of many?

Any Triggers: Grief, abuse, attempted rape (gentle)

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/3LPag7

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

AUTHOR BIO: VICKY ADIN

Like the characters in her books, Vicky has a passion for family history and a love of old photos, antiques, and treasures from the past. After researching the history of the time and place, and realising the hardships many people suffered, Vicky knew she wanted to write their stories. Tales of love and loss, and triumph over adversity. Her latest release, Sarah’s Destiny, Book 1 of The Ancestors series, is inspired by a true love story set in Bristol.

Vicky particularly enjoys writing inter-generational sagas, inspired by true stories of early immigrants to New Zealand, linked by journals, letters, photographs, and heirlooms.

She’s an avid reader of historical novels, family sagas and women’s stories and loves to travel when she can. She has a MA(Hons) in English and Education. Her story of Gwenna won gold in The Coffee Pot Book Club Women’s Historical Fiction Book of Year in 2022 and several of her books carry the gold B.R.A.G medallion.

Author Links:

Website: www.vickyadin.co.nz

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VickyAdinAuthor/

Pinterest: https://nz.pinterest.com/nzvicky/the-ancestors/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/vicky-adin

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Vicky-Adin/author/B006JTB0VE

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6543974.Vicky_Adin

GUEST POST BY VICKY ADIN
HISTORICAL RESEARCH ON SARAH’S DESTINY

While I’m a novelist and I make things up, historical accuracy has always been important. History is what guides the storyline of all my novels, but genealogy inspires the characters.

I’d stepped sideways in the hope of finding a link for my third and fourth great-grandparents and was astounded by what I discovered. Intrigued, I began to think I’d found a story worth telling, but my cast of characters had lived in Bristol, a place I’ve never visited.

I had little choice but to do extensive research and spent as many hours researching Bristol as I did finding the real-life Sarah, who inspired Sarah’s Destiny, the first book in The Ancestors series. I think I utilised every repository of historical information available in Bristol including family history groups, bloggers writing about the Lost Pubs of Bristol, public transport history, seafarer’s lists, archived and interactive maps, council and government archives, engineering organisations, libraries, and many, many more.

Google Earth gave me the opportunity to ‘follow’ in the footsteps of my ancestors as I ‘wandered’ around the city, both old and modern, making connections and pinpointing buildings and institutions that Sarah would have known, seen built, or had not been in existence at the time.

The maritime history of Bristol is immense dating back several hundred years. Long before the construction of the famous floating harbour in 1809, shipping had been a vital part of Bristol’s economy and way of life. Coastal trade, especially from Wales flourished despite the many dangers of crossing the notorious Bristol Channel.

Through archived maps I found the White Hart Inn where Sarah grew up, one among many along the Welsh Back. A ‘back’ is a Bristolian word for a wharf and the Welsh Back is the cobblestone street running along the length of the floating harbour. That is where the trows, (specially designed boats with folding masts to get under the low bridges) tied up to unload their wares. Today, the area is still dotted with as many bars and restaurants as it was in Sarah’s time.

I’d found Sarah on every census from 1841, starting as a seven-year-old through to 1901. Alongside those records were numerous birth, death, or marriage certificates, baptismal records, newspaper articles and notices. The more I researched, the more I wanted to recreate her story. The time period was a fascinating era, with all its morals and codes and laws and mores, but human nature being what it is, those codes were not always followed.

We can never know what people said or how they felt or behaved, we can only surmise. What writers do is fill in the gaps. I wrap the history of the time around their lives and love imagining what life had been like for them. During Queen Victoria’s reign, a lot was happening, including the opening of the Crystal Palace in London and the Crimean war amongst many other things. For Bristol, the major historical event, of course, was the construction of the Bristol Suspension Bridge in 1864 and what that meant to an already prosperous and progressive city moving towards the 20^th century. The bridge’s dedicated website and the newspaper archives provided far too much material about the construction, the delays, the arguments, and the financial constraints, until culminating eventually in a celebration with all its pomp and ceremony. Deciding what to include and what to leave out was a challenge.

The publication of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management and the serialisation of Charles Dickens’ stories both added context and depth to Sarah’s character. Did either she or her mother actually read or use these books? I will never know, but I do know Sarah was literate.

The Bristol dialect and unique words also had to be taken into consideration when writing dialogue. I visited many websites, learnt new words, and listened to many pronunciations trying to capture the essence at least. I would never claim I mastered the nuances, but hopefully I signalled my best intention.

A newspaper article gave me a real-life report on her visit to the courthouse as a witness in a murder trial, and the licencing papers provided details of the associated dates and venues.. Such details provide my framework but the characters provide the resulting drama.

Sarah’s life was full of drama. She broke conventions but was loyal and determined. She loved deeply and committed to a life most other Victorian women would have considered unliveable. Research gave me the facts; her story fills the gaps. I hope I have done her justice.

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