Author Guest Post with Margaret Izard: Stone of Doubt

In the absence of doubt, only faith is found.

Welcome to the April 14th stop on the blog tour for Stone of Doubt by Margaret Izard with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

Author Guest Post

Topic: Did you have a minor character who insisted on playing a larger role in the story. If so, please tell us about it. And if not, please tell me how you get the characters in your head to behave.

I have based two Series, Stones of Iona and Dragons of Tantallon on secondary characters from one book, Stone of Love, Stones of Iona Series. When I started drafting the first book, Stone of Love, I originally intended the Series to be a trilogy, but I quickly realized each stone had to have its own story. When I realigned the Stones of Iona Series, allowing each stone a love story, the characters and stories exploded into the books I am releasing. Readers and reviewers are intrigued by the characters’ interconnectivity as we navigate the search for the magic Iona Stones.

Here’s how the mega verse all line up with the books.

The Stone of Iona Series.
Human emotion powers the magic stones. Apart, they are strong; together, they are all-powerful. In the wrong hands, the stones could destroy the world. Travel to parts of the world in the present and the past as we follow multiple characters on the quest to restore the Stones of Iona.

Fall in love over and over with the new Series, Stones of Iona. For centuries, the Fae charged the MacDougall family with guarding the magic Fae stones. In one fateful moment, the monarchs of the family die in a horrible accident. In a panic, the Good Fae cast the handheld gems across space and time to protect them from the Evil Fae. The current generation of the MacDougalls must seek the lost stones and return them to the Chapel in the Woods at Dunstaffnage Castle in Scotland for safekeeping for all mankind.

Who are your characters in the Series?

The Fae
Dagda – King of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the good Fae. His wife is Thetra. His daughters Brigid serve the MacDougalls, and Morrigan serves the MacArthurs in their duty to protect and search for the Iona Stones.

Balor, King of the Fomoire Fae, started the Stone Wars by cursing his three dragon-shape-shifting sons to search for the three sacred Stones of Iona, Hope, Faith, and Love, for his evil plot to rule the realms. The three sons find the stones and betray their father by giving the good stones to Dagda, King of the good Fae. The Fae Council sentences their evil father to life in purgatory. Bres is Balor’s wife, who he betrayed and murdered during a Stone War before the books. The three sons, Dameon, Tiberius, and Magnus, are the main characters in the next Series, Dragons of Tantallon, which I hope to release in 2026.

The Main Characters from Stones of Iona and their books

Stone of Love, Book 1. Colin MacDougall and Brielle DeVolt’s love story. Colin is the Laird of the MacDougall clan and guardian of the Stones of Iona. Brielle, an American takes the job to renovate the Dunstaffnage Castle Chapel in the Woods. Colin must travel to the past to assume his ancestor’s identity and find the evil Fae searching for the Stone of Love. Bree trips back in time and falls for Roderick, who is Colin. Note by the end of this book, the reader is introduced to most of the characters in this Series and the next Series, Dragons of Tantallon.

Stone of Fear, Book 2. John MacArthur and Marie Murray’s love story. John is the hereditary captain of Dunstaffnage Castle and is pretty much the castle keeper. Marie assists Brielle with the chapel renovation. Marie and John fall in love while Colin and Bree are in the past, and their love story is told in flashbacks after Marie becomes kidnapped. John must chase her across Scotland in the present and the past to rescue her.

Stone of Lust, book 3. Ainslie MacDougall and Rannick MacRaghnaill’s story. Ainslie is Colin’s sister who grabs Bree, her sister-in-law’s hand, as Bree is kidnapped and forced into a time portal to the Viking times. Separated from her sister-in-law, Ainslie, a modern woman trained in Viking warfare, must team up with Rannick, a jarl serving her ancestor, Lord of Lorne, to rescue Bree.

Thistle in the Mistletoe features a couple from the past in Stone of Love. This book tells how Mary Comyn and Roderick MacDougall must navigate a forced marriage to bring peace to warring clans. This book takes place shortly before Colin’s time travels in Stone of Love, where he assumes Roderick’s identity to find the evil Fae searching for the Iona stone, love.

Stone of Hope, book 4. Dominic Devolt, Bree’s Air Force, adrenaline junkie brother, attempts to save his niece and nephew, Evie and Ewan MacDougall, Colin, and Bree’s twins, when Evie accidentally opens a portal in an Eye of Ra. All three find themselves transported from a museum in Miami to Egypt in the 1930s and into Moira White’s archeological dig, where Uncle Dom and Moira fall for each other while battling the mystic forces of the Egyptians.

Stone of Doubt, book 5. Evie MacDougall, Colin and Bree’s daughter, is a human with Fae powers. Years ago, in Egypt, she met her mysterious Fae love, Aodhán. Now a college grad, she meets the handsome, mysterious Manix Skene, and they start a relationship only to have her Fae crush, Aodhán, return, begging to take her to his Fae realm. She’s a human with Fae powers—and two men want her. One dark and devilish, the other her long-lost love. Which path will Evie choose?

Next in the Series: 
Highlander’s Holly and Ivy is a Christmas companion book that features Alex MacDougall, Mary, and Roderick MacDougall’s son from Thistle in the Mistletoe—taking place after the Battle of Culloden, where Alex is Scotland’s solicitor liaison between the English and the Scottish, serving the courts of Glasgow. Iris Erskine, or as Alex knows her, Ivy, is an English lady pretending to be a Scottish lass, Ivy, to meet the underground Gaels, the highland people meeting in secret to keep their culture alive under the rule of the English King. Coming November 2025.

Stone of Faith, book 6 Ewan MacDougall’s Evie’s twin brother with Fae powers love story. As Ewan shifts his antique ship in time to the Caribbean during the height of pirating raids to rescue enslaved people, he encounters a Fae Siren of the Sea, Lorilai, who is held captive for the power her voice carries that sends men to their deaths. Coming 2025.

Stone of Destiny, book 7. Katherine MacArthur, Evie’s BFF love story, and Marie and John MacArthur’s daughter. Kat, an expert in physics, finds herself reunited with her crush, Ceallach, Aodhán’s Fae cousin, when Ceallach is sent to the human realm to assist with the destiny of the Stones of Iona. Coming 2025.

Evergreen Evermore, a Christmas Companion book in Viking times when the magic stones first arrive in the human realm, features Ewan MacDougall, Ewan of the future’s namesake, who builds Dunstaffnage Castle. His father, Lord of Lorne, tasks him to oversee the delivery of the magic Iona Stones from the Fae via the Isle of Iona. He must protect the stone carrier, Lady Anne Olavsson, till her duty is complete. Coming 2026

Following this Series is Dragons of Tantallon, which features Balor’s three sons, Dameon, Tiberius, and Magnus, introduced in Stone of Love, book 1, Stones of Iona, which I hope to release in 2026.

About the Book

Stone of Doubt
Stones of Iona Book Five
by Margaret Izard

Published 17 March 2025
Wild Rose Press

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Page Count: 216
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

In the absence of doubt, only faith is found.

A human with Fae powers living like an oddball has its ups and downs until Evie MacDougall’s dream Fae boy pops back into her life after she thought another was “the one.”

One dark and devilish, the other her long-lost love. Evil forces trap her for a magic Fae stone, but which man can she trust? As a teen prophesied to be Fae king, Aodhán viewed the girl of his dreams through an Eye of Ra.

Once, he risked all to help Evie MacDougall find a magic Fae stone, only to end up imprisoned. Kept from his true love for years, he finds her at risk from an evil Fae hunting a magic stone. Is a single vow strong enough to save true love, to save the human and Fae realms?

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

Excerpt

Her head shot up, and he stood before her. “Hello, Evie.”

Her hand lifted as she moved it toward him, expecting it to pass through. When she touched his warm chest, she jerked back.

He captured it in his hand. “Aye, I’m real, Evie.”

He brought her hand to his lips and brushed the back, kissing her. Tingles shot from her hand to her heart. Only one person affected her that way. Aodhán.

His grin grew as he lowered her hand. “I’ve been away, and for that, I am sorry. But I’m finally freed. Free to revisit the human realm.”

Tears gathered in her eyes as he gazed into her eyes, her heart. Her Fae love, Aodhán, stood before her and held her hand.

“Evie, please let me make up my absence to ye. Let me show ye new hope and erase all doubt about yer feelings for me.”

She whimpered as a tear fell. “Aodhán?”

His hand came up and caught her tear. He rotated his palm and held it open, presenting a clear gemstone shaped like a teardrop.

Handing it to her, he whispered, “I can only stay a moment, but tomorrow I shall come to ye. I’m glad ye kept the sphere. I heard yer call every time. No more tears, Evie.”

He brushed a kiss on her lips. “Look for me tomorrow night in yer dreams. Don’t lose hope.”

Aodhán faded from her view.

Evie blinked. She turned around once, scanning the area. No one was about.

She turned again, calling out, “Hello?”

No one appeared on the street.

She pulled her camera up and pressed the button. Aodhán’s smiling face and ethereal glow came into view. Proof he’d visited and she’d not seen a ghost.

Her fingers brushed her tingling lips at the promise of tomorrow night.

About the Author

Margaret Izard is an award-winning author of historical fantasy and paranormal romance novels. Her latest awards are 2024 Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention for Stone of Love and 2024 Spring BookFest Silver Award for the same title. She spent her early years through college to adulthood dedicated to dance, theater, and performing. Over the years, she developed a love for great storytelling in different mediums. She does not waste a good story, be it movement, the spoken, or the written word. She discovered historical romance novels in middle school, which combined her desire for romance, drama, and fantasy. She writes exciting plot lines, steamy love scenes and always falls for a strong male with a soft heart. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and adult triplets.

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Giveaway Alert!

Margaret Izard will be awarding a Stone of Doubt Book Swag Box to a randomly drawn winner.

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April 7: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
April 8: Sandra’s Book Club
April 9: Read Your Writes Book Reviews
April 10: Angel’s Book Nook
April 11: The Avid Reader
April 14: Westveil Publishing
April 15: Romance Novel Giveaways
April 16: Gina Rae Mitchell
April 17: Sybrina’s Book Blog
April 18: A Wonderful World of Words
April 21: Author Deborah A. Bailey Blog
April 22: Maggie Blackbird
April 23: The Key of Love
April 24: Fabulous and Brunette
April 25: Dawn’s Reading Nook
April 28: The Book Connection
April 29: Guatemala Paula Loves to Read
April 30: Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books! & It’s Raining Books
May 1: Long and Short Reviews
May 2: Ellwyn’s Blog

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