Monday, October 30, 2017

A Sleeping Beauty Re-telling Must Read!


Prepare yourself for a wonderfully told re-telling story of the sleeping princess!

Goodreads Summary:

A kingdom burns. A princess sleeps. This is no fairy tale.

It all started with the burning of the spindles.

No.

It all started with a curse…

Half sisters Isabelle and Aurora are polar opposites: Isabelle is the king’s headstrong illegitimate daughter, whose sight was tithed by faeries; Aurora, beautiful and sheltered, was tithed her sense of touch and her voice on the same day. Despite their differences, the sisters have always been extremely close.

And then everything changes, with a single drop of Aurora’s blood—and a sleep so deep it cannot be broken.

As the faerie queen and her army of Vultures prepare to march, Isabelle must race to find a prince who can awaken her sister with the kiss of true love and seal their two kingdoms in an alliance against the queen.

Isabelle crosses land and sea; unearthly, thorny vines rise up the palace walls; and whispers of revolt travel in the ashes on the wind. The kingdom falls to ruin under layers of snow. Meanwhile, Aurora wakes up in a strange and enchanted world, where a mysterious hunter may be the secret to her escape…or the reason for her to stay.

My Take:

I never cared for the classic Sleeping Beauty movie, so I was hopeful that I would like this retelling.  Jumping from different character’s points of view helps to keep any story new and fresh and I absolutely adored that about Spindle Fire.  I immediately loved the twist of Aurora having a half-sister in this story.  Definitely makes the princess character seem a bit more relatable.  I actually think I preferred Isbe to Aurora in many different instances and wished that she was the princess here and not the weak and feeble Aurora. Alas, there could be no Sleeping Beauty retelling Aurora and she did come into her own.  A very complex character in my opinion, who grows and when you can see growth in a character in any story, you know you are reading a great book, by a great author.
The many different fairies in this tale make this retelling unique as well.  Malfleur and Belcoeur definitely give us a lot of excitement and awe.  I was on the edge of my seat quite a few times, not able to put this book down. There was so much magic and it was epic!  Fans of YA fantasy will love this retelling in my opinion.


I felt the story took off right from the beginning.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the girls having such main characters tithed from themselves, although it definitely made this story its own and stand out for me at the same time.  Maybe I just can’t be happy?  Nah, I was enveloped by this story and could imagine every scene in my head with Gil and Heath.  However, the romance in this story is not the highlight which I love.  It’s a story of sisters and trust and determination in a world full of evil and magic and obstacles to keep them from each other.

 

I felt that Hillyer’s writing was very engaging and raw with an exquisite prose and intense relationships, containing so many elements of a fantastical world of fairies and magic and 
royalty.  I could not have asked for a better retelling and I am in such high anticipation of the sequel, Winter Glass to come in 2018! 





About the Author: Lexa Hillyer

 I'm the author of Spindle Fire (coming April 2017 from Harper!), Proof of Forever, and the poetry collection Acquainted with the Cold, which won the 2012 Foreword Book of the Year Award's Gold Prize for Poetry. I'm also the co-founder of creative development company Paper Lantern Lit. My poetry was anthologized in Best New Poets 2012, and appears in several journals. I live in Carroll Gardens with my husband, daughter, and a very skinny orange tree. Follow me on instagram @ProofOfLex and twitter @Lexa_Hillyer !  (Author bio from Goodreads.)

Saturday, October 7, 2017

The Memory Trees With Giveaway!!!




ABOUT THE BOOK

The Memory Trees
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: October 10th 2017
Genre: Young Adult, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Paranormal
 
Synopsis:

The Memory Trees is a dark magical realism novel about a mysterious family legacy, a centuries-old feud, and a tragic loss that resurfaces when sixteen-year-old Sorrow returns to her mother’s family orchard for the summer.

Sorrow Lovegood’s life has been shaped by the stories of the women who came before her: brave, resilient women who settled long ago on a mercurial apple orchard in Vermont. The land has been passed down through generations, and Sorrow and her family take pride in its strange history. Their offbeat habits may be ridiculed by other townspeople—especially their neighbors, the Abrams family—but for the first eight years of her life, the orchard is Sorrow’s whole world. 

Then one winter night everything changes. Sorrow’s sister Patience is tragically killed. Their mother suffers a mental breakdown. Sorrow is sent to live with her dad in Miami, away from the only home she’s ever known.

Now sixteen, Sorrow’s memories of her life in Vermont are maddeningly hazy; even the details of her sister’s death are unclear. She returns to the orchard for the summer, determined to learn ore about her troubled childhood and the family she left eight years ago. Why has her mother kept her distance over the years? What actually happened the night Patience died? Is the orchard trying to tell her something, or is she just imagining things?

Buy Links:


                                            


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kali Wallace studied geology and geophysics before she decided she enjoyed inventing imaginary worlds as much as she liked researching the real one. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, F&SF, Asimov's, Lightspeed Magazine, and Tor.com. Her first novel, Shallow Graves, was published by Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins in 2016. Her second novel, The Memory Trees, will follow in 2017. She lives in southern California.









1 signed hardcover copy of THE MEMORY TREES by Kali Wallace (US Only)


Direct Link:


There is a preorder giveaway: anybody who preorders by 10/10 can get a signed bookplate and some bookmarks if they send an email to thememorytrees@gmail.com.


Shadowcast by Crystal D. Grant Spotlight & Excerpt

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