Guest Post (and GIVEAWAY) for Tatterhood by Dawn Ford!!!

 

Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for Tatterhood by Dawn Ford, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About the Book

Title: Tatterhood
Series: Band of Unlikely Heroes #3
Author: Dawn Ford
Publisher: ScrivKids
Release Date: January 28, 2025
Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy

Troll Princess Horra Fyd and young druid Rowan team up to reverse the evil Erlking’s spells and save the creatures across the Wilden Lands. However, Fairy Princess Glory Toppenbottom is still a thorn in Horra’s side. After Horra and Glory have a heated fight, Glory sneaks out of the castle. She is bent on finding the Erlking to reverse the hex he cast on her. This creates a political disaster when the Glory’s sister announces she’s coming to retrieve Glory.

Angered by Horra’s treatment of a royal guest, King Fyd proclaims Horra to be Queen Bearer. She becomes the ad hoc ruler, freeing her father from the scandal. Shocked, Horra assents. Her first move is to find the missing fairy princess before it becomes an interkingdom war. They form a search party and leave.

The Erlking stalks their every move. When the only choice points them toward the Riven, a cursed hidden land, they don’t hesitate. They find Glory is already there, but are immediately separated. The Riven is nothing like anyone imagined. Will they survive the Erlking’s magical traps, or will they, like everyone else, perish within its borders?

PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon

More Books in This Series

 

Research Needed for the Book
by Dawn Ford

My first published work was a flash fiction piece titled Bona Fide Beauty, about three stepsisters. It’s a twisted fairytale where two fairy sisters cast a spell on their ugly troll stepsister, turning her beautiful against her will. That unleashed an idea in my mind for a middle-grade twisted fairytale book. The Band of Unlikely Heroes series was born. This series features four unlikely heroes who battle an evil Erlking who is bent on taking over their kingdom for his own nefarious purposes.

In this series, I wanted to find an actual fairy tale no one had used before. I came across an old Norwegian tale, a type of Cinderella story, titled Katie Woodencloak where a girl runs away from her evil stepmother. This is itself a twisted tale where a bull helps a girl secure the heart of a prince. In the story, I found a nugget of an idea that I used for the first book in this series: the woodencloak.

Unlike in Katie Woodencloak, the actual woodencloak becomes an integral part of my series. In Woodencloak, my first heroine, a troll princess, has her castle overtaken by mesmerized fairies. She has to flee with her instructor’s seedling, which when planted in the magical Weald forest, will grow into the next great druid who can keep the balance of good and evil in their world, the Wilden Lands. She is gifted a woodencloak to help disguise her so she can get to the Weald in time to plant the seed. When wearing it, she looks like a tree or boulder to whoever looks upon it.  

My villain had to be something unique, so I studied evil characters and chose the Pied Piper because it’s rarely used, except possibly in Shrek. Here, I twisted him to fit what I needed in a villain. In my series, an evil elf calling himself the Erlking uses charmed pan flutes to mesmerize creatures to do his bidding. He also steals children and releases curses upon the land as all evil villains are want to do.

Because I’m a fan of The Lord of the Rings and Guardians of the Galaxy, and I love trees, I’ve always wanted to create a tree creature that would help save a kingdom. My woodgoblin druid, created from the seed my troll princess takes to the Weald, comes into play. He stars in the second book of this four-book series, Mossycoat. He’s brilliant, but has been unrooted so fast he doesn’t have any emotional or social maturity. Those he will have to grow along the way.

In the third book, Tatterhood, we revisit the fairy princess who took over our first heroine’s castle. She’s disgraced and disfigured now thanks to the Erlking hexing her, and is bent on getting her beauty back. She’ll do anything it takes to bargain with the Erlking, no matter what, and it makes for a thrilling ride. In the story, the fairy princess learns what is really important in life.

The last book, slated to come out in November of 2025, follows our last unlikely hero, a giantess girl turned beast in Woodencloak. (Title yet to be revealed) I’ve always loved Beauty and the Beast, and so in this book, the Erlking’s magic changes a bookish giant girl into a beastly creature. Afraid of her own shadow, my giantess will have to embrace her ferocious nature to help the other three rescue the stolen children, including her own bug-loving sister, and unravel the secrets of the Erlking’s music magic to stop him from taking over the Wilden Lands.

About the Author

Winner of the 2016 ACFW Genesis Award and Finalist in the 2023 Carol awards and 2024 Realm Makers Realm awards, Dawn Ford has been recognized for her published and non-published works.

As a child, Dawn often had her head in the clouds creating scenes and stories for anything and everything she came across. She believed there was magic everywhere, a sentiment she has never outgrown. Nature inspires her, and her love for the underdog and the unlikely hero colors much of what she writes.

Connect with Dawn by visiting dawnfordauthor.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email newsletter updates.

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Tour Giveaway

(3) winners will each receive a $15 Amazon gift card, a signed paperback copy of Tatterhood, and one eBook copy of Woodencloak and Mossycoat!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight January 27, 2025 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on February 3, 2025. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

Enter Giveaway

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Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!