Today’s release is The Midnight Show by Sarah J. Pennington.
The Midnight Show
Book Description: This mystery is the case of his dreams — and her nightmares.
By day, Dayo Temitrope is a swinging singer, an up-and-coming star with a shining career ahead of her. By night, she’s . . . well, she’s not sure, but whatever she does leaves her every morning with sore feet and worn-out shoes. And after six months, she’s had enough.
Enter Bastian Dennell, a private investigator just trying to get by. When Dayo hires him to find out where she goes at night, he’s sure it’s his big break: his chance to establish himself and get the funds to pay off his family’s debt. Plus, he gets to work with his favorite singer, even if she isn’t exactly what he expected. What could be better?
But first he has to solve the case — which means navigating a tangled web of strange dreams, fair folk schemes, and show business. It will take all Bastian’s wits, along with the shining talents of Dayo herself, to figure out the truth before the curtains close for good on Dayo’s career.
A jazz-age-inspired twist on the Twelve Dancing Princesses from the author of Blood in the Snow.
Sarah Pennington has been writing stories since before she actually knew how to write, and she has no intention of stopping anytime soon. She is perpetually in the middle of writing at least one or two novels, most of which are in the fantasy and fairy tale retelling genres. Sarah’s first published work, Blood in the Snow, received a perfect score and Special Unicorn status in Rooglewood Press’s Five Poisoned Apples contest. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys knitting, photography, and trying to conquer her massive to-be-read list. Find her online at: Website || Blog || Second Blog || Goodreads || Facebook || Amazon
Today is the release day for The Dark King’s Curse by Wyn Estelle Owens.
The Dark King’s Curse
Book Description: A darkness seems to hang over the lands of Conall, slowly but surely growing in strength with each passing year.
It all comes to a head when the twelve daughters of King Muir begin to disappear each night. None will admit where they go, and the only clue is their shoes; new in the evening, tattered and torn by morning.
When no one can stop the disappearances, Ailsa–lady-in-waiting to the youngest princess–volunteers to try and solve the mystery, or she and her peers will pay the consequences for failing to watch over their charges.
Armed with nothing but her gift of Fae-sight, Ailsa ventures forth on a quest to free her lady and the other princesses. With the help of an grumpy, glamoured gardener, a cursed faerie cat, and the mysterious Lord of Autumn, she may discover both the secrets and the truth behind the Dark King that lies at the root of the curse.
Wyn Estelle Owens is the penname of a young woman who’s still figuring out what this whole ‘adult’ thing is all about. She lives in a big, old house in Maryland by a Hundred Acre Wood (dubbed Neldoreth) with her parents, three occasionally obnoxious brothers, her dog Jackie, and her personal plot bunny, Joker. She is fond of reading, writing, drawing, speaking in dead or imaginary languages, playing videogames, quoting classic or obscure literature, being randomly dramatic, and generally making things out of yarn. Her dream is to write stories that inspire people to chase after the wonderful world of storytelling. Her favorite all-time authors are Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Christa Kinde, and above all, J.R.R. Tolkien, who first inspired her to pursuing novel writing when she read the Hobbit at the age of seven.
Today is the day we have all been waiting for! Poison’s Dance releases today! Yay!!!!!!!!! I am really excited to share the next part of Alex’s, Daemyn’s, and Rosanna’s adventures with all of you, and I hope you enjoy it!
To celebrate the release, I currently have Dagger’s Sleep and Midnight’s Curse on sale in the Kindle store. Dagger’s Sleep is FREE while Midnight’s Curse is $1.99. So if you have been waiting to start this series, now would be a good time to pick them up!
Poison’s Dance
Book Description:
Beyond the Tales #3 If he falls to the lure of the curse, the dance might trap him forever.
Alex has survived his first year as high king. The new counsel has improved cooperation between the kingdoms, and peace seems achievable. When the Tuckawassee queen sends him an invitation he can’t refuse, Alex must once again face his greatest threat for the sake of peace.
Princess Tamya of Tuckawassee, along with her eleven sisters, has danced from sunset until sunrise every night of her life. It is her gift and her curse. When Queen Valinda wishes to use the power their cursed dance gives them to rule all of Tallahatchia, Tamya must decide if she will do what is right even if it betrays her own sister.
Daemyn Rand has survived a hundred years’ worth of battles. All he wants to do now is safely marry his princess. Will he be forced to choose between the love of his life and the high king he has loyally served for years?
They have faced certain death before. This time, they might not make it out alive.
Don’t miss this re-envisioning of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale.
Tricia Mingerink is a twenty-something, book-loving, horse-riding country girl. She lives in Michigan with her family and their pack of pets. When she isn’t writing, she can be found pursuing backwoods adventures across the country. Find her online at: Website || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || Amazon
Today’s release is Wrought of Silver and Ravens by E.J. Kitchens.
Wrought of Silver and Ravens
Book Description:
Of MagicMade#1 The rarest magic is the most dangerous.
Athdar Owain is a hunted wanderer, one determined to keep his secrets and the treasure he carries safe at all costs. When he rescues the Kingdom of Giliosthay’s prince from raiders, he’s rewarded by being forced into the king’s elite Silver Guard. While this gives Athdar a temporary home and some protection from those hunting him, it also makes him responsible for the young prince, who still bears curses from the raiders, and seven enchantress princesses with curses as mysterious and dangerous as their brother’s.
Princess Thea of Giliosthay is a Realm Walker. Betrayed by a trusted guard, her rare gift of enchantment is used to curse her brother and trap herself and her six sisters into a nightly dance with dragons in a secret Realm. The Realm’s prince has the ability to take and twist her magic for his own purposes, and Thea fears what those might be. For when one dances with a prince, a kingdom might be at stake.
Athdar alone can save them, but to trust enchanters is to risk exposure. And Athdar isn’t sure where his loyalties lie.
Wrought of Silver and Ravens is a clean adventure-romance retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses set in The Magic Collectors story world.
E.J. Kitchens loves tales of romance, adventure, and happily-ever-afters and strives to write such tales herself. When she’s not thinking about dashing heroes or how awesome bacteria are—she is a microbiologist after all—she’s taking photos, reading, or talking about classic books and black-and-white movies. She is the author of the historical fantasy series THE MAGIC COLLECTORS and of several fairytale retellings. She is a member of Realm Makers and lives in Alabama.
Each year, a group of fairy tale authors sets a challenge to write a retelling of a fairy tale, then release those books together for cross promotion and to build hype for that particular tale. So these books aren’t one series or related to each other except that they are all retellings of the 12 Dancing Princesses fairy tale.
I’m so excited to share about all of these books, and I’m especially excited to finally share Poison’s Dance, where Alex’s, Daemyn’s, and Rosanna’s adventures continue!
Today’s release is The Dancing Princess by Kendra E. Ardnek, who also happens to be the organizer of this fairy tale group challenge each year. She puts a ton of work into helping all of the authors in the group get their books ready, and she deserves an extra round of applause for making this group release happen!
The Dancing Princess
Book Description:
A Twist of Adventure #5 Plagued by nightmares for the last few years, Katrine only wanted answers. Instead, she finds herself trapped in a tangled web of melody as she tries to free a cursed king and his brothers. No one deserves existence such as theirs, but dare she risk her very life?
Kendra E. Ardnek is the self-proclaimed Arista of Fairy Tales. She lives in the Piney Woods of East Texas with her dragon babies and massive herd of mini-giraffes, and she is still waiting for one of of her fifty nutcrackers to come to life and marry her. When not writing, you can usually find her sitting in a random box, and she’s frequently known to act before she thinks. Find her online at: Website || Blog || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter || YouTube || Newsletter || Instagram || TikTok || Amazon
There is still time to sign up for the blog tour or to receive a review copy! If you just want to review, not post for the blog tour, scroll past the first sign up sheet to the second sign up sheet in the link below. You’ll have opportunity to review not just Poison’s Dance, but several other 12 Dancing Princess fairy tales if you wish:
I just set up the Poison’s Dance ARC, so if you sign up for a review copy, you should be getting it next week (hopefully)!
About Poison’s Dance:
If he falls to the lure of the curse, the dance might trap him forever.
Alex has survived his first year as high king. The new counsel has improved cooperation between the kingdoms, and peace seems achievable. When the Tuckawassee queen sends him an invitation he can’t refuse, Alex must once again face his greatest threat for the sake of peace.
Princess Tamya of Tuckawassee, along with her eleven sisters, has danced from sunset until sunrise every night of her life. It is her gift and her curse. When Queen Valinda wishes to use the power their cursed dance gives them to rule all of Tallahatchia, Tamya must decide if she will do what is right even if it betrays her own sister.
Daemyn Rand has survived a hundred years’ worth of battles. All he wants to do now is safely marry his princess. Will he be forced to choose between the love of his life and the high king he has loyally served for years?
They have faced certain death before. This time, they might not make it out alive.
Don’t miss this re-envisioning of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale.
This week Dagger’s Sleep released on audiobook! I’m so excited to have this book finally available in audiobook for everyone (like me) who adores listening to books while driving or doing housework. You can find it here on Audible and here on audiobooks.com. You can listen to a sample on Audible or Amazon if you’re curious how it sounds.
Dagger’s Sleep was produced by Tantor, an audiobook company that produces a LOT of fairy tale audiobooks. I should know. I personally own most of them, lol. I’m so excited to have Dagger’s Sleep join their fairy tale library!
Because Dagger’s Sleep was produced by an audiobook company, it isn’t exclusive to Audible. You’ll be able to find it pretty much everywhere audiobooks are sold, and its available to libraries! So if you can’t afford audiobooks, consider asking your library to add it to their elibrary.
Tantor will also be producing the audiobooks for Midnight’s Curse (scheduled to release Sept. 23) and Poison’s Dance (release yet to be determined).
Dagger’s Sleep is narrated by the amazing Emily Lawrence, and she did a great job working with all the various accents and voices. She really brings Tallahatchia alive, and I’m so excited with how the narration turned out!
Do any of you like audiobooks? Do you listen to them a lot or infrequently? Perhaps never?
If you like audiobooks (fairy tale audiobooks specifically), here’s a list of a bunch of other fairy tale books that are available on audiobook.
Since I have listened to all but one series on this list, you can find my reviews of these books on my Goodreads page in my fairytale book list. Feel free to message me if you want more in depth review about a book.
Produced by Tantor:
Four Kingdoms by Melanie Cellier (in the process of releasing)
Today, I am participating in the blog tour for Beast of the Night!
Book Blurb:
A one-armed, practical girl. A rude lord hiding a curse. A dark secret with the town’s fate hanging in the balance.
A Beauty and the Beast retelling with an Austrian twist and a new breed of curse.
When Rosen moves to Freudendorf—a secluded town in the Alps—with her dad, he vanishes on her and the debt collectors come to call: taking her into slave labor. As if that wasn’t bad enough, just when all her hopes and dreams for a normal life are ruined, a frail zombie-like butler purchases her: taking her to serve Lord Varick, who currently resides in the forbidden castle near the salt mines, where the Beast of the Night is said to roam.
Varick is handsome, with an attitude that’s the exact opposite. The servants aren’t human, and the castle itself is an ugly wreck. But if Rosen cannot solve the dark secret spreading beneath Freudendorf, and the curse holding Varick’s cold heart, then both they and the town will fall prey to a waiting evil—and worse, even lose their memory of it.
E.E. Rawls is the product of a traveling family, who even lived in Italy for 6 years. She loves exploring the unknown, whether it be in a forest, inside a forgotten castle, or within the pages of a book.
She runs on coffee, cuddly cats and the beauty of nature to keep the story wheels of her mind running, as she writes tales that will both entertain and inspire others, giving them worlds they can explore and become lost within.
Today, I am FINALLY revealing the cover for Poison’s Dance, book 3 in the Beyond the Tales series. I am so excited to share this cover. My cover designer, Savannah Jezowski of Dragonpen Designs, knocked it out of the park with this cover!
This cover took us a few tries to get right. It is one of the few times I have ever gotten partway into making a cover (with a model and background picked) and told Savannah, “Nope, I’m not liking this at all. We need to start over.” Amazing, she was nice and patient and didn’t mind that it took 3-4 models, 3 backgrounds, flipping the cover several times, and fiddling with all the sparkles before it was finally just right.
But when this cover finally came together…Eeep! So stunning! The golden leaves swirling around her…the sister lurking in the background…the movement of the dress that perfectly captures the feel of a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling.
Don’t all three books looks so pretty together?
In case you want to see the full cover…
About the Book:
If he falls to the lure of the curse, the dance might trap him forever.
Alex has survived his first year as high king. The new counsel has improved cooperation between the kingdoms, and peace seems achievable. When the Tuckawassee queen sends him an invitation he can’t refuse, Alex must once again face his greatest threat for the sake of peace.
Princess Tamya of Tuckawassee, along with her eleven sisters, has danced from sunset until sunrise every night of her life. It is her gift and her curse. When Queen Valinda wishes to use the power their cursed dance gives them to rule all of Tallahatchia, Tamya must decide if she will do what is right even if it betrays her own sister.
Daemyn Rand has survived a hundred years’ worth of battles. All he wants to do now is safely marry his princess. Will he be forced to choose between the love of his life and the high king he has loyally served for years?
They have faced certain death before. This time, they might not make it out alive.
Don’t miss this re-envisioning of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale.
I am really excited to share this book with you! Alex really comes into his own with this book and finally shows a hint of that heroic high king we all knew was inside there somewhere. Daemyn has his loyalty tested in new ways, and the entire Rand clan gets to let their wild side show.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale, here’s a link that gives a brief explanation. (Yes, it’s Wikipedia. But, for once, it’s accurate enough).
Even more exciting, I’m participating in the Tattered Slippers challenge/group release with Poison’s Dance.
“The Tattered Slippers are part of the Arista Challenge, which is a sort of spiritual successor to the Rooglewood collections, which sadly ended with the Five Poison Apples. However, unlike those books, this is NOT a contest, nor is it a single-volume collection.
Each of the stories published in this release is published on its own, with its own cover, and the author retains all rights. We’re merely releasing together – banding together for promotion, if you will. And all of our books happen to be retellings of the same fairy tale.”
Previous years have done Snow White and Rapunzel. As much as I wanted to participate, I never had a project that fit (I was too busy writing a Sleeping Beauty retelling the year they did Snow White and a Cinderella retelling the year they did Rapunzel). I was super excited when they announced Twelve Dancing Princesses would be the fairy tale this year, since that was the one I was planning for book 3!
Here are all the books that will be participating this year! These covers are stunning, and the books sound even more amazing! You can scroll through the Facebook Party to find posts about each book and author, or you can click the links below to find each book on Amazon.
All of these books sound so amazing, from a detective story to a Greek-inspired to Fae kings.
If you want to help spread the word about these books and the covers, here’s a link where you can download all of the lovely images + bios and blurbs and such. Take the stuff and share it to your blogs/social media and email the organizer (Kendra Ardnek) the link to your post – Kendraeardnek (at) Gmail (dot) com.
EVERYONE who shares the covers (and emails Kendra) will be receiving a early peek at the stories – the first chapter of each (including the first chapter of Poison’s Dance!). This is an exclusive offer you don’t want to miss, so get posting.
*the link will be live through Saturday, and you have until then to post. Thanks so much!
I’m not a part of the official blog tour for Moonscript by H.S.J. Williams, but I read this book last week and it is so amazing I just had to spotlight it anyway.
About the book:
“It is said that Darkness is empty and whatever vanishes into its depths is lost forever. I know this better than anyone. For I have suffered here in the shadows, and there are none who might find me.”
Seventy years. Seventy years the elven prince has been lost to the darkness, assumed dead by his people and endlessly broken for a book that connects to the hidden realm of his ancestors, a land untouched by evil.
And now a light in the shadows. A chance for freedom. But those willing to help him come from the unlikeliest of worlds.
The orphan girl, yearning for a loving family, and the boy who won’t leave her side. A healer maiden given an unexpected chance for a life beyond narrowed expectations. A grieving creature flown far from home.
They all search for something and now their fates are tied to his. If their quest for life can pull him from the dark mire in which his soul drowns, then perhaps he can be saved.
Or else he will drag them all down to a fate worse than death.
The beginning of an epic saga, MOONSCRIPT is a journey of innocence, despair, and redemption.
I have been in a mood for books with elves lately, and it is hard to find good clean books with elves, for some reason. Moonscript hit my reader mood perfectly and then some. Lord of the Rings style elves with deep allegorical themes.
I knew this book was going to be amazing, but even with my high expectations, it still managed to blow me away! It has been several days since I read this book, and I STILL can’t stop thinking about it. The characters, the world, the themes all wrapped me up and touched my heart so deeply. I can’t even express how much.
Errance, oh Errance. If you like tortured heroes, he is definitely one. Tortured for 70 years in the most horrible darkness, this elf prince has a long way to go in finding love and redemption. But when it happens…I don’t often tear up in books, and usually only over a character’s death. But I was tearing up at the end of this book by the depth of his heart and redemption.
Tellie makes a great POV character to balance out what would otherwise be a very dark book. She’s optimistic and giving and loving and will stop at nothing to help the scarred elf prince find his way back home even as she searched for a home of her own.
Kelm, Tryss, Coren, Zizain, the Daisha…all of them play a crucial role and touch the heart. The fact that I even remember the character names (I am so bad with names) just goes to show how real they all are. While there is an expansive world, the author manages to keep the cast of characters small enough to make each one count.
This is the type of book to re-read again and again.
If you like stories about elves, tortured heroes, redemption, and Christian fantasy at its finest, than pick this book up. You won’t regret it!
Thankfully, this book functions as a standalone with a complete plot, but it is the first book in a series. I can’t wait for more books about these characters! This world has so much room for growth and more stories!
This book is definitely going to be one of my favorite reads of the whole year, that’s for sure!
Tricia Mingerink 