Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 55

New Release: Valiant by Sarah McGuire

(US/UK Links)
Valiant by Sarah McGuire is released this week in the US and the UK, see Valiant (UK Link). I'm rather excited about a novel length retelling of The Brave Little Tailor, a very rare occurence.

Book description:

A debut fairy tale reimagining featuring a strong female character and a daring quest just right for fans of Shannon Hale, Jessica Day George, and Gail Carson Levine.

Saville hates sewing. How can she not when her father, the Tailor, loves his bolts of velvet and silk far more than he's ever loved her? Yet, when he is struck ill shortly after they arrive in the city of Reggen, Saville must don boy's clothes in the hopes of gaining a commission from the king to keep them fed.

The kingdom is soon on edge when stories spread of an army of giants led by a man who cannot be killed. But giants are just stories, and no man is immortal.

And then the giants do come to the city gates, two larger-than-life scouts whom Saville cunningly tricks into leaving. The Tailor of Reggen is the hero of the kingdom, the king promises his sister's hand in marriage, and by the time Saville reaches the palace doors, it is widely known that the Tailor single-handedly killed the giants.

When her secret--that she's a girl--is quickly discovered by Lord Galen Verras, the king's cousin, Saville's swept into the twists and turns of court politics. The deathless man is very real, and he will use his giant army to ensure he is given the throne freely or by force.

Now, only a tailor girl with courage and cunning can see beyond the tales to discover the truth and save the kingdom again.

Valiant is a rich reimaging of "The Brave Little Tailor," artfully crafting a story of understanding, identity, and fighting to protect those you love most.

Bargain Ebooks on Sale Today Only!

Amazon has a TODAY ONLY sale: Up to 80% Off the Most Popular Kindle Daily Deals. There are three books on sale that may be of particular interest to readers here. There's actually more outside genre but these were most in line with SurLaLune's themes.


The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows is on sale for $1.99 and is price matched from a sale on B&N.

Book description:

Adventure, intrigue, and romance combine in a new fantasy duology from Incarnate series author Jodi Meadows.

When Princess Wilhelmina was a child, the Indigo Kingdom invaded her homeland. Ten years later, Wil and the other noble children who escaped are ready to fight back and reclaim Wil's throne. To do so, Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate the Indigo Kingdom palace with hopes of gathering information that will help them succeed.

But Wil has a secret—one that could change everything. Although magic has been illegal for a century, she knows her ability could help her save her kingdom. But magic creates wraith, and the deadly stuff is moving closer and destroying the land. And if the vigilante Black Knife catches her using magic, she may disappear like all the others. . . .

The Orphan Queen delivers epic fantasy, perfect for fans of Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.

Libriomancer: (Magic Ex Libris Book 1) by Jim C. Hines is also $1.99.

Book description:

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of the secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. Libriomancers are gifted with the ability to magically reach into books and draw forth objects. When Isaac is attacked by vampires that leaked from the pages of books into our world, he barely manages to escape. To his horror he discovers that vampires have been attacking other magic-users as well, and Gutenberg has been kidnapped.

With the help of a motorcycle-riding dryad who packs a pair of oak cudgels, Isaac finds himself hunting the unknown dark power that has been manipulating humans and vampires alike. And his search will uncover dangerous secrets about Libriomancy, Gutenberg, and the history of magic. . . .

The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman is $1.99. Love this classic myself.

Book description:

William Goldman's modern fantasy classic is a simple, exceptional story about quests—for riches, revenge, power, and, of course, true love—that's thrilling and timeless.

Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that's home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.”

New Release: Briar Queen: A Night and Nothing Novel by Katherine Harbour

Briar Queen: A Night and Nothing Novel (Night and Nothing Novels) by Katherine Harbour was released this week. This is a sequel to Thorn Jack: A Night and Nothing Novel (Night and Nothing Novels) which drew inspiration from Tam Lin.

Book description:

The dark, moody, and mystical fantasy begun in Thorn Jack, the first novel in the Night and Nothing series, continues in this bewitching follow up—an intriguing blend of Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alice in Wonderland, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream—in which Finn Sullivan discovers that her town, Fair Hollow, borders a dangerous otherworld . . .

Serafina Sullivan and her father left San Francisco to escape the painful memory of her older sister Lily Rose’s suicide. But soon after she arrived in bohemian Fair Hollow, New York, Finn discovered a terrifying secret connected to Lily Rose. The placid surface of this picture-perfect town concealed an eerie supernatural world—and at its center, the wealthy, beautiful, and terrifying Fata family.

Though the striking and mysterious Jack Fata tried to push Finn away to protect her, their attraction was too powerful to resist. To save him, Finn—a girl named for the angels and a brave Irish prince—banished a cabal of malevolent enemies to shadows, freeing him from their diabolical grip.

Now, the rhythm of life in Fair Hollow is beginning to feel a little closer to ordinary. But Finn knows better than to be lulled by this comfortable sense of normalcy. It’s just the calm before the storm. For soon, a chance encounter outside the magical Brambleberry Books will lead her down a rabbit hole, into a fairy world of secrets and legacies . . . straight towards the shocking truth about her sister’s death.

Lush and gorgeously written, featuring star-crossed lovers and the collision of the magical and the mundane, Briar Queen will appeal to the fans of Cassandra Clare’s bestselling Mortal Instruments series and Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely.

New Book: Valiant by Sarah McGuire

(US/UK Links)
Valiant by Sarah McGuire was released a few weeks ago. This is a fun one since it is a rare Brave/Valiant Little Tailor novel. It had a simultaneous UK release with Valiant (UK Edition).

Book description:

A debut fairy tale reimagining featuring a strong female character and a daring quest just right for fans of Shannon Hale, Jessica Day George, and Gail Carson Levine.

Saville hates sewing. How can she not when her father, the Tailor, loves his bolts of velvet and silk far more than he's ever loved her? Yet, when he is struck ill shortly after they arrive in the city of Reggen, Saville must don boy's clothes in the hopes of gaining a commission from the king to keep them fed.

The kingdom is soon on edge when stories spread of an army of giants led by a man who cannot be killed. But giants are just stories, and no man is immortal.

And then the giants do come to the city gates, two larger-than-life scouts whom Saville cunningly tricks into leaving. The Tailor of Reggen is the hero of the kingdom, the king promises his sister's hand in marriage, and by the time Saville reaches the palace doors, it is widely known that the Tailor single-handedly killed the giants.

When her secret--that she's a girl--is quickly discovered by Lord Galen Verras, the king's cousin, Saville's swept into the twists and turns of court politics. The deathless man is very real, and he will use his giant army to ensure he is given the throne freely or by force.

Now, only a tailor girl with courage and cunning can see beyond the tales to discover the truth and save the kingdom again.

Valiant is a rich reimaging of "The Brave Little Tailor," artfully crafting a story of understanding, identity, and fighting to protect those you love most.

June Bargain Ebooks: Lots of Great Choices

It's a new month which means it's a new list on the monthly Kindle books for $3.99 or less. This is one of the strongest lists in a while--there are quite a few children's and YA titles this time, too, probably in anticipation of summer reading needs. I picked some of the titles most pertinent to SurLaLune readers to share here.


The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christoper Healy is $1.99 and was a favorite of my niece Leighton upon its release. So much so that she left my house with my copy and we paid full price for the rest of the trilogy upon release.

Book description:

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You’ve never heard of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as Prince Charming. But all of this is about to change.

Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, the princes stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it’s up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other assorted terrors, and become the heroes no one ever thought they could be.

Christopher Healy’s Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is a completely original take on the world of fairy tales, the truth about what happens after “happily ever after.” It’s a must-have for middle grade readers who enjoy their fantasy adventures mixed with the humor of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Witty black-and-white drawings by Todd Harris add to the fun.

The Council of Mirrors (The Sisters Grimm Book 9) by Michael Buckley is $1.99. I didn't own this one in ebook yet so I bought it, too. The final book of the Grimm Sister series.

Book description:

In the final volume in the Sisters Grimm series, Sabrina, Daphne, and the rest of the Grimms and their friends must face off against the Master to decide the fate of Ferryport Landing--and the world. When Mirror fails to escape the barrier using Granny Relda's body, he turns to his plan B: killing all the Grimms so that the magical barrier collapses. In the meantime, Sabrina has gathered the other magic mirrors as advisors on how to deal with their mortal enemy. They tell her to join forces with the Scarlet Hand against Mirror, in exchange for offering all the citizens of Ferryport Landing their freedom. This final chapter is the end of the road for several beloved characters, but the conclusion is sure to satisfy devoted fans of the series.

Storybound by Marissa Burt is also $1.99. This is part one of a two part series.

Book description:

When Una Fairchild stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her school library, she thinks nothing of opening the cover and diving in. But instead of paging through a regular novel, Una suddenly finds herself Written In to the land of Story—a world filled with Heroes and Villains and fairy-tale characters.

But not everything in Story is as magical as it seems. Una must figure out why she has been Written In—and fast—before anyone else discovers her secret. Together with her new friend Peter and a talking cat named Sam, Una digs deep into Story's shadowy past. She quickly realizes that she is tied to the world in ways she never could have imagined—and it might be up to her to save it.

Little Sister And The Month Brothers by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers is also $1.99. This is one of my favorite versions of the hundreds of ATU 480 Kind and Unkind Girls tales, which are often misidentified as ATU 510 Cinderella, like in the description for this book.

Book description:

Little Sister is very busy doing all the work around the house and the yard. But she doesn’t mind: she sings and hums, and she grows prettier and prettier as she does her chores. Her wicked stepmother and stepsister can’t stand the fact that Little Sister is so happy. One day, they tell Little Sister to bring home violets in the middle of winter—or not to come home at all!

How Little Sister gets help from the Month Brothers in the forest offers a delightful twist on this Slavic version of Cinderella.

Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood is $1.99, too. Not fairy tale related but a fantasy with culinary elements that will hopefully appeal to those kids who like to watch Food and Cooking channels with their parents.

Book description:

Rosemary Bliss’s family has a secret. It’s the Bliss Cookery Booke—an ancient, leather-bound volume of enchanted recipes like Stone Sleep Snickerdoodles and Singing Gingersnaps. Rose and her siblings are supposed to keep the Cookery Booke under lock and whisk-shaped key while their parents are out of town, but then a mysterious stranger shows up. “Aunt” Lily rides a motorcycle, wears purple sequins, and whips up exotic (but delicious) dishes for dinner. Soon boring, nonmagical recipes feel like life before Aunt Lily—a lot less fun.

So Rose and her siblings experi-ment with just a couple of recipes from the forbidden Cookery Booke.

A few Love Muffins and a few dozen Cookies of Truth couldn’t cause too much trouble . . . could they?

Kathryn Littlewood’s culinary caper blends rich emotional flavor with truly magical wit, yielding one heaping portion of hilarious family adventure.

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs is $1.99. A mermaid book for the beach.

Book description:

Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it's not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you're a normal teenage girl, but when you're half human, half mermaid, like Lily, there's no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily's mermaid identity is a secret that can't get out, since she's not just any mermaid—she's a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn't feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she's been living on land and going to Seaview High School ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems—like her obnoxious biker-boy neighbor, Quince Fletcher—but it has that one major perk: Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren't really the casual dating type—the instant they "bond," it's for life.

When Lily's attempt to win Brody's love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily ever after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.

Wings by Aprilynne Pike is also $1.99. A fairy book to read on the beach.

Book description:

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

New Book: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

(US and UK covers)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik was released this month and it's a fun fantasy adventure building on many fairy tale tropes. In other words, you're probably going to enjoy it if you read it. I did. It is also new in the UK at Uprooted (UK edition).

I read the first few books in Novik's Temeraire series and then my interest died down. I remember loving the first few books, so I am not sure why I lost interest. But when I saw that Novik was writing in a new world, I was interested again. After all, this book has dragons and fantasy and some fairy tale influence, too, which is a little more in my catnip jar than the Temeraire series. Throw in references to Baba Yaga and other fairy tale tropes such as Beauty and the Beast--I am definitely up for a read.

I was not disappointed. This book offered a fun adventure with some sexual politics thrown in for good measure. I was entertained and amused while relieved with strong writing, too. Because all too often those are not mutual traits for a book. Most importantly, I liked Agnieszka, the heroine. Novik gives her a strong voice and grand adventure that earned this book a place on my permanent shelf--after I lend it to my niece this summer.

Book description:

Naomi Novik, author of the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.

“Every so often you come upon a story that seems like a lost tale of Grimm newly come to light. Uprooted is such a novel. Its narrative spell is confidently wrought and sympathetically cast. I might even call it bewitching.”—Gregory Maguire, bestselling author of Wicked and Egg & Spoon

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Pelops and Hippodamia: A Grateful Dead Tale from Ancient Greece

Time for another Grateful Dead tale found in The Grateful Dead Tales From Around the World (SurLaLune Fairy Tale Series). This one is from Ancient Greece.

The myth of Pelops and Hippodamia as recorded by Theopompus, a Greek historian who lived c. 378 BC–c. 315 BC, provides another instance of a Grateful Dead character. In some of his surviving fragments of writings, Theopompus tells of how Pelops wins Hippodamia’s hand and becomes king of Pisa by defeating her father, Oenomaus, in a chariot race. According to Gordon Shrimpton, in Theopompus the Historian,* Theopompus thus describes Pelops’ experiences on the way to Pisa:

Cillus his driver died. And in a dream he stood over Pelops, who was in great distress over him, and lamented his own death and made requests about a funeral. Therefore, when he awoke, he reduced his corpse to ashes in a fire. Next he buried the ashes of Cillus magnificently, raising a mound over him. Beside the mound he founded a temple which he called the temple of Apollo Cillaeus because of the suddenness of Cillus’ death. What is more, he also founded a city and called it Cilla. Cillus, however, even after death appears to have helped Pelops’ cause in order for him to defeat Oenomaus in the race.

The details of how exactly the deceased Cillus helped his master are lost in antiquity but Theopompus provides enough details to firmly enter this myth in the Grateful Dead canon.

*Shrimpton, Gordon. Theopompus the Historian. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1991. p. 265.

A Knot in the Grain: and Other Stories by Robin McKinley for $1.99

A Knot in the Grain: and Other Stories by Robin McKinley is on sale in ebook format for $1.99. It is usually in the $6-7 range.

Book description:

Magical stories set in alternate universes . . . tales of curses and gifts of healing . . . a wizard who has lost his powers . . . and a princess, a troll, and a teenage girl are featured in this diverse collection from Newbery Medalist Robin McKinley

In “The Healer,” Lily was born mute, but she has so great a natural gift for healing that the local midwife and healer takes her as an apprentice. One evening, riding home, she meets a stranger on the road who can speak to her silently, mind to mind. Overjoyed, she takes him home to Jolin—but Jolin can read the mage-mark on him and fears for Lily’s safety, for mages are not to be trusted.

In “The Stagman,” Ruen is a princess and will become queen on her name day—if her uncle, the Regent, greedy for the power that should belong to his niece, cannot think of a way to prevent it. And so he invents portents and a purifying ritual that involves chaining Ruen to a rock in an old place of sacrifice, not used since her great-grandfather’s day, and leaving her there alone. Night falls on her despair and in the flickering torchlight she sees the shadow of a man—or of a man with a stag’s antlers—or perhaps of a great stag.

In “Touk’s House,” a witch adopts a woodcutter’s baby daughter and raises her along with her own son, whose father was a troll. Erana grows up knowing she is loved, and loving in return—but on her seventeenth birthday she realizes she must leave her foster mother and her best friend and find where in the world she belongs.

In “Buttercups,” an old man marries a young wife and takes her home, but he feels unworthy of her vivid youth and risks all for a tremendous prize, in an act of what in his heart he knows is a betrayal of the wild magic that lives on his farm.

In “A Knot in the Grain,” Annabelle has no choice when her parents decide they will move to a small town upstate, the summer before Annabelle’s junior year of high school. She spends the summer reclaiming the neglected garden of their new house and reading books from the local library. She also finds a mysterious wooden box in a tiny hidden study above her attic bedroom: a box containing smallish, roundish, nobbly things Annabelle can’t identify, but which are faintly warm to the touch—and which seem to be curiously aware of Annabelle, her loneliness, and her longings.

Call for Papers: American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore

For any of you who are knowledgeable in American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales, this is a great project. True story, my first published writing credit while in grad school was contributing to The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia. I had studied Alcott on  my own and volunteered to pick up some of the entries, namely Dress Reform, some of the short stories, and Alcott's book, Eight Cousins. A lovely experience...that was filled with stress looking for resources that are so more readily available now thanks to the internet.

CFP: American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore

ABC-CLIO is publishing a three-volume reference collection titled American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore in early 2016. The editors seek contributors from fields of literature, history, anthropology, sociology, folklore, and allied subjects to write entries ranging from 750-2500 words on a wide range of topics. The purpose of the encyclopedia is to introduce students and general readers to the key myths and legends in North American culture, and to provide extensive, easily accessible coverage of the multifaceted American folklore tradition.

ABC-CLIO intends to offer an up-to-date, attractive resource based on current scholarship in the field, including useful illustrations, selections from primary texts, informative sidebars, and references for further reading and research. Entries will provide coverage of diverse traditions within the genre of folklore and mythology, including Native American traditions, and include treatment of newer traditions such as urban legends and UFO stories.

Contributors will receive publication credit in the encyclopedia and may choose from several options for compensation. The editors will send information about compensation upon request.

Writers should contact the editors to request a list of available entries. Send name, title, institutional affiliation (if applicable), mailing address, email address and a current CV to:

Jeffrey B. Webb
Edwina Patton Chair in the Arts & Sciences and
Professor, Department of History
Huntington University
2303 College Avenue
Huntington, Indiana 46750
USA
email: jwebb@huntington.edu

New Release: Illusionarium by Heather Dixon

(US/UK Links)
Illusionarium by Heather Dixon is released this week in both the US and UK link. See Illusionarium (UK Link). This is a fantasy novel that doesn't have fairy tale elements to my knowledge, but Dixon's last novel was the bestselling Entwined--which did use fairy tales--so I thought I would share here. Plus I really like the cover.

Book description:

What if the world holds more dangers—and more wonders—than we have ever known? And what if there is more than one world? From Heather Dixon, author of the acclaimed Entwined, comes a brilliantly conceived adventure that sweeps us from the inner workings of our souls to the far reaches of our imaginations.

Jonathan is perfectly ordinary. But then—as every good adventure begins—the king swoops into port, and Jonathan and his father are enlisted to find the cure to a deadly plague. Jonathan discovers that he's a prodigy at working with a new chemical called fantillium, which creates shared hallucinations—or illusions. And just like that, Jonathan is knocked off his path. Through richly developed parallel worlds, vivid action, a healthy dose of humor, and gorgeous writing, Heather Dixon spins a story that calls to mind The Night Circus and Pixar movies, but is wholly its own.