Monday, September 30, 2019

Unicorn Book Feature - One Horn To Rule Them All by Various Authors


Sybrina's Unicorn Book Pick

Unicorns!  How we love them. . .Luckily for all of us unicorn lovers there are hundreds of unicorn books available for all age groups.  I have gathered information about as many as I can find and have placed them here for you in one convenient spot on my blog.  Today's Unicorn Book Feature is


One Horn To Rule Them All

A Purple Unicorn Anthology

 By Various Authors

Unicorns, with their single ivory horn, are elusive and magical creatures of myth. Yet even more elusive are the purple unicorns.

First sighted at the Superstars Writing Seminar, their legend has grown year after year until it could only be contained in this anthology. Nineteen storytellers, including Peter S. Beagle, Todd McCaffrey, and Jody Lynn Nye, as well as new and rising authors, invite us into worlds both near and far, across a desert oasis, a pet shop, a Comic-Con exhibition floor, and more, and show us the many variations of purple unicorns, from the imaginary to the actual—and one very memorable half-unicorn, half-potato.

One Horn to Rule Them All is an unforgettable collection of imagination and creativity. So, saddle up, and take a ride beyond the rainbow.

All profits benefit the Superstars Writing Seminar Scholarship Fund.

Get it at Amazon.





Find hundreds of unicorn books for all ages at Sybrina's Blue Unicorn Book Store.




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Sunday, September 29, 2019

Journey To Osm - The Blue Unicorn's Tale Reader Review by LL Thomsen


Journey To Osm - The Blue Unicorn's Tale

 Reader Review by LL Thomsen




This is one beautiful fantasy adventure and the metal horn unicorn tribe take centre stage! Wow there's so much imagination gone into telling this tale and even if you are not 'unicorn mad', the fantastic fantasy creatures and worldbuilding will make you feel transported to an entirely new original realm. Though this could be a book for any age, I'd say that kids and young teens will particularly enjoy this book and it's a perfect introduction to readers wanting to get more familiar.



Get the book in print for your fantasy library collection.



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Saturday, September 28, 2019

Unicorn Book Feature - The Hunt of the Unicorn by C. C. Humphreys


Sybrina's Unicorn Book Pick

Unicorns!  How we love them. . .Luckily for all of us unicorn lovers there are hundreds of unicorn books available for all age groups.  I have gathered information about as many as I can find and have placed them here for you on my blog.

You can also find many more for all ages at Sybrina's Blue Unicorn Book Store.

 Today's Unicorn Book Feature is



The Hunt of the Unicorn

 By C. C. Humphreys

Elayne thinks the old family story that one of her ancestors stepped through a tapestry into a world of mythical beasts makes a great fireside tale. But she lives in the real world. In New York City. And she's outgrown that kind of fantasy.

Until she finds herself in front of a unicorn tapestry at the Cloisters museum and sees her initials woven into the fabric. And hears a unicorn calling to her. And slips and falls—into that other world.

Suddenly the line between fantasy and reality isn't so clear. But the danger is real enough. Almost before she can think, Elayne is attacked by a ferocious beast, rescued by a unicorn, and taken prisoner by a tyrant king. Each of them seems to have an idea about her—that she's a hero, a villain, dinner!

But Elayne has a few ideas of her own. She wants to overthrow the king; she wants to tame the unicorn. She wants to go home! And she's willing to become both hero and villain to do it.

Get it at Amazon.





Find hundreds of unicorn books for all ages at Sybrina's Blue Unicorn Book Store.




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Lone Star Book Blog Tours - Angel Thieves by Kathi Appelt


ANGEL THIEVES
by
KATHI APPELT
Young Adult / Magical Realism / Historical / Contemporary
Publisher: Atheneum / Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Date of Publication: March 12, 2019
Number of Pages: 336

Scroll down for the giveaway!



An ocelot. A slave. An angel thief.

Multiple perspectives spanning across time are united through themes of freedom, hope, and faith in a most unusual and epic novel from Newbery Honor–winning author and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt.


Sixteen-year-old Cade Curtis is an angel thief. After his mother’s family rejected him for being born out of wedlock, he and his dad moved to the apartment above a local antique shop. The only payment the owner Mrs. Walker requests: marble angels, stolen from graveyards, for her to sell for thousands of dollars to collectors. But there’s one angel that would be the last they’d ever need to steal; an angel, carved by a slave, with one hand open and one hand closed. If only Cade could find it…

Zorra, a young ocelot, watches the bayou rush past her yearningly. The poacher who captured and caged her has long since lost her, and Zorra is getting hungrier and thirstier by the day. Trapped, she only has the sounds of the bayou for comfort—but it tells her help will come soon.

Before Zorra, Achsah, a slave, watched the very same bayou with her two young daughters. After the death of her master, Achsah is free, but she’ll be damned if her daughters aren’t freed with her. All they need to do is find the church with an angel with one hand open and one hand closed…

In a masterful feat, National Book Award Honoree Kathi Appelt weaves together stories across time, connected by the bayou, an angel, and the universal desire to be free.

CLICK TO PURCHASE
BRAZOS BOOKSTORE  ◆  BLUE WILLOW BOOKSHOP  ◆  BOOK PEOPLE
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PRAISE FOR ANGEL THIEVES:
Spiritual, succinct, and emotionally gripping. 
-- School Library Journal

A heartfelt love letter to Houston that acknowledges the bad parts of its history while uplifting the good. -- BCBB

Shows the best and worst sides of humanity and underscores the powerful force of the bayou, which both holds and erases secrets.  
-- Publishers Weekly

Narrative strands are like tributaries that begin as separate entities but eventually merge into a single thematic connection: that love, whether lost or found, is always powerful. -- Horn Book

Richly drawn and important. -- Booklist, starred review





One Small Sentence
Guest Post by Kathi Appelt

I want to tell you a small part of my experience of writing Angel Thieves. To a certain extent, all of my books feel a bit slippery as they come into being, but this one was like trying to walk a dozen cats on the ends of a dozen leashes. The various story lines kept getting tangled up and twisted. There were moments when I just wanted to toss it all, for sure. And just when I thought I had it in place, it slipped away again.

In fact, the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) is basically draft #38 out of maybe 52 drafts? (I stopped counting a year ago). Anyways, I made substantial changes to the manuscript after the ARC came out, so if you happen to have one, use it to study and show how a book can change from one draft to another, especially when it comes to the ending.
There are over fifty-thousand words at play here. It took me three years to get those words all arranged in just the right way. And yet . . .

Yet . . .
There was one sentence that just kept eluding me. One critical sentence. Only three words long.

It first occurs on page 83 when my young protagonist Cade has just come face to face with his biological mother for the first time. At six years old, the trauma of it was overwhelming and Cade did the only thing he could think to do—ducked into the bathroom and locked the door.

Minutes later, he hears his dad Paul on the other side of the door, who tells him the best words ever: “I’ll always be right here.” Of course, those are perfect words to say to a kid who has just experienced a major moment in his life. They’re satisfying and comforting and all of that. They work well in that particular time and space.

But fast forward ten years and 213 pages. Now on page 296, Cade is sixteen, and he is the one who is in the position of being the comforter. I wanted him to say those exact best words ever, in an attempt to pull the story threads together. And while “I’ll always be right here,” suffices, it’s just not exactly right.

My friends, that sentence drove me nuts. I kept trying to massage it, to rub it into something more pliable and that suited both instances more fully. I could not figure it out. I kept changing it, kept trying other sentences, other words.

I knew what I wanted both Paul and Cade to express, I knew what their hearts had to say, but the way to say it kept slipping from my grasp. I can’t tell you how frustrating that was.
However, even more frustrating was the moment when I realized the exact right sentence, because by then it was too late. The book had already gone to the printer. I had this eureka moment, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

The good news is that my wonderful editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, was able to make the change for the audio edition (which is brilliantly read by my daughter-in-law Laurel Kathleen), and if the book is lucky enough to go to a second printing, then it’ll show up then. But if it doesn’t, I hope you’ll write it in on pages 83 and 296.

“There’s love enough.” This is what Paul should have said to Cade, which in turn Cade says to Zorra. “There’s love enough.”


In so many ways, I feel like that small, three-word sentence is what the entire book is about. It means that when love is present, it doesn’t take mountains of it to create a miracle. It doesn’t require quantification. Love is love is love. When it’s present, there’s enough. And that’s what matters.


Kathi Appelt is the author of the Newbery Honoree, National Book Award finalist, PEN USA Literary Award–winning, and bestselling The Underneath as well as the National Book Award finalist The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Maybe a Fox (with Alison McGhee), Keeper, and many picture books including Counting Crows and Max ... Attacks

She has two grown children and lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband and their six cats. She serves as a faculty member at Vermont College of Fine Arts in their MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program.

-------------------------------------
GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!
THREE SIGNED COPIES OF ANGEL THIEVES
SEPTEMBER 24-OCTOBER 4, 2019
(U.S. Only)

VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR
9/24/19
Book Trailer
9/24/19
Book Trailer
9/25/19
Review
9/26/19
Guest Post
9/26/19
Guest Post
9/27/19
Review
9/28/19
Guest Post
9/28/19
Guest Post
9/29/19
Review
9/30/19
Review
10/1/19
Playlist
10/1/19
Author Interview
10/2/19
Review


10/3/19
Review


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Friday, September 27, 2019

Goddess Fish Promotions - Fire Song by Tanya Anne Crosby



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Tanya Anne Crosby will be awarding signed copies of the Daughters of Avalon series (3 books)(US ONLY) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Fire Song
by Tanya Anne Crosby

GENRE: Historical Romance/Fantasy


Praised for her beauty and grace, deep down, Seren Pendragon fears a tempest rising inside her. Her mother is a witch, her sisters are in peril, and she has been promised to a beast of a man who's already murdered one king. When she and her youngest sister seize the opportunity for escape neither realizes how much their struggle will cost, and it will take a terrible tragedy to unleash Seren’s inner fire and true nature.



The Bastard of Warkworth is no stranger to misfortune. Everything he held dear vanished one night in a wisp of smoke and fire, and he has been scarred by his encounters with Seren's own mother, Morwen Pendragon. Even so, when one of the witch’s daughters finds herself in trouble, Wilhelm must find the champion within and ride to her rescue.


Read an Excerpt



“Where are you going?” she asked in surprise.



“Home,” he said irascibly.



“Nay, my lord—not lest you mean to go by ship. And you’ll not put me on another one after what I have witnessed. You would have to gag and bind me, and tis not very likely I would stand still to allow it.”



“I am not your lord,” he said again. “I’m no man’s lord.” And he kept riding, without bothering to turn back. Seren cast Jack a bewildered glance. The boy shrugged.



It was her habit, she supposed, to call every man of consequence lord. Somehow, it seemed better to give Wilhelm deference, but he clearly did not like it. And yet, he behaved like a willful lord, doing whatsoever pleased, keeping whatever pace he saw fit, and never bothering to ask what Seren would like to do. Hadn’t he said he was here to help? Well, he hadn’t had very much to say since insisting she accept his aid.



“Wait here,” she said to Jack, and spurred her mare to catch up with the sour-faced lout. “I do not mean to disparage you,” she confessed. “Tis but that you seem more a lord to me than most lords do.”



He grunted in answer, but kept going, and Seren frowned.



How was she supposed to travel with his man, who seemed so intent upon ignoring her? He hadn’t said much of anything since retrieving Jack.



“What in the name of St. Afan would you have me call you if not lord?”



“Wilhelm,” he replied. “And since when do you Pendragon sisters swear by the name of saints?”



Seren lifted her chin. “I lived most of my life in a priory,” she informed him. And then she whispered, “I cannot very well swear by the Goddess, can I? Else Jack will wonder.”



“Well,” he said. “That’s your fault. Had you left the boy in Dover you wouldn’t have to pretend you are someone you are not. And anyway, I doubt he knows St. Afan, either.”



Had he somehow taken offense? “Do you know St. Afan?”



“Nay,” he said. “And neither do I aspire to. He’s some Welshman, by the sounds of him. But, more importantly, do you know who he is?”



Seren frowned. “Nay, sir. I do not,” she confessed. “Though I did hear Father Ersinius invoke him on occasion. I am not so much impressed by saints.”



“What are you impressed by?”



Seren bristled. She was not going to confess herself to this impertinent stranger. “What I wouldst like to know is what you wish me to call you if not lord—can you, please, stop! Please?” She reined in her horse, peering back at Jack, who was staring at them with furrowed brows.



“Nay,” he replied, without turning.



Seren sighed, and moved forward once more. “Where are you going?”



“Home, I said.”



She furrowed her brow. “You are not going home! Did you not read that sign? You are going to Ramsgate, returning to the ocean, and, once again, I will remind you that lest you have a ship, or you and your horse would like to have a good swim, the road to Canterbury is the road best traveled.”



Finally, he stopped, turning to look at her, and his cheeks appeared to bloom. Without a word, he spun his mare about, trotting back toward Jack, who was still waiting right where Seren left him. Wilhelm passed him by, never sparing him or the signpost a glance.



He couldn’t read, she realized, with blinding insight.



About the Author:

Tanya Anne Crosby is the New York Times/USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including works of women’s fiction, suspense, historical romance and fantasy. Known for stories charged with emotion and humor and filled with flawed characters, she is an award-winning author, and her stories have garnered reader praise and glowing critical reviews.



Tanya has been featured in magazines, such as People, Romantic Times and Publisher’s Weekly, and her stories have been translated into eight languages. Her first novel (Angel of Fire) was published in 1992 by Avon Books, where she was hailed as “one of Avon’s fastest rising stars.” Her fourth book (Once Upon a Kiss) was chosen to launch the company’s Avon Romantic Treasure imprint. She and her writer husband currently split their time between Charleston, SC, where she was raised, and northern Michigan, where the couple make their home.



Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanyaannecrosby/

Website: https://www.tanyaannecrosby.com/



Buy Links:



Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Daughters-Avalon-Tanya-Crosby/dp/1947204378

KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/fire-song-11

BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fire-song-tanya-anne-crosby/1130052932



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

The Blue Unicorn's Journey To Osm Reader Review by Sherry F

The Blue Unicorn's Journey To Osm

 Reader Review by Sherry F




There’s no place like home…OSM means awesome.

He is supposed to be their savior. But how can that be possible? He has no magic.He feels an outsider, he just doesn’t fit in. Does anyone feel a touch of Rudolph in this?The fun, colorful, imaginative illustrations are wonderful, filled with fantastical creatures, both good and bad.Each creature is unique, individual, just like in real life.Is there such a thing as a fish unicorn? If so, imagine the possibilities.Set your imagination free.The Blue Unicorn…reads like old time fairy tales…where life and death choices are made…And …maybe, you will learn why you never see a unicorn.This magical fantasy filled with fun and humor, sadness and happiness, and lessons learned. We are not alone.


Get the book in print for your fantasy library collection.


Want the book?  Just click on the appropriate book icon in the left sidebar of this blog.



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