Between Two Worlds Book Release!

Happy release day to Between Two Worlds by Cheyenne van Langevelde! This is a stunning Roman/Celtic historical fiction novel which I had the honor to copyedit, and I’m so excited it’s out in the world today!

Check out the rest of the post for my mini review, book info and links, and a challenge giveaway over on Instagram!

My Mini Review

Inspiring historical fiction with lovely writing and two characters who wrapped themselves around my heart. (Lucius and Enid forever!) The historical detail is well done and feels vivid and alive. (A couple of grittier details for historical accuracy, so just that small warning.) I loved the deeper themes as well. Stunning. Historical fiction fans, and those interested in ancient Rome, early Christian history, or Celtic twists, check this one out!

(Disclaimer: I was a copyeditor for this, but as an unbiased reader I definitely would have enjoyed it too. 😉 Lovely.)

Links

• Goodreads
• Amazon
• Author’s Website

About Between Two Worlds

Enid hates the Romans who enslaved her. Broken-hearted over the life she lost in Britain, she vows to bury her name and her past where the Redcrests can never reach it. As years of servitude pass, bitter resignation replaces her longing to return home.

Then an unlikely friendship with a fellow outcast raises Enid out of her isolation, bringing both hope for the future and questions about the confusing God of the Christiani. Yet memories of her childhood haunt her, urging her to cling to her old identity, while the barriers of Roman society remain in the way of her deepest dreams. The peace she thought she made with the past is crumbling.

But time is running out for Enid and those she loves. Danger threatens the household she serves as persecution stalks her few friends. She must decide if risking it all for the one she loves is worth giving up the world she knows.

Even if it is a choice between life and death.

Instagram challenge/giveaway!

If you’re on Instagram and have time for a challenge pic or two, check out these prompts for the challenge giveaway the author is having! (And check out her account here: @thedancingbardess)

(image by @thedancingbardess)

(photo by @thedancingbardess)

Giveaway info

Rules:

• simple, just choose a day (or all of the days if you want) to post something related to that day’s prompt. It can be #bookstagram or something as simple as a nature snapshot, etc. Nothing too difficult and if you have any questions, ask the author @thedancingbardess!

• when you post, please use the #betweentwoworldsnovel tag so the author can see your post and enter you into the giveaway!

GIVEAWAY U.S.: Winner will receive signed paperback, thank you note, two character cards, a bookmark, and chocolate covered coffee beans

INTERNATIONAL: Winner will receive e-book, two character cards, and a thank you note

In short, there are two winners! You can enter this giveaway through participating in this IG challenge! Each day/post counts as one entry.

And there we are! Are you a fan of Celtic things or Roman things? Let me know in a comment! Thanks for reading!

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Oath of the Outcast Cover Reveal!

I’m popping out of hiatus to share this EPIC COVER REVEAL!!

I’m SO excited to share the cover for OATH OF THE OUTCAST, C.M. Banschbach’s new novel releasing from Crosshair Press this July! (You may remember me constantly shrieking about it under the old title, The Mountain Baron, because I LURVE IT.)

LOOOOK AT THE SHINY!!

AAAHH! IT’S SO EPIC AND STUNNING AND GORGEOUS. I’M SO EXCITED.

I beta-read an earlier version of this book and GUYS. It’s SO SO GOOD. I’m super excited to read the final version, and that it’s releasing to the wide world in just a couple of months so everyone else can read iiit!

It’s a slightly dark but totally epic saga, featuring OUTLAWS and FANTASY and REDEMPTION and a CELTIC FEEL and my favorite smol floof of anger management issues, Rhys MacDuffy a.k.a. the Mountain Baron, OF COURSE.

Check out all the details, including the summary and preorder details (IT’S RELEASING AT THE REALM MAKERS CONFERENCE) in the official post or on Claire’s blog!

#OathoftheOutcast #TFTDK

What do you think?? I’M SO EXCITED. Isn’t it epic? 😀

Top Ten Tuesday: Books and Songs

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The theme of this week’s Top Ten Tuesday (a weekly book/list linkup at The Broke and The Bookish) is Books and Music. There are various spins on it being done, and I’m going to do a mix of them.

This is going to be a mixed back of song-ish books I’ve read, want to read, and then some songs at the end which should be books.

On that note, I just know there are tons of awesome songs/ballads I’ve heard, mostly Celtic ones, that would make absolutely fabulous books. But I’m having a really hard time thinking of any just now.

The curious things about songs, though, is that they’re usually already perfect in song form.

And as much as it would be awesome to have some of them as books, it’s never going to equal the awesomeness of the song itself and may in fact take away from it in some ways. Songs and books are quite different forms…

Anyways, on with the varied list…

BOOKS I’VE READ

1. The Map: A Jackaby Story by William Ritter

Oh my word, this story. It’s a shortish, novella-type adventure that goes with the Jackaby series (and it’s free on Kindle!) and I absolutely adored it. It’s not exactly based on a song, but it’s based around a song… which was so much fun. The premise basically is that they’re going after the treasure from the song Whiskey in the Jar. So much awesome. (Hopefully I’ll review the series sometime…)

2. Orphan’s Song by Gillian Bronte Adams

This has a large music theme (obviously) and I loved it so so much. *hugs book* I’ve always thought that music could go really well with fantasy settings and magic and that sort of thing, and this author pulls that off brilliantly.

3. Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones

Not only is it based on fairytales that were I believe originally ballads (Tam Lin, Thomas the Rhymer), but it also has a lot of music involved since Tom plays the cello and there’s a whole . . . band . . . thing . . . going on. Anyways it’s awesome (and I reviewed it at length so obviously I love it a lot).

BOOKS I’VE NOT READ

4. Songkeeper by Gillian Bronte Adams

…Speaking of Orphan’s Song… I just heard that the sequel, Songkeeper, has a release date! April 15th! That’s definitely a date going on my calendar. I’ve been dying for this book to come out ever since I finished the last page of Orphan’s Song, and it’s coming sooooon!!! I’m so excited. (It will also be very songish, I’m sure.)

5. The Highwayman’s Footsteps by Nicola Morgan

I… haven’t read this one yet, so I can speak as to its quality or exact plot, but I hear tell that it’s in some way based on The Highwayman, a fabulous/tragic poem by Alfred Noyes, immortalized, for me, by Loreena McKennitt’s brilliant, gorgeous, haunting sung version of it. I’ve always thought it would make a great book so I’m very much looking forward to this novel inspired by it.

SONGS THAT SHOULD BE BOOKS

(These are probably bad examples… I wish I could think of more…)

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6. The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Speaking of Loreena McKennitt… (Listen to parts of the songs I mention in this post, on her website.) She did a great, haunting version of this song. It’s a tragic song, and might better make a tragic backstory for a book than for a book itself? (I’m thinking like… a fantasy book based on it. I know it’s based on historical stuff but it would be funner this way. XD) But it feels like it needs to be involved in a book somehow… even if it would be rather grim.

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7. Raglan Road

Again, Loreena sang a great version of this poem by Patrick Kavanagh. There’s just something intriguing about it. I don’t know how much of a story it could make in book form, but there’s an eerie feel to it and it could make a fabulous mystery/fantasy/romance type book similar to Tam Lin, perhaps?

8. Bold Jamie

This is a song by Cara Dillon (one of my favorite singers!) about a young man wrongfully accused of stealing many things, including a man’s daughter. I just think it could make an interesting book, or any of a hundred other fabulous Celtic ballads involving thieves or… things like that.

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9. Stolen Child

I believe it was by William Butler Yeats but Loreena McKennitt did a fabulous version of it too. (Yes, she turned a LOT of great book-worth poems into songs, and has some great originals of her own as well. So much good material.)

10. The King of the Fairies (melody)

Aaand I’m just going to throw out there that there should be a book named after The King of the Fairies, which is a fabulous tune.

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Like I said, I’m having a hard time coming up with songs. I KNOW there are a ton of awesome ones! Oh well… that’s a start, anyhow. 🙂 (Basically LET’S HAVE BOOKS BASED ON ALL THE LOREENA MCKENNITT SONGS AND ALL THE AWESOME CELTIC BALLADS. This should be a genre. *nods seriously*)

…And now I have like half a dozen new plot bunnies that want me to write them. Fabulous. -_- Heehee… Writers lead perilous lives: anything can provide inspiration! 😉