📖 Featured Book of the Month ~ The Winter Garden by Alexandra Bell

 

Del Rey Books
2 September 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

You are invited to enter an unusual competition.

I am looking for the most magical, spectacular, remarkable pleasure garden this world has to offer.

On the night her mother dies, 8-year-old Beatrice receives an invitation to the mysterious Winter Garden. A place of wonder and magic, filled with all manner of strange and spectacular flora and fauna, the garden is her solace every night for seven days. But when the garden disappears, and no one believes her story, Beatrice is left to wonder if it were truly real.

Eighteen years later, on the eve of her wedding to a man her late father approved of but she does not love, Beatrice makes the decision to throw off the expectations of Victorian English society and search for the garden. But when both she and her closest friend, Rosa, receive invitations to compete to create spectacular pleasure gardens - with the prize being one wish from the last of the Winter Garden's magic - she realises she may be closer to finding it than she ever imagined.

Now all she has to do is win.

📖 My thoughts...

Beatrice Sitwell is eight when her mother dies and in a house filled with silence and sadness, she takes comfort in a magical world which comes to her when the clock strikes thirteen. Entering the magical winter garden brings Beatrice solace, but, as she gets older, a deep yearning to revisit the garden consumes her but the opportunity is only ever presented to those in great need. 

The adult Beatrice is a solitary figure but she is blessed to have friends who feature strongly in the story especially Rosa Warren, an American, who has aspirations of becoming part of the British aristocracy. However, marriage doesn't make Rosa happy, and her own frightening journey takes her into some dark places in her search for the perfect life. Beatrice and Rosa interweave and twirl together, sometimes they are friends, whilst other times they are frosty towards each other, but each for their own reasons are drawn towards the magic of the elusive Winter Garden of their, rather special, imaginations.

The Victorian fascination for pleasure gardens is brought to life in this magical story filled with soulful automatons, fantastical creatures and otherworldly delights but look closer and the story is about grief and sadness, the Victorian fascination for death and the social and moral restrictions placed upon women at that time. Beatrice and Rosa, both are women of their time, one bound by all the restrictions placed upon her because she dares to be a female adventurer in a male dominated world, and the other abused, demeaned and neglected under the disguise of marriage and motherhood.

Beautifully written, with the most sumptuous imagery, the story fills the senses and creates a wishful yearning to see all of the magical beauty of The Winter Garden laid out before you, but, remember all that glitters in the story is not gold, so be careful what you wish for...

I've read the eBook version of this story but if you can get your hands on a handsome hardback edition, you'll see the most wonderful floral design creeping up the outer edge of the book. Wonderfully different and beautifully described, I have no hesitation in making The Winter Garden my Featured Book of the Month for October.

About the Author

Alexandra Bell was born in 1986. She studied Law at university and signed her first book deal at nineteen. Since then, she has written books for both adults and young people, including the Zoella Bookclub pick, Frozen Charlotte, and The Polar Bear Explorer's Club series, under the name Alex Bell. She lives in Hampshire in a house ruled by Siamese cats.

Twitter @Alex_Bell86 #TheWinterGarden

@DelReyUK

Blog Tour ~ Tangled Roots by Denise D Young

📖 Delighted to be part of this Blog Tour 📖

Tangled Magic series #1

My thanks to the author for my copy of this book
and to Rachel's Random Resources for my invitation to this blog tour

A beautiful witch lost in time. A brooding farm boy with magic in his blood and a chip on his shoulder. Dark secrets and shadowy magic. Paranormal romance with a time slip awaits in the first book of this new series.

Cassie Gearhart casts a spell in the forest in the summer of 1974. The next thing she knows, she wakes up to find the world irrevocably changed.

It’s 2019, for one thing. For another, all of her coven members have vanished, leaving behind only one man who holds the key to their secrets.

Nick Felson has sworn off magic, until a confused Cassie knocks on his door in the middle of the night, somehow missing forty-five years’ worth of time. But Nick knows falling for the captivating witch means letting magic back into his life—and that’s one line he swore he’d never cross.

Can Cassie unravel the mystery that transported her decades into the future? And can Nick resist the powerful magic and heart-pounding passion that swirl in the air whenever he and Cassie are together?

The Tangled Magic Series is intended for readers 18-plus who enjoy fast-paced reads, wild and witchy. 

What did I think about it..

A dash of magic, and a love which transcends time, is the focus for this story which is the first in The Tangled Magic series. In 1974, Cassie Gearhart is running away from something when she gets caught up in powerful magic and for her protection she gets caught in time. When circumstances allow, Cassie returns only to find that it’s no longer 1974, but 2019. Her inadvertent meeting with Nick Felton, a man with more than enough troubles of his own, opens up not just a hint of magic but also a powerful physical attraction which gives the story an altogether different direction.

Paranormal fantasy isn’t my usual genre so it’s been a completely new experience to read of magical spells, deep seated feuds, and long buried secrets, however, the author maintained my interest throughout, and I raced through the novella in just a couple of hours.

I have enjoyed getting to know the characters, and especially liked the way that the author weaved them into the story with enough detail to make them come alive in my imagination. And whilst the relationship between Cassie and Nick initially felt a little rushed, overall throughout the course of the novella,  it works well, and there’s a nice amount of passion sizzling between them.

The author has an obvious passion for story telling and weaves the story together with her own brand of spellbinding magic.

About the Author

Equal parts bookworm, flower child, and eclectic witch, Denise D. Young writes fantasy and paranormal romance featuring witches, magic, faeries, and the occasional shifter.

Whatever the flavor of the magic, it’s always served with a brisk cup of tea–and the promise of

romance varying from sweet to sensual.

She lives with her husband and their animals in the mountains of Virginia, where small towns and tall

trees inspire her stories. She reads tarot cards, collects crystals, gazes at stars, and believes magic is

the answer (no matter what the question was).

If you’ve ever hoped to find a book of spells in a dusty attic, if you suspect every misty forest contains a hidden portal to another realm, or if you don’t mind a little darkness before your happily-ever-after, her books might be just the thing you’ve been waiting for.

Website

Facebook

Amazon

Twitter @ddyoungbooks #TangledRoots

@rararesources

Blog Tour ~ Foxfire, Wolfskin and other stories of Shapeshifting women by Sharon Blackie

Delighted to be taking part in this Blog Tour

September Publishing
2 October 2019

My thanks to the publishers, Ruth Killick Publicity and Random Things Tours for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of his blog tour

Charged with drama and beauty, this memorable collection by a master storyteller weaves a magical world of possibility and power from female myths of physical renewal, creation and change. It is an extraordinary immersion into the bodies and voices, mindscapes and landscapes, of the shape-shifting women of our native folklore. We meet the Water Horse of the Isle of Lewis, the huldra, the Scandinavian supernatural forest-dweller, and Baba Yaga of Slavic folklore (but will she help you or kill you?) Here too is the Snow Queen; the wild bird-woman of the Sliabh Mis Mountains; Blodeuedd, the Welsh ‘flower-faced’ woman.

Illustrations by Helen Nicholson

Drawing on myth and fairy tales found across Europe – from Croatia to Sweden, Ireland to Russia – Sharon Blackie brings to life women’s remarkable ability to transform themselves in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. These stories are about coming to terms with our animal natures, exploring the ways in which we might renegotiate our fractured relationship with the natural world, and uncovering the wildness – and wilderness – within.

What did I think about it..

There’s something quite special about the myths and legends which give a country its identity. Stories which reach through the mists of time, soaking into our subconscious, so that whilst we don’t always know where they originated, we remain emotionally connected to the haunting quality of their particular brand of magic.

In this extraordinary collection we allow our imagination full reign in stories which set fire the soul, which are in turn both mournful and uplifting, hauntingly beautiful and inherently dangerous. Beautifully written and highly original in their delivery, the author’s natural story-telling ability shines through with every well written word, capturing the very essence of our long forgotten myths and folklore.

Every reimagined story has its own unique strength and yet there is something distinctly fascinating to be found in all of them. The thirteen stories vary in length, some are quite short, just a couple of pages, whilst others are a little longer, however, collectively, they form a wonderfully diverse mixture which are supported by stunning black and white illustrations. I have several favourites amongst the thirteen and in particular I would like to mention Wolfskin, Foxfire and Snow Queen as being stand out stories for me. At the back of the book is a fascinating notes section where the author explains the origins, placing the stories in their historical and geographical context.

This is a really special collection of haunting stories which I’m sure will appeal to anyone who has an interest in the old tales of myth and folklore.

About the Author

Dr Sharon Blackie is a writer, mythologist and psychologist, and an internationally recognised teacher of the mythic imagination. Her bestselling book, If Women Rose Rooted, won a 2016 Nautilus award, and laid out a haunting heroine’s journey for every woman who finds power, inspiration and solace in the natural world. She has an international following through her online communities, and the courses and workshops she offers through ‘The Hedge School’. Her first novel, The Long Delirious Blue, was described by the Independent on Sunday as ‘hugely potent’. She lives in Connemara, Ireland. 

Twitter  #FoxfireWolfskin

@septemberbooks

@RKbookpublicist

#RandomThingsTours