April New Release Giveaway Hop is hosted by Bo-ok Nerd.
Thank you so much Caroline, Danielle, and Strange Chemistry for this opportunity!
Stolen Songbird
(The Malediction Trilogy #1)
by Danielle L. Jensen
Published April 1st 2014 by Strange Chemistry
Purchase: Amazon * Barnes and Noble * Book Depository
Blurb (Goodreads):
For those who have loved Seraphina and Graceling comes another truly fabulous fantasy...
For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.
But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever.
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Guest post with author Danielle L. Jensen
I am really impressed with Trollus' world building. I liked that I could picture their world just as the author wants her readers to via Cécile's perspective. That's why I asked Danielle to write about the world building of her book, Stolen Songbird.
World Building
My novel, Stolen Songbird, is a bit different. With the exception of a handful of chapters, it takes place in the city of Trollus, which is in a cave. And with the exception of a handful of references, I don’t really tell the reader much about the outside world. More than a few readers have asked me why.
Stolen Songbird is told in the first person, primarily from Cécile’s point of view. As such, the reader is limited to her knowledge and experiences. This is what allows me (I hope) to paint an extremely vivid picture of Trollus, because everything is new and strange to her, and thus worth noticing. It is natural for her to internally comment on the precise details of the glass gardens, because she has never seen anything like them. By contrast, it would be strange for Tristan to think much about the details of the gardens, because he has seen them every day of his life. For example, imagine how much attention you pay to your surroundings when you are walking down the street in front of your house vs. when you are walking down a street in foreign city. Cécile’s fresh perspective is an asset when comes to describing Trollus, but it is a limitation when it comes to describing the outside world. She’s lived very nearly all of her life on a farm in the country, and she has never been further than a day’s ride from her home. So it would be unnatural within the confines of her narrative for her to spend much time thinking about the distant reaches of the outside world, especially since they aren’t currently impacting her.
Of course, I could have found a way to tell the reader all about the lands beyond Trollus, and even the world beyond the Isle on which it resides. The reason I chose not to is ultimately because I believed that limiting the information about the outside would compound the sense that Trollus is quite isolated, almost an entirely different world. I wanted the reader to feel completely immersed in the trolls’ city and culture, so that when if I take you out into the broader world in the subsequent books, you will view it with the fresh eyes of someone who has never seen anything like it before. I hope it will be an equally vivid picture.
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About the Author
Danielle was born and raised in Calgary, Canada. At the insistence of the left side of her brain, she graduated in 2003 from the University of Calgary with a bachelor’s degree in finance. But the right side of her brain has ever been mutinous; and in 2010, it sent her back to school to complete an entirely impractical English literature degree at Mount Royal University and to pursue publication. Much to her satisfaction, the right side shows no sign of relinquishing its domination.
GIVEAWAY!
- 5 winners of an ebook copy of Stolen Songbird
- open internationally
- giveaway ends on April 30th
My first visit to your blog. Too cute! Thanks for participating in the hop and for the giveaway opportunity. New to me book. Thanks for the intro!
ReplyDeleteHi, Sophia! Thanks for the appreciating my blog! I'm glad you found me. ;)
DeleteStolen Songbird was really nice. Hope you read it soon. Good luck!
Ah sorry, I accidentally hit enter while writing in the box where I follow your blog instead of shift, and I wrote in my name, Victoria Ball, but didn't say how I was following. Just wanted to let you know it's via Bloglovin! Sorry again!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's okay! Thanks for letting me know. I'll note that. Good luck! :)
DeleteThis book sounds amazing. I'd love to read it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this opportunity. This book sounds great and so was your review.
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