Read an excerpt from this new YA fantasy... The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes by Dawn Ford (Excerpt & #Giveaway) #yalit #yabooks #christfic #newbooks @justreadtours


Welcome to my tour stop with by JustRead Publicity Tours!
Read an excerpt and enter the giveaway below...

The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
(Firebird Series #1)
By Dawn Ford
Christian YA Fantasy
Paperback & ebook, 297 Pages
April 12, 2022 by Expanse Books

Summary

Eighteen-year-old servant girl Tambrynn is haunted by more than her unusual silver hair and the star-shaped pupils in her eyes. Her uncontrollable ability to call objects leads the wolves who savagely murdered her mother right to her door.

When she’s fired and outcast during a snowstorm, her carriage wrecks and she’s forced to find refuge in an abandoned cottage. There, her life is upended when the magpie who’s stalked her for ten years transforms into a man, Lucas. He’s her Watcher and they’re from a different kingdom. His job is to keep her safe from her father, an evil mage, who wants to steal her abilities, turn her into one of his undead beasts, and become immortal himself.

Can they make it to the magical passageway and get to their home kingdom in time for Tambrynn to thwart her father’s malicious plans? Or will Tambrynn’s unique magic doom them all?

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Excerpt

The door explodes. Wood shards pierce the air. I throw out my arms to keep the wood from hitting me. Stop! Warmth floods over me from the center of my being, radiating blue in a sphere around me. I fist my hands and the fragments stop mid-air. I stare at the circle surrounding me and the scattered particles of wood suspended in the air in front of me. Has time stopped? I’ve never done anything like this before. Then I glimpse beyond the bluish glow toward the man, my father, moving through the shattered door.

He’s much younger than I would’ve imagined, closer to my age than someone who should be my father. And he’s tall. Taller than Lucas.

He steps inside the cottage and swipes his hand across the dangling debris in front of his face without surprise. They drop to the ground when he touches them, plinking against the floor. The rest is still in the air. He’s slim with dark hair parted down the middle. There’s a gray streak on one side of his head. Though he just destroyed the door as easily as I call objects, he doesn’t look evil. In fact, he’s quite handsome, but his eyes are cruel, and his smirk is condescending.

“We meet at last, daughter.” He bows his head slightly, but he never takes his eyes off me. “The rumors are true.” He studies my face, and I can almost feel his look trailing across my hair. His stare holds a cold calculation. It’s the same gaze I have suffered many times on the pauper’s block—judging me, evaluating how valuable I could be to him.

I don’t know what to say, so I’m silent. I continue to study him back until I see two beasts step toward the threshold behind him. They’re just as I remember, with warped features, dark skin, sharp teeth, and claws. Fear shoots through my body and then anger on top of it. My mother is dead because of them. And he is their master.

Appalled, I step back and unclench my fists. The wood pieces that I’ve held in the air fall to the floor in a chorus of wooden clinks. This is not the father I wished for. He is just as Lucas described—vile and depraved.

About the Author


Winner of the 2016 ACFW Genesis Award and finalist in the 2018 Grace Award and the 2020 Great Expectations Contest, Dawn Ford has been recognized for her published and non-published works. Her flash fiction stories have been published in Havok magazine under both her real name and pen name, Jo Wonderly. Her debut novel, Knee-high Lies, was published in 2017.

As a child, Dawn often had her head in the clouds creating scenes and stories for anything and everything she came across. She believed there was magic everywhere, a sentiment she has never outgrown. Nature inspires her, and her love for the underdog and the unlikely hero colors much of what she writes.

Dawn adores anything Steampunk, is often distracted by shiny, pretty things, and her obsession with purses and shoes borders on hoarding. Dawn lives in Iowa and helps her husband run their foodservice and catering business out of Omaha, Nebraska. When not reading, writing, or catering, Dawn loves babysitting her grandchildren, is parent to Snickers the Wonder Beagle, and can usually be caught daydreaming.

You can learn more about Dawn Ford at her website: https://dawnfordauthor.com


Tour Schedule

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

Tour-Wide Giveaway


(3) winners will receive a $10 Amazon gift card, a signed paperback copy of The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes, and book swag!

Full tour schedule linked above. Giveaway began at midnight May 16, 2022 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on May 23, 2022. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

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