Come along with us as the classic fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast is retold in a Gothic setting where nothing is exactly as it seems and the heroine must become her own hero. Check out the excerpt and enter the giveaway below...
Craving Beauty
(A Wylder Tale, #1)
by Jennifer Silverwood
YA Dark Fantasy
Paperback & ebook, 239 pagesby Jennifer Silverwood
YA Dark Fantasy
October 31st 2015
Vynasha has spent the last four years tending her mother's roses and looking after her nephew. The fire that killed their family has left her scarred and put Wyll on the brink of death. Soon the first frost will come down from the mountains and she knows this winter will be his last.
Until a strange beggar appears on the road, telling her of the majikal Source that can heal her Wyll. With nothing left to lose, Vynasha braves the forbidden Wylder Mountains to seek out a cure and her fate.
A lost kingdom is uncovered by an equally lost girl, but the castle is not abandoned as she believes. Shadows cloaking unseen eyes watch. Tapestries whisper from the hidden corners, wondering if the one to break their curse has come. And a hungry beast waits, ready to devour her soul.
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Excerpt
Unseen
eyes burned into her back. The beast had been watching her for some time.
With
a sigh, she lowered her head in defeat. A sudden wind broke through the stuffy
heat, causing beads of sweat to fall down her neck. The candles that had lined
either side of the hearth were quenched. The draft blew into the hearth,
dashing embers to pieces and tossing ashes up in a cloud that burst and then
scattered through the room. She cringed from a terror that was due more to the
sparks singeing her cloak than the monster hunting her. She scrambled back on
her hands and knees.
It
was her fear of fire that was her undoing, her knowledge of what it could do
and already had done to her. She stumbled over unfamiliar stone steps until her
fingers found something hard, sharp and ringed by thick fur. Her scream died in
her throat as she stood and twisted to meet a pair of luminous golden eyes.
Those
intelligent eyes were too similar to those belonging to the creatures that had
haunted her on her journey through the endless forest. She could still see
their glowing green eyes when she shut her eyelids and hear their cries as they
had stalked her long into the night. Now she was faced by a terror far worse
than a pack of hungry wolves.
With
no other alternative, she raced back into the ash cloud until her hands were
braced against the shoulder-high hearth. The beast’s golden eyes, the only part
of it she could see, pursued her with growing fury. But she had not come all
this way to be eaten for dinner. After several deep breaths, she reached into
the edge of the dying fire and gathered a fistful of hot ashes.
Had
her hand not already been damaged, she would have screamed from the pain.
Instead the golden eyes disappeared and the beast let out a strangled roar when
she threw the ashes into its face.
Without
thought she ran into the dark unknown of the strange castle. Her legs were weak
after so many days spent traveling the wilderness, with little nourishment in
her aching belly. She was so weary she wondered why the cold hadn’t simply
taken her when it had the chance. She should have been dead many times before
this night. Whatever forces were at work, whatever it was that wanted her to
remain alive, Vynasha sensed she mustn’t give up now. She must honor it.
The
creature’s heavy limbs pounded upon the floor with every scrape of its claws.
Roars echoed her flight over the crimson carpet. The hall was black as pitch
without the light of the fire and candles. It wasn’t long before she felt the
creature’s hot breath above her neck. Her heart pounded as she pushed harder
and barely missed colliding with a column. She pivoted to avoid one agony, only
to feel the rip of claws sinking around her waist.
Then
she knew no more.
Book Trailer
Other Books by the Author
About the Author
Jennifer Silverwood was raised deep in the heart of Texas and has been spinning yarns a mile high since childhood. In her spare time she reads and writes and tries to sustain her wanderlust, whether it’s the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, the highlands of Ecuador or a road trip to the next town. Always on the lookout for her next adventure, in print or reality, she dreams of one day proving to the masses that everything really is better in Texas. She is the author of the Heaven’s Edge series, Stay and Silver Hollow.
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