MORGAN J SHEPPARD
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
  • Books
    • Wraidd Elfennol >
      • Marella Gallery
      • Water Weaver Gallery
      • Of Land and Sky Gallery
      • Fire in the Rain Gallery
    • Standalones >
      • Disjointed Lives Gallery
      • What a Latte Books Gallery
  • Blog

Morgan's Musings

Just my rambling, plus whatever book I've recently read!

Cabbages & Kings - coming 1st February 2022!

19/1/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

A Robin Hood Origin Story

​‼️ NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER ‼️

A HERO. HONOURABLE THIEF. LOVABLE ROGUE. SCOUNDREL. BLACKGUARD.

Everyone’s heard of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men, with big, bad Sheriff of Nottingham and evil Prince John trying their best to thwart Robin at every turn. But what if things were different to what you’ve been told? What if Robin wasn’t as altruistic as history portrayed?

In the late spring of 1198, the hamlet of Girton is razed to the ground. Newly married eighteen-year-old Will Scathlock and sixteen-year-old Alana move to the larger village of Blidworth to start their lives anew. In his new job as a forester for the Royal Palace of Clipstone, known to the locals as King’s Houses, Will hears tales of a good thief, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. But in her role as Seamstress for the Manor House, Alana hears a different story.

Find out what it was like for the peasant folk Robin was supposed to be helping, before his well-known adventures in Nottingham. Meet Alana Dale and read her story of what it was really like, and how it all began.

Available for pre-order - https://books2read.com/CabbagesKings

#YoungAdult
#ComingofAge
#HistoricalFiction
#RobinHoodOrigin
0 Comments

#BookoftheMonth - Cobweb Bride (Cobweb Bride Trilogy #1) by Vera Nazarian

26/10/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Genre:
#Historical, #Fantasy, #YoungAdult

Blurb:
​Many are called...
She alone can save the world and become Death's bride.


Cobweb Bride is a history-flavored fantasy novel with romantic elements of the Persephone myth, about Death's ultimatum to the world.

What if you killed someone and then fell in love with them?

In an alternate Renaissance world, somewhere in an imaginary "pocket" of Europe called the Kingdom of Lethe, Death comes, in the form of a grim Spaniard, to claim his Bride. Until she is found, in a single time-stopping moment all dying stops. There is no relief for the mortally wounded and the terminally ill....

Covered in white cobwebs of a thousand snow spiders she lies in the darkness... Her skin is cold as snow... Her eyes frozen... Her gaze, fiercely alive...

While kings and emperors send expeditions to search for a suitable Bride for Death, armies of the undead wage an endless war... A black knight roams the forest at the command of his undead father ... Spies and political treacheries abound at the imperial Silver Court.... Murdered lovers find themselves locked in the realm of the living...

Look closer — through the cobweb filaments of her hair and along each strand shine stars...

And one small village girl, Percy—an unwanted, ungainly middle daughter—is faced with the responsibility of granting her dying grandmother the desperate release she needs.

As a result, Percy joins the crowds of other young women of the land in a desperate quest to Death's own mysterious holding in the deepest forests of the North...

And everyone is trying to stop her.
Universal Purchase Link
Picture
My Thoughts:

COBWEB BRIDE is the first book in the trilogy of the same name. It is old-school fantasy with a touch of mythology thrown in for good measure. Some parts of it are quite graphic but then, that's what happens when you describe a battle with swords and arrows!

One of the things I really enjoyed about it is that Percy, the plain, unordinary, middle child, is the one who comes into her own. She makes no false images, she is what she is and she's okay with that. She is supported by a great cast of characters - some of whom may be just for this part but others, I hope, will be seen in the later two books.

There was one thing that jarred me though, and that was halfway through the book, Spain and France were mentioned. Up until that point, I had falsely assumed that this was a completely imaginary fantasy world. I guess next time I really should look at the map provided!

I found this to be a great story that has plenty of hooks for the next book. It doesn't go the way you imagine and that is perfectly fine by me. I love fantasy and being surprised raises it to a whole new level for me.

Absolutely recommended!
Goodreads
Picture
Vera Nazarian is a two-time Nebula Award Finalist, award-winning artist, and member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a writer with a penchant for moral fables and stories of intense wonder, true love, and intricacy.

She immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid, sold her first story at the age of 17, and since then has published numerous works in anthologies and magazines, and has seen her fiction translated into eight languages.

She is the author of critically acclaimed novels Dreams of the Compass Rose and Lords of Rainbow , romantic Renaissance epic fantasy trilogy Cobweb Bride , as well as the outrageous parodies Mansfield Park and Mummies and Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons , Pride and Platypus: Mr. Darcy's Dreadful Secret in her humorous and surprisingly romantic Supernatural Jane Austen Series , and most recently the bestselling high-octane science fiction series The Atlantis Grail , now optioned for film.

After many years in Los Angeles, Vera lives in a small town in Vermont, and uses her Armenian sense of humor and her Russian sense of suffering to bake conflicted pirozhki and make art.

Take the fun quiz to find out Which of the Lords of Rainbow do You Serve?
BookBub
0 Comments

#BookoftheMonth -Kiss Me, Curse Me by Kate Shay

28/5/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Kiss Me, Curse Me is the first book by Kate Shay I have read, and I think I like the blurb of the book more than I liked the book itself, I'm sad to say.

I found this book quite difficult to get into, as the story seemed to flit from one occasion to the next. There is a multitude of characters involved, some of whom seem to have connections, although it's not very clear. The story itself is convoluted and twisting, with new characters and situations being brought in right the way through. The book didn't end, as much as it just stopped. I would think that it's the first in the series, but nothing has been released since so I don't think the author is continuing with this.

I wanted to like this book, but it fell rather flat for me. I think it's probably like a marmite book - you will love it or hate it. As for me, I didn't hate it, I just felt disappointed when I'd finished.
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All
    Book Of The Month
    Contemporary
    Dark
    Dystopian
    Fan Art
    Fantasy
    Historical
    Horror
    New Adult
    Paranormal
    Romance
    Science Fiction
    Spotlight
    Urban
    Wraidd Elfennol
    Young Adult

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Contact Me
  • Books
    • Wraidd Elfennol >
      • Marella Gallery
      • Water Weaver Gallery
      • Of Land and Sky Gallery
      • Fire in the Rain Gallery
    • Standalones >
      • Disjointed Lives Gallery
      • What a Latte Books Gallery
  • Blog