Book Review (and giveaway!) - The Story Peddler by Lindsay A. Franklin

   Hey y'all! I'm on tour today with JustRead for the INCREDIBLE book, The Story Peddler - and I've been waiting for weeks to tell you guys about it! I love this story SO MUCH <3. Who's ready for a very fangirl-y review?

4.5 Stars

   This book is like a piece of magic in and of itself! And, would you believe it - The Story Peddler is the first non-reread book OF THE YEAR that I've rated this high. Because I'm a picky porcupine. So there's that ;D. And The Story Peddler absolutely deserved every one of those stars, this book is just stunning! 

From The Back Cover 

Selling stories is a deadly business
 
Tanwen doesn’t just tell stories—she weaves them into crystallized sculptures that sell for more than a few bits. But the only way to escape the control of her cruel mentor and claw her way from poverty is to set her sights on something grander: becoming Royal Storyteller to the king.

During her final story peddling tour, a tale of treason spills from her hands, threatening the king himself. Tanwen goes from peddler to prey as the king’s guard hunts her down . . . and they’re not known for their mercy. As Tanwen flees for her life, she unearths long-buried secrets and discovers she’s not the only outlaw in the empire. There’s a rebel group of weavers . . . and they’re after her too.

View The Story Peddler on Goodreads   ---   View The Story Peddler on Amazon  


   The Story Peddler was published by Enclave on May 1st, 2018

Lindsay A. Franklin is a best-selling author, award-winning editor, and homeschooling mom of three. She would wear pajama pants all the time if it were socially acceptable. She lives in her native San Diego with her scruffy-looking nerf-herder of a husband, their precious geeklings, three demanding thunder pillows (a.k.a. cats), and a stuffed wombat with his own Instagram following.

- Connect with Lindsay - 

website - facebook - instagram - twitter - google +  

- Cliche FLIPs everywhere! Guys, there was so much potential for this story to slide into some well-known cliches and tropes - but it didn't. Lindsay flipped everything on its head so many times, and I LOVED IT! Some of them almost made me laugh out loud, because I've been waiting so long for someone to twist certain cliches and Lindsay pulled it off perfectly. Loved that aspect so, so much <3.  

- Memorable (and pronounceable!) fantasy names. Oh, my gracious y'all. Maybe this point seems like a small thing to you, but fantasy names are often the bane of my existence. But to my shock and delight, all the names in this fantasy book were easy to remember, and easy to pronounce! My relief is great ;D. 

- Tanwen. And Mor. And Gryfelle. And Braith. And - okay, all the precious characters! <3 Seriously, you guys. I just CAN'T with the characters in this book! Y'all know that I'm super character-oriented, and if the characters fall flat, I won't like the book. But these characters? Polar opposite of "flat". I loved them all so much, and Tanwen is one of the best main characters I've ever read, I adored her. Lindsay has a magic touch when it comes to writing characters!

- The magic. YOU. GUYS. Out of all the books I've read in all my life, The Story Peddler has one of my top-favorite systems of magic. It was so unique and so beautiful, I just can't <3. I can't explain it and do it justice, so you guys will just have to read the book and see for yourself!  

   And this is one of those books where I could go on and on about, but I'll have to stop there - otherwise I'll end up turning this book review into a mile-long rave! ;D 

- Huh. Were there any dislikes? Honestly, I can't pinpoint anything that I could put in this category! The only reason I'm not giving it a full five stars is because there were a couple scenes in the story lost my attention (very! smol! parts!) - but not enough to stop me from shrieking to the world about JUST HOW AMAZING this book is <3.

   Well, I said it at the beginning and I'll repeat it at the end: THIS BOOK IS A PIECE OF MAGIC ITSELF. I didn't expect to love it so incredibly much, but I adored it to death <3. I'm super thankful to have had the chance to read this book before it officially released - and now that it IS released, you guys need to go buy it, because it is the most lovely piece of magic <3. I would absolutely recommend it to any readers (14+) who are looking for a stunning fantasy story.

   And I think that's about all I have to say (who am I kidding, no it's not - but if I don't stop now, I'll go on for days xD)! Y'all are probably wondering about the giveaway now, huh? Well, JustRead tours (click here to get to the tour landing page and see the other stops!) is generously hosting an epic giveaway for this Story Peddler tour, and the prizes are EPIC ...

What exactly is being given away, you asked? A signed copy of The Story Peddler, a custom Story Peddler candle, art prints and a map from The Story Peddler, a fluffhopper sticker, a custom bookmark, and Little Women writing gloves, that's what! Who would want to miss out on the chance to win all those??

   Y'all will have to skip on over to the tour landing page to enter the giveaway though, because rafflecopter hates my blog today (and most days, haha) - sorry!

   And I think that's all and everything. I hope y'all enjoyed the book review - but more importantly, I hope it made you want to give this book a shot, because you absolutely should! And then come running back here so we can rave about it together ;D.

   Keep being epic, y'all <3.

~ Savannah Grace 

have you read The Story Peddler yet?

what's your favorite book that flips a lot of cliches?

How To Write Fairytale Retellings: what if?

   'Tis time for the first post of the new How To Write Fairytale Retellings series, y'all! I'm super excited to share all of this with you, I think it's going to be a blast. Who's ready to dig into the first element of any retelling?

   Let's do this ^_^.

The best place to start a story is at the beginning.

And all fairytale retellings start with a twist! Whether it be the tale told from a minor character's prospective, or the main character having a totally different motive than the original fairytale hero/heroine, every retelling has a twist.. And lots of retellings come about because of a what if kind of question - and there are a ton of different kinds of what-if questions! Lets explore some of them, shall we?

the POV what if

This is the what if that asks, what if this story was told from a different character's prospective? It's one of my favorites to play around with, and it's super easy to come up with... 

- what if Snow White was told from the Mirror's point of view?
- what if Cinderella was told from the fairy godmother's point of view?
- what if Pinocchio was told from the Blue Fairy's point of view?    
- what if Rumpelstiltskin was told from Rumpelstiltskin's point of view?

This is honestly the easiest what if question to come up with. What we want is the story told by an entirely different narrator, which will give us an entirely different story - nab any minor character that we're somewhat familiar with and spin us a magical tale in their POV!

the twisty-tale what if

This is the what if that simply asks, what if this story was totally different? What if you took the original tale, and completely twisted it on its head?

- what if Cinderella was retold in modern-day Chicago?
- what if the wolf was trying to save red riding hood? 
- what if Sleeping Beauty meant to prick herself?
- what if the Beast wanted to stay a Beast?
- what if Alice In Wonderland was a werewolf story?  

And of course this is the one that has been the cause of most of our favorite retellings - from the edgy Lunar Chronicles (what if Cinderella was a cyborg?) to the sweet Ella Enchanted. Bring us epic retellings that completely surprise us with stellar twists and change the game entirely! Bonus points if you make it darker (or lighter, ha) than the original.

the backstory what if

And here's a fun one - the what if question that asks, what if we went exploring the backstory of some of our favorite fairytale characters?

- how did Peter Pan find Neverland and the Lost Boys?
- who was the Hatter before he went mad?
- who is the Mirror (in Snow White), really?
- what if a story was written about Cinderella's stepmother when she was younger?    

This what if has also been the culprit of multiple retellings, from Wicked (which I haven't read) to Heartless (which I've read and adore!), so its a heap of fun to mess around with. Show us secrets about characters - whether the ones we love to hate, or simply love to love - that we didn't know before!

the continuation what if?

This one is similar to the backstory what if, except we're going forward in time instead of back to ask what if there was more to the story? What if "the end" wasn't really the end?

- what if Wendy Darling hears of a threat against Neverland and sets out to warn Peter?
- what if Cinderella starts an orphanage, and finds a child with mysterious powers?
- what if Snow White finds another magic mirror - and realizes that the Mirrors are trapped people?
- what if Dorothy's daughter found her way into Oz, except it is completely changed?

I find this one the hardest, honestly - but then, I'm used to thinking of "the end" as the end! But if you in all of your epic creativeness can think of more to add to the story, GO FOR IT. This is exactly why retellings are fun - you can do whatever you want!

   And I've barely brushed the tip of the iceberg here! Seriously, I could go on for miles with 'what if' questions (can you tell that they're my favorite?), but I think we'll stop here before I spend all day gathering plot bunnies ;P.

   ANYways, I hope you guys enjoyed the first post of this series! The what if question is always fun. I'll be back in a week or so with the second installment of How To Write Fairytale Retellings ;).

   Keep on being epic, y'all! <3

~ Savannah Grace

what's your favorite category of "what if" to play with?

come up with your own "what if"s down in the comments!

 

Highlights Of April 2018

   April was a very busy month, compared to how quiet the rest of 2018 has been so far! (which is why this post is so late in coming, because my brain = tired) Want to hear about it?

Well, lots of book hauls going on (I have reached well past maximum capacity with my bookshelves, I really have), and a trip to the library to snag all the books I've been waiting for (Olivia Twist and All The Crooked Saints!) made this month rather bookish, but ANYways xD.

I also went to my amazing sister Skylar's orchestra concert, which was a ton of fun, I always love listening to her play her violin (she's a master <3), especially with her epic group. They all have so much fun together. And another of my sisters (Jaidyn) has been baking up a storm lately, so this was also a month of very tasty treats, because who says no to cake? 

I also got to meet up with a writing fren of mine today, and I had so much fun chatting with her about everything under the sun. It's always fun to meet up with another creative soul <3. 

Oh, my gracious y'all - the writing desk has been so full this month! Many new tales have begun to spin, and many all-established projects have been added onto. I haven't yet worked up the courage to write anything new in Forgotten yet ... but soon! Very soon ;). I'm working on writing up outlines to help with the expansion process.

ANYways. What new things am I working on, you ask? Well. I have a dark-ish mermaid novella that I'm currently working away at for a contest - it's being lots of fun and throwing more than one twist my way, so I'm having lots of fun discovering that story. I'm also writing a story set in the jungle for that same contest, and I'm excited to see where that one goes! (this contest has given me so many plot bunnies, you guys have no idea ;D)

And, as usual, I wrote multiple flash fiction pieces (one piece got published in Havok just this month!), I think I'm addicted to writing short pieces, you guys. How will I ever have the patience to write a full manuscript? ;D (seriously though, I struggle with how that's ever going to happen. Somehow I will push through!) 

Camp NaNoWriMo also happened this month, and I set my goal at 20k since I knew April would be busy - but somehow I hit 30k?? I was very surprised but very pleased ;D. Shout out to ALL the amazing people in my wonderful Mitchtam cabin for being wonderful and epic and encouraging - the final day of Camp was crazy, but we made it! (and to anyone else who won Camp this month - EPIC JOB, YOU GUYS. You rock <3)

A reread of a series I liked as a kid (but somehow never finished?), a new-to-me indie book, a reread of one of my absolute FAVORITE fairytale retelling, and then three books I've been waiting for forever? Yeah, it was a good month for books, guys xD.

And I actually don't have terribly much to say about them this month, because I've either a) already shrieked about them so many times (*cough* Entwined *cough*) or b) I've already reviewed them (you can check out my review for October, if you'd like), or c) I have reviews coming! The reviews for The Story Peddler and The Traitor's Game will be going up in May. But for now I WILL say that I found a new favorite in The Story Peddler, and Jennifer Neilsen has kept up her streak of never ever disappointing me xD. I can't wait to tell y'all about it when I review them! <3  

- Julia Ryan released her second poetry book! Proud of you, girl <3.

- Rooglewood Press officially announced the winners of the Five Poisoned Apples writing contest. So happy to see familiar names on the list! (*waves to Skye*)

- Aimee Meester is posting a serial story on her blog (and Wattpad) called Their Blood Be Laid and GUYS. I AM IN LOVE. Aimee has the best eerie, gritty writing style (reminds me a bit of Maggie Stiefvater), and you guys need this story in your lives. Here's part one to get you started. And then go read the rest xD.

-  Rosalie Valentine posted about the story behind "Our Family", the piece of flash fiction that was published in Splickety, and it was a really cool post to read. Y'all should take a look at it. (she also celebrated her fifth blogoversary, so go give her some love!)

- A gorgeous post went up on Burning Youth entitled On Top Of The Mountain, and I loved it <3.

- Mary and Madeline and Mikayla all did the Get To Know Me Tag, Writer's Edition, which made me smile ;).

- Cait at Paperfury posted about Fictional Siblings and obviously I gobbled up that post because Fictional! Siblings! I love them and we never have enough of them <3.

- NADINE MET VERONICA ROTH and she's giving away signed copies of some of that lovely author's books! And the giveaway ends tomorrow, so you need to scamper on over there and get your entry in while you can!

   Well (and this should probably be an announcement all its own, but here I am tacking it onto the end of this post), May is going to be Fairytale Retellings Month on Inspiring Writes, so I've got a couple of my usual posts planned (one very special interview in particular...and I'm not giving any hints!) but most of May's posts will be on how to write fairytale retellings. And it will be lots of fun! Retellings are my passion, so I'm super excited to talk retellings with you all in May! It's going to be a blast.

   Keeping being epic - I'll see you all in May!

~ Savannah Grace

did you write for Camp this month? 

what do you think of fairytale retellings?