KDD Bargain Ebook: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher for $1.99

 

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher is on sale as a Kindle Daily Deal today. This is a Goose Girl retelling.

Book description from the publisher:

Named a Best Fantasy Book of the Year by NPR, Elle, and Paste

A Goodreads Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes A Sorceress Comes to Call—a dark reimagining of the Brothers Grimm's "The Goose Girl," rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic.

*The hardcover edition features a foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.*

Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms—there are no secrets in this house—and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him.

But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t evil sorcerers.

When her mother unexpectedly moves them into the manor home of a wealthy older Squire and his kind but keen-eyed sister, Hester, Cordelia knows this welcoming pair are to be her mother's next victims. But Cordelia feels at home for the very first time among these people, and as her mother's plans darken, she must decide how to face the woman who raised her to save the people who have become like family.

"Kingfisher never fails to dazzle."—Peter S. Beagle, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning author of The Last Unicorn

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here. 

Bargain Ebook: Thorn (Dauntless Path Book 1) by Intisar Khanani for $1.99

 

Thorn (Dauntless Path Book 1) by Intisar Khanani in ebook format is on sale for $1.99. It's a Goose Girl retelling.

Book description from the publisher:

Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life, but when her mother betroths her to a powerful prince in a distant kingdom, she has little hope for a better future.

Until Alyrra arrives at her new kingdom, where a mysterious sorceress robs her of both her identity and her role as princess—and Alyrra seizes on the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl.

But as Alyrra uncovers dangerous secrets about her new world, including a threat to the prince himself, she knows she can’t remain silent forever. With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds, and ultimately must decide who she is and what she stands for.

This edition features an additional short story set in-world, The Bone Knife.

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here. 

New Book: Little Thieves by Margaret Owen, a Goose Girl Inspired Novel

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen (Amazon Affiliate link) is a new release this month. It's more unusual since it is inspired by The Goose Girl, one of those fairy tales beloved by fairy tale aficionados and unknown by almost everyone else because it hasn't gotten the Disney treatment. 

Book description:

A scrappy maid must outsmart both palace nobles and Low Gods in a new YA fantasy by Margaret Owen, author of the Merciful Crow series.

Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl...

Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love―and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself.

 

The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed. 

 

Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life. 

 

Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of “The Goose Girl” about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both.

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.

Bargain Ebook: Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith TODAY ONLY

Bloodleaf (The Bloodleaf Trilogy Book 1) by Crystal Smith is on sale today ONLY for $2.99. It is the first in a trilogy with the second book due out in September. One of its reader reviewers says it draws strong inspiration from The Goose Girl, which is beloved by many SurLaLune readers and doesn't get retold as often. It is YA like most fantasy retellings are these days.

Book description:

A roar of a dark and luscious epic fantasy that’s layered with heady romance, bloodthirsty magic, and ghostly intrigue—an absolutely wicked delight.

Aurelia is a princess, but they call her a witch.

Surrounded by spirits and burdened with forbidden magic, she lives in constant fear of discovery by the witch-hunting Tribunal and their bloodthirsty mobs. When a devastating assassination attempt reveals her magical abilities, Aurelia is forced to flee her country with nothing but her life.

Alone and adrift in an enemy kingdom, Aurelia plans her revenge against the Tribunal, desperate to bring down the dark organization that has wrought terror upon her people for hundreds of years. But there's something deeply amiss in her new home, too, and soon she finds herself swept into a deadly new mystery with a secretive prince, the ghost of an ancient queen, and a poison vine called Bloodleaf.

Aurelia is entangled in a centuries-long game of love, power, and war, and if she can't break free before the Tribunal makes its last move, she may lose far more than her crown.

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.

Bargain Ebook: Thorn by Intisar Khanani

Thorn (Dauntless Path Book 1) by Intisar Khanani is on sale in ebook format for $2.99. This book is particularly exciting since it is a retelling of The Goose Girl which doesn't get retold often enough IMHO.

Book description:

Hunted meets The Wrath and the Dawn in this bold fairytale retelling—where court intrigue, false identities, and dark secrets will thrill fans of classic and contemporary fantasy alike.

Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life, but when her mother betroths her to a powerful prince in a distant kingdom, she has little hope for a better future.

Until Alyrra arrives at her new kingdom, where a mysterious sorceress robs her of both her identity and her role as princess—and Alyrra seizes on the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl.

But as Alyrra uncovers dangerous secrets about her new world, including a threat to the prince himself, she knows she can’t remain silent forever. With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds, and ultimately must decide who she is and what she stands for.

Originally self-published as an ebook and now brought to life with completely revised text, Thorn also features an additional short story set in-world, The Bone Knife.

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.

From the Brothers Grimm Series on Folkstreams Vimeo Channel: Activities During Coronavirus

Last week one tweet I read that made me laugh was a mother stating emphatically that she's not going to do anything educational while stuck at home with her young kids. They would watch too much tv. They would eat too much junk. Essentially, they would escape anyway they could during the Corona shutdown. I laughed. I liked that she was lowering her expectations and not putting too much pressure on herself. But even those activities will get old in my opinion, so I will keep looking for fairy tale related options to share. Fairy tales and folklore are about surviving trying times.

But on the note of watching TV, I wanted to share links to the From the Brothers Grimm series by Tom Davenport. These are rentable for a few dollars each on the Folkstreams Vimeo Channel. This is just an FYI service from SurLaLune--there is no affiliate earnings with these. Davenport Films made these many years ago so they are not HD and have a folksy feel. They are also mostly set in Appalachia. They are more suitable for older kids, I'd say 3rd grade and up.

I've linked and embedded the films below but some may not embed due to privacy settings. Just follow the links to learn more. They are all viewable for a $1.95 month long rental each.

My husband's favorite (and thus one of my sentimental favorites, too) is Soldier Jack or The Man Who Caught Death in a Sack:


Soldier Jack or The Man Who Caught Death in a Sack from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Jack and the Dentist's Daughter


Jack and the Dentist's Daughter from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

I remember when this aired on PBS, the last film they produced, Willa: An American Snow White:


Willa: An American Snow White from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Hansel & Gretel: An Appalachian Version


Hansel & Gretel: An Appalachian Version from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Ashpet: An American Cinderella


Ashpet: An American Cinderella from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel


Rapunzel, Rapunzel from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Mutzmag or The Girl Who Killed the Cannibals. This tale appears in many of the strong women of folklore collections.


Mutzmag or The Girl Who Killed the Cannibals from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

The Frog King


The Frog King from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Bristlelip is a version of King Thrushbeard.


Bristlelip from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Bearskin or The Man Who Didn't Wash for Seven Years--Another favorite tale of mine. Really gets the feel of how disgusting Bearskin is!


Bearskin or The Man Who Didn't Wash for Seven Years from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

The Goose Girl


The Goose Girl from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Bargain Ebook: Thorn by Intisar Khanani for 99 cents

Thorn by Intisar Khanani is on sale for 99 cents in ebook format. The novel retells "The Goose Girl."

Book description:

For Princess Alyrra, choice is a luxury she's never had ... until she's betrayed.

Princess Alyrra has never enjoyed the security or power of her rank. Between her family's cruelty and the court's contempt, she has spent her life in the shadows. Forced to marry a powerful foreign prince, Alyrra embarks on a journey to meet her betrothed with little hope for a better future.

But powerful men have powerful enemies--and now, so does Alyrra. Betrayed during a magical attack, her identity is switched with another woman's, giving Alyrra the first choice she's ever had: to start a new life for herself or fight for a prince she's never met. But Alyrra soon finds that Prince Kestrin is not at all what she expected. While walking away will cost Kestrin his life, returning to the court may cost Alyrra her own. As Alyrra is coming to realize, sometime the hardest choice means learning to trust herself.

Bargain Ebook: Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl for $1.99

Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl has dropped to $1.99 in ebook format. It was $3.99 so it is now half price, probably for a limited time. I have owned this book since it was published in hardcover so I am thrilled that it is now at a price I can justify owning in digital format, too. I only wish Kindl's Owl in Love was in ebook format at all. I read that one in grad school at a professor's recommendation and no, it hasn't left me despite the years since I read it. It's rather unique.

Goose Chase lightly borrows from Goose Girl, but it borrows from so much more than that, such as Rapunzel and Cinderella, and more which would be spoiling things. I've sent it to my niece, too, so we'll see what she thinks of it.

Book description:

Her name is Alexandria Aurora Fortunato, and she is as lovely as the dawn. But that is only one of her problems. There’s also the matter of those three magical gifts of treasure bestowed on her by a mysterious old woman. And King Claudio the Cruel wants to marry her for her beauty and her wealth, and so does his rival, Prince Edmund of Dorloo. Those are two more problems. And, worst of all, she is locked in a tower, with a grille of iron bars and several hundred tons of stone between her and freedom. Some days Alexandria wishes she looked like a pickled onion. Clearly the only thing to do is escape—and, with the aid of her twelve darling goose companions, that’s precisely what Alexandria does.

So begins the adventure of Patrice Kindl’s beguiling heroine. Her flight will take her to strange lands and lead her into perilous situations, all of which the plucky Alexandria views with a wry and witty spirit. Here is a sprightly tale of magic and romance, in which those geese play a most surprising role.

Indie Friday: Thorn by Intisar Khanani

Thorn by Intisar Khanani is the featured book for Indie Friday, books that are self-published but stand out from the crowd. The cover is attractive and the novel retells "The Goose Girl." I admit I am intrigued. Are you? Has anyone else read this book yet?

Book description:

For Princess Alyrra, choice is a luxury she's never had ... until she's betrayed.

Princess Alyrra has never enjoyed the security or power of her rank. Between her family's cruelty and the court's contempt, she has spent her life in the shadows. Forced to marry a powerful foreign prince, Alyrra embarks on a journey to meet her betrothed with little hope for a better future.

But powerful men have powerful enemies--and now, so does Alyrra. Betrayed during a magical attack, her identity is switched with another woman's, giving Alyrra the first choice she's ever had: to start a new life for herself or fight for a prince she's never met. But Alyrra soon finds that Prince Kestrin is not at all what she expected. While walking away will cost Kestrin his life, returning to the court may cost Alyrra her own. As Alyrra is coming to realize, sometime the hardest choice means learning to trust herself.

Thorn has received a Badge of Approval from Awesome Indies.

What people are saying:

"A troubled princess, an unknown prince, a betrothal, a magnificent white horse, a dangerous sorceress, a wanted thief, magic, mystery, and danger. What more could you want? How about an interesting, in-depth plot that deals with issues such as abuse, grief, justice, loss, pain, revenge, and betrayal? This book has all of these and more." - Vendethiel, Amazon review 7/1/2012

"Princess Alyrra/Thorn is the most engaging main character I have met in a long time. All she wants is to be left alone and yet, when push comes to shove, she does step up and do the right thing. She is humble and compassionate and brave, though she doesn't believe it." - Author Elisabeth Wheatley

"The climax is a bit of a show-stopper, a wonderful outbreak of magical manipulation with everything at stake, and no real certainty of how things will go." - Pauline's Fantasy Reviews 8/24/2012

Readers of Robin McKinley and Mercedes Lackey are sure to enjoy this retelling of the classic Grimm's fairy tale, "The Goose Girl."

Two Shannon Hale Bargain Ebooks: The Book of a Thousand Days and Enna Burning

Two Shannon Hale books are bargain priced temporarily as part of the April Kindle Monthly Deals on Amazon and elsewhere. The Book of a Thousand Days is one of my favorite of Hale's books, a retelling of the lesser known Maid Maleen. It is a lovely book and hasn't been sale priced in a while. Highly recommended!

The other sale book is part of the Bayern series that started with The Goose Girl, Enna Burning (Books of Bayern).

Both books are usually in the $6 range and are currently $1.99 each.

Book description for The Book of a Thousand Days:

Based on a classic Grimm's fairy tale, this is the story told by Dashti, a maid from the steppes of a medieval land, who sacrifices her freedom to accompany her mistress into exile. Imprisoned in a remote tower after Lady Saren refuses to marry the man her father has chosen, the maid and the lady have almost nothing in common. But the loyalty that grows between the two, the man they love in different ways for different reasons, and the lies they tell because of and in spite of each other, combine to evoke the deepest bonds, transcend the loneliest landscapes, and erupt in a conclusion so romantic, so clever, and so right that no reader will be left dry-eyed.

Bargain Book Today Only: Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl (Books of Bayern) by Shannon Hale is on sale today as an Amazon Kindle Daily Deal for only $1.99. This has been on sale before but it definitely worth the price if you don't own it yet. SurLaLune loves some Shannon Hale, one of the authors who retells fairy tales so creatively and also chooses lesser known ones at times, too. Goose Girl and Maid Maleen, to be sure, as well as Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk.

Book description:

Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, spends the
first years of her life under her aunt's guidance learning to
communicate with animals. As she grows up Ani develops the skills of
animal speech, but is never comfortable speaking with people, so when
her silver-tongued lady-in-waiting leads a mutiny during Ani's journey
to be married in a foreign land, Ani is helpless and cannot persuade
anyone to assist her. Becoming a goose girl for the king, Ani
eventually uses her own special, nearly magical powers to find her way
to her true destiny. Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and
magical tale of a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she
can become queen of the people she has made her own.

Look out for the other books in this series: Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born!

One Day Bargains: All Four Bayern Books

  

TODAY ONLY: All four books in Shannon Hale's Bayern series are $1.99 each in ebook format on Amazon. The series includes: The Goose Girl (Books of Bayern) and Enna Burning (Books of Bayern) and River Secrets (Books of Bayern) and Forest Born (Books of Bayern).

The first is inspired by The Goose Girl fairy tale, of course.

Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, spends the first years of her life under her aunt's guidance learning to communicate with animals. As she grows up Ani develops the skills of animal speech, but is never comfortable speaking with people, so when her silver-tongued lady-in-waiting leads a mutiny during Ani's journey to be married in a foreign land, Ani is helpless and cannot persuade anyone to assist her. Becoming a goose girl for the king, Ani eventually uses her own special, nearly magical powers to find her way to her true destiny. Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and magical tale of a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she can become queen of the people she has made her own.

Bargain Book: The Goose Girl (Books of Bayern) by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl (Books of Bayern) by Shannon Hale is marked down to $1.99 TODAY ONLY on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Highly recommended, of course.

And her The Book of a Thousand Days is still 99 cents--probably until her new Princess Academy book is released in a few weeks: Princess Academy: Palace of Stone. Thousand Days is my personal favorite by Hale.

Book description:

Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, spends the
first years of her life under her aunt’s guidance learning to
communicate with animals. As she grows up Ani develops the skills of
animal speech, but is never comfortable speaking with people, so when
her silver-tongued lady-in-waiting leads a mutiny during Ani’s journey
to be married in a foreign land, Ani is helpless and cannot persuade
anyone to assist her. Becoming a goose girl for the king, Ani
eventually uses her own special, nearly magical powers to find her way
to her true destiny. Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and
magical tale of a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she
can become queen of the people she has made her own.

Look out for the other books in this series: Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born!

Favorite Adaptations: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Here is Molly M.'s entry in the Favorite Adaptations giveaway to win a copy of Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross. The window for entries has been extended to April 14th and more entries are trickling in this week. Although the window is closing in a few days to win the book, but I will be publishing the entries throughout the month of April. You can submit after Saturday, you just won't have a chance to win the book.

Shannon Hale's novel The Goose Girl is one of my ultimate favourite fairy tale adaptations. Hale's ability to take such a strange and short story and turn it into a beautiful novel is amazing. I love her characterization of Ani and how she made the story so believable, yet keeping the feeling of a fantastical story. She takes elements of the story that may not make sense to a modern audience, or just seem strange, and creates a believable scenario. Hale's writing style is beautiful and sticks to the mood of a fairy tale. One of the reasons I love the novel so much is Hale's ability to create such an intricate world from such a short story. It's a wonderful book, one I've read many times, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes fairy tale adaptations. The audiobook is also very well done, with a full cast of voice actors for the many characters. The writing, the plot, the world-building, and the characterization of the novel all flows together to create an excellent new story. It's hard to put into words my feelings about this novel eloquently, but it really is an amazing book that you should read.

Music Month: Once Upon a Time by Helen Trevillion

Inside Myself / Once Upon a Time by Helen Trevillion offers four tracks from her Once Upon a Time CD.  From her site:

This little EP is disc 2 of the 'Inside Myself / Once Upon A Time' album. It consists of four songs based on four fairytale protagonists. I have depicted their stories, their situations, their feelings... it's all rather subjective of course but this is my take. :] I think this is the stronger of the two CDs.

ONE DAY I would like to make an extended (i.e. full album length) fairytale album, because I think it worked nicely and there are so many more magical little stories that are begging to be explored in song.

The four fairy tales represented are Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Goose Girl and Cinderella. I love that that she included Goose Girl since it is so often ignored or forgotten or never known for that matter.

Here are sound videos of Goose Girl and Rapunzel--the imagery is just a photo of the artist.

On her website, Trevillion also has a song titled "Noted Absense of Fairy Godmother."

New Book: Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag

Magic Beans: A Handful of Fairytales from the Storybag is a recent book released in the UK with many short stories by well-known authors based on fairy tales. I missed this when it was released a few months ago and it is pushed primarily in ebook format here in the US. The ebook is $9.99 which looks like a bargain when one finds that each of the short stories are also available separately for $1.95 each in ebook format.

The best part--besides a stellar author list--is that many of these are lesser used tales for retellings. I'm not sure how much interpretation is in these versions or if they are more straightforward rewritings by the authors, but either way I am sure they are fun reading. I do know enough to recognize they are reprints of dollar books printed by Scholastic with each title. The illustrations appear to be included here, so this is a good way to collect them all if they interest you or a child in your life.

Book description:

Magic beans. Sow them. Plant them. Watch children grow.

'If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!' - Shel Silverstein, Poet

Each and every one of the stories in this anthology is a magic bean: a wondrous tale that will capture your imagination. Prepare to be dazzled by Rapunzel's golden tresses. Prepare to be moved by the suffering of the Little Mermaid. Prepare to laugh yourself silly as 'Mr Sultana' struggles to get the better of a little red rooster!

Lovingly crafted by the finest authors and illustrators, these 'magic beans' will delight, thrill and thoroughly entertain.

Table of Contents:

Adèle Geras
The Six Swan Brothers

Anne Fine
The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Henrietta Branford
Hansel and Gretel

Jacqueline Wilson
Rapunzel

Malorie Blackman
Aesop’s Fables

Philip Pullman
Mossycoat

Tony Mitton
The Seal Hunter

Alan Garner
Grey Wolf, Prince Jack and the Firebird

Berlie Doherty
The Snow Queen

Gillian Cross
The Goose Girl

Kit Wright
Rumpelstiltskin

Michael Morpurgo
Cockadoodle-doo, Mr Sultana!

Susan Gates
The Three Heads in the Well

Linda Newbery
The Little Mermaid