I’m thrilled to reveal the gorgeous cover of the second in my YA fantasy series:
The back is just as pretty!
Needless to say, I’m very happy with it, and I’m looking forward to its release on Arbor Day ~ April, 26, 2019!
Want an introduction to this story?
Read the first two chapters here.
Preorder Guardian of the Pines now!
Special .99 sale prior to the 4-26-2019 release.
Add to Goodreads | Universal Book Link
And, as I post every Wednesday, here’s a Book Quote Wednesday (#BookQW) excerpt, this time from Chapter 16:
They flapped hard to climb the rocky bluff of the mountain. The air cooled and the wind kicked splatters of rain at them. This wasn’t the gentle, circuitous route Willow had led them over, so it was either faster or a test to see if he could keep up. Cor was panting by halfway, but determined not to lose pace. By the time they topped the mountain, his vision was spotting at the edges. The updraft caught his wings, and he took the blessed break. His head cleared. The island spread before them, the southern tip of land curved to the horizon, the Irish Sea a cloudy blue on either side. There, protected within a deep cove of mountain ridges, lay the large grove of pines.
Tossing a grin over his shoulder, Oyster flattened his wings, dropped to soar, then tucked his wings and dove. He gained speed.
Cor delayed only a moment, then copied him. The wind rushed in his ears and dragged on his jeans, but the thrill of it raced his heart and energy. Spells, he needed this. The wind was perfect, the slope steep, the spiky tops of the Scots pines the ultimate target. A longing ramped up inside him—
Cor promptly squashed it. He had to maintain detachment. He had no idea what the old—Lady Pina was going to say or do. He couldn’t go into this hoping for the world. He’d be crushed like the bug they seemed to believe him to be.
That put a damper on his carefree drop. Shifting from his streamlined posture, he slowed himself incrementally until he was trailing Oy by hundreds of yards. He came upon the Pines—someone else’s property—with more caution and deference than he would have if he’d barreled in.
Oy shot over the treetops, slowing naturally and swinging around to wait. When Cor caught up, he pointed to a tree whose top was splintered with an old break.
“Base of that one is where she’s working,” he called. “I assume you can find your way back to the Meadows after?”
He’d been able to find the valley after other flights. “Yep.”
Oy touched two fingertips to his forehead. “Best wishes, then.” He turned, flew over the ridge and dropped out of sight.
So…on his own for this. Of course he was. He was the one who wanted an apprenticeship.
Cor made the descent take as long as he possibly could, appreciating the view from the full-on midday sun to patchier light beneath the canopy. He kept expecting to enter the duller needle-filtered light that was typical of the dense groves, but it didn’t happen in this one’s branches. This tree had the spread of a mature tree, but not the fullness. He spotted a spiraling scar. It’d been struck by lightning in the past. At the last branch of the giant, still a hundred feet above the forest floor, he paused to look at the top of a black cavity that spread in an arch on its way down the trunk.
“I do not have all day to wait for you,” called a high-pitched—and very irritated—woman.
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