Fantasy Book Feature: “Greyborn Rising” by Derry Sandy

Y’all! Someone I know wrote a book and I’m featuring it for today’s post because it’s a fantasy novel, so it totally works for #WyrdandWonder. I haven’t yet read it, but read on to see if it interests you.

Greyborn Rising is a debut fantasy novel by Derry Sandy, a corporate lawyer based in Washington, DC. Sandy draws on his Trinidadian roots to craft this story that’s set in Trinidad and includes creatures from Caribbean folklore, such as the soucouyant, a shapshifter that sucks people’s blood.

Here are more details about the book:

Greyborn Rising by Derry Sandy

Pubbed: May 6, 2019 by CaribbeanReads

Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis:

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Let’s Rewind: April 2019

…and because March was so much fun, April came along and kicked me in my ass.

Let’s Rewind is my version of a monthly wrap up but instead of talking about only books, I include all types of other stuff, like articles… bookish news… commercials… random-ass links… movies… art… podcasts… cartoons… and whatever the hell happened to me in the month. You know, the usual stuff that people talk about in monthly wrap ups. So read on to see what I did and read this month. You might stumble upon something that interests you.

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April was not what I expected. It was filled with great surprises that are too personal to share on here, and it kept me so busy that I hardly had time to scratch my nose much less blog. It was a great busyness, but it made me debate quitting my second job because I have even less free time now.

Nothing much occurred in April. I took a trip to NYC for Easter to visit family for fun and left a book behind, so I didn’t have it to read on my roadtrip, unfortunately. And I attended Independent Bookstore Day but didn’t get much and only visited one shop, Politics & Prose, because I was exhausted. I was so tired that I didn’t notice this interruption by White nationalists, which occurred while I was there.

On here, I participated in the O.W.L. Magical Readathon and am now a few steps closer to becoming an aurologist, someone who studies auras. Now I’m on another reading adventure — a full month dedicated to nothing but fantasy. Ahh… 🙂 #wyrdandwonder

Top 5 Tuesday #2: Books I Want to Reread

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm. Today, I’ll make it a #WyrdandWonder entry, which means all the books I mention will be fantasy.

This week’s topic:

top 5 books I want to reread

I enjoy rereading books, whether it’s to revisit a story I love or to give one I disliked another try. Sometimes doing so makes me realize that a story isn’t as great as I initially thought or that I missed something essential on my first read that made me dislike the story. Either way, rereading can sometimes be an illuminating experience that makes me realize how much I have grown and experienced since I last visited a particular book. There are many books I’d like to reread, but here are the fantasy ones that quickly came to mind:

The Lost Years of Merlin by T.A. Barron

“Beauty and the Clockwork Beast” by Nancy Campbell Allen, narr. by Saskia Maarleveld

How did I come by this story? It’s the same as always happens. I was at work doing a boring task and wanted to listen to something entertaining. I got lucky when I took a chance on Nancy Campbell Allen’s Beauty and the Clockwork Beast. The synopsis made me think it would be similar to the paranormal romance series I read last year — Fairwick Chronicles by Juliet Dark, which is set in the present day at a small college in upstate New York. The stories aren’t similar, but I’ve enjoyed both and am glad I’ve read them.

Genre:

Historical fiction; paranormal; steampunk; romance

Series:

Steampunk Proper Romance, book 1

Pubbed:

August 2016

Quick summary:

Beauty and the Clockwork Beast is a historical fiction novel inspired by the Beauty and the Beast fairytale. The story is set in Victorian England (but women, especially our narrator, exercise some independence) in a world that has certain technological advancements (such as airships and automatons) that give the story a strong steampunk quality. It is very atmospheric, has a strong gothic vibe, and features several supernatural creatures, such as werewolves, vampires, and ghosts.

Wrap Up: O.W.L. Magical Readathon | 2019

Let’s see how I did on my O.W.L.s. 😐

Back on the first of April, I posted my TBR for the O.W.L. Magical Readathon (created by the Book Roast) and announced my intention to pursue studies that would make me an Aurologist, someone who studies auras — their colors, meanings, and sensations. Now it’s time to see how well I did on my exams.

The O.W.L. Magical Readathon is inspired by the Harry Potter series. Participants read books that match the prompts for each subject in pursuit of their chosen wizarding career. The O.W.L.s took place on April 1-30 and the N.E.W.T.s, which will decide whether or not a person can pursue their chosen career, will be held on August 1-31.

Let’s revisit the requirements for my chosen career: (my TBR post)

Aurologist

Key traits of an aurologist:

Intuitive

Perceptive

Requirements:

O.W.L.s

Astronomy

Divination

History of Magic

N.E.W.T.s

Astronomy – must receive E

Divination – must receive E

Fellowship of the Ring Book Tag

To get things going on here for Wyrd & Wonder (a month-long celebration of all things fantasy), I thought I’d kick it back to the classics and jumpstart this thing with the Fellowship of the Ring Book Tag, which was created by Nandini of Unputdownable Books. (I consider myself tagged by Sara Letourneau.)

My plan was to answer with only fantasy novels (in honor of W&W) but I haven’t yet read that many fantasy novels to be able to do so. 😦

Gandalf – A book that taught you something

Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better by Pema Chödrön

#Giveaway Announcement for Wyrd & Wonder Celebration

Hey y’all!! 😀

It’s the first day of Wyrd & Wonder, a month-long celebration of all things fantasy!

I’d hoped to be better prepared for this event by clearing out my review queue, but April got super busy in the middle so that didn’t happen. I am, however, ready to read as many fantasy novels, novellas, and comics as I can get my hands on and publish as many fantasy-related posts as I can manage to do, starting with this post to announce my….

!!!GIVEAWAY!!!

(details below)