Blog Tour: Hero by Alethea Kontis

On Tour with Prism Book Tours

Setting Sail on a Fairy Tale Adventure*

*Family Welcome

Hero

by Alethea Kontis

Hardcover, 304 Pages

To be published October 1st, 2013 by Harcourt Books

Rough and tumble Saturday Woodcutter thinks she's the only one of her sisters without any magic—until the day she accidentally conjures an ocean in the backyard. With her sword in tow, Saturday sets sail on a pirate ship, only to find herself kidnapped and whisked off to the top of the world. 

Is Saturday powerful enough to kill the mountain witch who holds her captive and save the world from sure destruction? And, as she wonders grumpily, "Did romance have to be part of the adventure?" 

As in Enchanted, readers will revel in the fragments of fairy tales that embellish this action-packed story of adventure and, yes, romance.

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Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Hardcover, 305 pages

Published May 8, 2012

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?

I was excited to find that I had this on audiobook (remember the free SYNC audiobook downloads from last summer? This was one of them that I picked it up because it sounded good). I loved the voice of Katherine Kellgren and her accent, and this is an audiobook definitely worth listening to. 

I was intrigued with the summary for this book. I come from a family of 7 daughters (and 2 sons). I line up with daughter number 4, Thursday, who ran off with the Pirate King and sends trunks of gifts back home, haha! 

The first line is, "My name is Sunday Woodcutter, and I am doomed to a happy life." Sunday starts out writing in her journal and she meets a frog named Grumble. They become good friends and she enjoys telling him about her family. He asks her to kiss him (since that's how the fairytale goes) and nothing happens. She goes back and tells him more about her family and he asks her to kiss him again so she does, and, again, nothing happens. She kisses him a third time and had to run off so she doesn't know for quite a while that something did happen this time.

I loved Sunday and Rumbold, the prince (also Grumble the frog). When he was Grumble, Sunday found him easy to talk to. As Rumbold, she's intrigued with him but their family doesn't like him because of something else that happened in the past. But she's finding it hard to continue disliking him when she feels so drawn to him. 

This book is full of fun, colorful characters and lots of different fairytale references. There's romance, mystery, adventure, magic, danger, secrets, friendship and humor. I'm excited to read more about this family in Hero (Saturday finding love is sure to be quite funny) and even more in the future! I recommend this to anyone that loves fairytales, clean romance and adventure!

My Rating=5 stars

The Shelf I Can't Live Without

By Alethea Kontis

As a friend of Andre Norton and a visitor of her infamous High Hallack in Murfreesboro, Tennessee--scattered now to the winds like the Library of Alexandria--it has been a long-time goal of mine to have a research library where writers can visit and write. Yes, even in this digital age, there are many of us who value the weight of a book in our hands, the smell, the ability to become inspired just by browsing a shelf.

I moved from Tennessee back in 2009, so most of my library is in storage. It's rather a difficult thing for me, and in the years since I have been collecting a bare-bones miniature version of my library so that I can still do my research. Now that I have an office, I have a small bookcase dedicated to fairy tales, folk tales, wonder stories, plays, poetry, and academic books about all of the above.

Two shelves of my large bookshelf are dedicated to my own personal writing (yay!). One shelf is for oversized picture books (again, mostly fairy tales). One is essentially my overwhelming TBR pile. But the most important shelf here is the Shelf of Books I Can't Live Without.

I've been an avid reader since the tender age of three, and I read my way through the juvenile section of our local library by the end of middle school. Many of these books I reread dozens of times, though I never owned them, and many are now out of print. My mother has been helping me collect them, as I remember them, and they've come to this shelf I treasure above almost all else.

This shelf includes, in no particular order, some fairly obscure titles that really should not be:

The Darkangel Trilogy, by Meredith Ann Pierce

The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, by Ellen Raskin

Gertie's Green Thumb, by Catherine Dexter

This Place Has No Atmosphere, by Paula Danzinger

Ronia, The Robber's Daughter, by Astrid Lindgren

The Nunga Punga and the Booch, by Jean Kennedy

The Ship Who Searched, by Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey

The Cuckoo Sister, by Vivian Alcock

The Rescue of Ranor, by Wilanne Schneider Belden

Magician's Bane, by Charles Beamer

The Ordinary Princess, by M. M. Kaye

Witch Week, by Diana Wynne Jones

If I had my way, I'd reprint all of these titles in some sort of Princess Alethea's Ultimate Classics Collection. But because my career just isn't quite "there" yet, I've settled for reviewing many of these titles on Goodreads (in my copious spare time...I may have some more of that coming to me in December).

I worry sometimes that someone will pick up one of my stories or novels and find some incredibly derivative element linking back to one of these titles. But, like the fairy tales, they seem to have faded into the background of popular literature. Which is a shame...except for the part where I have rescued them, and will do my level best to make sure they are kept alive.

When the first Harry Potter came out and my manager at the bookstore urged me to read it, I did so, but when I handed it back to her, I told her I'd read better. Because I had. It pains me to realize that children today who love fantasy don't have these books readily at their disposal.

But they do have my books, inspired by these classics, and for right now that is enough. 

Thanks, Alethea, for sharing your bookshelf and bringing some of these obscure books to my attention. I haven't heard of any of them and will definitely check them out!

Alethea Kontis

New York Times bestselling author Alethea Kontis is a princess, a goddess, a force of nature, and a mess. She’s known for screwing up the alphabet, scolding vampire hunters, turning garden gnomes into mad scientists, and making sense out of fairy tales.

Alethea is the co-author of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter Companion, and penned the AlphaOops series of picture books. Her short fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in a myriad of anthologies and magazines. She has done multiple collaborations with Eisner winning artist J.K. Lee, includingThe Wonderland Alphabet and Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome. Her debut YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, won the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award in 2012 and was nominated for both the Andre Norton Award and the Audie Award in 2013.

Born in Burlington, Vermont, Alethea now lives in Northern Virginia with her Fairy Godfamily. She makes the best baklava you’ve ever tasted and sleeps with a teddy bear named Charlie.

Website * Goodreads * Facebook * Twitter * YouTube

Tour-Wide Giveaway

Sept 22 - Oct 17

Fairy Tale Gift Bundle: Signed copies of both Enchantment and Hero by Alethea Kontis plus swag!

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Sail Away on the 

Fairy Tale Adventure Tour*

*Family Welcome

Sept 22 - LAUNCH

Sept 23 - The Missing Piece at Alethea Kontis

 - Review on Debz Bookshelf

 - Celebration on Deal Sharing Aunt

Sept 24 - Interview with Miss Print

Sept 25 - Interview with Carina Books

 - The Grandfather Pirate on Living a Goddess Life

 - Meet the Inspiration on The Wonderings of One Person

Sept 26 - Review on Shannon's Blog

 - Meet the Inspiration continued on Bookmarks

Sept 27 - Meet the Sister on Leeana Me

Sept 30 - USA Today Happy Ever After Interview

 - Review of Enchantment on Colorimetry

Oct 1 - RELEASE DAY!

 - Release Day at Waterworld Mermaids

 - My Favorite Bit (with Cat Valente) at Mary Robinette Kowal

 - Review at Library of a Book Witch

 - Interview & Review at Tressa's Wishful Endings

Oct 2 - Video Rant at http://www.geekgirlinlove.com

 - The Big Idea at John Scalzi's Blog

 - My Bookshelf on Mel's Shelves

 - Did You See? on Cu's eBook Giveaways

Oct 3 - The Missing Piece on I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

 - Review at Books for Kids

Oct 4 - Podcast with Bennet Pomeranz

 - Review of Hero on Colorimetry

Oct 5 - Hero LAUNCH PARTY at One More Page Books in Arlington, VA

Oct 7 - Character interview with Saturday Woodcutter at I Smell Sheep

 - Stealing from the Best on Romance Writers of America & Fantasy Futuristic & Paranormal

Oct 8 - A Twist in the Tail at A Backwards Story

 - Review at JL Mbewe

Oct 9 - Enchanted Inkspot

 - Deleted Scene at Fragments of Life

Oct 10-15 GRAND FINALE