Earlier this year, I was delighted to be invited to the www.loveahappyending.com event in Tetbury, Gloucestershire to meet my fellow LAHE members who were made up of authors and reviewers. Imagine my excitement when I found out that Stephanie Keyes had travelled all the way over from the States to visit us. This was a lady who I'd been a virtual friend of for quite a while and we'd chatted about books and talked about our young families and Stephanie invited me to read her other baby "The Star Child". To finally meet her actually in person was just fantastic. She was exactly how I imagined her to be and more! Her energy and enthusiasm for life is amazing and infectious. She is adorable!
Today, here I am hosting Stephanie on her blog tour. She'd been getting around a bit over the last few weeks so I'm really pleased that she had time to stop by at my site for me to do a review of this awesome book.
About the book:
Kellen St. James is a bright
young man who has never recovered from the loss of his Mother when he was a
young child, and has a father, who he feels does not care for him at all. If
fact, his father even forgot to go to his graduation from Yale. While on the
podium receiving his accolade, the world as he knew it, stopped and he was taken
back in time to a period of his childhood where he was staying at his
Grandmother's house. While there, he met a beautiful young girl called
Calienta. She walked away from him with her father and all he wanted to do is
to go with her.
Calienta has haunted his
dreams ever since, and when he discovers that his Grandmother has passed away,
he returns to her house on the Irish Coast and finds out far more about him
mother. Calienta turns up, this time not in his dreams but for real and tells
him a tale about an ancient prophecy and informs him that he is the only one who
can save the world from darkness.
Bearing in mind, that he loves
this girl more than he thought would ever be possible and had nothing really to
lose, they set off on an wild adventure, through mystical worlds of faeries and
angels, with the odd evil demon and wild dog thrown in along the way. Sound
bizarre? It is, but also hugely enjoyable.
This book was a real treat for
me to read. Quite different to my normal reading material, this magical
fairytale held me captivated until the adventure ended. The main characters
were wonderfully created, enchanting and loveable. I became submerged in a
whole other world, a world of make believe and fantasy, a place where the
outside world didn't exist. I found myself thinking about the story and the
characters when I was away from the book, which I always think is the sign of a
cracking book.
While reading this book, I did
think to myself that as Stephanie is mom to two young children and the family
dog, she must tell the most amazing bedtime stories! She is full of imagination
and fun. The vivid and colourful descriptions make the scenes in her story come
alive and I'd love her to visit and read a story to Oliver at bedtime! I'm sure
he'd be the same as I was; completely mesmerised.
A fabulous debut novel from
this author and I hope to seeing a lot more from her in the future.
About the author:
When Stephanie isn’t writing,
she works full time as a Corporate Educator and Curriculum Designer. She holds a
M.Ed. from Duquesne University and an undergraduate degree in Management
information Systems from Robert Morris University . Stephanie is a clarinetist,
saxophonist, and vocalist, and is always making music somewhere at sometime. She
credits her loving husband of ten years and her two sons for the completion and
publication of the Star Child.
Find out more about Stephanie
at http://www.stephaniekeyes.com.
The Star Child is published by Inkspell Publishing and is
available in both Kindle and paperback at;
5 comments:
Thank you, Kim for the wonderful post and review! I so enjoyed meeting you in Tetbury as well. Though not that you've said I'm adorable, they'll be no living with me. :)
Great review, Kim, and big congrats to Steph. I greatly enjoyed The Star Child and it's fabulous to see these amazing reviews surfacing everywhere. Well done, Steph. And it was awesome to meet you both in Tetbury ~ we must do it again soon!
Awww, you ARE adorable, Steph! We love you! Um, I'm fancying a fair few people are loving Kellen, too! FAB review, Kim! Well done, girls! :) xx
What a great review - sounds like Oliver will enjoy being read this magical bedtime story!
Congratulations Stephanie on such a mega-successful debut.
Love, Janicexx
I absolutely loved this YA fantasy and all ages can read and enjoy it! Lovely review Kim and know exactly where you are coming from with the bedtime story thing!
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