Wednesday 17 October 2012

The Star Child by Stephanie Keyes

 
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:

Anonymous said...

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. :)

Nicky Wells said...

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!

Sheryl Browne said...

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

Janice said...

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

Linn B Halton and Lucy Coleman said...

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!