It’s day two of our week-long online book tour for Scarred Beauty, sequel to Craving Beauty of the Wylder Tales Series! I’ve been super excited about this particular book tour because this is the first full-length sequel I’ve published, in case you didn’t know. My stand-alone novels, Silver Hollow & Stay each have “potential” sequels in my back files, and the Heaven’s Edge Series are novella length. So it was a fun challenge writing Vynasha’s continuing journey. More about writing in this post: Writing Wylder Tales
What you want to do is check out today’s tour stops!
#1 Magic & Machines
First up we have a guest blog post (written by yours truly) at Magic & Machines! Not only do you get a sneak peek at the new Wylderlands Map but a glimpse into Wolfsbane’s life before the events of Craving Beauty. Here’s a shadow of a glimpse ;p
Their howls rose around him, cries of bloodlust and the hunt. He watched his breath escape in warm puffs which lingered on the frozen air. His hands tightened on the daggers in his hands and glanced further down the edge of Mount Grimm, where he knew his father and young son waited. Perhaps Vilhelm was too young for the hunt. His wife, Nephthys certainly thought so.
Too few of us left now. No choice.
No matter how often she begged, she did not stop him and had not the heart to keep Vilhelm from joining the hunt. It was in their blood, and he would see them survive the winter. The Wolvs never came this close to their territory, his people made certain of it. But as the curse stole their daughters, as it pressed the beasts to hunt for food nearer their homes…
No choice now but to fight.
He ground his teeth, ignored the dull throb of coiled muscles cramping in his leg. The wait would be over soon. The howls were drawing closer…
To read more, come visit Magic & Machines
#2 Nicole’s Book Musings
Next up is an excerpt from Scarred Beauty with Nicole’s Book Musings! There will be four excerpts total which is super fun, because they are meant to be read together like a serial. So be sure you read the first today and learn what happens after the Prince throws Vynasha in the dungeon with the other beasts…
Her life had been forfeit the hour the Prince locked her in the dungeon like one of his beasts. Being enclosed in near-absolute darkness made the hours crawl past and Vynasha’s mind was beginning to betray her. Had it only been a few hours since he’d left her alone with nothing but the echoing howls of her fellow beastly prisoners for company?
“You were our last hope,” he had told her, “and now I am left to this ruin, to watch it stone by stone fall into decay and dust…”
While the other beasts in this dank prison howled, she watched the way her inner violet light glowed beneath her skin. Scant incandescence, not enough to breach the black surrounding her. The inner light she had ignored all her life shone dimly now the longer she contemplated the Prince’s last words to her.
“A pity you could not love a beast…”
No matter whether the Prince truly loved her, he was right. They could have made an alliance, she supposed. But love had never been her reason for coming here. Her nephew, Wyll, was the sole purpose for which she’d foolishly risked everything to come to these forbidden mountains, denied a prince and determined to escape. For a moment she found herself retracing her steps, trying to grasp hold of something real other than the play of light beneath her skin.
In her mind she could clearly see the scars covering half of Wyll’s sweet face, the brightness in his blue eyes as she’d passed him off to Wolfsbane and his daughter Resha for safekeeping. The journey she’d made into the castle would have been too dangerous for her to carry him along. So she’d braved the terror of the unnatural wolves as they gave chase up to the castle gates. She could still see the giant doors and remembered her crippling loss of hope upon entering. Her skin still prickled at the memory of that first awful night, when the beast appeared, snarling and clawing after her flesh. It was impossible to fathom how much her perception of her beast and the castle’s mysterious inhabitants would change in one season. They had unwittingly influenced her, especially the Prince with his boundless knowledge of places and things she only dreamed of.
Would it have been so terrible to love him?
Jennifer Silverwood 