by: April Marcom
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale
Release Date: February 5, 2019
Publisher: 5 Prince Publishing
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All her life, Falon's grandfather told her the age-old tale of 'The Gingerbread Man'. Even as a teenager, she'd fallen asleep to his favorite bedtime story, a special tradition she knew she'd never outgrow. However, when he makes a dying wish, asking her to visit a secret underground world of magic to rescue the best friend he left behind fifty years ago, the tale begins to come to life.
Setting out with her self-obsessed cousin and a cure for the magicked man with skin like gingerbread, she finds herself tangled within an adventure nothing like the story her grandfather always told.
Once having found the long lost man of her grandfather’s youth, her only hope of ever returning home, or even surviving his world, lies in the talons of a deadly hybrid she scarcely trusts. Together they must face the animals taken from the children's tale and magicked into monsters, a man who can move mountains who is bent on killing them all, and a labyrinth rumored to have never allowed a survivor.
Nick’s never blamed Joseph for abandoning him to brave the labyrinth of unspeakable dangers in an effort to escape decades before. So he can hardly believe it when his old friend’s granddaughter arrives to rescue him.
Even more concerning is the way he’s falling for her. Nick struggles between two times: being trapped inside a magical body barely her elder, and the decades he’s lived before she was even born.
Falon’s all in, though. She loves the wet, sandy feel of his skin and his kiss, the stormy blue of Nick’s eyes and the way he’s so protective.
Their only hope of escaping through the labyrinth to any sort of normal life is recruiting the aid of a deadly hybrid who has a taste for gingerbread humans. The journey becomes a string of dangerous events, each member of their party narrowly escaping death’s clutches and rescuing one another. Not to mention they’re being hunted by a wicked magicked man who controls the maze and who will do anything to keep the underworld secret.
Hidden within the Evanish Mountains, there is a crevice that leads to an unknown world deep within our earth, where magic bleeds through the ground, transforming whatever it touches.
Over time, a great many wanderers have fallen into the enormous underground world, drawn in by its magic and turned into beings who look like they could have been made from gingerbread. The only way to escape is to face a maze filled with monsters and peril nearly impossible to survive.
Men have become lost until time consumed them. Others were destroyed and eaten by horses, by pigs, by oxen, or by whatever creature was unlucky enough to be touched by the magic of this underworld. It affects every sort of animal differently, but all are transfixed by the maze to crave the taste of the magicked man. The wind, as prey cuts through it, seems to chant:
“Run, run as fast as you can.
The moment you stop, you’re a dead man.”
None are worse than the vixens, however, a cache of female foxes with unparalleled speed and teeth that can cut through anything like butter.
Only a few have ever made it past them. The rare escapee is where the age-old tale of “The Gingerbread Man” originated, told differently from mouth to mouth. Not to mention that each “gingerbread man’s” tale is different.
Over time, a great many wanderers have fallen into the enormous underground world, drawn in by its magic and turned into beings who look like they could have been made from gingerbread. The only way to escape is to face a maze filled with monsters and peril nearly impossible to survive.
Men have become lost until time consumed them. Others were destroyed and eaten by horses, by pigs, by oxen, or by whatever creature was unlucky enough to be touched by the magic of this underworld. It affects every sort of animal differently, but all are transfixed by the maze to crave the taste of the magicked man. The wind, as prey cuts through it, seems to chant:
“Run, run as fast as you can.
The moment you stop, you’re a dead man.”
None are worse than the vixens, however, a cache of female foxes with unparalleled speed and teeth that can cut through anything like butter.
Only a few have ever made it past them. The rare escapee is where the age-old tale of “The Gingerbread Man” originated, told differently from mouth to mouth. Not to mention that each “gingerbread man’s” tale is different.
Purchase The Gingerbread Curse from:
Places to find April Marcom:
You can follow The Gingerbread Cursed Blog Tour here.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI second that!
DeleteThis book sounds interesting. I hope they will be able to finish their mission in the secret underworld.
ReplyDeleteThanks! So do Falon and Nick. :) It was a blast writing this story.
DeleteI love the cover. It sets the tone for the book.
ReplyDeleteThanks! 5 Prince Publishing does awesome book covers.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an amazing story!
ReplyDeleteI hope you get a chance to read it. What's your favorite genre?
DeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I hope you're having a great day!
DeleteThank you for sharing your guest post and book details and for offering a giveaway, I have enjoyed reading about you and your work and I am looking forward to reading your book.
ReplyDeleteGreat! I'd love to hear what you think about it, Bea. Hearing from readers is one of the best parts of being a writer!
Deletechocolateswirlcupcake@yahoo.com
I enjoyed the guest post, April and I enjoyed the excerpt and The Gingerbread Curse sounds like a great fantasy read for me and I like the cover! Good luck with your book and the tour! Thanks for sharing it with me and have a spectacular week!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a spectacular week too! I love the word spectacular. My favorite word is savvy, though. Johnny Depp makes it sound so cool as Jack Sparrow.
DeleteThanks so much! One of my favorite parts of the story is when the travelers each receive a unique special ability when recovering on Sierra's magical island. Guess which one Falon gets?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a book I will enjoy reading.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'd love to come back to this comment and read a reply with what you thought about it when you're done.
DeleteThis sounds like a really good fantasy book to read
ReplyDeleteThanks! There's a fox-owl hybrid that plays a big part in this fantasy. Here's the excerpt where she first enters the story:
DeleteThe scratching came again. It sounded more like clawing now. A glittering gold light attached to something enormous was drawing closer, limb by limb. The gold became a beautiful lime green emitting from two eyes. I shrunk back, pressing my body against the tangled tree behind me, and tried to look brave. It was no use, of course.
“Duchess?” I asked.
A giant griffin-looking thing with the face of a fox clawed her way across branches only two trees away, fluttering her dolphin-length wings a few times.
I have never read a fantasy fairy tale before - looks interesting!
ReplyDeleteMy book aside, I think they're a match made in heaven. It's fun to take a childhood favorite and dress it up for an older audience.
DeleteSounds like an interesting read
ReplyDeleteThanks, Danielle! This gingerbread's not like any we grew up hearing about.
Delete