Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

I am having a wicked sweet blast this week featuring the Indie Fantasy novelists who are published via Odyssey Books – as these authors helped make my 3rd Year of Wyrd And Wonder wicked wonderful! Each of them has brought a different perspective on #amwriting Fantasy, reading Fantasy and breathing a fantastical world to life – as they are a diverse group of authors who are offering new & dynamic voices in Fantasy which hopefully will become our next wicked #mustreads!

I wanted to talk a moment about what fuelled my interest in wanting to seek out the Sentinel of Eden series to read and why I wanted to host Ms Denman during #WyrdAndWonder! I found it truly an interesting spin on where Urban Fantasy can take us as a reader whilst at the same time, I have a healthy appreciation for spiritual stories and cultural heritage which can be explored through topical themes in genre fiction. I grew up with a passion for learning about cultures and religious heritages outside my own background – there is such a wide world out there and I wanted to see if I could bring it a bit closer to home by understanding more about our differences and what unites us together.

I find whenever an author can seek to draw us together – through empathy, understanding, tolerance and a layer of enlightenment towards fundamental truths and a unique perspective about something which is familiar to us all but whom has found a way to shed a new perspective on known history is an author I am most desiring to read. It is also why I wanted to work on an interview which would not only highlight how she approached telling this story but what is waiting for us to find inside it once we’re able to read it. I love delving into the stories and/or series ‘back-history’ and seeing how they were inspired to be written and/or developed. 

I didn’t get a chance to gather a copy of this novel during #WyrdAndWonder – however, this conversation we’ve shared has definitely left me with a solid connection to the world within The Sentinels of Eden series and I will be looking forward to reading this when I’m able to bring the series home. 

Brew yourself a cuppa and enjoy what I have to share with you,…

Songlines
Subtitle: The Sentinels of Eden, Book One
by Carolyn Denman

In the heart of the Wimmera region of Victoria, an ancient gateway to Eden is kept hidden and safe by a creature so powerful that even the moon would obey her commands – at least it would if she had any idea that she wasn’t just a normal girl about to finish high school.

When a mining company begins exploratory sampling near Lainie’s sheep farm, a family secret is revealed that makes her regret not having learnt more about her Indigenous heritage. What she’s told by their farmhand, Harry – an Aboriginal elder – can’t possibly be true, but then the most irritating guy in class, Bane, begins to act even more insanely toward her than ever, until she can no longer deny that something very unusual is going on.

When Harry doesn’t return from his quest to seek help to protect the area from the miners, Lainie sets out to discover the truth of her heritage, and of the secret she’s been born to protect.

Genres: Australian Lit, Fantasy Fiction, YA Fantasy

Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 9781922200600

Published by Odyssey Books

on 20th August, 2016

Published by: Odyssey Books (@OdysseyBooks)

About [ The Sentinels of Eden series ] by the author:

(The Sentinels of Eden) so here is a quick summary. The series is YA fantasy, set in rural Australia, and explores the possibility that the Garden of Eden has been hidden away in the Aussie bush. When Lainie discovers that she’s been born to protect the secret of the Garden, and has been gifted with supernatural powers to do so, she (naturally) wants to see the place for herself. Of course, finding a portal to another world somewhere in ‘the back of beyond’ isn’t that easy.

The series showcases a laid-back sense of Aussie humour, feelgood romance, and good old adventure, all woven through with some deeper Australian Indigenous and spiritual themes.

My passion is to entice early YA readers to explore the Fantasy/Urban Fantasy genre, and hopefully help to bridge the gap between Middle-Grade and YA novels. The full four book set has just been released on Amazon as a bundle deal, so now would be a great time for readers to check it out.

Converse via: #Fantasy, #YAFantasy, #TheSentinelsOfEden
as well as #OdysseyBooks & #WyrdAndWonder

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