BooksChatter: ☀☄ The King in the Stone: Two Moon Princess [2]

Thank you for joining us for the Release Day Celebrations for The King in the Stone, a Young Adult Historical Fantasy by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban (25 July 2016, Carmen Ferreiro Esteban, 296 pages).

This is the second book in the Two Moon Princess series.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first five chapters with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban will be awarding five eBook copies of Two Moon Princess, or one of five eBook copies of The King in the Stone to randomly drawn winners via Rafflecopter during the tour.

Synopsis | Teaser | Trailer | The Series | About the Author | Giveaway

Synopsis

A full moon,
a silver key,
and the forbidden passion of two young lovers
will bring hope to a defeated kingdom
and, through their sorrow, deliver a king
who will change its fate

Sent back in time through a portal the full moon opens, Julian and Andrea, two lovers from a parallel universe, are caught in opposite sides of the battle between the last Spanish stronghold and the Arabian invaders. A battle for survival that will determine the fate of a kingdom and demand of them the ultimate sacrifice: As the Arabs close on the mountains, Julián makes a decision that will break Andrea’s heart and change them forever.

Teaser: Excerpt

In the following excerpt from The King in the Stone, Andrea, while visiting the ruins of a Celtic Village in northern Spain, has a vivid memory of a past she can’t possibly remember.

     I was upset at Professor de la Vega for her contemptuous dismissal of my statement that there had been a fire. Although I couldn’t argue with her because I had no proof, I felt in my bones that I was right, for I knew this village. I knew it as she could never know it from her cold pillaging of these desolate ruins. I knew it as it had been when the huts were still dwellings with burning fires in their hearths. When people, real people, not visitors for the day, lived in them. When women cooked over the fires and wove cloth on their looms while men cleaned their weapons and discussed the day’s hunt. And later when the coals had turned to embers, they made love to one another under the rough covers of untanned hides. I remembered this village the way it had been when it was full of life. Before the fire.
     I stopped walking, confused by the intensity of my memories, and looked around to find my bearings. I was breathing rapidly as if I had been running and my legs were shaking.
     “Are you okay?” Covadonga asked.
     I nodded. There are no people here, I told myself, no warriors, no loom, no fires. I forced myself to look inside the hut to see it as it really was: an empty circle of stones. The hut was empty as I expected, although this particular one was not a circle. It was oblong in shape and bigger than the others. The chieftain’s hut, most likely. Roughly at its center, four sticks tied by ropes marked the place where the hearth had been.
     Where the fire is burning.
     It's hot inside the hut, the air so thick with smoke my eyes are tearing. I blink. There's no smoke here, I remind myself, there's no fire. Yet the acrid smell of green wood burning tells me otherwise, and when I look again I see the glare of the central hearth reaching up toward the darkness above, pushing back the shadows.
     Beyond the hearth, within a semicircle of seated dark figures, two men are arguing. But a wall of people––women, men and children––stands between me and the hearth, and their words never reach me. I push my way toward the fire slowly, painfully slowly as moving hurts. Sweat runs down my face from the effort. By the time I reach the hearth, the argument is over.
     One of the men, a big warrior with a fiery red beard, reaches forward and snatches his opponent's sword, a long sword shaped like a crescent moon. He raises it over his head then with a sharp, sudden movement, slams the blade against the hearth. As the sword shatters, the room explodes in a chant of death that swallows his words.
     In front of him, the captive stands, head held high. He wears a long black robe and his hair, unlike his adversary’s that falls wild over his shoulders, is hidden under a turban. His sword is gone and his hands are bound behind his back, but still the man holds himself straight, not bent in submission, staring ahead as if addressing an equal.
     The red-bearded man unsheathes his sword. Two of his men move forward and grab his opponent's arms, and as they do, the prisoner turns and I see his face. Julián's face.
     I scream and try to move forward, but the pain inside me swells into a wave, surrounding me, blinding me, bringing me down, helpless, to my knees.

The King in the Stone
Available NOW!

The Series: Two Moon Princess

Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.

Two Moon Princess [1]

A Spanish Princess.
An American Boy.
A King set on revenge.
An unrequited love
and a disturbing family secret
bring a world to the brink of War.
Two Moon Princess is a coming of age story with a touch of romance that takes place in a mythical world in which the medieval kingdoms of Spain are still fighting each other, a world of warrior kings in which girls are not supposed to speak their minds.

[Published 12 July 2015, 330 pages]

back to series | back to top

About the Author

Carmen Ferreiro Esteban is the author of the medieval fantasy Two Moon Princess (Tanglewood Press 2007), and Immortal Love (Crimson Romance 2012). Her own translation into Spanish of Immortal Love can be found under the title Bécquer eterno.

Carmen was born in Galicia (northern Spain) and went to college in Madrid, where she finished her Ph.D. in Biology. She worked as a researcher in Spain and California, before moving to Pennsylvania, where she now works as a writer, editor and translator.

Follow Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban: