The Story Raider Review, Guest Post and Giveaway!

Posted by abakersp in YA / 14 Comments

Welcome to the Celebrate Lit Blog Tour for The Story Raider by Lindsay Franklin! You guys, I don’t know if YA is your thing, or Fantasy is your thing, but you NEED to read this series. Anyone who has a creative, imaginative mind is going to LOVE it!! I could just see the entire story play out in my head and it was so fascinating to me. Um….can this series become a movie? That would be amazing, although part of me is not sure it would be as amazing as what my mind thought of!

The story raider fb banner
The story raider cover

Book: The Story Raider

Author: Lindsay A. Franklin

Genre: Christian YA Epic Fantasy

Release Date: July 23, 2019

Deceiving an empire is a treacherous game.

Tanwen and the Corsyth weavers race to collect the strands of an ancient cure that might save Gryfelle. But Tanwen has a secret—Gryfelle isn’t the only one afflicted by the weaver’s curse.

As Queen Braith struggles to assert her rule, a new arrival throws her tenuous claim to the Tirian throne into question. Braith’s heart is turned upside down, and she’s not sure she can trust anyone—least of all herself.

The puppet master behind Gareth’s rise to power has designs on Tanwen and the story weavers and will stop at nothing to reclaim the throne. A plot to incite the angry peasants of Tir takes shape, and those dearest to Tanwen will be caught in the crossfire. As the fight for Tir consumes the realm, no one can remain innocent.

Click here to grab your copy.

Wow. I was blown away by book one, how can you top that? I may not know the words to describe it, but this installment certainly did. I was already hooked into the storyline before I started reading, but this brought me even deeper. Franklin’s creative storytelling is simply amazing. There’s really no other way to describe it.

The Story Raider had even more action, more excitement, and more breath holding moments. Yes, I do hold my breath every now and then when reading a book! It was intense at times, in a good way. In this book you get to see a little bit more from a few characters, but the one that intrigued me the most was Naith. Yeah, he’s the bad guy, and while I don’t always like reading the POV of the bad guy, I enjoyed his.

Of course the ultimate thing I want to know is, Who is the Master? You may or may not find out the answer to that in this book. Of course we know who that refers to in real life, and Franklin found such a fun and creative way to display that here. The references are spectacular – the power of the Master, the mention of the Creator, the white light and it’s meaning, and so many more. Oh I just can’t get enough of it!!

I have one complaint. Just one. The ending. I totally was not expecting that ending. AT ALL. My complaint is really that it was such a jaw dropper and now I have to wait until the next release comes out, which is not soon enough for the record. So you see, it’s really not a complaint at all – just me being me 😉

All in all, readers of all ages are going to love this book. I do recommend starting this series from the beginning if you haven’t. There is so much meat in the first book that paves the way for this book that I think it’d be confusing to read them out of order. But I think you’ll find that you will be thankful you did. Yes, it’s that good!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I was not required to write a favorable review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Franklin, Lindsay2018 - Author Photo

Lindsay A. Franklin is a best-selling author, freelance editor, and homeschooling mom of three. She would wear pajama pants all the time if it were socially acceptable. Lindsay lives in her native San Diego with her scruffy-looking nerf-herder husband, their precious geeklings, three demanding thunder pillows (a.k.a. cats), and a stuffed wombat with his own Instagram following. You can find Lindsay on social media, too, if Wombatman hasn’t hijacked all her accounts. She’s @LinzyAFranklin on Instagram and Twitter, and she Facebooks at www.facebook.com/LindsayAFranklin.

I often get asked how I came up with the idea for The Story Peddler, book 1 in The Weaver Trilogy. It’s a dangerous thing to dig too deep into a fantasy novelist’s imagination (it’s pretty weird in here, you guys), but the short answer is I was sitting in a workshop at a writers’ conference, and an acquisitions editor made a comment—something like: “I have to peddle your stories to executives. At the end of the day, I’m just a story peddler.” When I heard that phrase, my imagination exploded. I thought of what a “story peddler” might look like if we added a little wonder and a sprinkling of fairy dust to the equation. Then Tanwen emerged as a character who might be a fun vehicle for this story-peddling process, and I imagined a story that would suit her. The Story Peddler was born.

But someone recently asked me why I visualized the supernatural art of storytelling in the way I did—as strands of color, light, fabric, or glitter coming out of the hands of the person telling the story, then crystallizing into a solid object for her to sell. And I have no real answer for that, except, again, “It’s pretty weird in here, you guys.” The Weaver Trilogy is a celebration of creativity and art, and that gave me reason to think about what other types of strand-weavers in this story world might look like. If you’re new to the series, here’s a primer on the weavers you’ll find in these books.

Storytellers: Strands pour from their hands as they tell stories. When they reach the moral or ending of the story, the strands come together to form a crystallized sculpture. A story peddler then sells the sculptures to make her living.

Songspinners: Strands are lighter, airier, and come from their mouths instead of their hands as they sing. Songspinner strands are emotive and speak to the hearts of the hearers. Once the song is over, the strands disappear.

Colormasters: Strands are like streams of paint, ribbons of fire, or jets of water. When they hit a solid object, they create an image on the object. Colormasters seek to reflect the beauty of their surroundings, capturing the physical world exactly as it is or simply as it feels.

Stoneshapers: Their hands light up as they manipulate rock and stone with their fingertips. They create beauty by molding something that already exists and releasing the art trapped inside.

If that sounds like fun, welcome to my weirdness! Tanwen can’t wait to weave a sparkling adventure for you.

Among the Reads, August 5

Retrospective Spines, August 5

Worthy2Read, August 6

Seasons of Opportunities, August 6

Through the Fire Blogs, August 7

Fiction Aficionado, August 8

Blogging With Carol , August 8

Simple Harvest Reads, August 9

Books, Life, and Christ, August 10

Remembrancy, August 10

Pause for Tales, August 11

Hallie Reads, August 11

Kathleen Denly, August 12

Inspired by fiction, August 12

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 13

A Baker’s Perspective, August 14

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, August 14

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, August 15

Texas Book-aholic, August 16

janicesbookreviews, August 16

Inklings and notions , August 17

Artistic Nobody, August 17

A Reader’s Brain, August 18

To celebrate her tour, Lindsay is giving away a grand prize package of a $25 Amazon gift card, The Corsyth custom Story Peddler candle from Novelly Yours, The Cethorelle custom Story Raider candle from Novelly Yours, choice of two tea tins from the Adagio Story Peddler Tea Shoppe, “Hedgenibblers, fluffhoppers, mountainbeasts, oh my!” mug
Story Peddler book sleeve, Story Raider enamel pin, and assorted bookmarks, stickers, and art prints.Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/e718/the-story-raider-celebration-tour-giveaway

14 responses to “The Story Raider Review, Guest Post and Giveaway!

    • Jessica

      Isn’t the cover cool!? I also love the cover of the first book in the series. Can’t wait to see what the third one looks like!

  1. James Robert

    My family and I all appreciate you bringing to our attention the book description of another great book to read. Thanks so much!

  2. Amanda Holmes

    It was so hard to review this book and not give away any spoilers! You did an excellent job not giving anything away.;)

    • Jessica

      Thank you! I did have to stop myself a few times because I was about ready to give away a spoiler. So hard to do! I hope you enjoyed the book 🙂