Hi guys, today I have a tour stop for Heidi Garrett's short stories from Once Upon A Time Today series. Enjoy!!!
Title: The Girl Who Watched for Elves
Author: Heidi Garrett
Publication Date: 24 Oct, 2013
Publisher: Half-Faerie Publishing
My Thoughts:
How many 0f you have been raised on Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales? Well I definitely was: Snow white and 7 dwarfs, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and many more. And how many movies are there on each of fairy tales? Many. Each telling the same story but differently. But before you actually read the book there are 3 short stand alone stories. Each telling a fairy tale in a modern life. The first is The Girl Who Watched for Elves. I liked the fresh view of the author and I did like her writing style. The only thing which for me was doubtful and which mainly is the reason for 3.5 leaves is this: Seriously, she had a sister an older sister who didn’t even care what her sister was doing and how she was treated? And excuse me, but the evil stepmother targeted only one child? Sorry for the outburst but I couldn’t contain it. Mostly the story is good and gives a good start into primary works. So Happy Reading, hope you’ll like it. J
My Rating:
Expert:
Expert:
The first card in the tarot reader’s tableaux, depicted a smirking man, sneaking away, his arms full of swords. “Everything was lies and deception,” the tarot reader said.
The girl’s tongue itched. “It’s what my family knew best—how to hide the truth. Carefully layered in lies like butter rolled into dough when you make a croissant.”
The tarot reader nodded, encouraging, as his gaze dropped to the spread configured before him. He pointed to a second card that looked like a medieval tower exploding. Bodies flew through the air.
“Yes, it was kind of like that after my father won the custody battle.”
The young woman squirmed—they’d reached the part of the story she hated the most, because it brought her to the last day she saw her mother alive. She was not quite five.
Title: The Girl Who Dreamed of Red Shoes
Author: Heidi Garrett
Publication Date: 29 Oct, 2013
Publisher:
My Thoughts:
I like how the story captures a story within another one. I liked the protagonist, and how the author exposes her feeling, some of her problems are really familiar to me. I am a candyholic, I know I just invented that word. But even if it is winter I can’t say no to ice cream and when I see gummy bears, my brain explodes. So anyone who had ever had problems with sweets will understand the main character and will like her. Again the author is working it’s magic, and it is really good.
“So if I’m going to binge, is it going to be the Dunkin’ Donuts, Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chunk Cookie, Half-Pound Bag of M&Ms Triple Header? Or, will it be the Stouffer’s Frozen Macaroni and Cheese, chased down by Häagan-Daaz Coffee Ice Cream, and a large bag of Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups Threesome?”
My Rating:
Expert:
Expert:
There was a young girl, an orphan, who lived in the forest. She scraped out a meager existence, living on nuts, berries, mushrooms, and whatever vegetation she could find. As lonely as she often was, there was also a happiness in her heart. She loved to come across squirrels running with nuts in their paws, or chipmunks playing hide and seek in the dirt and the brush. She also loved to rest in the cradle of low-lying branches and watch for blue jays. The most magical days, were the ones where she might catch a glimpse of the robin’s red breast, because red was her favorite color in the world.
The girl drank from rivers and streams, and sometimes, if she hid in the long grass and didn’t move at all, she might see a doe bring its fawn to drink. On rare occasions, the antlered buck might join them, regal and proud.
At night, the girl searched for grassy meadows, so she might sleep beneath the stars, and when the days got shorter and colder, she’d search for large rocks that she could burrow against.
Everyday she wore the same tattered dress, but sometimes she came across a swatch of dirty, but colorful cloth, dropped by a sparrow or a mouse. The girl collected these strips. When her pockets were stuffed with them, she went about dying them with raspberry juice so they would be red, like the breast of her favorite bird.
She began to collect string, and one day, she came across a needle in an abandoned nest. Within a few days, the girl had created a pair of red shoes, of sorts. They were funny little slippers, but they kept her toes from freezing, and softened the pinch of pebbles she walked on. The girl came to cherish them more than anything, because she’d made them.
Title: The Girl Who Couldn't Sing
Author: Heidi Garrett
Publication Date: 3 Nov, 2013
Publisher:
My Thoughts:
We follow Heather to another journey now it’s time to make her dream come true. To perceive her dream of music. Will she succeed? Or will she fail because her and everyone else’s opinion about her powers? I liked how the author connected with me reader through Heather’s story. It was a fun and action filled read. We got a good glimpse of a girl who believed in magic in our cruel non-magical world. Will she be the one she thought she is or will she become one everyone else wants her to be? That’s for you to discover! Happy reading, enjoy it and don’t forget to leave comments! J)
My Rating:
Expert:
Expert:
“You can’t sing.”
It just couldn’t be true. Heather Baker slid her Takamine guitar into its fur-lined case.
Artistic success was ninety-nine-percent perspiration. That meant, raw talent accounted for a measly one-percent. If you worked hard enough, you could achieve anything.
That’s what Heather believed, and that’s what she would continue to believe.
The woman was just plain wrong—plain and wrong. She didn’t have the courage to attempt something amazing, or face anything that terrified her.
She’d probably never even colored outside the lines.
Heather left the studio and headed for her red Isuzu pickup. Every interior entrance and exit in her mind was on lockdown. The echoing statement beat against her inner windows and doors, like a frenzied bird. She refused to count the number of voice teachers who’d made similar declarations. It was too painful.
Dreams of being on stage and strumming her guitar, with a hot flamenco rhythm, while she sang like an angel, were what kept her going.
What would she do without them?
She slammed the truck door and gunned the engine.
About the Author
Heidi Garrett is the author of the contemporary fairytale novella collection, Once Upon a Time Today. In these stand-alone retellings of popular and obscure fairy tales, adult characters navigate the deep woods of the modern landscape to find their Happily Ever Afters. The Original Fairy Tale short stories: The Girl Who Watched For Elves, The Girl Who Dreamed of Red Shoes, and The Girl Who Couldn’t Sing are a prelude to that collection.
She is also the author of The Queen of the Realm of Faerie series, a fairy tale/high fantasy mashup about a young half-faerie, half mortal woman who must save both the Enchanted and Mortal Worlds.
Heidi was born in Texas, and in an attempt to reside in as many cities in that state as she could, made it to Houston, Lubbock, Austin, and El Paso. Heidi now lives in Eastern Washington state with her husband, their two cats, her laptop, and her Kindle.
Being from the South, she often contemplates the magic of snow, and hopes to remind readers that:
Once upon a time, you lived in an enchanted world…
Learn more about Heidi and enjoy her stream-of-consciousness reading journal, Eating Magic, at: www.heidigwrites.blogspot.com
If you want to say Hello, give her a shout out on Twitter: www.twitter.com/heidigwrites
She is now on Facebook: www.facebook.com/heidigwrites
Giveaway
5 Winners!!
1st Place: $25 Amazon Gift Card, 1 Exclusive T-Shirt, and 1 “Happily Ever After: Bracelet
2nd - 5th Place: 1 Exclusive T-Shirt and 1 “Happily Ever After” Bracelet
Open to US only
Open December 8th - 23rd
No comments:
Post a Comment