Before we move on to today’s book, check out the nifty (is that 60’s talk?) purchase link I added to my sidebar for a personalized signed paperback copy of Lionel’s Christmas Adventure chapter book. Children can learn in a fun fantasy to value people more than things. What a great stocking stuffer!
Now on to a book I found on Amazon while scouting for high quality fantasy books for tweens and teens. So many are so bad that I don’t read a full chapter. But I hit the jackpot this time! I found a book adults will love as well. Thanks to Kathy at I Am a Reader Not a Writer and Maryann from Chapter by Chapter for hosting the Book Lover’s Holiday Giveaway Hop.
I admit I’m a picky reader but I’ve never thought of myself as scary until the author said he was afraid of letting me review his book after he read my book review ratings on Goodreads. My heart sank. Although I didn’t want to become a stalker, I was too intrigued by the cover and bio, and impressed by the other reviews, to give up. So I read The Moon Coin anyway and truly loved it. I emailed Richard Due and gave him the good news and here we are! For my full review, please come back Saturday. Today, you can read the blurb and even some sample chapters to see why I was so excited to read The Moon Coin. I felt so over the moon, I didn’t want to come back to Earth. And yes, people over 50 can still get as excited by books as when they were kids! Maybe even more.
I’m very glad Richard Due agreed to a giveaway. It was a little difficult coordinating a good time because he received word of receiving the Gold Medal for the 2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards and had to travel to the ceremony. How awesome is that? I have to say the award is well deserved. And now that Richard is back, you may enter to win a Kindle or Nook version of THE MOON COIN or THE DRAGONDAIN, book 2 in the series. The books also have wonderful color illustrations inside, not just on the covers. Read on for the blurbs:
“Tales, unlike stories, never lie. You see, a tale is an account of things in their due order, often divulged secretly, or as gossip. Would you like to hear one?” —Lord Autumn
Uncle Ebb was so good at telling his tales of the Moon Realm that sometimes it sounded like he’d been there himself.
As children, Lily and Jasper listened raptly to his bedtime tales of a place where nine moons swirled around one another, each inhabited by strange and wondrous beings: magical lunamancers; undersea merfolk; wise birds; winged dragons; and Lily’s favorite, the heroic, leonine Rinn.
There was only one rule: don’t tell a soul.
But now, years later, Uncle Ebb is missing. Lily has learned the secret behind the tales, and soon Jasper will too. But there’s one big problem. You see, something terrible has happened in the Moon Realm. . . .
Illustrated by Carolyn Arcabascio. Book One of The Moon Realm Series.
2012 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner
For a Six Chapter Preview: click HERE.
Take a visual tour of the book: HERE.
It’s the middle of the night, you need to send your brother to the Moon Realm, and he won’t wake up. So you improvise. . . .
When a confused Jasper awakes, he’s convinced he’s dreaming. But by the time he meets Greydor, Jasper understands that this is no dream. In fact, persuading the King of the Rinn to work with the men of Dain to defeat their common enemy is a nightmare. Then there’s the other side of the coin: convincing Tavin and Dubb that saddling a Rinn isn’t certain death. (“It’ll be fun!”) And perhaps even a greater worry: can he make friends with Dubb’s daughter Darce before she punches his lights out?
Lily has problems, too. There’s a little mousie scratching in her closet. Or at least, it sounds like a little mousie. Oh, and her second confrontation with Curse, and trying to form her first peerin. (Don’t you have to be from Dain to do that?) And where’s Ebb?
One thing’s for sure: now that Lily and Jasper have entered the Moon Realm, nothing can ever be the same again.
Illustrated by Carolyn Arcabascio. Book Two of the award winning Moon Realm Series.
For a Two Chapter Preview: click HERE.
The Moon Coin is Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes iBookstore.
The Dragondain is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes iBookstore.
Follow news about the Moon Realm Series here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardDue
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoonRealm
Blog: http://TheMoonRealm.com
Now on to the giveaway. Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Only one entry is mandatory, but the others will increase your chances of winning.
All done? Then you may also want to check out Richard’s blog for a chance at a paperback through Goodreads. Besides that, we have two more giveaways. First, please check out Paul’s review of Through the Mirror and into Snow by Ann T. Bugg for the Before Happily Ever After Blog Tour. Click here to enter the giveaway which ends 12/12/12. And last but not least, author Crystal Marcos is giving away a Kindle Fire. Or you can win 3 ebooks, including Paul’s, through 12/15/12, if you click here. Now you’re good to go to all the other family friendly book giveaways in the list below, but please remember to leave a comment first. Thanks and see you Saturday for The Moon Coin review!
Hi, Richard here. I just wanted to take a moment to thank Sher A. Hart for hosting this lovely book hop and giveaway. Thanks!
And if you have any questions for me, I’ll be checking in regularly to see what’s happening, so ask away. 🙂
Richard Due
Hi Sher, I must admit it is always exciting to find a good book, can’t wait for saturday’s blog, and welcome back.Bill
Thanks,Bill! I’m like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to fantasy books. But too many are stale and disappoint me. Not The Moon Coin!
Hi. My son is going to love Moon Coin. Thanks for this!
I did my best to write characters that would speak equally to boys and girls. And not just boy characters for boys and girl characters for girls. If you know what I mean. 🙂
would love this for my 11 year old daughter 🙂
I have an 11-year-old daughter myself. I made sure in this series to fairly represent both men and woman among the “authority figure” characters. I didn’t want the strong, get-thing-done characters to be weighted toward one gender or another. And I didn’t want the “bad person” characters weighted poorly either. It’s a big series, with lots of realistic characters who react realistically. And the ones that seem to be acting . . . unusual . . . well, they have their reasons—which is also, I think, very true to life.
Ah.. looks perfect! I love books of this sort and the cover is soo pretty.
Thanks! Carolyn Arcabascio, the illustrator, is amazing!
I like these kinds of books, too. It might sound silly to hear an author say that of their own book, but sometimes—more than you might think—an author gets stuck writing something they are really good at, but that has nonetheless become “old” to them. Happily, this is not my case. I writing precisely what I want to be writing. The worlds in this series are so diverse that I know I’ll never tire of them. In fact, when I’m finished the series, I know that there will be lots of places and characters that I’d like to write more about. My mind invented these places so quickly that I don’t even feel like I was involved in their creation. It’s like they were already in my mind, and I’m just writing what these characters did these places.
Ack! In that last sentence, I meant to say: . . . what these characters did IN these places. 🙂
I guess this is what I get for writing on my lunch break: sloppiness.
The book sounds amazing and the cover is beautiful!
THAT, is a Carolyn Arcabascio cover. And I NEVER get tired of looking at it. 😀
I part inside the covers is pretty zingy too. Although, I’m a tad completely biased. 😉
Just a note to say the cover art is a tiny sample of the awesome art inside the book. I read on my kindle keyboard which can’t do the color illustrations justice. So anyone who doesn’t have a kindle that shows illustrations in color, look at them in the Kindle Cloud reader on your computer.
Thanks for sharing the review, seems like an interesting read that my daughters may like