Hello my bookish friends, hope you are all well. First off there is a slight change to my blog, I’ve decided to have a redesign, refresh, more summery, bright and bookish. So I hope you like it.
Today I’m really excited to be part of the blog tour for Venom, by Bex Hogan. It was pleased last Thursday and I posted my review last Wednesday. It’s the best fantasy sequel I’ve ever read and that’s a huge compliment to Bex’s first class writing. She is Queen of Fantasy in my eyes. As part of the blog tour Bex reveal back stories of all of the Twelve Isles, today is all about the Eight Isle known as Crystal Isle. But before that here is a little bit more about the book.
Venom (Isles of Storm and Sorrow #2) by Bex Hogan Series: Isles of Storm & Sorrow #2
Published by Orion Children's Books on April 16, 2020
Genres: Fantasy
Amazon | Book Depository | Waterstones
Goodreads
Marianne has never wanted to be a fighter, but with unrest and discord threatening the Twelve Islands, she will have to battle threats both inside and out in an attempt to attain peace for her homeland.
Marianne is now the Viper, but her hopes for peace in the Eastern Isles are being frustrated. The corrupt King remains on the throne, bandits are proving hard to stop and Marianne is not sure who among her crew she can truly trust.
For the islands to prosper, the invisible bond that once existed uniting land and sea must be reinstated. There's only one way that can happen - the return of magic. To do that Marianne must put aside all her fears: she must return to her roots, the Western Isles, and call on the power that runs in her blood.
She must become a Mage.
Only then, can she possibly command the army needed to finally take down the King.
THE CREATION STORIES
The Eighth Isle
Many years ago, the ice giant of the mountains awoke and gazed about his surroundings. And it was dazzling white. From the highest peaks to the ground below, all the world was snow. The ice giant sighed with satisfaction at the island’s beauty and for the longest time, he was content.
But as time stretched thin, so loneliness took root inside him. He desired above all things a child. And so he descended the mountain to the snow drifts far below and scooped the snow into his hands, moulding it into shape, until he had created her. His perfect ice daughter. He barely noticed that he had unveiled a world buried beneath the snow, a forest of the tallest marram grass, the landscape altered forever. He thought only of his precious child as he carried her back up the mountain to their home, where the ice and magic breathed life into her form.
For years they were happy together, until the girl grew restless. She wished to return to where she came from, to the land that stretched beneath them. The ice giant forbade it, and tried to keep her in the safety of the mountains, for men now dwelled in the forests below. But there were no chains or bars to prevent her escape and one cold night, she silently made her journey down the mountainside.
When the ice giant discovered her gone, he was furious, and intended to chastise her upon her return. But she did not come back. In the end, rage gave way to concern and so the ice giant went in search of his daughter.
The men of the forest were afraid as the ice giant trampled the marram grass beneath his icy feet and demanded that he return to the mountain. But he refused to leave without his child and called her name until the very island shook.
He found her at last in a village. She had fallen in love – with the sandy earth, the way the wind whistled through the marram grass, with the delicate flowers that sprang from the forest floor. She wished to stay, though she knew her days were numbered. For away from the mountain tops, she had started to melt.
The ice giant couldn’t bear to let her die and begged her to come with him, destroying the village with his clumsy steps. In anger the men raised their torches to him, trying to fight ice with fire. But the ice daughter flung herself in front of her father, and in protecting him, took a flame to her heart. What little life that remained in her was scorched away and she fell dead into her father’s arms.
The men turned on the ice giant once more. They hunted him to the shoreline where there was nowhere left for him to run. Broken with grief, the ice giant crushed the body of his daughter until it fell like shards of glass to the sand. When she was gone, the pain shattered his spirit, and his own form crumbled away, so that their icy fragments scattered together through the sand. From that day on, those in the forest kept away from the mountains. And the shore forever dazzled like crystal.
I just love creative origin stories for blog tour, just makes the world that much more richer and beautiful and escapable. Thank you so much Bex as always.
About Bex Hogan
Raised on a healthy diet of fantasy and fairy tales, Bex Hogan has spent much of her life lost in daydreams. Writing her stories down was a natural progression and now she enjoys sharing her time between living in the real world and escaping to her imagination. A Cornish girl at heart, Bex now lives in Cambridgeshire with her husband, two beautiful daughters and crazy cocker spaniel. She might be found riding horses, talking to her plants or eating marzipan. Or not.
Please please please, make sure you check this series out, I can’t fangirl about this series enough, it’s magnificent, and if you love Sarah J. Mass or Brigid Kemmerer, then Bex is UKYA’s answer to those authors even in league with them. Well, just check out my reviews for Viper and Venom and you’ll see what I mean.
