Today I'm excited to share with you the release of my YA Historical Fantasy Fairytale Retelling, CurseBreaker! CurseBreaker is my seventh published novel! I hope you're as excited to read it as I am to have it out in the world!
Title: CurseBreaker
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy Fairytale Retelling
Author: Taylor Fenner
Publisher: Taylor C. Fenner Publishing
Release Date: January 2, 2018
Blurb:
A Scorned Queen, A Cursed Prince, A Girl begging for love and adventure...
History Channel's Vikings meets Norse Folklore and Mythology in this High Fantasy retelling of the Norwegian Fairy Tale, East O' The Sun and West O' The Moon.
Eighteen-year-old Helga "Hel" Daalgaard has accepted that the only love and adventure in her future live within the pages of the books her father brings for her from his travels. She's content helping around the home she shares with her parents and eight siblings; it may be a dull life but it's all she's ever known... until a polar bear arrives at their tiny cottage and offers up a strange proposal.
After spurning his young stepmother's advances, Prince Dyre is cursed to spend his days in the body of a polar bear. To break the curse he must find a woman to fall in love with him and stay with him for a year - but the woman of his choosing can never learn that he is truly a man or Dyre will be forced into a future even worse than spending his days as a polar bear. He thinks Hel could be the one to break the curse, but if Hel ever finds out what brought them together he may lose her forever.
Nobody ever crossed Viveka, Queen of Aldavellir, and lived to tell about it. Dyre is the only man alive that has turned her down but she'll have him whether he likes it or not. She'll make it impossible for the girl he's chosen to last long enough to break the curse. After all, queens don't have to play fair.
Excerpt
“Shhh,” the polar bear hushes me as he listens to something in the distance. His ears perk up and a menacing growl passes his pursed lips. I scan the forest for signs of a disturbance and my eyes play tricks on me as I glimpse figures of shadow and mist peeking around the trunks of trees. “Hel, I need you to listen to me very carefully,” the urgency in the polar bear’s voice gets my attention. “I want you to run in the direction we came from and hide among the trees. Whatever you hear do not come out until I come find you. Can you do that?”
“I can help you,” I suggest as my eyes scan the forest again. The shadow figures are creeping closer.
“No!” the polar bear snarls. Softening his voice he adds, “Please Hel, just do as I say.”
Reluctantly I slip from his back and run away, my cloak whipping wildly in my wake. I hear the polar bear’s powerful growl echoing through the forest as I run as fast as I can. I mentally curse the dress I’m wearing as it wraps around my legs. Behind me, I can hear the sounds of growls and inhuman whines followed by the sickening sound of flesh being ripped from bone. My braided hair slaps against my back and loose strands blur my vision as I swear I see more shadowy mist figures popping up in the direction I’m heading. I skid to a halt and change course but I can see something rushing toward me in my peripheral vision.
Something bites my elbow and I shriek in pain as I cradle my wounded arm against my chest and try to outrun my invisible assailant.
Don’t look back, don’t look back, don’t look back, I chant over and over in my head as I feel invisible hands tugging and ripping at my cloak. I spin around to fend off the grabbing hands with my pack and come face to face with my assailant at the moment it loses its invisibility. A scream reverberates through the forest and it takes me a minute to realize it is coming from me.
I back up quickly as the eyes of the monstrous creature narrow and zero in on me. Bigger and stronger than me the creature standing before me is completely naked and covered in thick black hair on nearly every inch of its’ body. Its’ nose is large and bulbous and crazed unfocused eyes catch my every movement. A trickle of blood oozes out of the corner of its’ mouth from my elbow wound as it stalks forward hunting me. Long claw-like fingernails swing in my direction as I back into a tree trunk and throw my arms up in front of my face in a lame attempt to protect myself. I can feel the hard bark of the tree scraping my back through my dress, a small pain compared to what the troll is about to do to my face and body.
Just as the troll is about to lunge at me the polar bear pounces on it and rips its throat out in one swipe. Excess blood splashes on my face and dress as the troll drops lifelessly to the ground.
How Vikings Inspired My Writing Process:
I always knew I wanted to do a retelling of East O' The Sun and West O' The Moon. It was my favorite fairytale as a child and as I flipped through it at an older age, reading through the story I could see the images of the story expanding unfolding in my mind. At the time I just didn't know the hows or whys of how I would retell EOTSAWOTM.
Then a year and a half ago I spent the summer binge-watching Vikings on Netflix. I was hooked. I loved the culture and the time period but the thing I think that stood out the most was how strong the women of that time period were, the freedoms they had. It seemed like in other parts of the world in that era - such as England and France - women were still considered beneath men. They didn't have positions of power or the liberties that the Viking women seemed to. So with those women in mind CurseBreaker began writing itself in my mind.
Why couldn't a woman travel the world to rescue the man she loved from the evil queen? What if the man she loved had been a warrior, who hungered for the feel of the ocean wind on his skin as he paced his empty palace waiting for a curse to be broken? What if a queen put a curse on her stepson not because he was in the way of her ruling, but because he injured her vanity?
Researching this story was fun and I learned a lot about Viking customs during the process. Tomorrow you'll see inside my pinboard to the pictures that helped in the writing of this book, but here are a few Viking Fun Facts you might not have known:
- Vikings used to give kittens to new brides to honor Freya, the Norse goddess of love, sexuality, beauty, and fertility.
- Vikings didn't have buttons. Instead they used brooches, belts, and laces to keep their clothing fastened.
- Vikings mainly drank water, milk, and ale although the wealthier Vikings did have access to wine.
- During weddings, rings were traditionally presented on a sword's blade.
About the Author:
Taylor Fenner grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. She's been an avid reader with a vivid imagination since she was very young. Most of her childhood can be described as having her nose stuck in one book or another.
An admitted workaholic, when not working on a novel Taylor spends most of her time blogging about books, taking photos for her bookstagram account, binge watching the latest season of Vikings, and listening to music that's sure to ruin her hearing eventually.
Taylor still currently lives in Wisconsin, not far from where her debut novel The Haunting Love is set. Taylor is the author of The Haunting Love, Finding Elizabeth, Out of Darkness (Eternals Trilogy #1), Into the Light (Eternals Trilogy #2), Through the Fog (Eternals Trilogy #3), Eternal Fire: An Eternals Trilogy Novelette, Night of Terror and Other Assorted Stories, and her upcoming New Adult debut, Headless, a contemporary reimagining of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
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