Dance With Me by Judith Crow - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hi, lovelies!  It gives me great pleasure today to host Judith Crow and her new book, “Dance With Me”!  For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post. 

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!  Also, come back daily to interact with Judith and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!

Dance With Me

by Judith Crow

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GENRE: YA (Fantasy)

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BLURB:

Don’t tell anyone, but Kelli spends all her free time listening to folk music. Ok, it’s not what you’d expect from a popular fifteen-year-old, but that’s why she doesn’t want the whole world to know.

When Kelli follows the mysterious Tam Lane, she finds herself in a place where folk songs come to life. As she comes to terms with the world, she makes friends, uses her privilege to help others, and even falls in love.

But Kelli has forgotten the fates which await so many characters in the songs, and she soon finds herself surrounded by heartbreak. Determined to protect the people she has left, can Kelli change a fate which has been sung for centuries?

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EXCERPT TWO:

They left the inn as the church clock began to chime midday and completed their journey in relative silence. As they neared Arlen Manor, Kelli began to feel a strange sensation of being watched, as though a hundred pairs of eyes were following her wherever she went. Looking carefully, she saw there were sculpted birds in many of the trees: great, black, hideous creatures with round eyes which stared unseeingly and followed her as she passed them by.

“They are crows,” William explained. “Centuries ago, before it was Arlen, the castle which stood here was called Corbie. That’s just another word for crow. According to family legend, when a disaster is about to befall the men of the family, the crows of Corbie Castle can be heard talking to one another.”

Kelli felt a shiver stalk down her spine, and she was grateful when they left the woods and moved up the long driveway to the house, which was a picture of gothic splendour in the late afternoon light. She immediately had the feeling that this was the place she had been meant to find, although she could not explain where the idea came from. Climbing down from the trap, Kelli followed William to the door, and stood behind him as he hammered his fist against it.

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GUEST POST:

My mum and dad raised five strong daughters (my brother’s not bad either, but we’re talking about the girls here!). All of us, in our own way, are feminists, although perhaps not all of us would use that specific word to describe ourselves. We’re all authors as well – using the written word to explore and improve the world around us.

The Backwater, my first book, featured a strong female protagonist, and Dance With Me is the same. Both of them are ordinary girls who find themselves facing extraordinary circumstances. Girls in this situation have appeared in literature for a long time with some amazing results – for children think about Mildred Hubble in The Worst Witch, or in classics we have Jane Eyre. But, more often that not, girls and young women are used as a plot device, often providing an incentive for the male characters to achieve their potential.

But Dance With Me is – to borrow words from Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin – sisters doing it for themselves! Kelli changes the strange new world in a way that the people around her believe is impossible.

That’s not to say that she does the whole thing alone. In fact, the story is really about the important relationships which she develops. Kelli has come from a place where she doesn’t really have any positive relationships: she’s just broken up with her boyfriend because he’s been pressuring her to have sex, her parents are uninterested in her, and her brother mostly ignores her.

She hitches a ride into another world and, as soon as she’s there, she starts developing relationships.

Sometimes she needs to be saved, sometimes she does the saving. The thing is, that’s life! Perhaps most significantly, it’s often with the same person: for example, Kelli is saved by Ailric and his family but then it is up to her to save them.

One of the techniques I used to highlight Kelli’s strength was to create difference between her and other main female characters. Although Kelli is a strong female protagonist, the other main female character (Lady Arlen) is much less feisty. She is a product of her background, where she has been taught to be a specific thing, and where she has been expected to show subservience to her husband.

Another of the characters in the book is really a female characterisation trope: the woman who has become bitter from having to hide what she has to offer behind her husband’s power and title. The Countess of Broughley, Lord Arlen’s mother, is first introduced as being very resentful that her time as Lady Arlen was cut short by her husband’s death. She has established her role as being one of controlling the men in her life and, after realising that her eldest son wasn’t open to her control, she has forced all her attention onto his brother, Lysander. As a result, Lysander is one of the vilest characters in the book!

However, Kelli’s friendship with Barbara allowed me to explore the relationship between two equally strong, determined female characters. In fact, Kelli hero-worships Barbara a bit because of how she managed to be so feisty in a male-dominated world.

One of my beta-readers really wanted to know more about another of the female characters, so I hope that means they generate plenty of interest! I think a lot of us can identify with being stereotyped or overlooked because of issues of gender (or other things), and this is something in Kelli’s character which I hope resonates with my readers.

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AUTHOR BIO:

Judith was born in Orkney, grew up in Lincolnshire and now lives in the far north of Scotland. Her writing is inspired by the experiences of her life so far and she loves picking up on quirks and immortalising them in fiction.

Judith’s new book, Dance With Me, combines her love of folk music and creative writing, and finds her main character in a world where folk songs come to life. Her debut book, The Backwater, was a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2019.

When she isn’t writing, Judith is a primary school teacher who enjoys crafting and music, as well as being a generally doting spaniel owner.

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CONNECT WITH JUDITH:

Website:

https://www.judithcrow.co.uk

Website:

https://www.crowvus.com

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/jayzed_kay

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18528764.Judith_Crow

Goodreads Book Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55096170-dance-with-me

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BOOK BUY LINKS:

https://amzn.to/2Hr9yDC

Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dance-with-me-judith-crow/1137367626

The Book Depository Paperback:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Dance-With-Me-Judith-Crow/9781913182137

Kobo eBook:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dance-with-me-57

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Judith will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.  This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.