#forestborn

[herbirdglitter]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Rin was aroace in Forestborn

[books]

Tumblr Exclusive: Forestborn

Do you like shapeshifters, epic quests, magic, dark forests, and obstinate princes? Well, have we got an exclusive excerpt for you!

Forestborn is an upcoming @torteen novel by debut author Elayne Audrey Becker. Becker graduated from Vassar College with a BA in classics and history. She is currently continuing her education at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland after time spent as an editor with a New York publisher. She grew up with a lake and woods as her backyard, spending long days outside and visiting national parks with her family.

Forestborn will be available at bookstores everywhere from August 31. Read the exclusive excerpt below, and thanks again to Elayne for sharing her inspiration moodboard with us!

Forestborn By Elayne Audrey Becker

One

I find her deep in the Old Forest, facedown in the dirt. 

Sharp pain needles my palms where I’ve balled my fists so tight, the nails have carved half-moon marks into the skin. Snaking across the twig-strewn ground, gnarled roots press against my boots like a warning as I roll the young woman onto her back. Best to be sure.

No, she is certainly dead. Cold, stiff, and hungry like the rest; even with forest debris masking much of her shirt, the threadbare cotton dips in unmistakable rivulets across her bony frame. I swallow my disappointment and push her eyelids shut, wanting to spare her kin the sight of those empty, pointless eyes.

“Sorry,” I murmur, sitting back on my heels. “I’m guessing you didn’t deserve this.”

Around us, the trees lean inward and down with ominous uniformity, leaves and branches straining against their holds, drawn to the dead woman as if tethered by ropes. The sway, the humans call it. I ignore the prickling in my belly. They’ll straighten out soon enough when the magic leaves her body. 

With a final nod, I push to my feet and wend my way back to the forest’s edge. It’s a close wood, with broad oaks in summer bloom crowding the grassy floor, their leafy canopy admitting shafts of sunlight that glitter like crystal chandeliers. All in all, too peaceful a setting for someone driven to madness to die alone. I breathe it in deep to savor the scent while I can, grateful that for whatever reason, these trees never seem drawn to the magic in my own blood. I’ve had enough of vengeful wilderness to last a lifetime.

“Well?” Seraline asks, her knuckles nearly white where they clutch the hem of her shirt. 

I shake my head. “Dead.”

Her shoulders sink. Though Seraline is sturdy as iron when she’s in her aunt’s tannery, shaping leather into draft horses’ yokes, standing a determined two paces behind the tree line now, she seems shakeable as snow.

“Come on,” I say, nodding to the stony town just across the open fields. “You’re going to be late.” I don’t ask if she plans to examine the body for herself. Seraline may have insisted on coming as a show of support, but our friendship has many limits, her discomfort with the dead and dying the least of them. 

After a brief hesitation, Seraline falls into step at my side, sweeping her seeing stick across the ground in broad strokes. “Poor thing.”

I nod, my jaw clenched tight. 

This time of year, the late summer air hangs heavy even in the early morning, enough that the back of my neck is already slick with sweat. The barley fields remain mercifully empty as we pick our way through the dusty rows, but still I plow forward with my head down and shoulders bent, half from habit and half spurred by the hour. Seraline isn’t the only one who’s running behind. 

“Will you not come with us?” she asks, her head tipping to the side as we near the town. “Aren’t you due back in Roanin, anyway?”

“I can’t,” I reply, making it sound like an apology. I’m not really sure why we still play this game when we both know it’s futile. “I have a few things to take care of first.”

“Today of all days,” she snorts.

“You know how it is.” In truth, I’d give my right arm to stay away from the capital today. But there’s no help for it.

“Her husband deserves to know,” Seraline adds after a while. “The two of them were inseparable.”

“He will know. The trail wasn’t hard to follow.”

Seraline is always trying to persuade me to talk to the deceased’s families. She believes I have a softer manner than many in uniform, and once she even called me heartless for refusing. That time hurt the most. But it isn’t my job to report any deaths I uncover to next of kin. Only to the king. And it’s not like she’s stepping up to volunteer, anyway.

Briarwend is a humble farming town that stretches all of three streets, a collection of squared off stone shops that deal in necessity rather than charm. Its weather-worn residents are the same. When I began seeking intel here four years ago, long days tending the surrounding fields made the people lazy and open over a couple of pints. Lately, they’re just hungry, poor soil and rising taxes leaving gaping holes that only tempers seem to fill. 

Each night under dwindling lamplight and over stained, sticky tables, the pub dwellers deal out anger and judgment like tossing seeds across the earth. The battered forest walker I helped home last night is not the only magical person I’ve found bleeding on cobbled streets. The humans’ anger is growing fists.

Seraline’s family is fixing their horse’s harness to an old wooden cart when we reach their cottage home. Most others have long since departed.

“Where have you been?” her mother demands, tightening the leather straps. The roan mare stamps a hoof, ears flicking nervously in my presence. “We should have left hours ago!”

“Lela needed my help. And you’re not ready, anyway.” Seraline shrugs.

“Nor are you. Breakfast is gone, so you’ll just have to wait. Go get changed.” She studiously avoids my eye, as if I’m not even there. 

Seraline bids me farewell with a light touch on the shoulder, which causes her little sister to quickly interlace two pairs of twisted fingers and pull them apart. The sign to ward off bad fortune.  

“You shouldn’t indulge my sister,” the dreadful Arden says once she’s gone, stomping over and swiping a greasy hand across his forehead. By far the weakest sibling in this family of four. “Seraline is delicate. She can’t be tramping about the kingdom with the likes of you.”

Which is ironic, really, since he was eager enough to sidle close last year, when he thought empty flattery might earn him a kiss. That was before a too-often empty belly soured his tongue, before he learned who and what I was. And though I truly could not care less what this boy thinks, I’m dismayed to find my stomach still burns with anger and something close to shame. My gaze drops to his pant leg, which bears splotches of dried blood from the night before. 

“Problem?” Arden sneers, white skin burned red from long days in the sun. 

A slow tingling feeling bubbles up from my core, threads of numbness that tiptoe across my arms and legs. I force myself to breathe deeply, to beat the threads back. “I know it was you,” I mutter. 

He traces his chapped lips with two fingers, beady eyes darting to his mother before he leans forward, his smile stiffening. “You know nothing,” he hisses.

“You forget I have certain resources at my disposal.” I raise a hand in front of his flaking face, where my nails have sharpened into claws. “And that I know where you live.”

I stare until a satisfying trace of fear tinges Arden’s expression before stomping away toward the town’s single inn, which is little more than a guesthouse with four creaking rooms. If Helos were here, he would tell me to not take the bait, that I’m better than that. What he never seems to understand is that I’m not better than anything at all.

[torpublishinggroup]

i love books and i love pets (even though i don’t have one) SO I did bother all my coworkers to send me pet + book pics to share here / live vicariously thru

so check these beauties out! look these cute pets in their baby-big eyes. then check out the (awesome) titles they’re posing with bc i am a brand and my raison d'être is to push books lol

Gandalf the Dog + Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell

“Gandalf might be named for a fantasy wizard, but his reading interests lay firmly in the Gay Space Opera camp”

Ha, camp

Bao the Dog (x2) + Second Spear by Kerstin Hall

“Second Spear is full of butch spear-wielding ladies, mushroom gods, haunted places & apparently delicious pages”

since apparently Gandalf and Bao both enjoy the taste of books, maybe they should snack on The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean next

Rio the Cat + Forestborn by Elayne Audrey Becker

“Rio loves to cozy up with a good book!”

sorry lol i scheduled this on a friday and i’m tired

i really did spam a whole bunch of chats for this, to mixed success, however while SOME coworker’s cats r too broody for pics, others wouldn’t let even ‘not having pets’ stop them from submitting a pic

Bunnicula the Cat + Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

“Bunnicula the cat is a noted scholar of thalergy and thanergy and appreciates a realistic depiction of such forces. Moreover, Bunnicula, like Gideon, doesn't know how to properly eat a salad.”

Tom the Cat (x3) + A Collection of Titles from Katherine Addison

“While he’d pick a can of wet food over a cinnamon roll, Tom still appreciates kind-hearted protagonists.”

this cat’s human and i have played dnd together and Tom LOVES the camera. very biased but i think his strong kitty swag comes through in this photo series <3

Titles pictured include: 

The Goblin Emperor

The Witness for the Dead

The Grief of Stones

i realized that we had a lot of cats and dogs and nothing else, so i texted my friend who doesn’t actually work here but does have a lizard and a Deep Backlist of Tor titles. though ultimately unable to decide on one book, picture and lizard both go hard. look at this cool dude. look at him vibe

Copen the Lizard + Many Titles

“The reptilian mind boggles at the dynamics that have led to this situation.”

Pixel the (Shiny) Sylveon + Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

“The blade-sharp prose and scumbelievable gore balance with Pixel’s adorable cuteness to create the perfect image.”

yeah like i said i don’t have any pets but Bunnicula was inspiring

this is the end of the post and if you read this far you do have to buy a book so’s. Take to the notes and let me know: 

what you’re reading

what your pet is

which of the above pets you’d want as an ally whilst you traverse the post-apocalyptic wastes

[abookwormsnook]

Let’s talk about favorite books that go you into reading. Mine have to be the books of Bayern. It all dated with the goose girl and I was hocked. I was a kid who hated to read I didn’t even do it for school I disliked it that much. But I got ahold of these books and we’ll let’s say something changed. I had read a few others I had liked but it was these that really kicked me into gear. ❄️⛄️✨🕯✨⛄️❄️⛄️✨🕯✨⛄️❄️ What was your book that started it all? ❄️⛄️✨🕯✨⛄️❄️⛄️✨🕯✨⛄️❄️ #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookstagrammer #booksbooksbooks #booksbooksandmorebooks #booksofbayern #thegoosegirl #ennaburning #riversecrets #forestborn #shannonhale #shannonhalebooks #thedarklibrarians https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl5TwoMgqxp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[amandaklwrites]

September 2021 TBR

Hello again everyone!! It's almost a new month again! And September, one of my favorites! I know, I know, September is still a wee bit away, but I wanted to post my TBR for that month for a reason. Mostly because it looks like my August TBR and September TBR are mismatching a little bit. I'm going to read maybe some September books this month, and push some out from August into September. Just because I want to read something sooner than others. So, with that in mind, I thought I would just post next month's TBR now, so you can see what I have planned! It's going to be another big month, so hopefully I can get through everything!

1. Tides of Mutiny by Rebecca Rode

2. The Gilded Wolves Trilogy by Roshani Chokshi (yes, all 3 books!)

3. The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith

4. There Will Comes a Darkness trilogy by Katy Rose Pool (all 3 here too!)

5. Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

6. The Hollow Heart by Marie Rutkoski

7. The Last Legacy by Adrienne Young

8. Forestborn by Elayne Audrey Becker

9. What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell

10. The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Cordova

So yeah, there's my list! I know it doesn't look like a lot, but 2 of them listed are actually whole trilogies, and I think I might have to read the Dorothy Must Die series next month as well. Wish me luck on all the reading!

Are there any books you are looking forward to reading next month?? Happy reading! And happy September next week!

[abyssal-drain]

Prompt 17: Obeisance

( @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast I actually had to look up the definition of this one! n-n )

-WoL-

The Warrior of Light - or Darkness, in this distant shard - was owed deference.

And yet, it never sat right with Okhi. For all their strength, they were still just people, imperfect and fallible. 

What if people prayed for the salvation they brought? 

A primal with her face … she shuddered.

-Non!WoL-

To a Forestborn, the obeisance granted the Elementals was obvious. 

True, the Calamity had sapped the spirits of the strength they had once wielded, but the Twelveswood was still their home, and all knew the Spoken races were mere guests under its boughs.

Nothing good came from ignoring the Elementals. 

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: Forestborn

Author: Elayne Audrey Becker

Series or standalone: series

Publication year: 2021

Genres: fiction, fantasy, romance, LGBT+, adventure

Blurb: Rora is a shifter, as magical as all those born in the wilderness...and as feared. She uses her abilities to spy for the king, travelling under different guises and listening for signs of trouble. When a magical illness surfaces across the kingdom, Rora uncovers a devastating truth: Finley, the young prince and her best friend, has caught it too. His only hope is stardust, the rarest of magical elements, found deep in the wilderness where Rora grew up...and to which she swore never to return. For her only friend, Rora will face her past and brave the dark, magical wood, journeying with her brother and the obstinate older prince who insists on coming. Together, they must survive sentient forests and creatures unknown, battling an ever-changing landscape while escaping human pursuers who want them dead. With illness gripping the kingdom and war on the horizon, Finley’s is not the only life that hangs in the balance.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Forestborn | Author: Elayne Audrey Becker | Publisher: Tor (2021)