Gina Rae Mitchell

A Fable of Wood & String by L.T. Getty

The author is donating a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. See details below.

A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.

A Fable of Wood & String (The Puppetmaster Duology, Book 1) by L.T. Getty [Review] #YoungAdult #HighFantasy #GoddessFishPromotions #BlackUnicornBooks @leiagetty

Book Details

A Fable of Wood and String Series: The Puppetmaster Duology Book #1
Published by Black Unicorn Books on August 7, 2024
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 631

Would it hurt you to just do as you’re told?

The O’Connell siblings live in the shadow of their parents’ past, held back by the obligation to keep the people of Stagmil safe when their father has to lead the non-hunters of their village to drive off a wyvern.

Lily doesn’t trust the stranger who calls herself Madeline when she staggers into the pastoral lands. The puppeteer seems to take an interest in Lily’s musical abilities on the family mandolin, and she teaches Lily new music. Lily’s had songs stuck in her head before, but nothing like this.

Twins Seth and Tiffany however can’t wait for their father to return so they can get on with the sheering and try to see the world. Seth should at least be helping hunt the wyvern, and as for Tiffany, she wants to take her best friend Molly with her and head to the nearest city.

The twins and other teens from their village are lured by song into the woods and transformed into marionettes: Seth breaking free before he can be strung, and Lily tainted in a way she doesn’t understand. They have the skills to track the woman down; but to restore Seth to his body, and rescue Tiffany and the others?

Tracking the woman takes them far from the familiar woodlands they know, across the sea to an enchanted castle, where in an effort to rescue their sister they’ll learn something much more sinister than turning folk into puppets is going on.

They’ll get help, of course, but not from who they expected.
After all, last Seth checked, foxes are only supposed to have the one tail.

Source: Goddess Fish Promotions

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Excerpt from A Fable of Wood and String

The figure in black started to play something else, and the other’s eyes widened. Tiffany shouted something, and they all reached for the soft wax of the candle but didn’t know what they were doing. In the haste of grabbing the candle, it was knocked to the ground.

Seth ignored his companions and nocked his bow. “Stop what you’re doing or I’ll shoot!”

The figure seemed undeterred. Seth knew he was about to commit murder, but he didn’t care and he wouldn’t leave Louis or any of them to whatever that doppelganger was, and this thing was obviously part of this plot. He loosed the arrow, and the figure only stopped playing to bat it away with the sword hidden under the cloak. Impossible, Seth thought, nocking another with a second between his fingers for quick redraw. He might not be the finest archer—but at this range he didn’t have to be, and no one could deflect arrows in succession for long.

Someone screamed. It looked like Rebecca was caught in a web when she tried to bolt from the glen between two trees. Seth unsheathed his long knife and went to help her, but the figure of Not-Lily appeared, taking off her face and standing near Rebecca. The face was completely blank underneath; Seth let out a surprised gasp before she replaced that face with something with six red eyes, two in the normal place with another four running up her forehead.

Then he saw it—her—grow. The lower half of her body swelled and became massive, bulbous, like the back half of a centaur; her body remained about the same size, but rather than fur and four legs, shimmering black hair and eight legs protruded from the torso, longer at the bend than Dale was tall. She towered over Rebecca.

A giant spider . . . woman? There was something eerily feminine about it, a sort of terrible beauty that froze him when his instincts told him to move. She stepped over Rebecca, barrelling down on Seth. He loosed another arrow at her head, but she dodged and shot out webbing from her hands that knocked him backwards, pinning him to the grass. More spider silk flew and pinned his arm to the grass.

Seth tried to wriggle free the monster chased after Dale, and to Seth’s horror, caught him with long strands at his wrists, and wrangled him like a marionette. Dale wriggled against the webbing and she dragged him back, and it seemed that he was transforming in the shadow, shrinking and becoming . . . something else. Seth unbuttoned his over shirt to try to free himself.

Dale was reduced to the size of a doll, and the spider had shifted him to a web in the canopy before going after Tiffany. Brigid flailed between two trees, seemingly stuck in a giant web.

Louis cut Seth free and thrust the bow into Seth’s hand. He shouted something and Seth realized that if he got her attention, there wouldn’t be another time. Louis released his sling in the dark. Seth couldn’t see the rock’s trajectory but the spider reeled, leaving Tiffany and moved with intent on the pair of them. They darted in opposite directions, and by luck the creature honed in on Louis, giving Seth enough time to fire. The arrow bounced off the creature’s bulbous body.

Out of the corner of his eye, Seth thought he saw a fox or coyote dart from the bush and bound through the grass. It ran behind the mandolin-playing creature and bit it in the butt. Suddenly there were two people, but Seth couldn’t watch them.

Seth let loose another arrow, narrowly missing the torso, and shouted at the others to run—he wasn’t sure who it had now, was it Rebecca or Molly? The light was too poor for him to be certain, but whoever the spider held she was shrinking fast.

The creature turned, six red and black eyes focused on Seth, and came down on him with full force. Seth found his limbs caught by two bands of silk and forced above his head, and he was hoisted into the air. He locked eyes with Louis who was looking not only smaller, but . . . wooden. Against his control, Seth raised his hands to his ears and removed the wax, and sound same rushing back.

Excerpt provided by the author/publisher for use in this post.

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Purchase Links for A Fable of Wood and String

Paperback

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My Thoughts on A Fable of Wood and String

A Fable of Wood & String is the enchanting start to L.T. Getty’s Puppetmaster Duology, weaving a rich tapestry of folklore, family, and dark magic. Set in the rustic village of Stagmil, the O’Connell siblings, Lily, Seth, and Tiffany, find themselves at the heart of a chilling mystery when a mysterious puppeteer, Madeline, arrives. The story balances the everyday struggles of the siblings with the ominous threat looming over their village.

Lily’s skepticism towards Madeline brings a compelling tension, especially as her newfound musical talents seem to take a sinister turn. The twins have contrasting desires. Seth yearns for adventure, while Tiffany’s greatest wish is to explore the city. Their dreams are sadly disrupted when they and their peers are lured into the woods and transformed into marionettes.

Getty’s storytelling shines as the siblings embark on a perilous journey, filled with eerie enchantments and unexpected allies. The twist of Seth’s partial transformation and the subsequent quest to save Tiffany adds depth and urgency. The enchanted castle and the revelation of darker forces at play elevate the stakes for the O’Connells.

With its imaginative world-building and strong character dynamics, “A Fable of Wood & String” will captivate most fans of Young-Adult Fantasy. I can’t wait to read the second book in the series

I received a copy of the book for the tour. This review is my honest, unbiased opinion.

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I love my Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription. So many books, so little time!

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Guest Post from L.T. Getty, author of A Fable of Wood & String

Tricksters and Monsters; Guardians and Lovers: Foxes in Folklore and Mythology

The fox as a character in stories is nothing new – many of us grew up with stories of Aesop’s Fables, but the lore of the fox as a trickster or a wily creature transcends many cultures. The ancient celts saw foxes as shapeshifters who could take human form not unlike the traditional eastern cultures, they can be the ambivalent kitsunes to downright evil kumiho of Korean myth and legend that transforms into a beautiful woman to eat the heart or liver of a man she seduces.

Even if foxes are not depicted as shapeshifters, in many North American Indigenous cultures traditionally also have a variety of views of these creatures: the silver fox in many Californian tribes view them as benevolent creators whereas among the Quechua people they view the fox as a greedy thief and bad omen.

Growing up in central Canada, for me even among regular nomenclature calling a person a ‘fox’ has not one but two meanings – if I say someone’s foxy, you might be wondering as to whether I’m referring to their looks or their wits. It’s usually a complement, although the connotation of clever like a fox implies a certain amount of sneakiness.

I live in a small town outside a large city but I don’t get to see foxes as often as I see other wildlife, but my family regularly see their local foxes passing by. They don’t have chickens or other livestock, so it’s understandable why for them, it’s fun to imagine what these creatures are up to, their daily adventures and shenanigans. In fact, no one is certain where the word shenanigan comes from, but some people it comes from the Irish “sionnachulghim” which means ‘to play tricks, be like a fox’ (from “sionnach”, fox).

Foxes (vulpes vulpes) are omnivores of the genus canidae, which is a subset of dog. There are twelve common species with over 47 recognized subspecies, and these different types of foxes have adapted to live in many different environments: such as the arctic fox or the desert-dwelling fennec.

Foxes are known as being thieves who steal chickens and eggs from the locals. Foxes are also known as surplus killers, sneaking into chicken coops and slaughtering many chickens and other animals past the point where they can consume them.

When they’re not seducing men for ulterior motives, such as eating their livers or stealing their chi, fox-wives are reoccurring characters in many mythologies, where the foxes fall in love with take on female form marry and stay with men and even have children with them, their human descendents often depicted as having unnatural physical or even supernatural powers. Unlike Swan Wives or selkies, the foxes don’t have their skins or coats stolen so much as come and go as they please. It’s not uncommon in the stories for the fox to be found out by a dog and run away from the village, only to return to her husband and lay with him at night.

There are too many stories for me to reference how foxes continue to be portrayed in contemporary media, and the links below are only a launching point. You can watch videos on Youtube or find a plethora of mythology I couldn’t possibly reference, so I’m  sorry if I didn’t mention your favourite story. Do you have a favourite fox character, such as Vulpix from Pokemon or Nick Wilde from Zootopia? Do you prefer to see them as sneaky troublemakers or misunderstood helpers? Would you just like them to leave your coop alone? Comment below.

   Also See:

Aesop’s Fables about Foxes
https://aesopsfables.org/C18_aesops_fables_about_foxes.html
Native American Fox Mythology
http://www.native-languages.org/legends-fox.htm
Huli Jing (Chinese)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_spirit
Kumiho (Korean)
https://symbolsage.com/kumiho-korean-nine-tailed-fox/
Kitsune (Japanese)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsune
The Fox in Celtic Folklore
https://irishheritagenews.ie/fox-irish-folklore/

Giveaway!

L.T. Getty will award a randomly drawn winner a $25 Amazon/BN gift card.

Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!

Official Tour Page for A Fable of Wood and String

Full Tour Schedule:

January 6: The Avid Reader
January 7: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
January 8: Kenyan Poet
January 9: Read Your Writes Book Reviews
January 10: Sandra’s Book Club
January 13: Joanne Guidoccio
January 14: Sorchia’s Universe
January 15: Fabulous and Brunette
January 16: A Wonderful World of Words
January 17: Boys’ Mom Reads! – review only
January 17: Straight From the Library
January 20: Gina Rae Mitchell – review
January 21: Books in the Hall
January 22: Westveil Publishing – review
January 23: The Pen and Muse Book Reviews
January 24: Long and Short Reviews

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