Willa of Dark Hollow Blog Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

 

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the WILLA OF DARK HOLLOW by Robert Beatty Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

  

WILLA OF DARK HOLLOW
Author: Robert Beatty
Pub. Date: May 4, 2021
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Pages: 384

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

Young nightspirit Willa discovers an ancient, powerful magic deep in the forest in the enchanting companion to Robert Beatty's instant #1 New York Times best-seller, Willa of the Wood.

This enchanting companion to Robert Beatty's instant #1 New York Times bestseller Willa of the Wood is perfect for any reader who cares deeply about the natural world. 

Willa and her clan are the last of the Faeran, an ancient race of forest people who have lived in the Great Smoky Mountains for as long as the trees have grown there. But as crews of newly arrived humans start cutting down great swaths of the forest she loves, she is helpless to stop them. How can she fight the destroyers of the forest and their powerful machines?

When Willa discovers a mysterious dark hollow filled with strange and beautiful creatures, she comes to realize that it contains a terrifying force that seems to be hunting humans. Is unleashing these dangerous spirits the key to stopping the loggers? Willa must find a way to save the people and animals she loves and take a stand against a consuming darkness that threatens to destroy her world.

Praise for Willa of the Wood:

"Willa of the Wood will grip readers from its first page... Willa is... an admirable protagonist."—Culturess

"A moving, atmospheric journey of hope."—Kirkus Reviews

"Beatty conjures up a resourceful, compassionate heroine. Full of atmospheric details and richly described magic... this well-paced tale asks insightful questions about the relationship between nature and humans."—Publishers Weekly

"The heroine is an appealing character... and her anguish is clear as she wavers between frightened self-preservation and her desire to help her friends."—School Library Journal

"Willa is a strong and likable creature of the natural world, and seamlessly represents themes of loyalty, tradition, family, and stewardship of the Earth in this engaging story."—School Library Connection

Accolades:

2018 Goodreads Choice Awards: Middle Grade, finalist

2018 Cybils Award, Elementary Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Nominee

Amazon: Best Children's Books of 2018, ages 9-12

Imagination Soup: Best Middle Grade Chapter Books of 2018

BNKids: July's Best Books for Young Readers, selection (2018)

Brightly: 9 Middle Grade Books for Environmentally Conscious Kids, selection (2018)

PopSugar: The Best books for Kids in 2018, as Voted by Actual Kids and Parents Who Read Them, selection

A Mighty Girl: 2018 Books of the Year, ages 9-12

GRAB WILLA OF THE WOOD NOW!

 

Willa of the Wood and Willa of Dark Hollow are being adapted into a multi-season, live-action television series!

The Great Smoky Mountains

1901

The world is neither flat nor round.

It’s mountains.

1

Willa pivoted toward the sound. The sharp, popping cracks of fracturing wood rolled like thunder through the forest air. Then came the rain-like noise of a thousand snapping branches and tearing leaves crashing down. When the massive trunk finally struck the ground, the earth shook beneath her bare feet. A gust of wind swept through the forest and blew through Willa’s long bark-and-moss-colored hair. And as the realization of what had just happened sank into her mind, her chest filled with pain. The human loggers had cut down the great hemlock tree that lived at the bend of the river.

She stood frozen like a young deer.

It was a tree she had sat beside on sunlit mornings, watching the river flow past its roots, a tree she and her twin sister had curled up in on misty nights, gazing up through its outstretched branches toward the Great Smoky Mountain and the moon above. The trees of the forest had shrouded and sheltered her all her life. They had consoled her when her sister was killed. They were her earth and her soil, her sunlight and her song.

But now she heard the axmen chopping and sawing and shouting to each other, their harsh, barking words circling through the treetops like quarreling ravens. The quills on the back of her neck went up and a burst of heat flashed through her body. She knew she should flee this killing ground or blend her green skin into the leaves of the undergrowth and disappear from the coming human eyes. She must run from their tromping feet and escape their cutting blades.

But how could she run away when her friends were dying? How could she just leave them?

She had to stop the loggers, but she had no sharp claws or long teeth. She had no weapons or ability to fight. She didn’t hurt living creatures, she helped them.

The human loggers had jagged metal saws, axes, knives, guns, animals in chains, vast metal contraptions for dragging murdered trees from the forest, and black, steaming beasts that rolled on long gleaming tracks. She was a lone thirteen-year-old Faeran girl without a clan. How could she fight the men of iron?

The crash of another tree broke like a wave through the forest, the wind of it brushing her cheek.

Her heart pounded in her chest.

She knew she couldn’t protect the trees the way they had protected her. She couldn’t shroud them or shelter them or hide them from the world.

But she couldn’t just abandon them, either.

She took a few uncertain steps, her legs trembling. Her eyes watered with burning tears.

And then she ran toward the sound of the falling trees.

Robert Beatty is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Serafina series and the Willa of the Wood series published by Disney Hyperion. Loved by young readers and adults alike, the Serafina and Willa books are being taught in over a thousand classrooms nationwide and have been translated into over 22 languages. Robert lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and three daughters. He writes full-time now, but in his past lives, Robert was one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, the founder/CEO of Plex Systems, the co-founder of Beatty Robotics, and the chairman/CTO of Narrative magazine. In 2007, he was named an Entrepreneur of the Year. When asked about the inspiration for his books, Robert said, “The Serafina and Willa books grew out of my desire to write stories about unusual and heroic young girls for my three daughters."

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon

(3) winners will win a finished copy of WILLA OF DARK HOLLOW - US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

5/1/2021

BookHounds YA

Excerpt

Week Two:

5/2/2021	Log Cabin Library	Excerpt
5/3/2021	jillpiscitello	Excerpt
5/4/2021	YA Books Central	Excerpt
5/5/2021	Nerdophiles	Review
5/6/2021	Jenguerdy	Review
5/7/2021	booksaremagictoo	Review
5/8/2021	Amani’s Reviews	Review

Week Three:

5/9/2021	Little Red Reads	Review
5/10/2021	The Bookwyrm's Den	Review
5/11/2021	A Court of Coffee and Books	Review
5/12/2021	Emelie's Books	Review
5/13/2021	Books and Zebras	Review
5/14/2021	Kait Plus Books	Excerpt
5/15/2021	michellemengsbookblog	Review

Week Four:

5/16/2021	two points of interest	Review
5/17/2021	History from a Woman’s Perspective	Review
5/18/2021	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
5/19/2021	Lifestyle of Me	Review
5/20/2021	Haunted By Books	Review
5/21/2021	The Momma Spot	Review
5/22/2021	Fyrekatz Blog	Review

Week Five:

5/23/2021	The Try Everything	Excerpt
5/24/2021	Musing of Souls	Review
5/25/2021	Popthebutterfly	Review
5/26/2021	more.books.yes.please	Review
5/27/2021	DearRivarie	Review
5/28/2021	Momfluenster	Review
5/29/2021	A Dream Within A Dream	Excerpt

Week Six:

5/30/2021	Lady Hawkeye	Excerpt
5/31/2021	Do You Dog-ear?	Review

Willa of the Wood Blog Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

Willa of the Wood
Author: Robert Beatty
Release Date: July 10, 2018
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Description:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Beatty comes a spooky, thrilling new series set in the magical world of Serafina. 

Move without a sound. Steal without a trace.  

Willa, a young nightspirit of the Great Smoky Mountains, is her clan's best thief. She creeps into the homes of day-folk in the cover of darkness and takes what they won't miss. It's dangerous work — the day-folk kill whatever they do not understand. But when Willa's curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in a day-folk man's home, everything she thought she knew about her people — and their greatest enemy — is forever changed.

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Chapter 6

A large wolf emerged from the forest a few feet in front of her, her silver-gray eyes studying Willa intently.
 

And then, behind the leader of the pack, she saw the others—the pale blue eyes of the younger wolves, and the gray and golden-brown eyes of the older wolves.
 

These were the great warriors of the forest, the clawers and the biters, and on any other night they might have tracked and taken down a little creature like her.
 

But Willa looked into the eyes of the leader of the pack, crouched down to the ground in front of her, and said the words to her again.
 

“Un don natra dunum far.”
 

The leader of the pack stared at her. She was a beautiful animal, with a thick blackish-gray coat and the muscles of many hunts.  She  had a strong  nose  and mouth,  and held  her ears up high, alert for the coming danger—the man and his dog coming toward them through the forest. Wolves and the other animals of the forest didn’t have names in the English language of the day-folk, but in the old language, Willa knew her name was Luthien. She looked so different from the winter before, when Willa had met her and helped her, when the wolf had lain on the forest floor, shot by a hunter and torn by his hounds. And now, by the flow of time, all had come around.
 

Luthien lay down on her haunches so close at Willa’s side that  she  could  feel  the  warmth  of  the  wolf’s  fur  against  her shoulder. Wincing in pain, but knowing that it was her only hope to live, Willa crawled onto the wolf’s back.
 

The day-folk man had seen her in his lair and wounded her. She didn’t understand why he had tried to help her in the barn, what kind of trick or twist of hatred had compelled him to such an act, but she knew she could not trust a human. And she knew that now that he had seen her, he would not let her go. He and his snarling dog and his clanking box of captured light and his killing metal were coming, moments away now, thrash- ing through the forest, trampling leaf and breaking branch, to capture her and pull her back into their world.
 

As Luthien rose to her feet, Willa wrapped her arms around the thick scruff of the wolf’s neck.
 

“The dog in the man’s pack has the nose to track us,” Willa said in the old language, knowing the wolf would  know what to do.
 

As the man and his dog came through the undergrowth of the forest, Luthien turned and looked at the other wolves of the pack. With a tilt of her head and a turn of her body, she gave the command. The other wolves turned and dashed in a dozen directions into the forest, yipping and yelping as they ran, as if inviting the coming enemy to pursue them.
 

The moment they were gone, Luthien lunged into the darkness and leapt into running speed. Suddenly, Willa was flying through the forest, her hair whipping behind her. Her shoulder burned with pain, and the blood from the cut on her head was dripping onto Luthien’s thick coat, but Willa felt the joy of it, too, clinging to the wolf’s back, tearing through the forest faster than she ever had gone. The trunks of the trees rushed past her. Great jutting rocks flashed by. The leaves of the bushes were but puffs of air swishing against her face. She felt the driving beat of the wolf’s heart against her own, the air surging into the wolf’s lungs, and the heat pouring out of the wolf’s open mouth as she ran, her teeth gleaming in the moonlight.
 

Willa looked into the forest to their left and to their right to see two strong male wolves running with them, guarding their flanks. Craning her neck, she saw that two young wolf pups were following close behind.
 

She couldn’t see the other wolves of the pack anymore, but she knew they were out there, running through the forest in opposite directions. There was no way for even the keenest tracking dog to follow them all.
 

“The wolves teach us how to work together,” her mamaw had told her. “They hunt together, defend their territory together, play together, and raise their pups together. It’s through their love for one another that they survive.” Willa knew she wasn’t a wolf and never could be, but it was the kind of kinship that she had always longed for.
 

Leaving the ravine of the river far behind them, Luthien climbed up through the rocky, forested ridges of the high  ground, taking Willa up the slope of what the Faeran people called the Great Mountain. The Cherokee called it Kuwa’hi.  But the day-folk called it Clingmans Dome on their maps, made from the ground-up flesh of trees. It seemed as if all the locations in her world had many names, old names and new, night names and day, as if the names, too, were fighting to possess these ancient places. It was seldom used anymore, but one of her favorite names for this place was the Smoky Mountain, for she had seen it say its name many times: in the waking dawn of each new morning, the white mist of the Smoky Mountain’s breath floated near its rounded top and out across the world, flowing down into hidden coves and sweeping valleys, out to the other mountains and ridges, and down through the fog-shrouded trees and over the tumbling misty rivers, as if the Smoky Mountain itself breathed the life into the world each morning and took it back again each night.
 

Dead Hollow, the hidden lair of her people, was way up on the north slope of the Great Mountain, a place so treacherously remote, and so shadowed by thick trees and steep ridges, that no day-folk had ever trodden there.
 

But as she gazed around her through her blood-blurry eyes, she realized that wasn’t the direction the wolves were going.
 

“Where are we going?” she tried to ask in the old language, but her voice was too thin and raspy to be  heard.

As she clung to Luthien’s back, she felt herself getting weaker and colder, the sticky blood oozing from her wound and down her side. She held on desperately to the warmth of Luthien’s fur, but her eyes drifted shut and she began to slip away. All she could feel was the undulating motion of the running  wolf.

Robert Beatty is the author of the #1 New York Times best selling Serafina Series published by Disney-Hyperion, a spooky mystery-thriller about a brave and unusual girl who lives secretly in the basement of the grand Biltmore Estate.

Serafina and the Black Cloak was a #1 New York Times best seller, has been on the list for more than 45 weeks, and won the prestigious 2016 Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize. The second book in the series, Serafina and the Twisted Staff, became a #1 New York Times best seller in the first week of its launch and earned a “Starred Review” from Kirkus Reviews, which said, “Even better than its predecessor, a sequel that delivers nonstop thrills from beginning to end.” Enjoyed by both young readers and adults, the books are being taught in over a thousand classrooms nationwide. The third book in the Serafina series comes out in July 2017. Robert Beatty has been awarded an additional four book deal with Disney-Hyperion.

Robert Beatty lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and three daughters, who help create and refine his stories. He loves to explore Biltmore Estate and the darkened forest trails where his novels take place. He writes full-time now, but in his past lives, Robert was one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, the founder/CEO of Plex Systems, the co-founder of Beatty Robotics, and the chairman/CTO of Narrative Magazine. In 2007, he was named an Entrepreneur of the Year.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

(3) winners will win a finished copy of WILLA OF THE WOOD - US Only!

 

   a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule: 

Week One:

7/2/2018- jrsbookreviews- Review 

7/3/2018- YA Books Central- Interview 

7/4/2018- Here's to Happy Endings- Review 

7/5/2018- History from a Woman’s Perspective- Review 

7/6/2018- The OWL- Review 

  

Week Two: 

7/9/2018- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt 

7/10/2018- A Backwards Story- Interview 

7/11/2018- Novel Novice- Guest Post 

7/12/2018- Don't Judge, Read- Review 

7/13/2018-  Two points of interest- Review