The Witch’s Tower by Tamara Grantham #Blitz #Giveaway
The Witch’s Tower
Tamara Grantham
(Twisted Ever After #1)
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: March 11th 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Gothel is a witch. Punished for the actions of her mother, her choice is simple: either she stands guard over Princess Rapunzel—or she dies. But just because a choice is easy doesn’t mean it’s pleasant. Protecting Rapunzel means watching as the princess lays trapped in a tower, bedridden by hair that is so long and heavy it’s slowly driving her insane. Gothel’s life has become one of imprisonment and solitude as well—until a prince and his handsome squire appear at the tower.
Only one object can cut Rapunzel’s hair and end the curse: a pair of magical shears. But the shears are guarded by the most terrifying witches in the land, who also happen to be Gothel’s aunts. As Gothel and the prince’s squire, Raj Talmund, work to form a plan, she finds herself more and more drawn to the mysterious young man from the Outerlands. Unfortunately, his destiny is far more dangerous than she wants to admit: to save a princess, he must kill the witch who’s been forced to guard her.
THE WITCH’S TOWER is the first in an inspired new series of fairy-tale retellings from award-winning fantasy author Tamara Grantham.
As children, my mom and dad, Jane and John, each owned a copy of the same fairy tale book—a book simply called Fairy Tales (retold by Katherine Gibson, illustrated by Isobel Read, Whitman Publishing, 1950.) They didn’t realize they’d both grown up reading the same book until after their marriage. Dad’s copy was in better shape than Mom’s, and that’s the one I grew up reading. Not only were the stories imaginative, but the artwork fascinated me. I would sit for hours turning the pages and being enthralled by the stories told in those images. Ones like this one, brushing her hair. A girl posing for a photo
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From that book, I developed a love for a wide variety of fairy tales, including
Rumpelstiltskin, Swan Lake, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Frog Prince, and
my favorite
—Rapunzel.
Although I adored the story of Rapunzel, I was upset by the ending, when the witch chops off Rapunzel’s hair, and I was never satisfied by the witch’s motivations. How could she be so evil when she’d spent her life caring for Rapunzel? Those were situations that never settled well with me, for all Rapunzel’s lovely golden hair to be stripped away by the one person she called Mother—a malevolent, evil witch. Suppose those worries stayed with me, because as I grew up, I began to ponder new ways to resolve the story of Rapunzel.It also dawned on me, while watching a popular reincarnation of the fairy tale with my own children, that to have so much hair—thirty feet—would be horrible. It wouldn’t at all be like the fairy tale. In fact, it would be constantly tangled, heavy enough to keep you bedridden, and impossible to wash. It would be a curse.In The Witch’s Tower, it is. I plotted the book to reflect a little more reality, and to display the intricacies of human emotion. The witch, Gothel, isn’t evil. She’s a young girl who comes from a bad situation. Her mother cared for her but made decisions based on emotion and revenge. In an act of vengeance toward the king, who has stolen her magical radishes, Gothel’s mother places a curse on the king’s only daughter, Rapunzel, to grow hair so long, it makes her bedridden.The king is also a man driven by selfishness. He forces Gothel to become his daughter’s caretaker and locks them both in a tower. In writing The Witch’s Tower, I learned a lot about myself, and my own view of reality. It’s been said, “Write what you know.” In this case, I wrote what I felt. Love and friendship are the enemies of loneliness was a theme I hoped to convey.In the course of the book, Gothel meets a prince and his squire, who agree to help her find the magical shears that will cut Rapunzel’s hair and break the curse. I won’t tell you how the story ends, but I hope you’ll find it rewarding. After all, Rapunzel is a story of understanding each other a little better.Not all witches are evil. Princesses aren’t always the heroines.Everyone deserves a chance at happily ever after. Live long and dream on!-
Tamara
AUTHOR BIO
Tamara Grantham is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books and novellas, including the Olive Kennedy: Fairy World MD series and the Shine novellas. Dreamthief, the first book of her Fairy World MD series, won first place for fantasy in INDIEFAB’S Book of the Year Awards, a RONE award for best New Adult Romance of 2016, and is a #1 bestseller on Amazon with over 200 five-star reviews.
Tamara holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Lamar University. She has been a featured speaker at multiple writing conferences, and she has been a panelist at Comic Con Wizard World speaking on the topic of female leads. For her first published project, she collaborated with New York-Times bestselling author, William Bernhardt, in writing the Shine series.
Born and raised in Texas, Tamara now lives with her husband and five children in Wichita, Kansas. She rarely has any free time, but when the stars align and she gets a moment to relax, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, taking nature walks–which fuel her inspiration for creating fantastical worlds–and watching every Star Wars or Star Trek movie ever made. You can find her online at http://www.TamaraGrantham.com.
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