#CQWeek2017: Emma and the Banderwigh (Tales of Widowswood #1) by @mscox_fiction #Giveaway #BookReview @CuriosityQuills

Welcome to this year's #CQWeek were so excited to share these titles with you!  Here is the first review for this day! We love this cover and the story was solid!  Check it out and don't forget to enter the giveaway and come back later for more!    Ten-year-old Emma doesn't believe in faerie tales or monsters that secret children away in the night--until she meets one.

She lives in a quiet village at the edge of Widowswood with her parents, her Nan, and her little brother, Tam. Ready to abandon the whimsy of childhood, she finds the boredom of chores comforting and Nan's fanciful bedtime stories silly.

One morning, a wan and weary older girl staggers out of the woods and sets the entire town aflutter with whispers of a child-stealing monster lurking in the forest. Nan tells her of the Banderwigh: a dark soul who feeds on sorrow and drains the life from children's tears.

Darkness comes calling on Emma's happy home, threatening the reality to which she desperately clings. The impossible becomes more and more real, forcing Emma to reach inside herself for the ability to believe. Her family depends on it.

Originally from South Amboy NJ, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Since 1996, he has developed the “Divergent Fates” world, in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, The Awakened Series, The Harmony Paradox, and the Daughter of Mars series take place.

Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems, and a fan of anime, British humour, and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.

He is also fond of cats.

This one was really good.  This was a fantastic dark fairy tale that I couldn't stop reading.  The writing style in this one is one you will have to get used to before the story really draws you in but that was ok in the long run. I really loved Emma and thought that she sounded above her age and that was great so that this ended up feeling like a high middle grade. This was a high stakes dark magical ride that I cant wait to get book two. I really enjoyed this one and so will you! 

            Hardy bristles rakes over Emma's toes as she worked her grandmother's handmade broom, taller than she was, back and forth. She kept her gaze down, avoiding looking into the dark pines of Widowswood so close to her home. The murk among the trees felt alive-as if it stared at her-even though such things were the stuff of 

Nan's nonsense tales. Yet, as much as she couldn't believe them, she still refused to look up. Uneven boards shifted with her wright as she inched across the porch of her family's modest house, accompanied by a steady rhythm of scratching. 

             The wind whispered as it teased through the trees, but no breeze reached the village. She leaned on the broom while wiping sandy grit off the sole of her foot against her shin. An eerie roar, deep, pained, and not quite human, rang out in the distance, startling birds from the treetops. 

Emma jumped and clutched the broom handle to her chest, not breathing as she squinted into the woods. Darkness lurked the gaps of the forest; nothing moved. 

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Posted in: 4 Stars, Curiosity Quills Press, Giveaway, Middle Grade, Review