Botulf's Stone Blog

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Little could be seen through the midnight shadows of the forest men called enchanted. She didn’t have a light, so Eibhlin set herself beneath a large beech tree just beyond the tree line, hugged herself in her cloak, and after a few minutes fell asleep. When she woke, her body was stiff in the chill air. Sunlight passing through leaves tinted the world in soft green and gold. After a few painful stretches, Eibhlin stood to her feet and took out a biscuit to eat while walking. She needed to find a fairy. Deeper into the forest she went. The ground foliage thickened, causing her to trip on hidden sticks, roots, branches, and stones. The thought already arose to abandon her search, but she clutched a gold coin and went deeper. Deer, rabbits, birds, insects, she saw plenty of wild life, but not a single sign of a fairy. As afternoon arrived, she heard the sound of water and followed it to the wide river Lúrin, the border of Enbár, a river quickened from the recent rain....

Chapter 1 Fear filled Eibhlin when the door finally opened. Soon after trading the hammer, weariness had sent her to bed, but when she woke that morning to everyday sounds and a sunlit house, dread invaded her mind. She knew that when her father returned she would need to tell him what she had done. Hiding a bag of infinite gold couldn’t last long. How to tell him, though, that was hard. As she cleaned the previous night’s wreckage and returned the spilt gold to the purse, she formed and reformed her explanation, but no matter how she reasoned it, something pricked at her mind. When her father entered that afternoon, a broad smile on his face, a chill settled in her chest and fingertips. “Good day, Eibhlin, dear!” said Lochlann, kissing her forehead. “You weren’t worried last night, I hope.” “Good afternoon, Papa,” she managed. Her father went on. “Whew! I tell you, Eve, that rain yesterday nearly got us. We were in the middle of putting down the thatch, three men on each side, when we...

I am a firm believer in the value of sizable samples to give a real taste for the full thing, so, I am here publishing the first three chapters of my novel,  Fairy Door . If you like what you see, please pick up a copy on Amazon. Enjoy! Midmorning sunlight, tinted with the heat of early summer, cast shadows between hills made green from the work of a storm-filled spring as Eibhlin made her way to the nearby town. Wind passed through her hair and danced between flowers that poked through the grass like drops of dye on a rumpled, green rug. Eibhlin herself lived in a cottage along the eastern edge of the hills, built there by her great-grandfather before famine drove her grandparents from that home, and before her father brought her mother away from the gray mountains in the north back to that green-clothed country and its little town. The same little town where, three months ago, a thunderbolt had set thatched roofs to fire. No one died, but trades and treasures were lost, and many ...

Reposting from Amazon with minor edits Abstract:  A great ending to the series. While there were some instances where the exposition or the author breaking the fourth wall that pulled me out of the story and some aspects regarding characters and the ending were unsatisfactory, overall I really enjoyed this book and love how Kotar ended his series. Definitely worth the journey. Content Warning (highlight to view):   frightening scenes, violence ————— I wish I could give a more accurate score. 4/5 just doesn’t look as good as an 8 or 9 out of 10. When I read book 1 of this series, I seriously considered stopping there. Despite some interesting ideas and world building, there were a lot of issues with execution and clunky prose so that I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue. However, there were some parts, scenes or character choices, that spoke of potential yet unrealized, and I decided to give the next book a chance. Boy am I glad I did! Kotar has truly grown as an author over the ...

Abstract:  My least favorite of the series so far, but still enjoyable.  The narrative is tense and fast paced, with interesting twists, though I can’t say all the plot mechanics were executed as well as they could have been.  I did like getting a story focused on Lebia, and I like how this story connects with the previous book.  The ending is especially engaging as Kotar preps his readers for book 5.  I’m looking forward to where things will go. Content warning (highlight to view):   frightening images, violence ——— We are back with another Kotar novella review, this time for his recently released series book 4,  The Forge of the Covenant .  I actually wrote this about a month ago for an Amazon review, and I was planning to put it off a bit longer, since I’ve had so many Kotar posts so close together.  However, this post is done (with minor edits since posting it on Amazon), and the others I have in the works are not, so here we are.  B...

Abstract:  A good if at times challenging read.  This series combines Arthurian legend, good prose, interesting plots, and likable characters into a strong series of children’s literature.  There are some elements, like certain ideas, I have issue with, and the ending wasn’t quite to my taste, but overall I really enjoyed this series.  The audiobooks are also very good, if that is more to your preference. Content Warning (highlight to view):  frightening images, violence, occasional language- especially in later books, some folk-related events that touch on the occult- in particular in book 3, non-detailed references to sexual assault and adultery in later books ——— I have quite a few thoughts to cover in this one, so I’m just going to jump right in. The Dark is Rising Sequence  is a five-book children’s fantasy series by Susan Cooper set in Great Britain during the late 20th century.  At the series’ start, three siblings  stumble upon an ancient ...