Title: Princess Of The Damned
Series: Skeleton Key
Author: Wendy Knight
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
What do you do when the face in the mirror isn’t yours?
Landon has never seen his own reflection. He saw hers instead. He grew up watching this girl in the mirror grow with him. Grew up memorizing every feature, every movement, every horror she endured. He can see into her palace, into the darkness she’s trapped in.
When he was little, he told his parents about her. They thought she was an imaginary friend, and they humored him.
But she didn’t go away.
And when Landon was seventeen, he fell in love with her.
She is a captive of the Queen of the Damned.
Now he’ll risk everything to try to save her—his life, his home, his entire world.
Bloody Mary
The queen in the mirror.
Bloody Mary
Waiting to steal your soul.
Bloody Ma…
“You want me to help Eiress?”
She nodded, a silvery tear snaking its way down her cheek.
“I will. Anything. Just tell me how.” He would have grabbed her hand to hold her to him if it were possible. His fear was gone—anything that could help him help Eiress was not something to be feared.
He hoped.
“I am…her mother…”
Landon swore again. Of course. It all made sense now.
She reached past him, touched the mirror again, and Landon turned to see it swirl away from Eiress’s empty chambers to an altogether different scene. A woman—the ghost in front of him—but still alive, knelt over the lifeless body of a young girl, maybe twelve years old. Her neck was torn, the ground around her soaked in blood. The woman sobbed as paramedics came, as cops came, as strangers with cameras came. A baby boy screamed on the floor next to her. They asked her questions. They asked her what had happened, and she couldn’t answer them. They asked her where her other little girl was. Her sweet little girl.
Eiress.
Where had Eiress gone?
The mirror swirled, time seemed to pass, and the woman sank into despair as she searched for her lost little girl. The funeral, the questions, the constant, never ending search. Someone came and took the baby away.
And then the swirling stopped. In the flashback, the woman stared at the mirror, sobbing, in the darkness.
Eiress appeared in front of her.
Landon recognized her. This was when he’d started seeing her, or soon after.
“Mama, please, I can’t stay long.” Eiress looked over her shoulder. “Please, stop looking. Please. Where I am—you can’t—you can’t save me. Please move on, Mama. I love you.” Eiress put her hand to the mirror.
The woman cried harder, raised her hand, reaching for Eiress—but Eiress screamed once and then was gone.
“I can’t save her. I can’t save her. I can’t…” The woman raised her head, eyes terrified, yet full of determination. “I can’t save her while I’m alive. But I can…” The next image was the woman, standing next to her own dead body.
She’d taken her own life.
Jewelz Review~
I remember when I was in elementary school and my friends told me how if you went into the bathroom with the lights off and said "Bloody Mary" three times, she would come to you through the mirror. I also remember doing it out and while my mind was probably simply playing tricks on me, I saw a bloody girl in the mirror reaching towards me -- and it scared me to death. I ran from that bathroom and never played that "game" again.
You can imagine my curiosity when I picked up Princess of the Damned -- a book that tells the tale of Eiress, a young woman who was taken through the mirror by Bloody Mary when she was but three years old. She has been trapped on the Isle of the Damned for the past fourteen years. Eiress has a secret though -- she has a friend who lends her strength to endure the nightmares she faces each day.
Landon never sees his reflection in the mirror. I can't even imagine what that would be like -- every time he looks into a mirror he sees HER. He talks to her, but he knows she can't hear him. That doesn't matter because he knows she can feel his presence because she talks to him as well. Over the years he has fallen in love with her, and now he needs to rescue her. But how?
There are rules. She's chained to the island, just like Bloody Mary and Elizabeth, so she cannot leave. When someone comes in, only one can go out. Landon needs the key to unlock her chains, and he needs to find his way to the Isle of the Damned so he can bring Eiress home.
This is the stuff little girls' nightmares are made of, but out of the darkness comes the most beautiful light. This isn't truly a horror story -- it's also a love story. Of a mother's love for her child, Landon and Eiress' love for each other, and even the love and loyalty between a girl and her pet dragon.
Princess of the Damned will take you on an emotional adventure -- fear, anxiety, love, loyalty, peace, anger, friendship, bitterness, and sorrow are only a few of the feelings you might experience as you travel to the Isle of the Damned and come face-to-face with Bloody Mary.
FYI ~ clean read - some mild language
Honest disclosure ~ I received a review copy in connection with the blog tour.
An innovative and collaborative collection of fantasy stories, each with a Happily Ever After.
One magical key.
The turn of a lock.
An adventure of a lifetime.
The turn of a lock.
An adventure of a lifetime.
The Skeleton Key finds those who are brave enough. Curious enough. Crazy enough. It only needs an unsuspecting hand and inconspicuous door. Magic uncoils and where the door leads, no one knows. The one way to discover the truth is to step through into a world of the exotic and untold.
If you dare to dream the impossible…
Prepare yourself.
Unlock the Skeleton Key adventures.
Prepare yourself.
Unlock the Skeleton Key adventures.
Wendy Knight is the award-winning, bestselling author of the young adult series Fate on Fire and Riders of Paradesos. She was born and raised in Utah by a wonderful family who spoiled her rotten because she was the baby. Now she spends her time driving her husband crazy with her many eccentricities (no water after five, terror when faced with a live phone call, no touching the knives…you get the idea). She also enjoys chasing her three adorable kids, playing tennis, watching football, reading, and hiking. Camping is also big—her family is slowly working toward a goal of seeing all the National Parks in the U.S.
You can usually find her with at least one Pepsi nearby, wearing ridiculously high heels for whatever the occasion. And if everything works out just right, she will also be writing.
Enter for your chance to win a Skeleton Key Necklace and your choice of Wendy’s book
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