Cinderella, Necromancer
F.M. Boughan
❤ Synopsis
Darkness can only be controlled by those
with the darkest of hearts.
Ellison lost her mother at an early age.
Now, sixteen, her father has found love again. He’s happy and doesn’t quite
notice that Ellison does not get along with his new wife or her vicious
daughters.
When Ellison discovers a necromantic tome
while traveling the secret passages of her father’s mansion, she wonders if it
could be the key to her eventual freedom.
Until then, she must master her dark new
power, even as her stepmother makes her a servant in her own home. And when her
younger brother falls incurably ill, Ellison will do anything to ease his pain,
including falling prey to her stepmother’s and stepsisters’ every whim and
fancy.
Stumbling into a chance meeting with Prince
William during a secret visit to her mother’s grave feels like a trick of fate
when her stepmother refuses to allow Ellison to attend a palace festival where
she might see him once more.
But what if Ellison could see the kind and
handsome prince again? What if she could attend the festival? What if she could
have everything she’s ever wanted and deserved by conjuring spirits to take
revenge on her cruel stepmother? And what if she actually liked watching her
stepmother suffer?
As Ellison’s power grows, she loses control
over the evil spirits meant to do her bidding. And as they begin to exert their
own power over Ellison, it becomes harder to tell whether it is she or her
stepmother who is the true monster.
CINDERELLA NECROMANCER is CINDER meets ANNA
DRESSED IN BLOOD and was inspired by a real medieval grimoire of necromancy
from 15th-century Germany
Cinderella, Necromancer by F.M. Boughan
Publication Date: September 5, 2017
Publisher: Month9Books
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(Excerpt from Chapter Four:
The Leaving)
He left that same
morning, quietly, while the rest of the world still slept. I watched from my
window as he galloped down the road that would lead him through town, past the
King’s palace, and out the other side on the road headed north. For years I’d
begged him to take me on one of his distant journeys, and after Mother’s death,
he’d promised his trips would never again separate the family. We had to stick
together now.
Celia’s arrival had
changed everything.
Father and his horse had
barely disappeared from sight when someone rapped on my door—three sharp
knocks, and a fourth with ominous finality.
I suppose I shouldn’t
have answered, but at the time, some small part of me must have hoped that
Father’s leaving had only been an illusion or some semblance of a nightmare,
and that he actually stood on the other side of my door once again, waiting.
But Celia Not-Mother
stood there instead, hands clasped at her middle.
“Your father has taken
leave for several days to do business in Neustadt. Be a good girl and bring me
up a pot of tea. Sweet child.”
The last she added as an
afterthought.
Be a good girl? For
Father, certainly. For her?
“That is not my place,”
I said, for I had no knowledge of kitchens and pots, nor the necessary interest
to deduce what might be needed. “Miss Mary—”
“Is no longer in our
employ.”
A breath caught in my
throat. Father’s trail barely minutes cold, and already she’d loosed the woman
who’d nursed us and raised us during Mother’s frequent convalesces. Miss Mary
had no children or family of her own save us.
“You didn’t,” I said,
fists firm at my sides. “You can’t.”
Celia lifted her chin as
though height meant power and folded her arms across the looseness of the blue
silk robe she wore which—I swear it, even now—once belonged to my mother.
“I can, and I did. A
needless expenditure, she. We must be careful with our coins, child.”
Tell that to the
curtains and pillows.
She tapped a slippered
foot. “Tea, child. In my room. I will be waiting.”
Indeed she would.
(Excerpt from Chapter Twenty-Six: The Second Ball)
They left. I did not hesitate.
I set up the parlour as if by rote, though the ease
with which I fell into the routine stirred a concern. I buried it.
The spirits did their work, and I would do mine.
I had no doubt of my power, though if anyone had
asked, I couldn’t have explained why I continued to tempt my eternal fate. I
was as though driven by some force—something unseen—to use the ability, now
that I had it.
I don’t excuse what I did. I only wish to explain
why I continued to seek retribution despite my misgivings.
What is more, I longed for something deeper.
Harsher. More severe, for a part of me believed that no matter what, I still
held control over the spirits and what they did. And that same part of me
wanted to see Charlotte suffer.
And so it was with this in mind that I turned
further pages in The Book, knowing
full well what I sought.
“To inflict harm,” I read, “make an image of wax on
the day and in the hour of intent, in the name of the one to be harmed. Thus,
you should use wax of candles burned at a funeral, and on the likeness, fashion
hands in the place of feet, and feet in the place of hands.”
And so I did. With candles from my room that I had
saved from Mother’s funeral, I molded a crude figure of my stepsister. With my
fingernail, I inscribed Charlotte’s name on the wax doll’s forehead, and on its
chest and shoulder, carved the book’s images of circles, planets, and
five-sided stars.
Then I called my spirits. With the bridle still, I
had no need of the first spirit. To the second, I had only to repeat my
request. And to the third, I gave the wax doll, which he consecrated with spit
smeared over the doll’s eyes.
“What would you have me do?” Oliroomim spoke with an
unsettling eagerness.
From my hair, I drew a pin. With a hollowness in the
pit of my belly, I pierced the spine of the doll.
F.M. Boughan is a bibliophile, a writer,
and an unabashed parrot enthusiast. She can often be found writing in local
coffee shops, namely because it’s hard to concentrate with a cat lying on the
keyboard and a small, colorful parrot screaming into her ear. Her work is
somewhat dark, somewhat violent, somewhat hopeful, and always contains a hint
of magic.My Review: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
The re-telling of the classic fairytale Cinderella but with a darker twist.
Ellison lost her mother at a young age. Her father has remarried gained Ella a stepmother and two stepsisters. Unfortunately, her father has been called away on business leaving Ellison and her brother with the new family. All isn't what it seems. Her house, her family and the prince all are not as they seem. Secrets are the key to finding her happily ever after but they also hold a dark unforeseen fate. Wishes have consequences and the price may be too much to pay.
4 stars out of 5. An interesting take on Cinderella with a witchcraft element. Worth the read.
*ARC received in exchange for a fair review*
Ellison lost her mother at a young age. Her father has remarried gained Ella a stepmother and two stepsisters. Unfortunately, her father has been called away on business leaving Ellison and her brother with the new family. All isn't what it seems. Her house, her family and the prince all are not as they seem. Secrets are the key to finding her happily ever after but they also hold a dark unforeseen fate. Wishes have consequences and the price may be too much to pay.
4 stars out of 5. An interesting take on Cinderella with a witchcraft element. Worth the read.
*ARC received in exchange for a fair review*
Paperback £12.75
320 pages
320 pages
Expected publication:
September 5th 2017
by Month9Books
Question One: Cinderella is a classic fairy
tale. What made you decide to re-tell this story?
I wanted to be able to explore what would
happen if the heroine of a fairy tale decided to fight back with her own
strength. I started by removing the fairy godmother, because if no one is
coming to rescue her, she has to find a way to do it herself.
Question Two: Your version of Cinderella
has a darker element. What made you choose to go down this path?
Since the original fairy tales are quite
dark, I wanted to pay tribute to that… and then take it a step further! I
wanted it to feel a little bit like the Grimm version of the story, but go
darker rather than the other direction, which Disney did. (But don’t get me
wrong, I do love the Disney version!)
Question Three: Ellison is a dynamic
character and more realistic than Cinderella. She had good and bad traits. What
was your inspiration behind her personality?
I wanted Ellison to be kind but a little
naïve, the way I imagine the daughter of a successful, self-aware merchant
would be. I didn’t want her to turn into a caricature of herself, which I think
sometimes happens based on the source material. But each and every person is
more than one thing, so I tried to show that in the way she grows and changes
as events unfold.
Question Four: Magic plays a key part in
this storyline. What made you choose necromancy as a skill for Ellison?
It wasn’t necessarily an active choice, but
sort of just happened! I was reading books by a professor from Northwestern
University about forbidden magic in Medieval Europe, and my brain somehow made
the connection between “girls fighting back” and “using forbidden magic,” and
the story began to unfold.
Question Five: Did the story turn out the
way you expected?
It actually did—I’m a reformed pantser, so
I plot out my books before I begin to write them. I use a vague outline and
stick to it, but there are definitely times while plotting that things go in
unexpected directions—but I can’t tell you exactly what, because SPOILERS!
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