Teaser Tuesday + Guest Post: The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton

The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.

Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two "teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!


This week my teaser comes from The Faerie Ring, one of my most anticipated reads this fall. Just look at that cover, isn't it gorgeous? Check out my teaser and Kiki Hamilton's guest post, then enter to win a copy of The Faerie Ring! From page 77:

    
     She peered at Reiker's face. His eyes were guarded, his emotions veiled. "Why?"
     He reached forward and gently rubbed his thumb along the edge of her bruised lip. "You're bleeding," he said softly.
     Tiki reached up to stop him, but her shaking fingers clung to the warmth of his skin instead. "You didn't answer my question," she whispered.
     "They think I have something they want."

Author Kiki Hamilton graciously agreed to stop by and talk about her inspiration for The Faerie Ring, and the joys and challenges of creating a magical world in a historical setting. She brought a copy to give away, too!

Hi Jenny! Thanks so much for inviting me to your blog! started writing THE FAERIE RING after I read a story I didn’t really like, so I decide to write what I wanted to read. I love Victorian London as a setting – there was such a deep belief in mysticism, magic and the Otherworld, while at the same time the Industrial Revolution was occurring with great technological advances. The era offered a huge dichotomy of motivations and beliefs – which is perfect fodder for a story. I’ve always loved the idea that not all the ‘facts’ of history have been tracked – that maybe some of the stories from the past have slipped through the cracks of time and if we only knew the truth then everything would change….

So, with that in mind, I knew my setting would be Victorian London and I knew that my main character would be a pickpocket. The idea of living on the edges of society intrigues me – how a whole subset of the population can exist, yet remain invisible because society chooses to ignore them.

I knew my setting and I knew my main character, but it wasn’t until Tiki stole the Queen’s ring, that I knew the whole story. Of course, the challenge when writing about a historical setting is to retain the flavor of the era without making it exhausting for the reader to try and muddle through dialect or archaic terms.

In the magical parts of the story I incorporated the well-known foundation of the Seelie and UnSeelie courts, which come from many mythologies in the British Isles, and then used my imagination to build from there. In book two, THE TORN WING, we begin to explore much more of the Otherworld.

I loved the challenge of creating a magical world in a historical setting. In my mind, it all seems to go hand in hand – there is so much mystery to London – it’s such an ancient city with such a rich history–really, anything is possible. Which is what makes it so fun to write fantasy.

Thanks again for inviting me to your blog!
xo Kiki

Want to win your own copy of

The Faerie Ring?

I've got one up for grabs, thanks to Tor Teen!

To enter, simply leave a comment with your email address.

This giveaway is open internationally and ends at 11:59pm on Wednesday, November 9th. Thanks, and good luck!


This giveaway is closedand the winner has been chosen!
Stay tuned for more great giveaways!