Once Upon a Summer Day
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The acclaimed author of the Mithgar novels, Dennis L. McKiernan enchanted fans and critics alike with the bestselling Once Upon a Winter’s Night. Now, this gifted author presents us with a delightfully new version of an age-old tale that fires the imagination and touches the heart…
Once upon a summer day, Prince Borel of the Winterwood falls asleep, and a beautiful, golden-haired maiden with a shadowy band across her eyes comes to him in his dreams and pleads for aid. She returns time after time, and the prince is certain that she is real and in deadly peril. Yet he knows not who she is…nor where she is imprisoned.
Opposed by witches and trolls and goblins and beings even more dreadful, and aided by a field sprite, Borel begins a desperate quest through the wonders and hazards of Faery, seeking a mysterious masked demoiselle guarded by perilous blades. And though time touches not this land of legend, time is running out…
“Superb…charming and magical…McKiernan escorts fantasy lovers into an enchanted place that deserves more tales.”—Midwest Book Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McKiernan (Once Upon a Winter's Night) embellishes another classic fairy tale, this time Sleeping Beauty, in this enjoyably frothy fantasy. A "blindfolded, golden-haired damsel" in distress appears in the dreams of the dashing Prince Borel of the Winterwood and pleads for his aid. With only a "moon" (28 days) in which to save her "ere something dire comes afoot or aswing or aslither," Borel immediately sets out on his quest across the land of Faery. Borel is soon captured by a witch and rescues a two-inch-tall sprite, Flic. After Borel and Flic escape the witch's trolls, Flic befriends a bee named Buzzer. Before they can reach the demoiselle's stone chamber in a turret surrounded by floating daggers, the prince, the sprite and the bee experience adventures both merry and monstrous. Meanwhile, Borel meets Chelle, the imprisoned and innocent young beauty, nightly in his dreams. As their love grows, the hero must cope with chastity as well as other more serious challenges. While a happy outcome is never in doubt, enough complications arise to keep the reader turning the pages.
