CSFF Blog Tour – Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Day 1

This month, as you visit the sites of those involved in the CSFF Blog Tour, you might find more than one person reviewing a different book than the one we’re featuring or linking to a past review instead of posting one hot off the presses. You might also notice that there aren’t as many participants as usual. There’s a good reason for this (besides December busy-ness).

The Christian Fiction Blog Alliance (CFBA), another blog tour group, beat CSFF to the punch and already featured Starflower, fourth in the young adult fairytale series, Tales of Goldstone Wood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. Hence, several of our usual participants, having previously reviewed and/or discussed this book, chose not to join in this time. Others, however, chose to post during our tour too because they wanted to give Starflower a wide exposure, but their posts might be a little different.

No matter. Blog tours are fun. They give blog visitors a chance to learn, from a variety of people, about a new author, book, and series.

In this case, Anne Elisabeth Stengl is hardly new to A Christian Worldview of Fiction. I featured her in my occasional “introduce the fantasy author” series and more recently participated (however tardily) in a promotion for the book following Starflower, Dragonwitch, which revealed that cover.

Nevertheless, Starflower is the first of her books that CSFF has featured, and I’m happy a greater audience will learn of her work.

For one thing, Anne Elisabeth is an excellent writer. She’s put time into learning how to write fiction, and it shows. The Christian publishing industry has noticed, as well, awarding her back-to-back Christy Awards.

She’s an artist by nature, and that shows, too. Plus she’s tapping into interest in a kind of fantasy–fairytales–that is quite popular in our culture at large.

I’m happy to see her publisher (Bethany House) stepping into the arena of fantasy, as I noted in an earlier post this year.

In short, there’s lots to be excited about in this tour. To get things started, Gillian Adams is hosting a give-away:

Since I enjoyed this book so much, I’d like to offer you a chance to do the same, so I’m hosting a giveaway of a copy of Starflower.

Your name can go into the proverbial hat simply by leaving a comment at Gillian’s site, or by following her blog or by following Anne Elisabeth’s blog. Your name will be entered each time you participate in one way or another so the more you interact, the greater your chance of winning a free copy of Starflower.

One more to whet your appetite for this tour–best quote so far:

if you love Narnia; if you miss Middle Earth; if you enjoyed such stories as Alice in Wonderland, then you MUST read this book. Anne Elisabeth Stengl has created a setting in which rivers and trees come to life; a world in which animals talk and faeries can take on human or animal form. I haven’t encountered such a rich environment since I went back and rediscovered George MacDonald’s fantasy worlds.
– Bruce Hennigan

Check out what the others are saying. As always, a check mark links you directly to a CSFF article.

√√ Gillian Adams
√ Beckie Burnham
√ April Erwin
√ √ √ Nikole Hahn
√ Bruce Hennigan
√ √ √ Janeen Ippolito
√ Carol Keen
√ Emileigh Latham
√ √ √ Shannon McDermott
√ √ √ Meagan @ Blooming with Books
√ Crista Richey
√ √ Rachel Starr Thomson
√ Robert Treskillard
√ √ Steve Trower
√ Shane Werlinger
√ Phyllis Wheeler