Raising Sleeping Stones Blog Tour

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Mami Tales is happy to be a part of the Book Blast for the middle grade fantasy written by P.H.T. Bennet, Raising Sleeping Stones (The Orora Crona Chronicles, Book One) coordinated by BeachBoundBooks. The blast will run June 20 – June 22, 2016.

RaisingSleepingStones

About the Book

Book Description: ***Winner of a 2013 Newbury Comics Award!***

When sisters Kiva and DeeDee Stone discover a mysterious plot that threatens them and everything they care about, they have to take a crash course in the ancient art of DreamKeeping to survive. As two elder DreamKeepers lead them up the Varruvyen river to the Eyle of Return, they show the girls how to gain dream powers greater than anything they had ever imagined. But can they become strong enough to face the monsters that haunt their dreams at night, strong enough to fight the enemies that draw nearer each day? The answer lies somewhere in the broken history of Orora Crona, the Valley of Dreams lost centuries ago, and whoever can piece it together first will rule for centuries to come.

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * iBooks
Kobo * Smashwords * Goodreads

Read an excerpt…

Kiva looked closely at the sun’s golden face. Wavy rays representing shimmering heat radiated out from it. Its cheeks were plump, the lips full and curved, the nose wide, and the eyes were a little almond-shaped, like hers. In the middle of its forehead was a weird circle with six curving parts swirling around a six-pointed star. She’d never seen the sun drawn like that. Wondering what was on the back of the pendant, Kiva turned it over.

The instant she saw the moon’s closed eyes, her hair flew back in the wind, her stomach dropped, and she was pressed back against the cushions of a vessel that was flying just inches above the river. She jerked her head back up and found she was in the back of a crescent-shaped boat piloted by an old man sitting up front. She was about to call out to him when he pointed at a tree that had fallen across the river and shouted, “When you get here, you must take a detour that even old Jacques didn’t know about! Hold on!”

Before she could, though, he turned the boat around so quickly that Kiva was thrown against the side of her boat and the wind was knocked out of her. She only got her breath back when he straightened out and followed the river back down.

“Look there!” he shouted moments later. “Turn right between the tall twins!”

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Watch the book video…

My Review

Kiva Stone and her sister DeeDee live in a society where work work work is the only thing that matters. Working and learning to master a craft will let you climb up on the economical and social status of this place. If you cannot be placed in a guild, then you have to be content with cleaning up after everybody else’s mess and stay at the bottom of the food pyramid.

The book starts a little slow and it took me a while to understand the dystopian world and how it worked. But with many fantasy novels that redo the world completely, that tends to be the case. However, when the story finally took off, Mr. Bennet had me completely. I went along for the ride happily, following the Stone sister’s adventures on how to wake up their dreaming powers. That’s why I got so incredibly mad at the end, when the book finishes at the highest point in the adventure without a true resolution. I understand it is supposed to be a series and all, but the ending of the book just made me mad. I do want to keep reading and see where this story goes, but all the little unanswered questions sown along the way were enough to want me stay for the rest of the series — I don’t want to be left hanging in the middle of the climax of the story without some sense of closure!

In any case, I did enjoy the read, and the book is very well written. I’d recommend it more for teen readers, as the social aspect of it might be hard to grasp for younger ones.

What others have to say…

“Raising Sleeping Stones is a beautiful visual/musical tale about confidence and creative thinking.” – Stephanie R. (Amazon)

“Great adventure tale that is both coming-of-age story and testimony to the power of dreams.” – Thomas G. (Amazon)

“I was enthralled by this book from beginning to end. Truly connected with the intent and purpose behind the story, as well as the strong concept of dealing with dreams. I would definitely recommend this app…” – Amazon Reviewer

“Both allegorically and psychologically the author deftly explores the richness of young people’s emotional lives. I read this story both in its app form and on Kindle. The book is beautifully illustrated and in its app form adds a great sound track. A wonderful book!” – Edward D. (Amazon)

About the Author: P.H.T. Bennet

PHTBennet

P.H.T. Bennet began exploring his dreams when he was a child and has never bothered to stop. He had the good luck to have two daughters, Juliette and Paola, who not only served as the inspirations for DeeDee and Kiva, the main characters of Raising Sleeping Stones, but also helped him turn their family dreamwork sessions into this book. His lucky streak grew when he married his lovely wife, Mim, who tolerates his turning on a light in the middle of the night to write down ever-crazier dreams and talking about them in the morning as long as he lets her sleep in, first. His favorite dreams involve flying, visiting the dead, and replaying nightmares until they reveal their secrets.

Pratt’s latest projects are editing Book Two of the Orora Crona Chronicles and planning a virtual summer dreaming camp with other dream authors.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Book Blast Giveaway

Prize: One winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card or $25 PayPal cash prize, winner’s choice
Giveaway ends: July 4, 11:59 pm, 2016
Open to: Internationally
How to enter: Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget below.
Terms and Conditions: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. A winner will be randomly drawn through the Rafflecopter widget and will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. The winner will then have 72 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond within 72 hours, a new draw will take place for a new winner. Odds of winning will vary depending on the number of eligible entries received. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. This giveaway is sponsored by the author, P.H.T. Bennet and is hosted and managed by Stacie from BeachBoundBooks. If you have any additional questions feel free to send an email to stacie@BeachBoundBooks.com.

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2 Comments

Pratt Bennet
June 21, 2016 at 2:29 pm

Hi, Erika,
Thanks again for the amazingly accurate and brief tweet summary. You did a lot better at that than the author 😉

Thanks also for being part of the blog tour/book blast. Much easier getting the word out with help from veteran bloggers like you.

A while back, you posted a really insightful review on Amazon. If you ever have the time and inclination, I’d greatly appreciate your posting it to Goodreads here: http://bit.ly/rssgoodreads. If not, I totally understand.

Side note to your bio: I was a really busy sculptor until I had my daughters, when I stopped all that for a few years before taking up writing. I wrote 2 screenplays then 2 books (RSS is the first of a series) between 11 at night till 3 in the morning for many years, while everyone was asleep. I’m sure you can relate.

Thanks again and happy blogging,
Pratt

Stacie @ BeachBoundBooks
June 21, 2016 at 4:05 pm

Thank you for taking part in the Blast, Erika. I appreciate all you do to make my book blasts and blog tours a success!