BLOG TOUR | Scion of the Fox by S.M. Beiko + Excerpt

Title: Scion of the Fox
Author: S.M. Beiko
Release Date: October 17th, 2017
Pages: 440 pages
Source: Hardcover from the publisher
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
As the winter ice begins to thaw, the fury of a demon builds — all because one girl couldn’t stay dead . . .

Roan Harken considers herself a typical high school student — dead parents, an infected eyeball, and living in the house of her estranged, currently comatose grandmother (well, maybe not sotypical) — but she’s uncovering the depth of the secrets her family left behind. Saved from the grasp of Death itself by a powerful fox spirit named Sil, Roan must harness mysterious ancient power . . . and quickly. A snake-monster called Zabor lies in wait in the bed of the frozen Assiniboine River, hungry for the sacrifice of spirit-blood in exchange for keeping the flood waters at bay. Thrust onto an ancient battlefield, Roan soon realizes that to maintain the balance of the world, she will have to sacrifice more than her life in order to take her place as Scion of the Fox.

American Gods meets Princess Mononoke in this powerful first installment of a trilogy sure to capture readers’ imaginations everywhere.


Preorder now! 

I promised that I'd be back with more cool stuff, and I'm here to deliver! In the next few weeks, I'll be participating in quite a few blog tours that will introduce you to new titles that you may or may not have heard of. Today, I'm here to introduce a book that caught my radar when the publishing company, ECW Press, kindly approached me and asked me if I was interested in their book. I was immediately intrigued when this book was compared to Princess Mononoke because that's like my favorite Studio Ghibli film of all time. I myself have already gotten my hands on a copy so if your interest still hasn't been peaked, here's an excerpt that will do the trick! Also, don't forget to be following me on the gram because I have a fall-inspired giveaway featuring this gem. Follow me at @thebooksbuzz.

Excerpt from Scion of the Fox by S.M. Beiko

Oh she’s so glamorous, she’s so cool, long legs that go to heaven and lips that tell me to get outta town. Pretty lady that won’t give me the time of day — she’s a stoooone FOX!
 
That song. The song my dad used to sing at my mom on the good and the bad days. It’s my only memory of my parents. I was too young when they died, became an orphan before any other memories could stick. But this one did. 
My dad singing intentionally off-key, chasing Mom around the kitchen until she gave up being mad at him for whatever unspeakable thing hung between them, and then they’d kiss and make it better. I’d squeal and demand to be picked up, to be a part of their fun, and we’d hold each other until I fussed to be put down again. I felt their love like a fire. They loved me. I know they did. Even if it didn’t last. 
My mother was a compact creature. Very hard to crack. Sometimes she would lock herself in my dad’s little greenhouse and go quiet for days. She would let only me in (though I don’t remember my father ever trying to get through to her), and I’d give her peanut-butter-and-­banana sandwiches that my sloppy preschool hands had made, hoping it would make her remember she had to love us. It was as hot as a sauna in there, even in winter, the warmth rolling off her in angry waves. I would find her in the back by the stuff Dad called belladonna, and she would be staring out through the glass, fixated on our big yard as if imprisoned.
 
She spoke like someone else was standing over her, and she’d say something like, “A darling little stone menagerie, with the power to kill and create.” Was it a fairy tale she was telling me? Was she even speaking to me at all?
 
I never asked. I should have. 
Instead, I would put down the sandwich and jump to see over the table of plants and out at the little statue garden. Still in her trance, and without looking away, my mother would lift me as if I were a pebble in the palm of her hand. 
Then I would wind my fingers in her seemingly infinite hair. “The fox is the prettiest, Mommy, the prettiest like you.”
 
She sighed and squeezed me so tight it hurt, but I didn’t ask her to stop. 
Out in the garden, there was a pair of stone deer leaping. A stone owl midflight. A stone seal diving through a stone wave, a stone rabbit bolting, and, yes, a stone fox. It sat amongst them but apart from them, still and staring and quiet. The set had been a present from my grandma, my mother’s mother. There was no special occasion, but a truck had backed into our yard one day with men hired to move the statues into it.
 
I frolicked and cartwheeled that summer, feeling like it was Christmas in July. But my mother just stood there, still as a warrior waiting for the next onslaught.

 Take it back, she’d scream over the phone to someone I never knew. I don’t want it anywhere near this family. My dad would try to calm her, but she’d only grow angrier. She’s telling me to just accept it. To let it happen for the greater good. I won’t! I won’t let them take her!

 We’ll find another way.
 
I wish I’d been old enough to ask. I wish they could have trusted me with their secrets. 
Excerpted from Scion of the Fox by S.M. Beiko. © 2017 by S.M. Beiko. All rights reserved. Published by ECW Press Ltd. www.ecwpress.com




About the Author
S.M. Beiko has been writing and drawing strange, fantastical things since before she can remember. She currently works as a freelance editor, graphic designer, and consultant and is the co-publisher of ChiZine Publications and ChiGraphic. Her first novel, The Lake and the Library, was nominated for the Manitoba Book Award for Best First Book as well as the 2014 Aurora Award. Scion of the Fox is the first book of the Realms of Ancient trilogy. Samantha lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Website: https://www.smbeiko.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SMBeikoAuthor/
Twitter: @SMBeiko




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