Monday, August 15, 2016

Review, Guest Post, and Giveaway: Beauty for Ashes and Monstrous Beauty by Carol E. Keene

Purchase your copy here.

About the Books


Beauty for Ashes


Jazz is being forced to move and her mom has given her a major task to accomplish. She has to pack up the attic. What Jazz finds in the attic changes her life in ways she never imagined, and opens her up to life altering possibilities.

Monstrous Beauty

Ethan’s father was a piece of work, to put it mildly. His father managed to become quite wealthy before he died, yet he left Ethan deeply damaged in more ways than one. Can the love and care of a strange young woman with a past of her own free him, or is he doomed to never change?









My Review

Beauty for Ashes is a short retelling of Cinderella.  Jazz and her mother must move, so Jazz has been assigned to pack up the attic.  Disheartened and going about her job mindlessly, she discovers something in her attic that changes her life.  Talk about stepping into character!  This book is both bittersweet and hopeful and puts a refreshing new spin on the tale of Cinderella.

Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairytale and Monstrous Beauty is author Carol Keane’s take on it.  Following the fairy tale closely, we are given little treats at the unfolding of this beloved story with some twists thrown in.  The Beast here is a selfless hero and the villain(s) were quite a surprise.  Forgiveness was a big theme.  I always like to see how an author will make the story theirs and I was not disappointed. 

This story has a connection with Beauty for Ashes, this first in the series and I look forward to more retellings.  The author did not explain everything about the connections; hopefully we will be given more of a glimpse into this author’s fairytale world.  I am curious to know which fairytale will be tackled next.

I was given a copy for an honest review through Celebrate Lit and the opinions are my own.


About the Author

Carol E. Keen currently resides in Alabama with her husband and family. She spends her time writing, reading, working on photography, and working with her much loved critters. She started creating stories to share with others at the age of two years old. She was published for several years in FAMA magazine (Freshwater And Marine Aquarium) as a contributing editor. She published her first book on CD, called Simply Seahorses. She is overjoyed to be publishing her fiction to share with you now. Carol currently has more books in the “works”. Please feel free to follow her for updates.

On a personal note: Carol really enjoys coffee and a good book.

Guest Post from Carol E. Keen

Can you believe it? I’m on my second tour with Celebrate Lit! Wow! I’m floored and happy and close to tears too. I have to say a HUGE thank you to Sandy and Denise for their encouragement and patience and help.

Today we are talking about my first series, The Beauty Series. The first book, Beauty For Ashes is the very first published fiction book that I have released. It started out as a contest entry. When it didn’t make the winning selection, I expanded it and had several trusted people read it. It was well received over all, and so I braved the scary world of navigation Amazon and published it.

Beauty For Ashes is based on Cinderella, and it was a challenge to write. I had always had some questions about why certain things weren’t covered in that story, so in my version, I added them. I answered my unanswered questions. I also have always felt that Cinderella had to be Christian to survive what she did and still be who she was.

My third published book is the second book in this series, and one of my favorite fairytales of all time. Monstrous Beauty is based on Beauty and the Beast. As with Beauty For Ashes, I always felt a “back story” to what drove the Beast was missing. In this version I have added all that, as well as having other answers to why “Beauty” was in this situation to start with. How would either of them relied on God to get through their situations?

I had a lot of fun writing Monstrous Beauty, and I’m looking forward to the next book I plan to write in this series.

Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure, and please feel free to ask questions!
Blessings, Carol 🙂

Blog Stops

August 14: Back Porch Reads
August 15: Pause for Tales
August 17: A Greater Yes
August 17: inklings and notions
August 18: Karen’s Krayons
August 20: simpleharvestreads
August 22: The Power of Words
August 24: ArtisticNobody

Giveaway



To celebrate her tour, Carol is giving away three ebook copies of the Beauty Series with bookmark. Enter the giveaway here: https://promosimple.com/ps/a180

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for your review! I'm working on the next books in this series, and I'm excited about what I get to share with you next.
    Blessings, Carol :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. TY so much for the chance to win. Sounds interesting.

    ReplyDelete