Welcome to the Release Day Celebration for
Legend of Me by Rebekah L. Purdy
presented by Month9Books!
Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!
CONGRATULATIONS REBEKAH!
No one should ever go into the woods alone.
Brielle has grown up listening to tales of a beast that attacks humans, leaving behind only a scattering of bones and limbs. It’s probably the elders’ way of keeping little children in line, but it doesn’t explain her grisly premonitions of blood, claws, and severed heads.But when Brielle finds a mangled body in the woods, she begins to wonder if the grim stories may actually be true. Soon, Lord Kenrick, Knight of the Crowhurst Order, arrives asking questions about the legendary monster. Brielle’s attraction to him is immediate and undeniable. She volunteers to help him search for clues to the creature’s existence, despite her suspicions about his timing.As her seventeenth birthday approaches, Brielle’s nightmares worsen and more villagers go missing. If Brielle doesn’t figure out the connection between Kenrick, the beast, and her visions, more people will die. As Brielle falls deeper in love with Kenrick and deeper into the snares of the abominable beast, she’ll become part of a legend so great, no one will ever question its validity again.
Legend of Me by Rebekah L. Purdy
Release Date: July 24, 2018
Publisher: Month9Books
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The cool stream kissed my ankles as I bent to scrub the vegetables, the water whispering as it slid over the rocks. The scent of honeysuckle reminded me summer was in full swing. I sighed in contentment as I tossed the fresh garden vegetables into my basket.
I swept my blond hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. At least out here, I didn’t have to keep it tied back. The sound of a twig snapping disturbed the silence and made me go still. I shivered as my eyes darted back and forth over the woodland. The birds stopped chirping. Everything was quiet. Too quiet.
“Hello?” The hair on the back of my neck pickled, and I stepped out of the creek.
Two dead rabbits sailed through the air and fell at my feet. A shriek caught on my lips.
“Told you I’d find you.” Rhyne leaned his bow against a nearby tree, and hung his game on a low branch.
I went straight to him, grabbed hold of his tunic, and gave him a good shake. “Rhyne Butcher, you are a pain in the arse!”
“And here I thought you’d have crept away to see if the Wanderers had come back to town,” he said. “Like you normally do when they come around.”
The Wanderers were a nomadic group that traveled to different towns performing shows, both acrobatic and otherwise, as well as selling trinkets from different, exotic lands. Some of them even told fortunes, for a price.
“I heard from Bartholomew Mason that a certain Roma man is amongst them. He mentioned seeing that ‘Gypsy scoundrel’s’ carriage pull in late last night.”
Heat flared across my cheeks. “Raul? He’s here? I haven’t seen him since this last spring.”
“Trust me, I know. I’ve spent the last few months listening to you go on and on about how much you missed him. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were half in love with my cousin.” He
gave me a pointed look. “Which, if I might add, would not be a good idea.”
“You sound like Gram.” She’d been warning me to stay away from Raul, as of late. When I was younger, she’d let me hang about his carriage all the time, but in the last year or so, she’d put her foot down, claiming I was too old to be meeting with him alone. She’d given me the talk about young men and their expectations, and how exactly it was that babies were conceived. To this day, her words still made me blush.
Rhyne chuckled. “Bri, it’s not that I don’t like him, he’s my cousin after all. I’m just not sure he’s the type of man you ought to go falling in love with. He’s a Tinker and spends his time traveling about. He has no real home. What kind of life would that be for you?”
“Maybe you’re right, but I just wish people would let me make up my own mind. He’s kind to me, and I love being around him.”
“Perhaps I can help you sneak down to meet him,” Rhyne said.
I slapped his arm. “Stop teasing me. You know I’m not allowed to see him unless I’m properly chaperoned. And last I checked, Gram didn’t think you fell into that category.”
He clutched his chest. “Your gram adores me.”
“Yes, but that’s because she doesn’t know how you act when she’s not around.” But the more I thought about it, the more I considered slipping to the other side of town to find out for sure whether Raul was truly back. What harm would it do if I stopped in to welcome him back?
Nervous flutters tickled my belly. What if he’d forgotten about the night he’d held my hand when he’d walked me home or what if he didn’t really want to see me? Maybe I ought to wait and let him come to me. I imagined his smile and dark brown eyes. My heart raced at the thought of him. He was the only boy who’d ever made me feel this way. I tried to ignore my sweaty palms and glanced at my friend instead. So much for not thinking about romance and love and marriage. I was just as bad as every other girl in the village.
“So, are you going to head over there?”
“I’m not sure if I should chance it. Gram was acting crazier than normal. You know, I found her burning some of my clothes?”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “That’s strange, even for her. I wonder what’s got into her?” He smiled. “Ah, but don’t feel bad. Da isn’t letting me anywhere near the market—doesn’t want Ma’s family to talk with me. I think he’s afraid I might run off with them and join their band of fire eaters.”
Rhyne was almost as much of an outsider as I was. He was a “half-breed,” or so a lot of people in town liked to call him. His mom was a Tinker, or at least she had been when she’d lived amongst
the Wanderer Tribes. But she’d been banished at fourteen for refusing to marry the chief—who was three times her age. Rhyne’s dad, Bowman Butcher, met her and married her a year later. However, Rhyne wasn’t allowed to associate with the Wanderers when they came to Dark Pines. Bowman didn’t want him getting pulled into all their magical, witchcraft type practices. And he didn’t want to see him get hurt, the way his mother had. They knew they were outsiders, and they’d learned to keep their distance rather than risk being rejected, or in some instances persecuted.
Maybe that was why Rhyne and I were such good friends. We both knew what it was like to be different.
Rebekah was born and raised in Michigan where she spent many late nights armed with a good book and a flashlight. She’s lived in Michigan most of her life other than the few years she spent in the U.S. Army. At which time she got a chance to experience Missouri, Kansas, South Carolina, and California.Rebekah has a business degree from University of Phoenix and currently works full time for the court system. In her free time she writes YA stories, anything from YA Fantasy to YA Contemporary Romance. Rebekah also has a big family (6 kids)—she likes to consider her family as the modern day Brady Bunch complete with crazy road trips and game nights.When not hiding at her computer, Rebekah enjoys reading, singing, soccer, swimming, football, camping, playing video games, traveling, and hanging out with her family and gazillion pets.
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