Crimson Tree Publishing is proud to present Bloodthorn, Olive Kennedy Fairy World MD Book 3, by Tamara Grantham!
Olive Kennedy doesn’t believe in fairy tales.
In a desperate attempt to earn income, fairy world therapist Olive Kennedy resorts to finding clients at the Texas Renaissance Festival. When she discovers the corpse of her client’s husband discarded in her booth, she realizes that earning her next paycheck is the least of her worries.
As more of Olive’s clients fall prey to the killer, the fairy prince and princess arrive from Faythander with troubling news. The starstone—the fairies’ source of magic—has been stolen, and the thief is hiding on Earth. The bloodthorn, a mythical beast born of fairy legends, is rumored to be responsible, but no one is certain if the creature exists.
Of course, the fairy royalty do not travel alone. Their protector happens to be the one man Olive never wanted to see again. Her ex—Kull.
Following a trail of clues, she learns that the killer may be a shape shifter. Worse, she learns the identity of his next target—her.
After months with no contact from Faythander, Olive hoped the magical drama was over, yet it seems she’ll never escape the beings who haunt her nightmares… or be free from the man who took away her happily ever after.
Bloodthorn Excerpt +Viking Pot Roast Recipe
Hello Friends! I wanted to do a special
blog post related to my favorite scene of the book. Bloodthorn is
full of heartache and drama, and I felt the reader hardly had a
chance to come up for a breath of air, hence my need to write this
scene. This takes place at Kull’s grandmother’s cottage. Kull has
finally broken down from all the mental and physical heartache he’s
endured since book one, so he’s gone off the grid to hide away in a
mountain cottage where he spent much of his childhood.
Olive has arrived to beg him to return
to the “real world,” but she gets sidetracked when Kull and his
grandma start cooking.
For this scene, I researched Viking
recipes, and found that they ate a lot of reindeer and venison. Since
this scene takes place on Faythander, I changed the recipe to fit the
Wult traditions. For those who need a refresher course, Wults are
Vikings who came to Fairy World over 1,400 years ago. They still
retain much of their Viking heritage, as Faythander has a tendency to
preserve cultures and habitats, but they have evolved somewhat from
their Viking ancestors. However, much of the Wults’ lives are
rooted in tradition, so I found a cultural Norse dish to use in this
scene. I also wanted something that would take time and be
complicated to prepare, and I was really pleased to find the perfect
meal to fit both criteria. The dish is called dyresteg. It’s
basically a roast, so for my scene, I added some vegetables found on
Faythander, and I also took out the jelly to make it more Wult-ish.
From Bloodthorn, Chapter 24…
“We’re making dyresteg,” Kull
said. “It’s an old traditional dish that I’ve cooked with
Grandamere many times. I still have yet to get it right.”
“He’s improving,” his grandmother
said. “Last year’s was nearly there. Still need to work on
getting the bitter out of the roux.”
“It will be perfect this year,”
Kull said.
“We will see. Still time yet to
improve it. Perhaps the girl can help you this time, yes?”
He turned to me. “Would you like to
help?”
“Me?” I glanced around the room.
Didn’t we need to go and save the world first? “How long will it
take?”
“Not long. You may help me prepare
the vegetables if you wish.”
“All right, I guess. I’m not much
of a cook.” Why did I say that?
I followed Kull to the island counter
where he gave me a butcher knife and instructed me in cutting the
vegetables.
“Make sure to cut them evenly and the
same size.”
As he chopped a potato-like root plant,
I did my best to keep my eyes on the food and not on the way the
muscles moved in his arms as he cut the vegetable.
“Would you like to try?”
“Sure.”
He held the knife out, and I reached
for it. My fingertips brushed his as I took the handle, and my heart
rate shot up. Heat rose into my cheeks and made my chest tighten. I
wanted to look away from him but found that some compulsion had come
over me. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Finally, he slowly
moved his hand away from mine, and I focused on the vegetables.
I began cutting, and after I’d
established a rhythm of slicing them lengthwise and keeping them the
same size, he placed his hand on my back. Heat rolled through me at
his touch.
He leaned close. “Perfectly done,”
he said.
“Thanks,” I managed.
He walked away to attend to his
grandmother by the hearth. I stayed focused on the vegetables. Heaven
help me, his presence was doing all sorts of crazy things to my head,
and I shamefully enjoyed every second of it.
“Heat it up, but do not let it boil,”
Kull’s grandmother said. “You must get the temperature right, or
else it will become bitter. Now, we must prepare the meat. Where are
the skewers?”
It all seemed surreal, as if I’d
stepped into another time. Worry nagged at the back of my mind—we
needed to find the bloodthorn and stop him—yet that world seemed so
far away, like a dream I barely remembered.
Kull took Grandamere’s hands in his
and guided them to a small shelf beside the hearth. That icy shell
covering my heart melted a tiny bit as I watched him help his
grandmother. They worked well together, as if they did this sort of
thing every day. He guided her hands when she asked and prepared the
food as she instructed.
After I’d finished with the
vegetables, I stayed where I was, watching as the two worked
side-by-side.
“Now add the vegetables,” she said,
waving toward me.
I brought the platter to the hearth
where they’d placed a cast-iron pot atop the coals. I added the
vegetables, careful not to let the broth splash me.
“Good,” Grandamere said. “Now let
it simmer down, then add the roux.”
We waited, Kull stirring the broth now
and again as the two carried on a conversation. I’d nearly
forgotten why I’d come here in the first place. At some point, I’d
have to get around to broaching the subject of Kull reclaiming the
crown and tracking down the bloodthorn, but not now. Now it seemed
time stood still, that there was only him and Grandamere and me, and
nothing but good food to worry over.
After the broth was ready, Kull added a
small pot of dark roux to the mix.
“Now whisk in the cheese until it
dissolves,” said Grandamere. “Is the roast in the warming oven?”
“Yes. Shall I fetch it?”
“Not yet. Slice it first. Then serve
it with the sauce and skewers.”
He stood and moved toward the counter.
Grandamere raised a finger. “Thin—”
“Thin slices. Yes, I remember.”
She smiled and leaned her head against
the seat cushion. “It’s a good day for dyresteg—the leaves
coming down with winter still far enough away. We’ll have to serve
it with my cider, of course.”
“Has it always been made the way
you’re preparing it?”
“Yes. I made it with my grandstefar,
and he with his grandsteforældre. Kull is my only kin who still
comes down off the mountain to make it with me. Every year, he comes
when the weather is right.”
“That’s because I have yet to
perfect it,” he said from the kitchen.
“You will get it soon enough. And
then you shall teach your own children.”
“We’ll see. Perhaps I’ll make it
poorly on purpose so I may come visit you more often.”
“You visit often enough already.
There’s certainly no need to spoil our dinner on account of me.”
“I was jesting, Grandamere. I would
only spoil our meal if someone we disliked were visiting.”
***
I hope you enjoyed the excerpt! There’s
more following this that shows Olive eating the meal with Kull and
Grandma, and tells how Olive liked the meal, but it also gave away
too much of the plot, so I chose to leave it out. But hey, if you’d
like to read it all, it’s all in the book ; )
Following is a recipe similar to the
recipe I used for the previous scene. I’ve never actually cooked
this, but maybe I will and then report back. Or most likely, I’ll
make my husband cook it, since he’s the chef in the family anyway.
I found this on
alleasyrecipes.com:
| 1. Preheat the oven to 475°F. Tie the roast
up neatly at ½-inch intervals with kitchen cord so that it will
hold its shape while cooking. With a pastry brush, spread the
softened butter evenly over the meat. |
| 2. Place the roast on a rack in a shallow open roasting
pan and sear it in the hot oven for about 20 minutes. When
the surface of the meat is quite brown, reduce the heat to 375°F
and sprinkle the roast generously with salt and a few grindings of
pepper. |
| 3. Pour the stock into the pan and cook the
roast, uncovered, for 1¼ hours. With a large spoon or
bulb baster, baste the meat with the pan juices every
half hour or so. |
| 4. The interior meat, when finished, should be slightly
rare, or about 150°F on a meat thermometer. Remove the roast
to a heated platter, cover it loosely with foil and
let it rest in the turned-off oven while you make the sauce. |
| 5. Skim and discard the fat from the pan juices. Measure
the remaining liquid and either reduce to 1 cup by boiling it
rapidly or add enough water to make up 1 cup. In a small, heavy
saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of butter and stir in 1 tablespoon of
flour. |
| 6. Stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, cook
this roux for 6 to 8 minutes over low heat until it is a nut-brown
color. Be careful not to let it burn or it will give the sauce a
bitter flavor. |
| 7. Now, with a wire whisk, beat the pan juices into the
roux. Next whisk in the jelly and the cheese. Beat until
they dissolve and the sauce is absolutely smooth, then stir in the
sour cream. |
8. Do not allow the sauce to
boil. Taste for seasoning, remove the strings from the roast, and
carve the meat in thin slices. Pass the sauce separately.
|
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Dreamthief (Book 1)
Visiting Faythander is a nasty
business. Forget the fairies and unicorns, most people come back with
lost memories and mental problems. Olive Kennedy knows. She's the
therapist who treats patients suffering from Faythander's side
effects. Despite her empty bank account, she takes pride in her job
as Houston’s only Fairy World medical doctor. She's never failed to
cure a client—until now.\
Traveling back to Faythander wasn't on
Olive's to-do list. But she has no choice. The fate of both Earth and
Fairy depends on her ability to stop an ancient being called the
Dreamthief. To complicate matters, she may be losing her heart to
someone who can’t love her in return. Saving the world, she can
handle. Falling in love—not so much.
As if battling the forces of evil
wasn't difficult enough…
Spellweaver (Book 2)
Olive's to-do list: Feed the cat. Pay the rent. Save Faythander. Again.
After Olive's last trip through Faythander, she wants nothing more than a nice vacation. But there's never time for relaxation when goblin treachery is afoot. When Geth, a goblin Spellweaver, destroys the Everblossom—a tree containing Faythander's pure magic—the fairy-world utopia begins to die. The bloom of the Everblossom is all that remains of pure magic. Now Olive must travel through Earth and Faythander to find a place where it will flourish.
As a psychiatrist, her skills are top notch. However, her abilities to handle patients with abnormal mental behaviors will be put to the test when she confronts Geth. Nothing has prepared her for what he reveals to her about goblins and elves. As Olive's quest takes her from her home in Houston through the most dangerous places in Faythander, she learns that history is a muddled subject, especially when elves are involved.
Her only comfort comes from Kull, her Viking warrior sidekick—who somehow negates her bad fortune. Yet how long can their relationship last when his past is brought to light? Olive will be tested beyond anything she has endured so far, as the secrets of Faythander's sordid and bloody past are exposed—one that could irrevocably alter the future and destroy the lives of everyone she loves.
About the Author
Tamara Grantham was born and raised in Southeast Texas. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English from Lamar University. After marrying her husband David, she followed him through his training to become a burn surgeon, which consisted of moving from Vidor, Texas to Galveston, Texas, then to Tulsa, Oklahoma, back to Galveston, and they finally settled in Wichita, Kansas. Tamara and David have five active, sweet, and almost always well-mannered children, ages zero to ten years. Their two pets, June—the Jack Russell Terrier, and Chester—a black cat, help to keep the house lively (in addition to the children.)When Tamara isn’t writing or tending her children, she enjoys taking walks through the woods, eating chocolate, and very infrequently, she enjoys a good night’s sleep. Check out Tamara's website at: WWW.TAMARAGRANTHAM.COM
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