Crown's Fate by Evelyn Skye {Russian Vatrushka recipe & giveaway}

Hello everyone! Today I'm super excited to be taking part in the blog tour for 

The Crown's Fate!!!

This highly anticipated sequel and finale to The Crown's Game just hit stores yesterday and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy and tear through it. The Crown's Game was one of my faves last year and  I must know what happened to Nikolai after that heartbreaking ending!!

So my part in celebrating this amazing book release is, of course, to present you with sweets!! Russian Vatrushka are a traditional tea-time sweet bun filled with cheese and sometimes fruit (which of course, I did both LOL) SO, check out more about the book, try your hand at baking this delectable dessert, and don't forget to enter the fantastic tour-wide giveaway to win a skype session with the brilliant Evelyn Skye and a beautiful tote designed by Evie Seo!

The Crown's Fate

by Evelyn Skye

♦publisher: Balzer & Bray

♦release date: May 16, 2017

♦hardcover, 416 pages

♦intended audience: Young adult

♦series: book 2, The Crown's Game duology

  ♦my review of book 1: The Crown's Game

Magic is growing, shadows are rising, and the throne is at stake…

Russia is on the brink of great change. Pasha’s coronation approaches, and Vika is now the Imperial Enchanter, but the role she once coveted may be more difficult—and dangerous—than she ever expected.

Pasha is grappling with his own problems—his legitimacy is in doubt, the girl he loves loathes him, and he believes his best friend is dead. When a challenger to the throne emerges—and with the magic in Russia growing rapidly—Pasha must do whatever it takes to keep his position and protect his kingdom.

For Nikolai, the ending of the Crown’s Game stung deeply. Although he just managed to escape death, Nikolai remains alone, a shadow hidden in a not-quite-real world of his own creation. But when he’s given a second chance at life—tied to a dark price—Nikolai must decide just how far he’s willing to go to return to the world.

With revolution on the rise, dangerous new magic rearing up, and a tsardom up for the taking, Vika, Nikolai, and Pasha must fight—or face the destruction of not only their world but also themselves.

•Meet the Author•

Evelyn Skye was once offered a job by the C.I.A., she not-so-secretly wishes she was on "So You Think You Can Dance," and if you challenge her to a pizza-eating contest, she guarantees she will win. When she isn't writing, Evelyn can be found chasing her daughter on the playground or sitting on the couch, immersed in a good book and eating way too many cookies. THE CROWN'S GAME is her first novel. 

WEBSITE  •  TWITTER  •  INSTAGRAM  •  GOODREADS

Purchase Crown's Fate:

 Indiebound   •  Amazon  •  Barnes & Noble  •  Book Depository

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Learn to make
Russian Vatrushka

Russian Vatrushka are sweet filled buns that are just so, so yummy. They are easy to make...time consuming, but easy. Just a lot of steps and they have to proof, not once...not twice...but three times. But, guys,...SO worth the work and the wait. 
Here we go:

You will need: 

For buns:

• 1 cup warm milk 

• 1-1/2 tsp active dry yeast

• 4 tbsp granulated sugar

• 3-1/4 cups all purpose flour 

• 1 egg at room temperature

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

• 1/2 tsp salt

For cherry filling:

• 1 lb fresh or frozen cherries 

• 1/4 granulated sugar

For cream cheese filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla

For crumb topping:

• 4 tbsp butter

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

• 1/2 cup flour

Let's begin!

~Pour the warm milk (not hot! You don't want to kill the yeast) into the bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Let sit for 5 minutes to activate the yeast. 

~Whisk in 1/2 cup of the flour and 2 tbsps of the sugar until blended. 

~Let rise in a 100° oven for 20 minutes 

~Remove from oven and whisk in 1 egg, 2 tbsp sugar, the melted butter, and the salt. 

~Using a dough hook on your electric mixer, add the remaining flour one cup at a time. Stop adding flour when the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl, even if not all of the flour is added!).  Once the dough no longer sticks to the walls, mix the dough with the dough hook on low speed for 15 minutes. 

~Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and return to the 100° oven to rise for an hour. It should puff up to triple in size.

♦While the dough is proofing, prepare the cheese filling: in a small bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla together until smooth. Set aside. If using frozen cherries, but sure to thaw them. 

~When proofed, turn out the dough onto a non-stick, floured surface. Cut it in half, then in half again, and then again, etc..until your have 16 small balls of dough. 

~Butter a baking pan or cast iron pan (I used cast iron for this). Place the balls of dough evenly spaced in the pan. Using the bottom of a 1/4 measuring cup or a large spoon, press a well into each ball of dough. It is fine if they touch in the pan. :) 

~In each well, put a small amount of cream cheese filling and top with cherries.  Sprinkle a general amount of sugar over cherries. 

~One last proof! Place the filled buns into the 100° oven for 20 minutes. They will look nice and light and puffy. 

~For the crumb mixture, in a small bowl combine cold butter, both sugars, and flour. Cut together with a pastry cutter or your fingers until you get a good crumbly looking mixture.

~In a small bowl, whisk an egg for egg wash. Brush egg wash over each bun. 

~Sprinkle generously with the crumb topping.

~Bake at 360° for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Guys, you'll want to eat these right out of the oven. They are best that way. ;) Seriously, this is what happened about 3 seconds after I took the above picture:

NO regrets. ;P

*recipe altered slightly from Natasha's Kitchen

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GIVEAWAY!

Open internationally!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to stop by the rest of the awesome sites on the blog tour!

Week 1

May 8th: Bookish Lifestyles - Review + Tote Design

May 9th: Brittany's Book Rambles - Interview

May 10th: Alexa Loves Books - Author Guest Post

May 11th: It Start at Midnight - Mini Review + Fancast

May 12th: The Book Buzz - Review 

Week 2

May 15th: The YA Book Traveler - Trailer + Interview

May 16th: Lost in Literature - Review 

May 17th: Stories and Sweeties - Recipe

May 18th: My Friends Are Fiction - Review + Author Guest Post

May 19th: Paper Fury - Review 

Literally by Lucy Keating: It's All About the Ice Cream! {guest post & recipe}

Today I've got a delicious little post for you that's all about 

Literally 

by Lucy Keating

*AND* 

it's about something that Lucy Keating and main character, Annabelle, and ME all have in common.  A particular love of ice cream.  So read on...Lucy's gonna share what ice cream means to her, what part it plays in the story, and then I'm gonna show you how to make a particularly significant-to-the-story flavor of the yummy stuff! Let's begin! :D

Literally

by Lucy Keating

♦publisher: HarperTeen

♦release date: April 11th, 2017

♦hardcover, 256 pages

♦intended audience: Young adult

♦stand-alone

A girl realizes her life is being written for her in this unique, smart love story that is Stranger Than Fiction for fans of Stephanie Perkins.

Annabelle’s life has always been Perfect with a capital P. Then bestselling young adult author Lucy Keating announces that she’s writing a new novel—and Annabelle is the heroine. 

It turns out, Annabelle is a character that Lucy Keating created. And Lucy has a plan for her. 

But Annabelle doesn’t want to live a life where everything she does is already plotted out. Will she find a way to write her own story—or will Lucy Keating have the last word? 

The real Lucy Keating’s delightful contemporary romance blurs the line between reality and fiction, and is the perfect follow-up for readers who loved her debut Dreamology, which SLJ called, “a sweet, quirky romance with appealing characters.” 

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Guest post with Lucy Keating:

ICE CREAM!!

Anyone who knows me, even at a great distance, could tell you that choosing a “favorite dessert” is akin to asking me what my favorite book is. Or my favorite band. It’s like putting me in a pen filled with puppies and telling me to choose the cutest. Yeah, right. The point is: sugar is my kryptonite. I don’t get too worked up over food, freak out about fancy restaurants, or watch a ton of cooking shows…but if you take me to a bakery I will want to try everything single morsel they have, and The Great British Bakeoff was the most riveting television experience of my life (and it also makes an appearance in LITERALLY!). Ice cream is truly my jam, though. It’s the only cooking class I’ve ever taken, I own a pretty fancy ice cream maker (even though I do not own a microwave or toaster at present…priorities). My sister in law once said that ice cream doesn’t survive a night in the fridge at the Keating’s. And it’s true! We all love it, and are all sneaky late night culprits.

For this reason, in LITERALLY, I made ice cream a part of Annabelle’s life too. She and I do not have a lot in common. She is extremely organized, on top of all her schoolwork, loathes her family dog, and doesn’t know how to color outside the lines. I do keep a freakishly organized calendar, like her, but that’s about it. I never know where my keys/phone/wallet are. I am late to most things. The outfit I wear depends mostly on which pair of jeans I arbitrarily pull from my laundry bin. It sounds silly, but Annabelle loving ice cream was a way for me to humanize a very uptight character, and understand her better. And, it’s a big moment in her relationship with Will. But why, I can’t say! You’ll have to read to find out.

•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Lucy lives in San Francisco, California. She grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, attended Williams College in the Berkshires, and still misses the East Coast very much. 

When she's not writing, Lucy can usually be found obsessing over the latest music, inventing new flavors of ice cream, or having what she feels are perfectly acceptable conversations with her dog, Ernie.

You can follow Lucy on Instagram @lucy.keating, and Ernie The Dog @ernsboberns

WEBSITE  •  TWITTER  •  INSTAGRAM  •  GOODREADS

Purchase LITERALLY: 

 Indiebound  •  Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Book Depository

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Sea Salt Creamery's 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

(Brace yourselves, people---this is just as delicious as it sounds)

Ingredients:
•5 egg yolks
•1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk 
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup chocolate liqueur 
• 1 tsp vanilla
•6 oz semi-sweet chocolate

•1/2 tsp sea salt

•1 bag of mini reese's peanut butter cups, each one quartered.

In a small bowl, melt the chocolate in a microwave, 30 seconds at a time until melted, stirring between each time.  Separately, lightly beat eggs yolks and then stir together eggs, sugar, milk, cream, liqueur, and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Heat mixture over medium heat, stirring often to keep the milk from scorching. When it just starts to boil, remove from heat. Whisk in the chocolate until incorporated and smooth. 

Pour mixture into a shallow pan.  Allow to cool about 10 minutes, until there is no steam coming off of it.  Mixture will have thickened quite a bit already. Cover with plastic wrap, settling the wrap right onto the surface of the mixture to keep a film from forming.  Freeze this for 1 to 2 hours (can be frozen overnight).

Pour mixture into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions for your ice cream maker.  In the last few minutes of churning, when ice cream is almost done, drop in peanut butter cups a handful at a time. Sprinkle sea salt a pinch at a time. Churn the ice cream a bit between each addition. This will evenly swirl the mixtures into the ice cream.

Ice creams with liquor in them generally take a few hours after churning to freeze completely. Or you can serve this right away as soft serve. ;) 

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GIVEAWAY!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One last thing, guys! Don't miss out on any of the previous tour stops!

4/3 - Evie Bookish - Tote Design

4/4 - The Books Buzz - Creative Post

4/5 - YA and Wine - Review

4/6 - The YA Book Traveler - Q&A

4/7 - Book Nerd Addict - Review

4/10 - Little Lillie Reads -Review

4/11 - Brittany's Book Rambles - Fav Quotes

4/12 - A Book and a Cup of Coffee - Review

4/13 - It Starts At Midnight - Guest Post & Review

4/14 - Stories & Sweeties - Recipe & Guest Post

HEARTLESS BOOK BIRTHDAY WEEK: Cath's Rose Macarons

In Marissa Meyer's Heartless, young Cath dreams of someday opening a bakery and becoming famous throughout the land, not for being the Marquess' daughter but for her delicious sweet creations. By her mother's order, she bakes a decadent batch of Rose Macarons to give to the King, but she ends up bringing them instead to the wild tea party where she first meets the hatter.
Today I want to share a small excerpt from that scene---it not only gives you a good idea of the recipe that follows below, but encompasses everything I love about baking. ♥

"The macaron was sweet and decadent and smooth, with just a tiny crunch from the meringue, and a subtle floral moment from the distilled rose water, all melting together into one perfect bite. 

She listened to the gasps, the moans, the crinkle of parchment paper as someone scooped up the buttercream that had gotten missed.

This was why she enjoyed baking. A good dessert could make her feel like she'd created joy at the tips of her fingers. Suddenly, the people around the table were no longer strangers. They were friends and confidantes, and she was sharing with them her magic."

---page 168 from the Heartless ARC edition 

After reading that,  I knew I had to make these. Plus it's been so long since I've made anything with rosewater :). I did add in my own little touch and filled them also with raspberry preserves--because rose and raspberry compliment each other so perfectly. :)  So here they are:

Cath's Rose Macarons

So this recipe is a little different from the one I featured a few weeks ago with Glitter. This is actually the Italian method for making macarons, as opposed to the French. I love this one so much better, to be honest. They are a little more complicated to make, but much more stable---plus the resulting texture is perfectly crisp on the outside, a little flatter but definitely much more gooey and rich.  YUM.   A kitchen scale comes in hand if you want to measure everything out in grams (I've include the cup measurements as well), but you will need a candy thermometer. 

For the Macaron shells:

original recipe from Bouchon 

1¾ cups + 2½ tablespoons (212 grams) almond flour
1¾ cups + 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons (212 grams) powdered sugar
3 (82 grams) egg whites
3 (90 grams) egg whites
1 cup + 3 tablespoons (236 grams) granulated sugar, plus a pinch for the egg whites
⅔ cup (158 grams) water

Preheat over to 350○

Into a large bowl, sift the almond flour and powdered sugar, making sure to leave out any larger chunks of almond. Make a small well in the dry ingredients and add the 3 egg whites. Mix these together until it forms a thick almond paste. Set aside. 

In a small saucepan with a candy thermometer clipped to the side, combine the granulated sugar and water. Bring slowly to boil over medium heat, slowly increasing if needed. Meanwhile, place your next three egg whites in a stand mixer. Beat until soft peaks form. Add in a pinch of sugar.  When the sugar/water syrup reaches 248 degrees, immediately remove from heat.  With the mixer running, pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl of egg whites. Beat on high until stiff peaks form.  

Gently fold egg whites into almond mixture. Mix this just until it reaches a lava-like consistency. Do not overmix!! To test, spoon out a small amount onto a plate. If the ridges disappear in about 30 seconds, its ready. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. You can mark the underside of the paper with circles to get the cookies as uniform as possible. Since they are shell cookies, they have to all be similar in size. Pipe circles of batter onto parchment, about an inch apart. These cookies will spread a little when cooking! Rap the pan firmly on your countertop to release as many air bubbles as possible. 

Into the oven they go (no need to let them sit out with this method! Yay!). Turn the heat down to 325○  and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let them cool on the pan for 5-10 mintues. Between each batch, let the oven reheat to 350○, turning it back down to 325○ as each batch goes in. 

When cooled, pair up the shells two by two on a parchment sheet to prepare them to be filled. 

Rose Buttercream:

•1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temp
•3-4 tablespoons milk
•1 tsp vanilla
•3 cups confectioners sugar
•1 tsp rosewater

In a medium bowl, mix butter, milk, and vanilla until smooth.  Add in confectioners sugar a cup at a time until creamy. Mix in rosewater 1/2 tsp at a time, testing for your taste preference after each. 

Spoon buttercream and raspberry preserves (I use Smuckers) into separate pastry bags fitted with round 1/2 tips. Pipe buttercream around the edge of each macaron half shell, then fill in with the raspberry preserves. Place the second half of each macaron on top and gently press down (very gently! You don't want to crack the pretty smooth shell!)

To decorate these with hearts, I just made a heart template cut out of a clean sheet of cardstock. I took a little sugar water and brushed inside each heart to give the sprinkles something to stick to, then shook the red sprinkles on. All done! 

I hope you enjoy these! 

Until next time...

Sweetness (& GLITTER!) on Sunday

Something a little special for you today, readers!! And something I'm particularly proud of!  I'm sure most of you have seen this gorgeous cover. This book with it's bright bold shocks of color, it's nod to Marie Antoinette, and it's very bizarre twist on Versaille court-life---the second I saw it, I wanted nothing more than to make french macarons to match!! :D Now, I'm a fairly skilled baker, if I do say so myself, but these blasted cookies have continually eluded me. I've had three failed attempts to get them to come out looking pretty AND achieving the perfect texture balance of crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside. Well, inspired by this desire to make the cover-inspired cookies, I decided to give them yet another try. And LOOK!! :D I did it! ♥♥♥

As for the recipe, I'm actually just going to point you right to the blog that helped me finally achieve this success. The tips I learned here were invaluable and when followed to the tee, I think they will give anyone brave enough to attempt them, a beautiful batch of french macarons! Check it out here:
http://entertainingwithbeth.com/foolproof-french-macaron-recipe/

I filled these with a lemon buttercream filling:
•2 sticks of room-temperature butter
•4 cups of powdered sugar
•1 tsp vanilla
•1/4 tsp salt
•lemon extract, 1-2 tsp (add a little at a time until you get your preferred flavor!)
Mix all ingredients in a stand mixer for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl often. Pipe or use a teaspoon to drop a mound of buttercream onto one side of each macaron shell. Sandwich two shells together.  For these, I also dusted the buttercream edges with purple edible glitter to bring in the colors of the book cover :D

That's all there is to it!! Bon appetit!

Outside the palace of Versailles, it’s modern day. Inside, the people dress, eat, and act like it’s the eighteenth century—with the added bonus of technology to make court life lavish, privileged, and frivolous. The palace has every indulgence, but for one pretty young thing, it’s about to become a very beautiful prison.

When Danica witnesses an act of murder by the young king, her mother makes a cruel power play . . . blackmailing the king into making Dani his queen. When she turns eighteen, Dani will marry the most ruthless and dangerous man of the court. She has six months to escape her terrifying destiny. Six months to raise enough money to disappear into the real world beyond the palace gates. 

Her ticket out? Glitter. A drug so powerful that a tiny pinch mixed into a pot of rouge or lip gloss can make the wearer hopelessly addicted. Addicted to a drug Dani can sell for more money than she ever dreamed.

But in Versailles, secrets are impossible to keep. And the most dangerous secret—falling for a drug dealer outside the palace walls—is one risk she has to take. 

Random House BYR  •  Hardcover, 384 pages  •  October 25th, 2017

Purchase book:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon 

Until next time,

Fear the Drowning Deep Blog Tour {Excerpt, Recipe, & Giveaway!}

Failt erriu, everyone! Here I am with the final stop in the blog tour for
Fear the Drowning Deep
by Sarah Glenn Marsh!

 Fear the Drowning Deep is set in the small island nestled right in between England and Ireland, the Isle of Man. So today, I'm bringing you a special little taste of the Manx culture! Along with an exclusive excerpt of the story, I'll be sharing a recipe for Fruit Bonnag, a traditional Manx tea cake. The simple cake is a big part of the island's cuisine--they even have a World Bonnag Championship bake-off every year!  So take a look below to learn more about the book, read an exclusive excerpt, enter to win a gorgeous tote designed by Evie Seo, and bake up some goodies with me! :D

Fear the Drowning Deep

by Sarah Glenn Marsh

♦publisher: Sky Pony Press

♦release date: October 4th, 2016

♦hardcover, 310 pages

♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone

Witch’s apprentice Bridey Corkill has hated the ocean ever since she watched her granddad dive in and drown with a smile on his face. So when a dead girl rolls in with the tide in the summer of 1913, sixteen-year-old Bridey suspects that whatever compelled her granddad to leap into the sea has made its return to the Isle of Man.

Soon, villagers are vanishing in the night, but no one shares Bridey’s suspicions about the sea. No one but the island’s witch, who isn’t as frightening as she first appears, and the handsome dark-haired lad Bridey rescues from a grim and watery fate. The cause of the deep gashes in Fynn’s stomach and his lost memories are, like the recent disappearances, a mystery well-guarded by the sea. In exchange for saving his life, Fynn teaches Bridey to master her fear of the water — stealing her heart in the process.

Now, Bridey must work with the Isle’s eccentric witch and the boy she isn’t sure she can trust — because if she can’t uncover the truth about the ancient evil in the water, everyone she loves will walk into the sea, never to return.

~Excerpt~   

 The ocean flashed and sparkled under the sun in welcome, putting on a show for the girl on the island least likely to appreciate it. My bare feet met the mushy sand, making me cringe, and I picked my way around tide pools in search of the snigs. 

     If only Lugh and Cat could see me now. 

     As I walked along the shore, I fingered the horrible charm Morag had given me that morning. 

     “The mouth-bone of a Bollan wrasse,” she’d said gruffly, putting the pendant around my neck with oddly trembling hands. “Also known as a Bollan Cross. It’ll keep you from drowning.” The fishbone vaguely resembled a row of human teeth, but I’d seen wrasses’ impressive mouths enough times to know Morag wasn’t lying.

     If only I had the faintest idea of where to look for snigs, I wouldn’t be on the beach long enough to need the bone’s protection. 

     When I was quite small, and unafraid of the water, Grandad had shown me a nest of snigs. The silvery eels were no bigger than his fingers, and no wider. But their nest had been out in water up to my knobby toddler knees, and there was no way I’d ever walk into the sea of my own free will now. 

     Inhaling the nausea-inducing scents of brine and stranded shellfish, I hitched up my skirt and knelt shakily beside a deep tide pool. Who knew what was waiting to bite or sting me in there? Still, my conscience demanded I put forth some effort. 

     I braced myself for the chill water, rolled up my sleeve, and plunged my hand into the pool. A gray-shelled creature about the size of a coin skittered out of reach. 

     Gasping, I withdrew my hand. What was I thinking, coming here? I was too scared to pick up a wriggling eel. I couldn’t even stick my hand in a tide pool for a few seconds. 

     Rising unsteadily to my feet, I spotted a long piece of drift- wood resting in the sand nearby and grasped it, thinking I might be able to spear a few snigs on its sharper end—even if I lost the contents of my stomach in the process. 

     Cold sand oozed between my toes as I paced, scanning the area for kittiwakes. The white and gray seabirds preferred to eat snigs, so seeing their feathers would give me hope. 

     Nothing stirred but the breeze tugging my hair. Even the sun appeared to be a distant spectator, refusing to warm the sea and sky. 

     I trained my eyes on the ground, searching for anything I could bring to Morag to appease her: a perfect scallop shell, a jumble of sea glass, a smooth lump of lightning-struck sand. I didn’t know what might put a smile on her wrinkled face, but gathering flotsam from the beach was worth the gamble for extra coin in my pocket. 

     A flash of emerald green caught my eye. I tossed my drift- wood spear aside and grabbed it, expecting to feel the water- rounded sides of sea glass. 

     “Mollaght er!” I growled as a razor-sharp edge sliced into my thumb. Someone, probably a thoughtless tourist, had smashed a bottle and left it where anyone might stumble on the broken shards. 

     I wiped my stinging thumb on my cloak. Warm, sticky droplets trickled down my hand, but I’d earned cuts this painful from a tangle of briars plenty of times before. Picking up my driftwood, I scaled a hill of sand that didn’t quite pass for a dune and stopped cold. 

     At the waterline lay a dark-haired young man, naked and horribly still. Despite the distance, there was no mistaking the crimson gashes on his stomach. Waves lapped at his feet as the tide moved in, and I pictured the dribble of water from the dead girl’s mouth when the fishermen had turned her over. 

     This boy could be another victim. Of who or what, I wasn’t yet certain. 

     Heart thumping wildly, I abandoned my pail and driftwood to dash across the sand.

     “Please don’t be dead,” I choked out, sinking to my knees beside him. His fingernails were bloody and ragged, as though he’d fought hard against something. “Please, please, please don’t be dead.” 

• ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Sarah Glenn Marsh is the author of the YA fantasy Fear the Drowning Deep from Sky Pony Press, the forthcoming Reign of the Fallen fantasy duology from Razorbill (Penguin), as well as several forthcoming children's picture books. An avid fantasy reader from the day her dad handed her a copy of The Hobbit and promised it would change her life, she's been making up words and worlds ever since. She lives in Virginia with her husband and her tiny zoo of four rescued greyhounds, a bird, and many fish.

When she's not writing, she's often painting, or engaged in nerdy pursuits from video games to tabletop adventures. You can visit her online at www.sarahglennmarsh.com, and follow her on Twitter @SG_Marsh.

 Website | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

Pre-Order Fear the Drowning Deep:

 Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound

Bake up some Fruit Bonnag! :)

This is a traditional tea cake served in the Isle of Man. I went a little rogue, working with several different recipes that I found for it, and adding just one or two of my own special additions. I hope you try this out and enjoy with a nice cup of tea or coffee!

To get started, grease a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan or line it with parchment. Preheat oven to 350○

Ingredients:

• 1 cup buttermilk, or milk/vinegar mixture (see below*)

•3 cups all purpose flour

•1/2 cup sugar

•1/2 cup light brown sugar

•1 teaspoon baking soda
•1-1/2 teaspoon of apple pie OR pumpkin pie spice

•pinch of salt

•3 tablespoons butter

•1 cup dried berries (I used 1/2 cup cranberries, 1/2 apricots)

•1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

•Raw sugar to sprinkle on top

*If using milk/vinegar as a substitute for buttermilk: Put 2 teaspoons of white vinegar in a measuring cup, then fill to "1 cup" line with milk. Let this sit for 10 minutes. 

•Mix together all dry ingredients. Cut the butter into small cubes and incorporate into the dry mixture. Stir in the berries.

•Add vanilla and the milk to the dry mixture until a dough forms. Do not overmix. Add flour as needed to make a dough that is sticky but not wet or runny. 

•Transfer dough into prepared pan. Slightly smooth out surface. Brush top with a little milk and sprinkle with raw sugar.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, it should be lightly browned on top and a toothpick stuck into the center should come out clean. 

When cooled, slice, slather with butter, and grab a cup of tea! Yummy :P

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Giveaway!
Enter to win an ARC of Fear the Drowning Deep and a beautiful book tote designed by Evie Seo!
Open INTERNATIONALLY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out the rest of the tour stops for more great reviews and posts all about 
Fear the Drowning Deep!

Week 1: 

8/1 -   Bookish Lifestyle - Excerpt + Tote Design

8/2 -   A Perfection Called Books - Review + Pinterest Board

8/3 -   Booknerd Addict - Review 

8/4 -   Caught Read Handed - Review + Interview

8/5 -   Dana Square - Review

Week 2: 

8/8 -   Alexa Loves Books- Bookish Style Files

8/9 -   It Starts at Midnight- Review

8/10 - The YA Book Traveler - Interview

8/11 - Brittany's Book Rambles - Review + Playlist

8/12 - Stories & Sweeties - Bonnag Recipe + Excerpt