A Library Journal Self-e Selection.
As her fingers move across the strings of her familyโs heirloom harp, sixteen-year-old Clarion can forget. She doesnโt dwell on the recent passing of her beloved father or the fact that her mother has just sold everything they owned, including that very same instrument that gives Clarion life. She doesnโt think about how her friends treat her like a feeble, brittle thing to be protected. She doesnโt worry about how to tell the elegant Elena, her best friend and first love, that she doesnโt want to be her sweetheart anymore. She becomes the melody and loses herself in the song.
When Mack, a lordโs dashing young son, rides into town so his father and Elenaโs can arrange a marriage between the two youth, Clarion finds herself falling in love with a boy for the first time. Drawn to Clarionโs music, Mack puts Clarion and Elenaโs relationship to the test, but he soon vanishes by climbing up a giant beanstalk that only Clarion has seen. When even the town witch wonโt help, Clarion is determined to rescue Mack herself and prove once and for all that she doesnโt need protecting. But while she fancied herself a savior, she couldnโt have imagined the enormous world of danger that awaits her in the kingdom of the clouds.
A prequel to the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk that reveals the true story behind the magical singing harp.
Fans of Rosamund Hodge, Marissa Meyer, Jenni James, and Sarah J. Maas will enjoy this original faerie tale retelling fantasy in the vein of stories like Sleeping Beauty , Beauty and the Beast , Cinderella , and The Little Mermaid. **
About the Author
Amy McNulty is a freelance writer and editor from Wisconsin with an honors degree in English. She was first published in a national scholarly journal (The Concord Review) while in high school and currently writes professionally about everything from business marketing to anime. In her down time, you can find her crafting stories with dastardly villains and antiheroes set in fantastical medieval settings.