A Corner of White by Sydney-native Australian author Jaclyn Moriarty (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia) is the 1st novel in her Colours of Madeleine trilogy of YA parallel world partially-epistolary coming-of-age fantasy, this installment setting up the pen pal relationship between a girl who lives in modern England and a boy who lives in a magical kingdom and the various ways in which the recounting of their respective experiences to each other helps them cope with their worlds, free courtesy of publisher Scholastic.
This is B&N's featured Free Fridays selection for this week, but does not appear to be exclusive to them (although it does seem to be geo-restricted, at least from a Canadian POV and when I spot-checked a few international iTunes stores). I must say, I rather like the excerpt from the fake travel book for the fantasy world that shows up in the preview sample, and hope that there's more such scattered throughout the text.
Currently free, possibly just through this weekend, possibly for longer @
B&N,
Kobo &
iTunes (none available to Canadians). Price-drop check linkage for
Google Play &
Amazon, where this appears to be decidedly unfree, though Report A Lower Price is still an option if one happens to be in the US.
And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
It had some very tough competition from the excellent award-winning forensic anthropology murder mystery that popped up today, but that one's probably a glitch freebie and this one is an official promotional offer (and available in more stores, to boot) and I'm a sucker for parallel world crossover fantasy and in-universe epigraphs and I like epistolary stuff, so this just narrowly edges it out, even though I've read and enjoyed the other and am just as pleased to see it show up for Gentle Readers to give a try as I am for this. Today is a good day for nifty freebies.
Enjoy!
Description
The first in a rousing, funny, genre-busting trilogy from bestseller Jaclyn Moriarty!
This is a tale of missing persons. Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life, under mysterious circumstances, and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world).
Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead. The talk in the town of Bonfire (in the Kingdom of Cello) is that Elliot's dad may have killed his brother and run away with the Physics teacher. But Elliot refuses to believe it. And he is determined to find both his dad and the truth.
As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds -- through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap: dangerous weather phenomena called “color storms;” a strange fascination with Isaac Newton; the myth of the “Butterfly Child,” whose appearance could end the droughts of Cello; and some unexpected kisses...