From as far back as I can remember, reading in my youth or reading books today, I’ve always loved stories about the supernatural and magical worlds. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll made me love unique and mischievous characters. After reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, I became fascinated with portals leading to other worlds. It was stories like these that inspired the Mystik world in my Library Jumpers series.
Hidden behind bookcases in some of the most beautiful libraries in the world lies a magical realm hidden for centuries from humans. In the Library Jumpers series, wizards, with help from the fey nation, created the Mystik realm to protect creatures with unique exteriors and magical abilities from human persecution. It was to house havens where the Mystiks could live in peace, but with all good things, evil festers and finds a way to destroy what is good. The magic faltered and splintered until the many havens and Mystik places became separated like islands.
The fey created the gateway books for the wizards to make travel to the individual havens and villages quicker and easier to access. As time went by, the gateway books were kept in libraries. Then the fey produced a force of magical knights called Sentinels to guard the libraries and keep humans safe from rogue Mystiks seeking revenge on humans for past oppressions.
Our heroine in the book, Gia Kearns, accidentally transports through a gateway book linking the great libraries of the worlds and enters this other realm at a time where unrest has heightened and travel through the gateway books and the entrances to the Mystik world restricted. Today, I’m taking you on a mini tour of the wizard havens in the Library Jumpers series.
First up, is Asile, which is located in a magical realm on the border of England and is accessed under a bookcase in the Duke Humfrey’s reading room of the Bodleian Library in Oxford University, England. The wizard haven is a castle surrounded by small homes that house the guards’ families. The entrance into the French haven, Couve, is behind a bookcase in The Senate Library in Paris, France. Lush gardens and a quaint village surround the salt-white castle. The haven of Esteril is located through The National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg. The castle is made of gray slate. The land is cold and dark.
The Spanish haven of Santara has lush, green grounds with the most amazing flowers and fruits unknown to the human world. The entrance into this haven is hidden behind a portrait of a young King Charles II in The Library of the Royal Monastery of El Escorial in San Lorenzo Del Escorial, Spain. Mantello Haven in Italy is where Gia’s great-grandfather is from. The entrance is located in Riccardiana Library in Florence, Italy. The castle is stately and the village is quaint with winding roads and many shops. There are festivals, wine making, and a unique bookstore.
In Ireland’s Trinity College hides the door into the haven of Tearmann. The haven is like walking into a fairytale or like entering a large Hobbit village. The foliage is lush and green and the homes colorful and stout. Finally, Veilig Haven is accessible through the Port Elizabeth Public Library in South Africa. The castle is at the edge of a high cliff with the Aqualian Sea directly below it.
There are many other entries within the libraries leading to Mystik villages and covens. The Mystiks living in these places choose to live outside of the safety of the wizard havens, not trusting the Wizard Council to treat them fairly.
And that concludes the tour of the Mystik world in THIEF OF LIES. Thank you for taking this journey with me! What magical or supernatural worlds from your favorite books would you love to visit?
THIEF OF LIES by Brenda Drake
Library Jumpers #1
A New York Times Bestseller
Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels-magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books-rescue them from a demonic hound.
Jumping into some of the world’s most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren’t busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik’s world and her own, before both are destroyed.
Young Adult Paranormal | Young Adult Adventure [Entangled Teen, On Sale: January 3, 2017, Paperback / e-Book (reprint), ISBN: 9781633756021 / eISBN: 9781633752221]
Buy THIEF OF LIES: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | iTunes/iBooks | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
GUARDIAN OF SECRETS by Brenda Drake
The follow up to the New York Times bestselling novel, THIEF OF LIES!
Being a Sentinel isn’t all fairytales and secret gardens.
Sure, jumping through books into the world’s most beautiful libraries to protect humans from mystical creatures is awesome. No one knows that better than Gia Kearns, but she could do without the part where people are always trying to kill her. Oh, and the fact that Pop and her had to move away from her friends and life as she knew it.
And if that isn’t enough, her boyfriend, Arik, is acting strangely. Like, maybe she should be calling him “ex,” since he’s so into another girl. But she doesn’t have time to be mad or even jealous, because someone has to save the world from the upcoming apocalypse, and it looks like that’s going to be Gia.
Maybe. If she survives.
Young Adult Adventure | Young Adult [Entangled Teen, On Sale: February 7, 2017, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781633755918 / eISBN: 9781633755901]
Buy GUARDIAN OF SECRETS: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | iTunes/iBooks | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Brenda Drake
Brenda Drake grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force brat, and the continual new kid at school. Her fondest memories growing up is of her eccentric, Irish grandmother’s animated tales, which gave her a strong love for storytelling. With girls of all ages populating Brenda’s world, it was only fitting that she would choose to write stories with a bend toward the fantastical for both younger readers and the young at heart. And because she married her prince charming, there’s always a romance warming the pages. Her favorite books are The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, Kings Row by Henry Bellamann, and Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.
When she’s not writing, she hosts workshops and contests for writers such as Pitch Wars and Pitch Madness on her blog, and holds Twitter pitch parties on the hashtag, #PitMad. In her free time, Brenda enjoys hanging out with her family, cuddling their two cats, and chasing their ferret around the house, or haunting libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, or just reading someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment).
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