Title: Shade’s Champion
Author Name: Cheryl Headford
Release Date: 15th September 2017
Publisher: Extacy Books: Devine Destinies
Book Length: 214 Pages
Sales Link: Extacy Books: Devine Destinies
Blurb:
Sixteen-year-old Shade has spent years imprisoned in a dark cellar after being snatched off the street as a young child. Events since his release have left him traumatised and desperate to die.
Dory is a lively and engaging seventeen-year-old with mental health issues that make him a slave to his dangerously uncontrollable emotions.
When Shade comes to the secure children’s home, Eastbrook; because no one else wants him, the manager appoints Dory as his champion, an appointment Dory takes very seriously indeed.
As friendship turns into something else, something new and exciting, they struggle to find their feet, but every step leads to more complication.
When a spiteful act separates them, it seems their love is doomed before it ever had a chance, but when Dory falls ill, it’s up to Shade to pick up the standard and become his champion, although it might already be too late.
Exclusive Excerpt:
“I was scared you’d get into trouble. Have they stopped your therapy?”
“No, but I have to talk about all kinds of embarrassing things now, and I had to write an essay about honesty and dangerous emotional situations.” He sighed. “I tried to tell them, really I did. I tried to tell Dr. Blake. We talked about falling in love and having a boyfriend one day. She says I’ll have that in time but right now neither of us are ready, that we can’t trust our feelings and can’t be together because we’ll go too far and damage each other.”
“Is that what you believe?”
“No. I know I’m ready, and I truly believe you are, at least you won’t hurt me no matter what. I’ve been reading about people in love, and it’s never easy. No one can say it’s going to be forever, not even when you’re married, but I know how I feel about you right now.”
“How’s that?”
“I love you, Shade. I love you with all my heart, and nothing is going to change that.”
“I feel the same. I can’t see how I could ever stop loving someone as wise and beautiful as you. They keep telling me I’m confused, that after what I went through I’m responding to the first person I was attracted to. Maybe it’s true, but it doesn’t make it any less real.”
Dorien sighed. “They keep telling me it’s not real, too, but it is. I know it is.”
Meet the Author:
Cheryl was born into a poor mining family in the South Wales Valleys. Until she was 16, the toilet was at the bottom of the garden and the bath hung on the wall. Her refrigerator was a stone slab in the pantry and there was a black lead fireplace in the kitchen. They look lovely in a museum but aren’t so much fun to clean.
Cheryl has always been a storyteller. As a child, she’d make up stories for her nieces, nephews and cousin and they’d explore the imaginary worlds she created, in play.
Later in life, Cheryl became the storyteller for a reenactment group who travelled widely, giving a taste of life in the Iron Age. As well as having an opportunity to run around hitting people with a sword, she had an opportunity to tell stories of all kinds, sometimes of her own making, to all kinds of people. The criticism was sometimes harsh, especially from the children, but the reward enormous.
It was here she began to appreciate the power of stories and the primal need to hear them. In ancient times, the wandering bard was the only source of news, and the storyteller the heart of the village, keeping the lore and the magic alive. Although much of the magic has been lost, the stories still provide a link to the part of us that still wants to believe that it’s still there, somewhere.
In present times, Cheryl lives in a terraced house in the valleys with her son and menagerie of three cats, a dog and a dragon. Her daughter has deserted her for the big city, but they’re still close.
Immersed, as always, in the world of fantasy, she maintains a burning desire to share the stories and these days it’s in the form of books which all contain her spark and unique view on life, the universe and everything.
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