'The Shadow Groom' Blurb

Getting there! I just finished the first round of revisions and edits, and I'm about to dive right back in for the next round. In the meantime, I submitted the book to Draft2Digital to format, so I can download my proof copy and use it for that purpose (and to have it listed ahead of time for pre-orders).

And along with that comes the book blurb. I was aiming for 250 words maximum, but it ended up blasting past and landing at around 260. At least it's not 300, eh?

All is well and perfect in the world because Errol Bricksworth and Edvin Loyola-Norikova are young (too young), in love (overly so), and betrothed at just nineteen (heaven help everyone). Their families aren’t very keen on the idea, and with the help of Errol’s beloved Uncle Sorrel, an arrangement is made meant to test the lads’ resolve to have their happily-ever-after.

It does require three months spent in an old, old gatehouse that’s not only home to mismatched furnishings, art, and miscellaneous contents spanning centuries, but a few very active ghosts as well. Errol and Edvin are to be the gatehouse’s caretakers while Uncle Sorrel, who owns the property, withdraws with his tiny staff to a cozy cottage tucked away in the wood. And for three months, both young men need to get their hands dirty, learn the rudiments of domestic life as a couple (learning how to cook helps), and get used to sharing space with lives long gone.

Errol and Edvin’s youth makes them brave and even reckless as they readily accept the terms, determined to prove those poxy adults wrong. Even those resident ghosts don’t bother them, though not all hauntings, apparently, are made the same. Equal parts irritating and unnerving, the ghosts gradually force the lads to think beyond their tiny world of two either through spectral echoes of long-forgotten lives or the quiet guidance of a gentleman known only as “the shadow groom” to former staff. 

The Shadow Groom is a humorous re-imagining of the German folktale “The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was”.

As always, there might be some tweaking still for the blurb, but at least it's one significant step forward short of pressing "publish" on my author dashboard.