Happy book birthday to Genevieve Gornichec’s THE WEAVER AND THE WITCH QUEEN, which officially goes on sale Tuesday, July 25, 2023!
You may know Genevieve from her bestselling debut novel, THE WITCH’S HEART. This new novel is a subversive reimagining of the Norse folklore story of the Viking Queen Gunnhild, Mother of Kings.
(If you’ve read The Witch’s Heart, you know Norse / Viking / Icelandic history and lore is the author’s academic specialty and place of power.)
This novel follows two women who are irrevocably, magically bonded by a childhood oath of sisterhood, then forced back together as adults by prophecy and cruel twists fate.
This one’s for fans of folklore and fairytales, romance and political drama, and books like Madeline Miller’s CIRCE and Neil Gaiman’s NORSE MYTHOLOGY.
I had a great chat with Genevieve a couple of years ago on the Fictitious Podcast about her story in the Vampire the Masquerade collection, WALK AMONG US. Give that episode a listen if you’d like to get to know her more.
THE WEAVER AND THE WITCH QUEEN is available at Amazon [affiliate link], BookShop [affiliate link], and all your usual book, ebook, and audio book places!
About THE WEAVER AND THE WITCH QUEEN
The lives of two women—one desperate only to save her missing sister, the other a witch destined to become queen of Norway—intertwine in this spellbinding, powerful novel of Viking Age history and myth from the acclaimed author of The Witch’s Heart.
Oddny and Gunnhild meet as children in tenth century Norway, and they could not be more different: Oddny hopes for a quiet life, while Gunnhild burns for power and longs to escape her cruel mother. But after a visiting wisewoman makes an ominous prophecy that involves Oddny, her sister Signy, and Gunnhild, the three girls take a blood oath to help one another always.
When Oddny’s farm is destroyed and Signy is kidnapped by Viking raiders, Oddny is set adrift from the life she imagined—but she’s determined to save her sister no matter the cost, even as she finds herself irresistibly drawn to one of the raiders who participated in the attack. And in the far north, Gunnhild, who fled her home years ago to learn the ways of a witch, is surprised to find her destiny seems to be linked with that of the formidable King Eirik, heir apparent to the ruler of all Norway.
But the bonds—both enchanted and emotional—that hold the two women together are strong, and when they find their way back to each other, these bonds will be tested in ways they never could have foreseen in this deeply moving novel of magic, history, and sworn sisterhood.
