You guys know I love blog tours but there was something special about this one.  I always look for romance in my novels, I’m a history buff, and retellings are some of my favorite things.  Stone Field is all of those wrapped in one gorgeous package!

Before I get to my favorite things, make sure to check out a little more about Stone Field!

Stone Field by Christy Lenzi
(Website, Goodreads)

In a small town on the brink of the Civil War, Catrina finds a man making strange patterns in her family’s sorghum crop. He’s mad with fever, naked, and strikingly beautiful. He has no memory of who he is or what he’s done before Catrina found him in Stone Field. But that doesn’t bother Catrina because she doesn’t like thinking about the things she’s done before either.

Catrina and Stonefield fall passionately, dangerously, in love. All they want is to live with each other, in harmony with the land and away from Cat’s protective brother, the new fanatical preacher, and the neighbors who are scandalized by their relationship. But Stonefield can’t escape the truth about who he is, and the conflict tearing apart the country demands that everyone take a side before the bloodbath reaches their doorstep.

Inspired by Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

What I Look For In A Retelling

• Originality: This might seem a little odd since the whole point of a retelling is to retell something that’s already been told.  However, that’s not to say that an author shouldn’t put their own spin on whatever tale they’ve chose to retell.  It’s also a good idea to make it unique so that readers who may not have read the original can still enjoy it.  In this case, Christy Lenzi took Wuthering Heights and made it her own.  And since I’ve never (completely) read Wuthering Heights, I appreciated that it didn’t seem like I had to.

• Hints of the original: This may seem like the complete opposite of what I just said but if you’re writing a retelling, you have to keep something of the original story.  A lot of the time when I’m picking up a retelling, I’ve read and loved the original.  That means I definitely want to at least get a similar feel from the retelling.  Like I said, I haven’t read all of Wuthering Heights but from what I have read, I can see where Christy Lenzi took some inspiration.

• An updated feel: Even if a retelling is still set in a historical time period, I want it to feel new.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the classics, but they can sometimes be lengthy reads that plod along.  Retellings need to make the writing a little more modern.  Make things move a little faster.  And maybe contain a little more romance than some of the classics.  Just maybe.

Stone Field is a great representation of the things I look for in a retelling.  If you haven’t checked it out already, add it to your TBR!

Oh and don’t forget to check out the rest of the blog tour!