The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez – as the healer’s daughter, Malka has seen how the forest’s curse has plagued her village. When the Ozmini Church comes to collect its tithe, however, they refuse to listen to the warnings about a monster lurking in the trees!
After a clergy girl wanders too close to the forest and Malka’s mother is accused of her murder! Fearing for her mother’s life, Malka strikes an impossible bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. She must bring him the monster, and only then will he spare her mother’s life!
After searching the blood-soaked woods, Malka does indeed find a monster, not the one she was expecting however! Her “monster” is a mysterious, disgraced golem who agrees to implicate herself if Malka will help to free the imprisoned rabbi who created her.
A deal easily made is not easily kept, however! As their mutual understanding begins to reveal a much more sinister threat, protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save! Also to face her growing feelings for the very creature she was taught to fear!
For those who love this genre, this is an intricately woven, otherworldly, narrative of murders, monsters and sapphic romance. Terrifyingly good and a triumph for a first novel. May she continue to write many more!
ISBN: 9781035048779
The Maiden and Her Monster is available in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook formats.
About Maddie Martinez
Maddie Martinez was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where her love of stories began with desert plumes and watermelon sunsets. She holds a BA in Political Science and International Affairs from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and an MA in Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, DC. The Maiden and Her Monster is her first novel.
Leave a Reply