Excerpt + Giveaway: Unbound by Georgia Bell

Today I'm thrilled to have author Georgia Bell stop by the blog to share an excerpt from her paranormal young adult novel, Unbound. She's also brought with her a very generous giveaway, so be sure and check out the bottom of the post for entry details. Welcome to Supernatural Snark Georgia!

UNBOUND EXCERPT

“I know you’re there,” I said, pitching my voice towards the darkness. It echoed down the empty street. “We need to talk.” I waited, forcing myself not to move away, not to look away. My heart pounded in my ears and I took a deep breath to steady myself. A car moved down the road towards me and I watched it pass, the headlights glaring and then receding as it rounded the corner of the next street.

His shadow stretched out before him as he moved on to the sidewalk under the glow of the streetlamp. He said nothing, only stared at me with a bemused expression. I wanted to say something else, but found that now I could only stare back. He wore the same long dark coat and gloves he always wore, his clothes tailored, but nondescript, his hair disheveled, but not untidy. The familiar feeling of tranquility settled on me as he moved closer and my head swam as if each of my thoughts was sinking slowly through deep water. Looking up at him, his stormy grey eyes were as sad and as haunting as I remembered them.

We stood staring at each other silently, as if the other was something new and remarkable. I was puzzled by my lack of speech. After all of this time, there were so many things I had wanted to say to him. Why wasn’t I talking? Reaching up to touch my throat, I frowned, trying to remember how to voice the questions that waited patiently for articulation. Seeming to notice my confusion, his expression became strained and his eyes guarded. He stared down at his gloved hands as if he was unable to bear witness to my struggle for words.

Minutes passed and neither of us moved. 

Distantly troubled, I watched as he confronted whatever demons were wrestling within him. Eventually, his shoulders slumped in defeat and he nodded to himself – an acknowledgement that a decision had been made.

Moving slowly, he took off his gloves and placed them in his coat pocket, raised his hand towards my face with infinite care, and lightly touched my cheek. He let his fingers trace the line of my jaw, his expression now unfathomable as a shiver raced down my back.

“Hello,” he said.

I finally found my voice and my eyes locked on his. “Who are you?”

“My name is Eaden,” he said.

I nodded. It was a start.

“We need to talk,” I said again. It was unlikely that I had ever been guilty of such an understatement.

He stepped closer, our bodies almost touching. I was aware of every inch of him, as if somehow he had become an extension of me, another limb once lost and now recovered. My heart rallied and sped up as I tilted my head to study him. Sighing, he raised his eyes to the sky and then closed them, shaking his head before looking back down at me, a hint of a smile dancing around his lips.

“I’ll see you in the morning, Rachel,” he said and then turned and walked away. Within a few heartbeats he was hidden amongst the shadows once again.

“Eaden,” I said and went inside.

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UNBOUND

After her father dies, Rachel realizes she is scared and stuck. Scared of heights, of cars, of disasters harming the people she loves. Stuck in a life that is getting smaller by the minute. Stuck with a secret she has kept all her life: Someone has been watching over her since birth. Someone who tends to show up when she needs him the most. Someone she believes is her guardian angel.

Eaden is a 1,500-year-old immortal who wants to die. Drained by a life stretched too thin, he has requested his final reward – a mortal sacrifice bred specifically to bring him death. But something went wrong. Rachel’s ability to grant death has mutated in ways that threaten to upset the uneasy alliance between mortals and immortals. And utterly beguiled, Eaden discovers that although Rachel is the key to his death, because of her, he no longer wants to die. And he will do anything to protect her.

Swept into a world of legends, caught between the warring political factions of immortals, and carrying the future of mortal kind in her flesh and bone, Rachel must risk everything to save her world and the man she loves.

Amazon •  Goodreads

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GEORGIA BELL

Georgia Bell was raised on a steady diet of science fiction and fantasy, courtesy of her father, a man who loved his family, fishing, scotch, and science (although not necessarily in that order). Georgia is an avid reader of young adult fiction, and a lover of good wine, music, children, and cats (although not necessarily in that order). She's currently working on Unknown, the second book in the All Good Things trilogy.

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads

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GIVEAWAY

Georgia is kindly offering up e-book copies of Unbound to two lucky winners! To enter, please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. As these are e-books, this giveaway is international provided you have an e-reader.

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Wavecrossed Blog Tour: Cover Design Progression

I'm excited to welcome young adult author Andrea Colt to the blog today to share with us the various changes the cover for her newest release, Wavecrossed, went through before it was exactly what she wanted. I think anyone who reads this blog knows there's nothing I love more than a well-designed cover (except for maybe a swoon-worthy fictional boy, but I digress), so seeing the little tweaks made to a cover during the design process is nothing short of fascinating for me. I hope you all enjoy it as well!

COVER PROGRESSION

I am blessed with an extremely talented artist sister. She started out working in clay, progressed to awesome mosaics, and also got into digital art a few years ago. Although I made most of the cover for Torched (my sister did the flame, which was way outside my limited sphere of capability), I knew that what I wanted for Wavecrossed was way more complicated.

The concept started out as a water-evoking background, with hand-lettered text for the title and swooping accents. I also wanted to work in an element from Wavecrossed: a golden starfish pendant. And I wanted a silhouette of a seal, to show that it featured selkies.

This was the rough draft:

That baby seal is SOOO CUTE, right? I loved it, but the very cuteness of the seal made the book feel like a kid’s story. So I asked her to age it up a bit, along with some other changes: making the starfish gold so it popped, darkening the blue, a different font for my name.

Here’s the second draft:

I loved that seal silhouette even more, but though it was awesome, having an animal on the cover still made the book feel like a children’s novel. So we decided to try taking out the seal entirely (picture me very sad about this):

She also simplified some of the swirliness, which had gotten in the way of clarity when people read the title, and moved the whole image down a bit for balance now that the seal was gone, and darkened the blues a bit.

After that, all I had to do was tweak the author name font, add a lovely blurb courtesy of author Lindsay Smith, and I had this lovely cover:

Voila! I think I’m going to order a print of the cover and frame it, I love it so much.

Thanks for reading about Wavecrossed’s cover progression! If you want to find out more about the book behind the awesome cover, here’s the summary:

To Cassandra Kelleher, trust is a dirty word.

A teenage selkie who grew up on land, all she wants is to free her family from the man who stole their sealskins long ago. With her twin brother Brennan losing hope and her window of opportunity disappearing like the beach at high tide, she’ll try anything.

Before long, however, Cassandra can’t tell whether her biggest threat is the man holding her family captive, a classmate who’s discovered her secret, or her own paranoia. Battling broken friendships and alarming romantic entanglements, Cassandra finds that trust could be the key to winning her family’s freedom … or losing her own.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • CreateSpace • Read Chapter One

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ANDREA COLT

Andrea Colt grew up reading and squabbling with her identical twin. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband, a fridge full of cheese, and two feline muses. Visit andreacolt.com to get to know her better.

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Review: Tempest Rising

TEMPEST RISING
Tracy Deebs
Paranormal Young Adult
352 pages
Walker Books for Young Readers
Available Now
Received via Teen Book Scene for review

THE STORY
Tempest Maguire has a decision to make. With her seventeenth birthday rapidly approaching, she knows her mermaid heritage is going to make itself known and she will need to choose between a life on land and a life at sea. For her, the decision is simple. She's human and she wants no part of the world her mother abandoned her and her family for years ago.

The pull of the ocean is incredibly strong however, and with the arrival of Kona, a young man who seems to know what she's going through, her easy decision becomes increasingly complicated. When Kona is threatened, Tempest doesn't even consider not coming to his aid by staying on land, instead diving into the water and temporarily embracing her mermaid half.

While in Kona's world, Tempest learns more about her mother and the life she returned to those years before, causing her anger over the abandonment to slightly abate as she finds herself in the middle of the same battle her mother left to fight. With each day, life as a mermaid feels more like home, but Tempest struggles more than ever with her decision, not wanting to be the second woman in their family to leave those she loves behind.

MY THOUGHTS
Tempest Rising is a deceptively dark read, those of us going into it with memories of cute Disney characters sure to be both surprised and pleased by the grim quality of Tempest's tale. There is no singing or fun crustacean sidekicks, instead we are faced with rather profound and intense emotional issues surrounding Tempest's mother's choice of duty over family and the lasting effects that decision has on Tempest's own impending choice between human and mermaid. Ms. Deebs beautifully illustrates both sides of Tempest's nature–effectively cleaving our hearts in two as we find ourselves as split in our thinking as young Tempest. We are grounded on land with her, enveloped in the comfort of home and family, but we are also simultaneously intrigued as Tempest is by the fanciful and unknown world beneath the waves beckoning us to explore.

While the epic decision Tempest is faced with is heart-wrenching in its depiction, Tempest herself is a bit difficult to connect with. We absolutely feel her pain and sense of betrayal at her mom's absence during a time when she most needs her guidance, but she has the frustrating tendency to expect things of others she's not willing to give herself. Her human boyfriend Mark desperately tries to get her to confide in him when she's thrown off-kilter by the emergence of some of her mermaid traits, but she continually shoves his attention away and denies him the trust he so desires. However, when Kona enters the picture and has information and answers she wants, she gets angry at him for keeping her in the dark as she did Mark, at times recognizing the parallel between Kona's actions with her and hers with Mark but somehow expecting different results when she's on the receiving end of the silence.

Additionally, the final battle between Kona, Tempest, and the sea witch leaves just a little to be desired. We are told of a prophecy in which a girl matching Tempest's description defeats one of the sea witch's greatest monsters and presumably destroys her as well, but there are so many questions we want answered only to find few of them are by the time we finish, almost as though we are merely being asked to believe what we're told as opposed to being made to believe with a little more history and detail. Tempest has extraordinary power, but we have no idea where it came from or why she is the first to possess the abilities that have made her a target for the sea witch, leaving us a bit detached from the action as our complete involvement is blocked by a lack of information.

Overall, Tempest Rising is an entertaining read, its subject matter a nice diversion from the vampires, werewolves, and fae, and its world one we certainly wouldn't mind returning to visit again. Tempest is a bit bothersome at times with her attitude and behavior, but as an older reader of young adult fiction, it's easy to forget that all my reactions and decisions at her age were not always rational and completely mature. Ms. Deebs is an author I will be watching in the future though and will read again if given the chance.

Rating: 3/5

Review: Ruby Red

RUBY RED (Ruby Red Trilogy #1)
Kerstin Gier
Paranormal Young Adult
322 Pages
Macmillan
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY
Gwen's been having dizzy spells for days. If she didn't know better, she might assume they were a symptom of her family's time travel gene, but that gene is prophesied to fall to her cousin Charlotte who is due to make her first leap in time any day now.

Because everyone in her family is fussing over Charlotte's impending journey into history, no one notices when Gwen suddenly finds herself making multiple spontaneous trips to the past. When she finally works up the nerve to tell them she causes quite a stir, and no one is happy about the new revelation. Perhaps least enthused is Gideon, a young man also in possession of the time travel gene who has been working with Charlotte for months on an important mission.

Now stuck with arrogant, infuriating Gideon as a time travel partner, Gwen finds herself a member of an elite group–one of only twelve people throughout history with such an ability–and part of a mystery that's bigger than any one person or time period. The more Gwen and Gideon learn about the past and the importance of Gwen completing the circle of twelve, the more complex things become until Gwen doesn't know who to trust, what to believe, or where she will end up next.

MY THOUGHTS
Ruby Red is a story that instantly captivates us and sparks our imaginations to roaring life as we read on in wonder at the possibilities a time travel gene presents, thinking of all the extraordinary sights and events such a biological improbability would place at our fingertips. While the plausibility of organized time travel sends our minds spinning, we are also given a heavy dose of reality with this extraordinary notion, a complicated century-spanning mystery rising to the forefront to illuminate the dangers of such an activity when any one person's minute actions could greatly affect the outcome of events both past and future. Such an ability also raises some intriguing questions for us as readers–can we trust what we're seeing and experiencing in the present with Gwen, or are things unfolding according the the plans of others who have defied the time barrier before her, orchestrating and manipulating things to see their desired outcome achieved? We find ourselves willingly drawn into the splendid chaos with Gwen, breaching the fictional plane to lock minds with her as we attempt to shed the bonds of normalcy to which we are so accustomed and embrace the impossible.

Gwen is a strong young heroine, left almost entirely in the dark about matters concerning her family's unique gift, but we are eternally grateful for her bewilderment when she's suddenly propelled into the inner circle of those who are already familiar with time travel, taking comfort in the fact that we will learn the ropes with her as we go. She has the amusing ability to shock a laugh out of us, seeming fairly quiet and reserved as she digests the scope of her new ability, only to suddenly think or speak a thought aloud that catches us off-guard with its humor and wit. We find ourselves enchanted by a girl who can create levity and inspire laughter amidst the strangeness of her circumstance, and we can't help but hang on every word just waiting to see what she'll let slip next.

Gideon, dark, arrogant and oh-so irritatingly attractive, keeps us on our toes emotionally, his initial coolness toward Gwen raising our hackles since we are already fully connected to her by the time he decides to grace us with his presence. While his frosty demeanor begins to melt under the formidable weight of Gwen's understated charm, the thaw does not fully extend to us and we remain wary of his motives, becoming increasingly curious as to how much he knows about what will happen when the circle of twelve is finally closed. Is his slowly developing interest in Gwen genuine, or has he, having years of experience with time travel behind him, been instructed to play a certain part? The uncertainty with regard to his intentions, as well as those of everyone else involved both in the past and present, keeps us hypervigilant while reading, constantly hypothesizing and questioning motives and actions while hoping Gideon is as he appears to be–a pawn like Gwen in a larger game we can't wait to understand better.

Because this is part one in a trilogy, we are left with quite a few questions we know will constantly needle us until the release of books two and three. There is so much about the world of time travel Gwen, and therefore we, don't know even at the conclusion of this tale, and we can only hope we will find the answers moving forward. Ms. Gier certainly has piqued my curiosity and I am now anxiously awaiting the release of Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green.

Rating: 4/5

Review: The Vespertine

THE VESPERTINE (The Vespertine #1)
Saundra Mitchell
Paranormal Young Adult
304 Pages
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Available March 7th
Received for review via NetGalley

THE STORY
Amelia is finally getting to leave her small town in Maine and spend time in Baltimore circa 1889, where she and her cousin Zora are to spend the summer finding themselves worthy husbands. Before their search can begin in earnest however, Amelia begins to have strange visions that come only at sunset, hazy premonitions of future events she quickly realizes always come to fruition.

When word of Amelia's ability gets out, she and Zora are asked to visit household after household to share her gift with an awed public. While reveling in her newfound popularity, Amelia also finds herself distracted from her husband hunting by Nathaniel, an impoverished artist considered not suitable for marriage by mainstream society. Despite his poor standing, Amelia is instantly and powerfully drawn to him, risking her reputation to meet with him whenever possible.

While busy exploring a relationship with Nathaniel, Amelia's visions begin to intensify, progressing from simple and mundane predictions to those showing violence and death, and when one of her and Zora's closest friends is gravely injured just as Amelia foretold, her joyous summer in Baltimore comes to a screeching halt, replaced instead with bedlam and dark accusations.

MY THOUGHTS
A beautifully haunting tale, The Vespertine transports us to a world that seems so strange and unfamiliar but yet is one we know existed, where stringent social etiquette entirely dictates the behavior of young ladies and the threat of ruination weighs heavily on every family with a daughter of courting age. Ms. Mitchell paints a vivid picture, her stunning prose like effortless brush strokes across a blank canvas, mesmerizing us as a cascade of emotions spills from the pages and coats us in the breathtaking quality of her written words. This story both fascinates and excites, highlighting customs and social procedures that make us marvel at how different life was in Amelia's time, reading wide-eyed and sometimes slack-jawed as she navigates a world where appearances and reputation must be upheld at all costs in order to find a suitable husband. A smile always decorates our faces, however, as she attempts to adhere to what is good and proper, but also quietly rebels–daring to defy propriety and seek out a life of her choosing.

Both Amelia and Zora are young ladies with whom we instantly connect, their playful teasing and private flouting of the societal rules constricting their every movement–ones rendering them nothing but decorative property to be handed from a father or brother's care to a husband's–keeping us highly entertained and more than a touch amused at their hushed antics. Their relationship is one of true friendship, not burdened with petty jealousies but rather defined by a mutual understanding and desire to find affection. Zora doesn't mock Amelia for her unusual gift, and though she basks in the popularity thrust upon them when Amelia's ability is made public, she doesn't seek to exploit the visions for her own gain, instead shying away from knowledge of her own future entirely and treating Amelia with same easy caring as she did before the paranormal entered their lives. Both girls approach their circumstances with an infectious humor and charm, warming our hearts even as the seriousness of Amelia's predictions escalates in scale and begins to cloud their clear-cut paths to society-approved bliss with danger and darkness.

Nathaniel is an interesting compliment to Amelia's character, possessing a hypnotic mysterious quality significantly enhanced by the story's shift between past and present events. Because the story begins after climactic developments have taken place then flashes back several months to recount them from the beginning, the nature of Amelia's predicament at the onset of this tale forces us to keep our guard up in Nathaniel's presence, constantly wondering what actions he will take to bring us full circle. We also question whether the information we've been provided is misleading since it's presented out of context initially, resulting in an unshakable sense of unease as a clear understanding of his feelings and motivations hovers intangibly between past history and current reality. Though some may be be bothered by the lack of a strict linear progression, the way it's presented adds complexity, forcing us to question what we think we know about both Nathaniel and Amelia, their individual paranormal abilities, and their emotional connection as we struggle to piece together the events spanning just a few short months with the extraordinary repercussions reaped in so short a time.

One drawback to The Vespertine is a lack of explanation for the emergence of Amelia's gift and the existence of Nathaniel's, and while it's easy to get swept away in the story and forget we don't have that information, curiosity does get the better of us eventually and we are left with no answers to quench our thirst for knowledge. Even a shallow illumination regarding the sudden appearance of Amelia's visions would have been appreciated so we might have a better understanding of Amelia herself and how she seems so well equipped to handle something so foreign and unexplainable. Though such questions do rattle around in our heads from time to time, the flowing quality of the writing smooths the small wrinkles caused by the paranormal element, surrounding us in the lyrical loveliness of Ms. Mitchell's words and the dynamic characters who come to life before our eyes.

Rating: 4/5