Saturday, June 30, 2012

Story Time

Story Time

* Please add a line to the story and determine where it goes.


Rules

1.) Only write 1 to 2 sentences
2.) Keep it clean
3.) Have fun and spread the word so the story grows


Here's the story that has formed so far:


Awesome  people who have authored the story by adding lines so far: Sullivan McPig, Julie@My5monkeys, Susan Jane Bigelow, barmybex, Tiny Reverse Vampire, Man of la Book


Title: An Extraordinary Girl

Once upon a time in a time not that long ago there was a disturbance.


The cause of the disturbance was something that was well...truly disturbing.  In fact it was so disturbing that at first it was quite unclear what this disturbance was, because anyone who saw it was too disturbed to talk about it.


There  came a noisy unruly girl who demanded that all must obey her. She was the girl of the mayor and weird things did happen around her. Pigeons tap danced when she blinked her eyes and cockroaches would mimic her words when she spoke.  Lights would go off and babies would cry when she passed.


This  girl stood in the center of town, pigeons dancing, roaches waiting, lights flickering and babies crying all around.  She struck her umbrella on the cobblestones.  A hush fell over the town as purple sparks shot out of the tip of the umbrella and even the pigeons stopped their dancing and seemed to hold their breath.


As  the astounded masses watched a massive hole slowly appeared in the middle of the street. As the dust settled it was revealed...a giant staircase leading down to complete darkness and then a faint music started to radiate from its depths.


There was such a ruckus in the town and trying to make sure that all the citizens were fine. The music coming out of the hole had a mesmerizing sound that attracted all the citizens.  It was almost like children's music.


The girl grinned mischievously and whistled along with the music while she slowly descended down the hole.


The further down she went the louder the music echoed. A strange shift filled the air and a cold wind howled past causing her hair to flutter round her face, but it didn't distract her. As she confidently walked on some of the pigeons and cockroaches followed her, cautiously and trembling with fear and a sense of foreboding.


"Wait," a high, piping voice said, "there are dangers below!" One of the pigeons had spoken. This was not a terrific surprise to the girl, who did not pause in her descent." Stay above ground if you don't have the courage to follow me," she stated calmly." But I must go on. The faith of the town depends on this."


As  she kept traveling downward the tone of the music seemed to change and become more insistent.  Then in the distance a faint shimmering light appeared.


It glowed a dull purple at first, but then changed to a harsh, angry blue that pulsated like a frantic heartbeat that got more aggressive the closer the girl got to it.


The light was actually calling to her, and only her. She was different from everyone else in the town. It was her duty.


She  edged closer with her arm out in front of her. The blue light grew in intensity until she had to close her eyes against the glare, a warmth surrounded her arm from the light and she pulled in a satisfied breath and grinned.


As more of the light enveloped her, she felt the heat spread and her body began to hum with a sense of power.


Then in her mind she began to hear a whispering chant almost as if the power knew who she was and what she had to do.


The words and the music started to sync together and then she began to speak the chant, as she spoke the discordant words the light solidified into a wooden door which slowly began to open.


The light around the door frame was still so bright it cast shadows into the room, making it impossible to see what was in there.


She slowly peeked into the room and felt so cold that there must be something not of this world in there. She slowly found the bed and sat down on it.


Then out of nowhere a dapper looking man appeared.  He looked like a perfect gentleman, he even had a strange purple tophat on.  Though when you looked in his eyes there was no warmth to be found and his presence seemed to suck the warmth from the room.


The man seemed to be staring straight at her but there was no recognition in his eyes, just blackness. Then he opened his mouth to speak and she felt shivers shoot up and down her spine.


His voice seemed to freeze the very air and stop all sound when he said, "I know what you're here for."


Thinking this was her job and her job alone, she wondered if he was friend or foe.


She steadied herself because she knew that if she showed any fear that he might pounce and his true form would be revealed.  Her bag of tricks was pretty full though and she had the spark of an idea.


She remembered his particular fondness for word puzzles and taking a deep breath began reciting an odd sounding riddle.


In the middle of the chant he began chanting along with her, their voices rose and the atmosphere in the room grew even more tense.

The girl could have sworn she felt the very walls vibrating and the floor shaking, but she knew she couldn't stop now. If this was some sort of test she was determined to succeed.

When she finished the chant he stopped at the same time, then with a deep rumbling the floor fell away beneath them.

The pair tumbled down into the darkness, but for some reason neither one of them was scared.

They seem to fall forever, almost floating in the air. The girl held the man's hand, or was he holding hers?

The man was still chanting, while the pigeons were flying in circles around them. That is when the girl notices something that sent cold chills to her spine: the cockroaches mimicked him!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Fantastic Farewell

A Farewell to Charms by Lindsey Leavitt
 
* Book provided by the publisher for review


5 out of 5 gnomes

This is such a fantastic ending to this sweetly magical series.  It just feels like it ended in a great place and with all the characters going in very interesting directions.

Desi is still quite the interesting character.  She loves her job of being a sub for princesses but knows that things need to change especially after what she learned in the previous book.  She's conflicted because she loves her job but doesn't feel that Façade is concentrating on what they should be with all the magic that they have. Level 3 subs get some awesome perks but she feels like her promotion might actually be more of a bribe to keep quiet.

Meredith's story kind of mirrors Desi's because she originally broke the rules too. You slowly over all three books start to see Meredith's whole story and it is a doozy (with a great ending). I think it would be great to have a companion book from Meredith's point of view because her attitude and general snarkiness would make for a fantastic read.

Her friend Kylee was also surprising in this book.  This felt like a realistic friendship.  I really like that she was more worried about her friendship with Kylee then she was about liking/being liked by Reed.  It looks like her and Desi will both have an interesting future.

Reed and Desi's relationship is a lot of fun because it feels believable.  Desi is only thirteen so she's not a hundred percent sure about the whole dating thing.  She definitely likes Reed and they have a great chemistry but she does see the flaws in him too.  They take things slow and of course there's a lot of confusion and guessing before Desi realizes that Reed likes her too.  

The princess she subs for really teach her a lot this time around.  She learns some cool tricks and these help her in her plan to discover Façade's motives. There is a lot of chaos with Desi directly at the center and plenty of surprises to keep everyone on their toes.

The end was truly surprising and makes it look like all the characters have a bright future ahead of them. Overall I would recommend this series to anyone who likes their characters to be funny/real and their worlds to be charming with a hint of magic.


Characters/things I Adore:

Meredith - I love her attitude and how, in her own way, she's always looking out for Desi.  Was very happy and surprised by her character and she has a great ending.

Reed - I liked him even more in this book because you find out much more about him.  He's sweet, honest, and helps Desi out when she needs him.

Bubbles - I really would like a bubble of my own for travel (I think a nice lavender model would be great.) Also would like it so I could decorate it and have a cool room inside.  :)