Sentence Sneak Peek - Matchbox Girls

Matchbox Girls by Chrysoula Tzavelas

The first sentence from each chapter of Matchbox Girls, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)
* Book will be released February 21, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

"Marley woke up, reaching out of a forgotten dream for her cellphone, knowing that she couldn’t miss this call."

"Marley stared from the candle to the table and then looked at the twins."

"Some things, though, had to be taken care of as soon as possible, even if it was difficult."

"Marley looked up."

"Penny, I’m so happy to see you!"

"When Marley was a child, nightmares had stalked her sleep, making her rest uneasy and waking a misery."

"The children dragged Marley from bed far too close to dawn, ignoring her sleepy complaints. Branwyn, already up, laughed at her."

"By the time Marley got home, her thoughts on the encounter at the library had become a confused mess of speculated motivations."

"The apartment was stifling."

"Habit guided Marley’s rushing steps home, while the fog of dissociation gently drifted through her mind."

"Branwyn worked at a large garage, fulfilling the paint and body shop jobs."

"At first, Corbin returned to his position across the street."

"Marley woke up to morning sun, and the rattling of the studio shower."

"Nephilim," Marley said, after a moment."

"On the way to Penny’s, Marley made some phone calls, first leaving a message for Branwyn and then letting Penny know of her plan to visit."

"Penny's face flickered, changing subtly."

''Penny called and she was kind of hysterical."

"I'm... not mortal?”

"Room service didn’t knock on the door."

"Marley ran to the railing despite herself, just in time to see Corbin rolling to his feet."

"The idea was so ludicrous that it drove all thought out of Marley’s head."

"Here he is, sweetheart."

"So Marley read the twins a book about Thumbelina, complete with extended critical discussion between the twins about princes, wings, and moles."

"And there it was."

"Marley blinked."

"After dropping everything off at the car, Marley followed AT to the far side of the enormous parking lot."

"There was a pop, and a tinkle."

"It's so white,” Marley said."

"Something clanked below."

"Severin crouched before the girls and pressed one hand against each of their foreheads."

"The ride to Penny’s house took far too long, and was far too quiet."

"Marley became aware of the feeling of dozens of eyes watching her."

"Light streamed from both of Corbin’s hands, and one eye glowed blue while the other was a black pit."

"Shit!"

"Marley walked down the hall and paused next to Tarn."

"Two little girls lay on a giant bronze gear, side by side."

"-epilogue-

later

Marley stood at the bay window of the luxurious room in the private hospital she’d ended up in."

Matchbox Girls Blog Tour

Here at Bibliognome, I'm happy to present for your perusal the first day of the blog tour for Matchbox Girls by Chrysoula Tzavelas. 

Make sure to check everything out and enter for the prizes provided by Candlemark & Gleam publishing.

“Character Backstage”

Matchbox Girls

Chrysoula Tzavelas

2/15/2012

Today's interviewer at Character Backstage is Penny Karzan. In-story, she plays the role of “best friend.” She's interviewing Zachariah Thorne.

Penny: So, here we are! I'm interviewing Zachariah Thorne, who's been spending a whole lot of time around my best friend. Wow. You are tall, dark and handsome, aren't you?

Zachariah: I refuse to believe Marley ever described me that way.

Penny: Well, no. I had to kind of read between the lines. But okay, okay, on with the interview. Backstage rumor says you're older than you look.

Zachariah: Many people are.

Penny: How old are you?

Zachariah: No comment.

Penny: Hey, that's not fair! Can you—can he just “no comment” interview questions? Oh, fine. What do you do for a living, Mr. Thorne?

Zachariah: I make investments.

Penny: Can you go into more detail?

Zachariah: No.

Penny: You know, I don't think I like you very much. All right, we'll try again. I hear you've got two kids that you're raising alone.

Zachariah: Two little girls, yes. Kari and Lissa. Twins. They take up quite a bit of my time. 

Penny: I bet you stand out a little at playgroup, hey? Marley says they're your nieces, not your daughters. That's convenient. How long have you been their guardian?

Zachariah: I've been taking care of them since they were born. And please don't ask what happened to their parents, because I don't want to talk about it.

Penny: Thanks for the warning. But there's something else I want to know about more. So... Mr. Thorne. You're rich, older than you look, and mysterious. Hardly a typical daddy figure. Did you take care of the babies yourself, or did you have a nanny?

Zachariah: I took care of them myself.

Penny: Even the dirty diapers?

Zachariah: Yes.

Penny: Really?

Zachariah: Why so surprised, Miss Karzan?

Penny: Well… you know. Dirty diapers. You don’t strike me as the kind of man who gets his hands dirty. Like, you have people for that.

Zachariah: [laughing] I’m a—much older than I look. Dirty diapers are hardly the worst thing I’ve had my hands in. Relatively unique, but not the worst. Not by far.

Penny: Oh. That sounds ominous. Now I’m really worried for Marley. Why are you spending so much time with her?

Zachariah: The children are fond of her. I like her, too.

Penny: The children first, eh?

Zachariah: Always, Miss Karzan. Always.

And that’s all we have time for today. Thanks, Penny and Zachariah!

Tune in for the next Character Backstage on February 21 at The Discriminating Fangirl, www.thediscriminatingfangirl.com! In the meantime, check out Chrysoula’s guest post at Fantasy Nibbles, http://fantasynibbles.com/, tomorrow, February 16! And don’t forget to join the discussion here and then stop by the Candlemark & Gleam blog to get your entry in our Matchbox Girls giveaway!

Marley Claviger is just trying to get her life together. Stumbling into an ancient conflict between celestial forces is going to make that a whole lot harder...

When Marley wakes up to a phone call from a pair of terrified children, she doesn’t expect to be pulled into a secret war. She rescues them from an empty house and promises to find their missing uncle. She even manages to feed them dinner. But she barely feels competent to manage her own life, let alone care for small children with strange, ominous powers...

And when a mysterious angelic figure shows up and tries to claim the girls, it all falls apart...

Plagued by visions of disaster, Marley has no idea what she's gotten herself into, but she knows one thing: magical or not, the kids need her.

Matchbox Girls by Chrysoula Tzavelas will be published in paperback and digital form by Candlemark & Gleam on February 21, 2012. You can pick up a copy through the Candlemark & Gleam website (www.candlemarkandgleam.com), where all paperbacks come with a free digital edition, or through your favourite indie or mainstream book source.

Follow the author online at www.dreamfarmer.net or on Twitter @chrysouladreams

READ the First Two Chapters Here:

The Book Trailer -

Check out the rest of the tour here

Enter for the big prize here

Win an e-book of Matchbox Girls

(NOW CLOSED) Valentine's Day Giveaway

Happy Valentine's Day Everybody

To celebrate I'm having a giveaway of $20 to The Book Depository.  The Giveaway is open to EVERYONE as long as you live somewhere that The Book Depository ships to.

Reading this Week

What I'm planning to read this week:

I loved the first book so am looking forward to reading Fly Into Fire because Bigelow puts quite an interesting spin on the superhero genre.

I've started Masque of the Red Death thanks to an ARC tour by Around the World Tours.  I've read the original story that it's based on and this reinterpretation is interesting so far.  I'm liking the whole fractured society aspect but I'm not 100% liking the main character yet.

Story Time

Story Time

The story will begin on the first of each month and end on the last day of the month.
I like this story so much that I think I'll keep it going and see where it goes from here:

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



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.

Powerful Poseidon aka My Kind of Mer People

Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

* Book will be released May 22, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

5 out of 5 gnomes

First I must admit that I love pretty much anything having to do with mermaids.  This can probably be blamed on my obsession with the Disney movie,  The Little Mermaid.  I even named a pair of fishing lures that my dad got me Ariel and Ursula. 

The mythology in this book is fun because it really mixes stuff up.  You have the Syrena who are basically what we would think of as mermen/mermaids.  The Syrena have two different houses, they can either be of Poseidon or of Triton.  In this book you meet a lot of the Triton kind including Galen, a prince who also happens to be the ambassador between humans and his people.

The opening chapter is great because it starts out so funny when Emma literally runs into Galen at the beach.  It goes quickly from the funny of the first chapter to a horrible event that I didn't predict would end like it did.  After what happens at the beach Emma has now caught the attention of Galen because of what he saw her do.

The politics of being a Syrena are interesting because they aren't supposed to have contact with humans and most of them hate or distrust anything having to do with humans.  There's also plenty of animosity between the two houses.  The problems only grew with nothing to tie them together after the last heir of Poseidon died before being able to wed Grom, Galen's oldest brother.  This means that there are plenty of political dealings and conspiracies aplenty. 

Rayna, his sister, also reminded me of The Little Mermaid, because of her love of collecting human treasures.  I loved how she didn't have the temperament of the aforementioned mermaid.  His sister is well to say it nicely, a headstrong individual.  I don't think there's anyone as stubborn or feisty as her until she meets Emma.  Another fun part of the story is anytime that Rayna and Toraf are in the same room together, they make quite an interesting couple.

I love the relationship between Galen and Emma.  She's not crazy about him right away especially after their embarrassing first meeting.  When he shows up again now at her school she of course isn't sure what's going on.  It doesn't help that Galen has ulterior motives that she doesn't find out about for awhile.  Their chemistry is just so very good and you can really see why they're drawn to each other.  It's great to see them become closer and of course the mixed up feelings as they each try to discover what they want makes for great reading.

The side characters also bring some great laughs and depth to the story.  They have some interesting quirks and stories of their own.  You can tell that Rachel has an extremely colorful history and her story alone would be well worth reading.  Then there's Emma's mom, the conversations between her and Emma may lead the reader to serious laughing out loud or spit-takes. 

As Emma discovers she's not exactly human it leads her to question a lot about her life.  Seeing her learn about the Syrena and how her relationship with Galen grows is one of the best parts of the book.

The ending, well I certainly didn't see that coming and wow the tension that adds right at the end of the story is crazy intense.  I'm very excited to see what happens next in this awesome book series.

My Favorite Quotes - Of Poseidon

Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

* Book will be released May 22, 2012
* ARC read via Around The World ARC Tours

"I'm betting Cinderella didn't feel this foolish, but then again, Cinderella wasn't as clumsy as an intoxicated walrus."

"Oh, and I need to know where Jersey is and if I have enough money to buy it."

"Mortified? No. Mortified is when you experiment with tan-ning lotion and forget to put some on your feet, so it looks like you're wearing socks with your flip-flops and sundress."

"If stupid were a disease, I'd have died from it by now."

"BEING A straight-A student doesn't guarantee anyone com-mon sense."

"Maybe you can talk to donkeys, too," Dr. Milligan smiles.  Emma nods. "I can. Sometimes Galen can be a jackass."