Sentence Sneak Peek - Echo's Revenge

Echo's Revenge by Sean Austin

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

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)
* ARC provided by the author for review

Prologue: “Fog! It’s so foggy, I cant see a thing,”Reggie whispers as he peers around the cold granite corner of the County Courthouse.”

“Whoah. Smokin’!” said Jeremy, who was watching the computer screen from over Reggie’s shoulder.”

“When school ended the next day, Reggie and Jeremy walked home across an ice covered field.”

“Reggie got up at 6 a.m.”

“On the way out of AAA Reality Games, something weird happened to Reggie.”

“Six am came a lot quicker than Reggie thought it would.”

“A sparkling cloud drifted purposefully through the early morning woods.”

“The three Petes sat inn the cab of Big Pete’s truck, driving through southern Oregon.”

“Now,” said a dark silhouette of a guy with a buzz cut.”

“Think we’re lost enough now?” asked Jeremy when Reggie had lead them off the road and into some woods at the outskirts of Crescent City, California.”

“The screeching sea gulls awakened Jeremy and Reggie.”

“Reggie and Jeremy got milk and chow each morning at a 7-Eleven convenience stores wherever they found themselves because 7-Eleven convenience stores were always friendly, clean, and most importantly, predictable places where they knew to look for new pictures on milk cartons.”

“Reggie and Jeremy surveyed the truck stop just outside of Crescent City, trying to figure out with whom they could hitch another ride.”

“What she said about Asa kinda makes sense,” and Jeremy as they entered the Truck Stop Restaurant.”  

“Reggie and Jeremy were lucky.”

“Where can we hide, where can we hide?”

“Reggie still didn't know what to think since Luca still hadn’t responded to any of his emails or calls and a very real ECHO had almost nailed them.”

“We’re here! said Reggie, comparing the view to the crumpled photo in his hand.”

“Reggie woke up first, to a splitting headache.”

“After a while, Reggie and Jeremy noticed a small trap door in the floor of the truck that kept opening every half hour or so.”

“Crystal clear water shot out from the rocks high above the Falls, allowing anyone to take a refreshing drink or a freezing shower.”

“The next work period someone one stood at the top of the Pit watching all the guys come to work.”

“The next day, a large plastic shrink-wrapped package was dumped next to a game arcade in Los Angeles.”

“Back to work, welding in the Pit.”

“Rations were running low, so Snake asked for volunteers to get more.”

“On the way to the Cots the next night, Reggie thought about making new escape plans.”

“The blackout had caused confusion and anxiety in the Cauldron.”

“Reggie and Jeremy stood in the Pit, frozen.”

“As exhausted as they were,most of the guys jumped at the chance to get out.”

“Big Pete drove all night.”

Epilogue -   “Before he knew it,Reggie saw palm trees on the side of the freeway.”

"Waiting On" Wednesday - Croak

"Waiting On"  Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. 

This week I'm waiting on...

Croak by Gina Damico

* Book will be released March 20, 2012

Check out the description from Goodreads:

"Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?"

I've been following this author's blog so if the book is anything like the blog then it's going to be very funny.  I love books that take depressing subjects and turn them into something more with a sense of fun or a whole new set of rules.  This looks like it has a really intriguing premise and I can't wait to see where the story goes. 

Terrific Touch

4 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

This is a great introduction to a world that seems to be filled with magic and intriguing characters.  The world feels like a superb mix of the fantasy and dystopian genres. 

There are a lot of different magics in this world but also a horrible plague with no cure.  This has led to a disorganized mess when it comes to cities and government.  Even a plant in this world can kill you, the death lily description kind of made me think of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors.  In some towns there were almost no people so that means that there's nobody to keep the peace and enforce laws.  This chaos and lack of unity means that some of the previous leaders are trying to take over the whole country.  There seem to be three options for their leader: The religious zealot, the guy who does horrible things for power, and the guy with the level head and a plan.

Avry is a healer, her power allows her to channel the injuries or sickness into herself to heal someone.  Healers used to be well respected but they were essentially shunned after the onset of this plague with no cure.  They were blamed and with no cure to be found the healers were seen as harming instead of helping and now most of them are dead.

After healing and getting caught Avry is rescued/kidnapped by a group that wants her to heal someone.  The leader of this group, Kerrick, has some secrets of his own that he's hiding.  I really didn't like him at first but he slowly grows on you, so far I don't think he's as good a male lead character as Varek from Magic Study was, but I do hope that he keeps growing as a character. 

One of my favorite side characters is Belan.  He's a great character especially when he threatens to rip a certain love interest's arms off if he hurts Avry again.  Belan is big like a bear and very protective of the group and Avry.  I hope to see more from this character in the next book.

The author is definitely not afraid to kill off characters and I know that one death really surprised me.  Though this death also gave Avry more drive to succeed.  All these characters have a lot to prove and even more to lose.  There is a lot of death and near death happenings. 

Overall this book is full of surprises and has an intense ending that seems to promise quite an interesting future.

Sentence Sneak Peek - Touch of Power

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

The first sentence from each chapter of Touch of Power, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.
* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)
* ARC read via Netgalley and a finished copy from the library

"The little girl wouldn't stop crying."

"A low cough woke me from a sound sleep."

"Everyone hates healers, so why would healing your friend make me a hero?"

"My cheek stung and throbbed."

"Turn around slow," the sword's owner ordered me."

"The men sidestepped, avoiding the tip of Belen's sword."

"Stop Tohon from what?"
 
"The three men rushed Kerrick, knocking him and the tall guy to the ground."

"Those thorns look sharp, but what's wrong with going through the Lilys?"

"The game of hide-and-seek was on."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I snapped awake."

"Noelle swung the mallet at my head."

"Kerrick's wife?"

"Lying on the ground, I strained to draw a breath."

"Why would anyone want Death Lily seeds?"

"Breathing became difficult."

"That's a big leap in logic."

"I had though Kerrick would be happy I'd decided to heal his prince, but he frowned instead."

"I sat up."

"I was in big trouble."

"A coffin built for me was in Tohon's castle."
 
"Why did you do that?"

"Kerrick had lousy timing."

"She has it half right," Tohon said."
 
"Were they here when you came in?"

Top 5 Sundays - Series You've Started But Haven't Kept Up With!

This feature was thought up by the awesome Larissa's Bookish Life

Rules:
1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention this Blog on the post and link back to it.

3 - Fell free to use the Feature's image (there is a smaller size version of it bellow)

4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.
5 - If you don't have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)


Top 5 Sundays - Series You've Started But Haven't Kept Up With!

I really like this series but I just never got around to reading the latest book.  There's just so much going on in the series I'm not sure I'll remember it all either.

I
I really liked Paranormalcy because of how unique the main character is so I have to catch up with this series before the third book is released.

This is definitely one of my new favorite series (has some of the funniest characters around especially Oberon and also a great mix of mythologies), I just have to sit down and read the third book.

I started this series a long time ago and there's been like four books or so since I stopped reading.  I plan to catch up someday because it's just so interesting with the mix of a super genius and faeries.

This is one crazy gruesome series and if I remember right I'm up to this book.  It's just such a grim series but I really do want to know how it ends.

Weekend Read

Was very happy to receive an ARC of this and plan to read it this weekend.  It's really good so far, kind of like a vampire dystopian.  It's already going in some unexpected directions so I can't wait to see what happens next.

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.

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.