I'm pleased as punch to be part of the Grimlet tour for
Darynda Jones's teen debut,
Death and the Girl Next Door!
Lorelei's life is a bit odd. Her parents disappeared ten years ago and she's been raised by her grandparents ever since. And Lorelei has visions. Strange visions that she often doesn't understand, like the one she had about the new guy, Jared, fighting a dark, demonic creature. While Lorelei tries to figure that one out, she also realizes that a fellow classmate is stalking her. But that's just the beginning.
Ooh, I don't want to give too much away on this one. This is the first in Darynda's new Darklight series and it's perfect for teen readers and fans of the Charley Davidson books as well. The premise is definitely unique and the characters are great -- plus it's all packaged in Darynda's trademark style!
Here's an excerpt to give you a taste -- and don't forget to check out the giveaways below!
Death
and the Girl Next Door (excerpt)
By
Darynda Jones
I laughed to
myself and headed toward the back of our favorite
and pretty
much only hangout. It sat a mere block from our
alma mater,
Riley High, and we practically lived in our corner
booth. I
ducked past the snack counter and into a very dark back
hall. Judging
by the boxes lining the narrow passage, I’d be taking
my life into
my hands if I risked a journey to the little senorita’s
room without
illumination, so I ran my hand along a
paneled wall.
Where would I be if I were a light switch? Just as
the tips of
my fingers found the switch, a silhouette stepped out
of the shadows
and brushed past me. I startled with a gasp.
“Excuse me,” I
said, placing a hand over my heart.
“Sorry.” The
guy paused slightly before continuing on his
way, and in
that instant, I saw the makings of utter perfection: a
long arm with
shadowy curves that dipped around the fluid
lines of
muscle; a tall, wide shoulder; dark hair that curled playfully
over an ear
and led to a strong, masculine jaw. Something
inside me
lurched, craving a closer look at his face, but he walked
by too fast
and the hall was too dark for me to catch anything
else.
After a
couple of seconds, I realized my hand had brushed
against his
arm. It was enough to send a vision crashing into me,
like the
flash of a nuclear bomb, bright and unforgiving. Tamping
down my
surprise— I hadn’t had a vision in a very long time— I
pressed
shaking fingers to my forehead to wait out the familiar
storm, to see
what treasures would wash ashore in the aftermath.
Yet the
things I saw were unreal, impossible, and certainly not
of this
world: A desolate landscape lay before me with scorched
clouds and a
roiling, violet sky. The air was stagnant and so impossibly
thick,
breathing it took effort. Then I heard the clanging
of metal. I
turned to watch in horror as a being, a boy of no more
than sixteen
or seventeen, fierce and somehow not quite human,
struggled
with a dark, monstrous beast. The boy’s arms corded as
tendon and
muscle strained against the weight of the sword he
wielded. He
slashed again and again, but the monster was fast,
with razorlike
talons and sharp, gleaming teeth, and the boy
knew what
those teeth felt like when they sank into flesh, knew
the blinding
pain that accompanied defeat. But he also knew the
power he
himself wielded, the raw strength that saturated every
molecule of his
body.
Another
herculean effort landed a thrust in the monster’s
shoulder and
continued through its thick chest. The monster
sank under
the boy’s sword with a guttural scream. The boy
looked on
while the beast writhed in pain, watched it grow still
as the life
drained out of it, and somewhere in the back of the
boy’s mind,
he allowed himself to register the burning of his
lungs as he
struggled to fill them with air.
Blood
trickled between his fingers, down the length of his
blade, and
dripped to the powdery earth beneath his feet. I followed
the trail of
blood up to three huge gashes across his chest.
Evidently
three of the monster’s claws had met their mark,
laying the
flesh of its enemy open. I gasped and covered my
mouth with
both hands as the boy spun toward me, sword at the
ready.
Squinting against the low sun, I could almost make out
his features,
but the vision evaporated before I got the chance. A
heartbeat
later, I was back in the dark hallway, gasping for air,
one palm
pressed against my temple, the other against the wall
for balance.
I squeezed my
eyes shut, fought the memory of the vision,
the fear that
summoned the taste of bile in the back of my throat,
the feel of
blood dripping down the boy’s arm.
There are a couple of tour wide giveaways with this one. The first signup below is to win a copy of
Death and the Girl Next Door. The second is for a surprise giveaway. There's plenty of time to enter both.
Good luck!
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