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I really loved C.J. Redwine's debut novel DEFIANCE and thought the whole series was edge-of-your-seat exciting!
When I heard that her next novel was going to be a fairy tale retelling, I wanted to know more. Especially when I heard it was going to be influenced by Snow White. And DRAGONS. Even MORE so after discovering that there would be more fairy tale novels set in this world...which is to be the world of Ravenspire!
I immediately knew I wanted C.J. to take part in this year's Fairy Tale Fortnight even though her book won't release until Winter 2016 (Which means probably between January-March), since the cover reveal will be this summer.
C.J. has graciously shared a special excerpt from THE SHADOW QUEEN to get us all excited!
Make sure you add THE SHADOW QUEEN to your Goodreads TBR!!!
Hopefully for next year's Fairy Tale Fortnight we can have C.J. back because her book will be a real live THING by then!!!
TEASER FROM
THE SHADOW QUEEN
by C.J. Redwine
from Balzer+Bray//HarperTeen
[Out Winter 2016]
This teaser is from the first time we meet the prince in THE SHADOW QUEEN!
Prince Kolvanismir Arsenyevnek, second born prince in the kingdom
of Eldr and recent expellee of Eilers’s Military Academy (for what would surely
go down in the record books as the single greatest prank to ever have been
pulled by a senior cadet) was trying to have the time of his life.
“More mead!” he roared over the deafening noise of a party that
had been in full swing in an unused storeroom within the castle’s basement for
over an hour.
Servants scurried to the far corner of the room, where an
ever-shrinking stack of barrels waited for their turn to be emptied into the
mugs of Kol’s friends, acquaintances, and—he squinted in the flickering light
of the torch-lit chandelier, his stomach sinking—his younger sister.
His parents were already going to be furious that he’d been
expelled (for the third time, though the first was for such a minor infraction,
Kol figured it hardly counted) and that he’d chosen to celebrate this
accomplishment by depleting the castle’s supply of spiced mead. If he added
“got his little sister drunk” to the long list of
things-Kol-does-that-disappoint, he’d probably be sent to the front lines of
the ogre war before he could get the words “I’m sorry” out of his mouth.
As he moved across the dusty storeroom floor, dodging raised mugs
and bodies writhing in time to the thunderous beat of the drum line Kol had
hired with the last of his monthly spending stipend, two of his best friends
flanked him. Raum was still dressed in his cadet’s uniform, bronze epaulets and
all, but Mik had changed into a dress with dainty flowers and enough ribbons to
make the royal seamstress jealous.
“Is that Brig?” Mik pointed toward the short girl with auburn hair
who had her back turned to them. “Kol, I think that’s Brig.”
“I know.” Kol muscled his way past a fellow senior and quickened
his pace as Brig held out her mug to a passing servant.
“When your parents get back, they are going to kill you for this,”
Raum said.
“I know.”
Kol reached Brig as his sister was raising her mug to her lips.
Snatching it from her hands, he said, “I’ll take that.”
She glared at him, her golden eyes a match for his. “Give it back,
Kol.”
He held it high above his head as she grabbed for it. She settled
for smacking his shoulder instead.
“That’s mine.”
He started to laugh, but quickly swallowed it at the look of hurt
that flashed across her face. “It’s yours when you turn seventeen, and not a
single day before.”
“I’m nearly seventeen.”
He raised a brow while beside him, Mik crossed her arms over her
chest, and Raum began tapping his boots against the floor. “You’re fourteen.”
“Close enough.” Brig’s tone was full of bravado and longing.
Kol remembered when he’d first sneaked into one of his brother’s
parties, hoping to pass as far more grown up than he was. He’d learned two
things that day. One, feeling grown up enough to guzzle mead in a dark corner
until one’s brother caught you wasn’t the same as being grown up enough to keep
the mead down for any respectable length of time. Kol still shuddered when he
remembered that particular bout of sickness. And two, Ragvanisnar truly did
throw the most boring parties in the entire world. Who else would include a
chess tournament and a dramatic reading of Finlerbenske the Great but
forget to hire a band or invite any girls?
Brig reached for the mug again, and Mik deftly snatched it from
Kol’s hand and disappeared into the crowd. Before Brig’s pout could finish
forming, Kol looped his arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the
storeroom door.
“You know the law, Brig. No mead until you come of age. No parties
where I have to constantly watch to make sure you aren’t sneaking some behind
my back, either.” He squeezed her close to take the sting out of his words.
“Besides, I’m going to be in enough trouble as it is. Do you really want to be
the final torch in my funeral pyre?”
She sighed heavily, but didn’t resist as he reached for the
doorknob. “I just wanted to try it.”
“You have your aerial defense exam tomorrow, right?”
She shrugged.
“I’ll let you in on a secret. We Draconi might be able to shift
into our dragons while hung over, but flying in a straight line is torture, and
Master Eiler is going to ask much more of you than a simple straight line
flight. You can’t pass your exam if you drink tonight.”
“And you can’t pass your final cadet exams when you’ve been
expelled.” She smirked at him.
He doubled over, clutching his chest. “You wound me, Brig.”
She rolled her eyes. “Wait until Father hears about this. He was
only able to get you reinstated the last two times because he and Master Eiler
are friends.”
“And because sky forbid we have a prince in the family who doesn’t
graduate from Eiler’s.” He deepened his voice to mimic his father’s. “With
honors. With honors upon honors.”
Brig’s face softened, and she wrapped a hand around his. “You
could graduate with honors. You’re smarter than everyone else in your class.”
“I beg to disagree.” Raum sounded offended.
Kol smiled, though it felt stretched too tight as Brig’s words
found their mark and burrowed deep. Leaning close, he said, “Why show them what
they’ve never bothered to see?”
Before she could answer, he straightened and said sternly. “Now,
off to your rooms where you will study for your exam, or paint your talons, or
do whatever it is fourteen-year-old Eldrian princesses do when they aren’t busy
trying to sneak some of their brother’s mead.”
“Fine.” She gave him one last glare, though there wasn’t much heat
behind it. “But I’m only going because you’re already in enough trouble, and I
feel sorry for you.”
He opened the door with a flourish, though her pity scraped at
something he didn’t want to acknowledge. How was it possible that his
fourteen-year-old sister could see him so clearly and his own father never saw
him at all?
As Brig disappeared down the hall, Kol wiped his expression clean
and turned back to the party. He grabbed the closest mug, drained it, and
shouted “More music! More dancing! More mead!”
He had five hours before his parents returned from giving Rag a
tour of the warfront and called him to task for his actions.
He had no intention of showing up for that conversation
sober.
~*~
O F F I C I A L I N F O:
Title: THE SHADOW QUEEN
Author: C.J. Redwine
Release Date: 2016 TBA
Publisher: Balzer+Bray//HarperCollins
SUMMARY:
*from Publisher's Weekly*
[The official synopsis isnt' live yet!]
...a dark fantasy inspired by Snow White. A princess has lived in hiding from her stepmother for years, until the false queen sends out a new kind of huntsman – the crown prince of a nation of powerful dragon shifters, desperate enough to save his people to ally himself with even an evil usurper.
[The official synopsis isnt' live yet!]
...a dark fantasy inspired by Snow White. A princess has lived in hiding from her stepmother for years, until the false queen sends out a new kind of huntsman – the crown prince of a nation of powerful dragon shifters, desperate enough to save his people to ally himself with even an evil usurper.
~*~
~*~
So what do you think of the teaser for
THE SHADOW QUEEN?
Are you as excited to read it as I am!?
THE SHADOW QUEEN?
Are you as excited to read it as I am!?
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