Author:
Laury
Falter
Original
release date: April
2012
Genre:
Paranormal Romance
Age
Group:
Young Adult
Event
organized by:
AToMR Tours
Buy
Links:
Barnes
and Noble
-
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/residue-laury-falter/1110162509?ean=2940014509992
Book
Description:
When
Jocelyn Weatherford is whisked away from a preparatory academy in
upstate New York to live with her extended family in New Orleans, she
is unprepared to encounter the dangers awaiting her. Yet even as she
is thrust into an unfamiliar world of witches and voodoo magic, the
greatest threat of all may be the boy she has fallen for.
While
handsome and charming, he is also a Caldwell...a member of the family
the Weatherford's have been feuding with for centuries. As their
forbidden love grows it becomes the volatile spark that forever
changes their world and everyone in it.
Included
on the Following Goodreads Lists: Best Supernatural Series, Young
Adult Romance, Books That Should Be Made Into Movies, Favorite Books,
Books That Should Get More Attention, Best Female Characters from YA
and Children's Fantasty and Science Fiction
About the Author:
Laury
Falter is the bestselling author of the Guardian Trilogy (Fallen,
Eternity, & Reckoning). When she isn't writing, she likes to take
her two stray dogs for walks and enjoy date nights with her husband.
Laury's
debut novel, Fallen, hit Amazon's Top 100 list in three genres and
the remaining two books in the trilogy made showings in the Top 100
of the same genres as well. With a new series available, Residue,
about a teenage girl who learns she is a witch and falls in love with
a boy from a feuding family, her reader following continues to grow
rapidly.
Author’s
links:
Website:
lauryfalter.com
Twitter
page: twitter.com/LauryFalter
Facebook
page: facebook.com/pages/Laury-Falter/196033543803745
Goodreads
page: goodreads.com/author/show/4061922.Laury_Falter
Excerpt:
The
directions I followed, took me to a quiet side street lined with worn
buildings, and more specifically, to an unmarked, weathered door
along a row of doors looking remarkably the same.
Without
the typical store sign or even a window to peer in, I didn’t know
whether I might walk into someone’s house. To be on the safe side,
I knocked.
The
door rattled loosely against its frame and then settled. A few
moments passed and no one came, so I knocked again. Again, there was
no answer.
Wondering
if the directions were wrong, I tried the door handle. It was
unlocked, which almost surprised me. Opening it a crack, I peered
inside.
While
it was incredibly dim inside, lit only by candles held in wall
sconces and open lanterns hanging from the ceiling, I could see that
it was actually a store. Disheveled and poorly laid out with towering
wooden bookshelves stuffed with merchandise, I couldn’t see all
that far inside.
“Hello?”
I called out without receiving an answer back.
Figuring
they may be in the storage room, if one even existed, I stepped
inside.
“Hello?”
No
one responded so I moved farther down the aisle.
This
was no regular OfficeMax or OfficeDepot. It didn’t even resemble a
college bookstore. In the place of textbooks on biology, calculus,
and the English dictionary there were witch almanacs, spell books for
solitary witches, and tomes on spells and rituals for every purpose.
Where pens and paper should have been, there were tarot card stacks
and candles of every color, style, and size imaginable. Canisters of
countless herbs, stones, and gems replaced impulse-purchase bins of
calculators and keychain flashlights.
What
exactly am I supposed to buy in here? I wondered.
Then,
just as I reached the cash register, which looked like an antique
ready for a museum, the store’s front door opened, allowing in a
thin stretch of light down the side aisle. I listened as the store’s
most recent patron strolled toward the back, where I now stood when
the scratchy voice of an older woman drew my attention away.
She
hobbled out from the back room, hunched and bracing herself against
the counter as she walked.
“What
you lookin’ for?” she asked.
Hesitating,
I didn’t know quite how to explain it and then settled on the most
basic of answers. “My school supplies.”
She
lifted her chin in a brief gesture of acknowledgement and then
shuffled down the long counter, stopping at nearly the end of it.
From there, she withdrew a clothed bundle, tied with twine at the
top. Rather than carrying it back to me, she dragged it, drawing up
dust where it had settled. Leaving it before me, she then held out
her hand for payment.
“Eighty-five
dollars.”
I
placed the cash in her palm and she dropped it in a canvas bag
beneath the register, without bothering to count it.
“You
got the potent kind,” she stated.
“The
what?”
“They’re
dangerous,” she warned. “Watch yerself with them.”
Interestingly,
I wasn’t the least bit surprised that whatever the brisk woman
sleeping across the hall from me had ordered on my behalf wasn’t
safe.
“All
right,” I shrugged. I wasn’t quite sure what was in the bundle or
how I should treat them to prevent inflicting harm.
Then
several things happened simultaneously. Just as I turned around to
leave, the person waiting patiently in line behind me spoke. And just
as he spoke, the room broke into chaos.
The
wall sconce candles flickered first. Next the tarot cards lifted from
their spot on the shelves as if a brisk wind had picked up and
carried them, disheveled, through the air. Then heavier things began
to move. Candles darted off the shelves like projectiles, hitting the
walls with enough force to leave wax marks. Books slid off and
slammed to the floor or against the bookshelves opposite them. The
ceiling lanterns swung fiercely from side to side, slamming against
the whitewash to send down chunks of plaster. The glass canisters
banged against each other threatening to break.
That
was when I felt arms around me, pulling me to the ground, and a body
covering me, solid and secure. My top hat was gone and hands now
covered my head with elbows pressed against my ears, dimming the
sound of the destruction around us. With my face covered by my own
hands and my body in a crouched position, only my legs were exposed.
I
had to give the person credit. Despite the devastation going on
around us, nothing touched me.
It
raged for several seconds, prolonging the demolition of this elderly
woman’s store. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, it came to a
screeching halt.
My
protector’s hands freed my ears and the body stretched across my
back moved away. That was when I heard the voice. It was comforting,
concerned, and a little uncertain. I was instantly drawn to it,
realizing a ridiculous urge to listen to it endlessly. I couldn’t
help feeling foolish, especially since his question was so
understandable given the circumstances.
“Are
you hurt?” he asked.
I
felt a hand, warm and firm, on my shoulder, coaxing me to react.
Releasing
the breath I’d been holding, I stood and blinked a few times,
clearing the haziness in my head.
“Never
been better,” I muttered and when he handed my top hat back I heard
him chuckle.
A
quick look around told me that the elderly woman had survived
unharmed but her store had not. Every piece of merchandise now lay
broken, littering the floor.
Without
any warning whatsoever, she launched in to a tirade, speaking rapidly
and in French, a language I hadn’t learned well enough yet. Then
she stopped suddenly, to my surprise, with a chuckle, wide eyed and
beaming.
I
chalked it up to delirium at seeing her store destroyed at some
unknown phenomenon until her other patron standing beside me spoke.
“Huh…”
he mumbled.
“What?”
I asked, still battling the surreal state I was in, watching as the
woman shrugged and disappeared into the back room still chuckling.
Then
he chuckled to himself, surprised. “She said she’s never seen
this before. Apparently she’s read about it and been told of it but
hadn’t witnessed it herself.”
“Witnessed
what?” I asked, taking my sack of school supplies.
He
laughed again, farther down in his chest. “Well…” He cleared
his throat uncomfortably. “She thinks she just saw the introduction
of two fated lovers.”
“Really?
Who?” I asked, my head swiveling back and forth now, profoundly
intrigued and looking for the people they were referring to, the two
whom they believed to be the cause of this mess.
He
hesitated and then spoke deep, firm, and with certainty. “She meant
us.”
Giveaway:
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The book looks good. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna @ http://emaginette.wordpress.com
OoO witches voodoo and magic..sweet!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds good and I love the cover.
ReplyDeleteGeez, TO MANY FLIPPING BOOKS! I wanna read them all! I was just saying to someone today that I wish I could just 'absorb' a book. Like put my hand on it and just know the entire story. The idea might need some tweaking for me to fully enjoy the 'read', but I need SOMETHING to help me get through them all!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds awesome!
Sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing ;)
ReplyDeleteI am so with you on that one Candace!! That ability would be awesome!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful cover and great excerpt. I just love books set in NO. That might be my favorite setting for a book, after CA.
ReplyDelete