Teaser Tuesday: The Outcast Prince

Today I'm sharing a teaser from a brand new book I recently treated myself to. Shona Husk is a new-to-me author, but the description and positive reviews reeled me in. I love a good fae story! And it takes place in Charleston, SC--just about my favorite place in the whole wide world!

From page 19:

Caspian stood opposite her and let his fingertips brush the wood. He didn't have to imagine the parties that went on below; he could see them. Laid over each other in a haze of alcohol, perfume, and skin. If he closed his eyes and concentrated, he'd be able to separate them all instead of just feeling the rush of excitement and the heat of desire. The yearning that lingered long after everyone had left. Just being in the house was crumbling the walls he usually put up against getting lost in the past.


Just One Taste Is All It Takes...

Caspian Mort can feel the history in anything he touches, a gift he inherited from his father, the Crown Prince of Annwyn. Devastated over his ex-wife's infidelity, Caspian has withdrawn from human contact except when working as an antiques dealer.

To Be Forever Lost...

While assessing the contents of the historic Callaway House he encounters the beautiful Lydia Callaway and senses that her home is haunted by a banished fairy. But what does the dangerous exile want? Unbeknownst to Lydia, she's the owner of the last remaining portal to Annwyn—a mirror hidden somewhere in the house. To keep Lydia safe, Caspian will have to divulge the secrets of his heritage, and risk losing his heart again.

Got a teaser?

Leave a comment with a link so I can visit!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page


BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Teaser Tuesday: Where the Rain is Made

Today I'm sharing a teaser from a promising romance I'm getting ready to read for the Romantic Historical Fiction Lovers Blog. I snapped this one up right away because I couldn't resist the premise: Time travel, but this time it's the hero who falls back in time, and he falls into the American West, where he becomes a Cheyenne warrior. I've been following Keta Diablo for a long time on Twitter, but this is the first chance I've gotten to read her, and I can't wait till the workday is over so I can start this tonight!

Here's the first line from page 1:

Ethan Gray rose from his dingy cot for the tenth time and paced the small area of his jail cell. He’d survived another night.

I'm sharing the description too, because it sounds sooo good!

A decadent-looking savage has captured Francesca DuVall and her brother, Marsh. Now she must spend every waking moment planning an escape. She didn’t count on the powerful draw of desire interfering with her scheme in the camp of the brutal Cheyenne dog soldiers.

Ethan Gray is a curator at a national museum...most of the time, but when he travels through time to help his beloved People he becomes Meko, leader of the most revered and feared tribe of the plains. Although their worlds are decades apart Meko can’t resist the dark beauty he kidnapped during a raid. He has many battles to fight but none he wants to win more than the one that will capture Cesca’s heart forever.

From the windswept plains of Colorado and the harsh life of a Dog Soldier to the placid life of a curator their love was fueled by passion and kindled by destiny.

Got a teaser?

Leave a comment with a link so I can visit!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Teaser Tuesday: The Firebird

Today I'm sharing a teaser from The Firebird, the newest release from one of my favorite authors, Susanna Kearsley. My local library won a contest and Susanna is coming tomorrow night for a wine and cheese reception. I can't wait to meet her! I'm about halfway through this novel and loving it because it features characters from two of her previous novels, including my absolute fave: The Winter Sea. This teaser comes from page 118:


     "Ye take your children where ye must, but Anna comes with me."
     When the captain, at his shoulder, shifted slightly on his feet as though to protest, Colonel Graeme said, "She is my nephew's daughter, and her blood is bound to mine, and for the love I bore her father and the love he bore her mother I'll be damned if I will ever let the lassie come to harm. She comes with me."

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Got a teaser?

Leave a comment with a link so I can visit!

Teaser Tuesday + Review ~ HerStory: Fiction Honoring Women's History Month

This week I'm sharing two teasers from a short story collection I recently enjoyed featuring tales of strong women through various historical eras in honor of Women's History Month, edited by my book blogging buddy and author Tara Chevrestt.

From "Riverboat Queen":

     "What can I do for you officers this evening?" A man's voice spoke with a northern accent.
     "We're looking for a woman," replied another.
     "Aren't we all? I have a nice selection of ladies looking to please men of discerning tastes," said the smooth-talking Yankee.
     "We're looking for a murderess and we think she stowed away on your vessel, Captain."

From "In the Company of Spirits":

     People do come into one another's lives for various reasons, often unknown. Sometimes it is love that draws two together. Sometimes it is simply that one idea needs the vessel of another. Does that mean we were merely necessities to one another, to that glorious ideal?
     Perhaps.

Teaser Tuesday: The Caged Graves

Today I've got a teaser from a spooky young adult historical I'm currently reading. Verity Boone leaves the bustle of city life in Worcester, Massachusetts to return to the rural town where she was born in Pennsylvania, where her father still lives, where an arranged marriage awaits her, where there's a mystery surrounding her mother's tragic death, and where whispers of witchcraft and buried treasure abound. This is from page 80:

     "'Tis the Devil's child," he yelled, his fist still raised. Alarmed, Verity let go of Cissy and moved between him and the baby. "The child has no earthly father. My daughters carry the family stain. This one lay with the Devil in the Shades and bears his child!"
     "No, Eli, she lay with Tommy Hicks behind Cahill's granary," Aunt Clara snapped. "Half the town knows that, including Tommy's wife."

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Got a teaser?

Leave a comment with a link so I can visit!

Teaser Tuesday: Beauty and the Blacksmith

Today I'm sharing a teaser from a brand new release from one of my favorite authors. If you're a fan of historical romance and you haven't given Tessa Dare's Spindle Cove series a try, you're missing out! Spindle Cove is a special little seaside resort town run by women, and the series is full of smart dialogue, laughter, and of course, true love. Beauty and the Blacksmith was released today and it features one of the ladies of the town who I'd been hoping would get a full-length novel of her own, the lovely and fragile Diana Highwood, but I'll settle for a novella! Here's my teaser from page 23:


     "Listen," he said, "I know you've been living in some sort of cage. And tonight, it seems you learned you've been holding the key all along. You deserve a bit of rebellion, but I can't be it. I can't be the man you wake up regretting."
     "Then make the kiss good. So I won't have regrets."

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Got a teaser?

Leave a comment with a link so I can visit!

Teaser Tuesday: Dark Triumph

I was a big fan of the first book in the His Fair Assassin series, Grave Mercy. A dark historical featuring carefully trained female assassins serving the god of Death in 15th century France? Bring it! Here's a totally random teaser from book number two, Dark Triumph, which I'm starting today. From page 62:


     For a brief moment, I consider dumping the entire contents into my wine. If I drink all of it, I will never wake up. The thought of going to sleep and never having to deal with d'Albret or the abbess or Julian again is as seductive as a siren's song.
     But what if Death rejects me again? Then I will be forced to lie weak and vulnerable, at the mercy of others while I recover. A most terrifying thought.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Got a teaser?

Leave a comment with a link so I can visit!

Teaser Tuesday: Oleanna

I just finished a lovely historical fiction novel set in Norway at the turn of the twentieth century from indie author Julie K. Rose, and since I'll be posting my review and a giveaway tomorrow as part of the blog tour, I thought I'd give you guys a sneak peek! From page 69:

     Oleanna woke again in the short dark hours around midnight, the birch branches of the elves' wood reaching out, wrapping her in their spindly arms. Her mother and Anna, and her eldest sister Severina, were singing, singing in the distance, the waves of the lake whipped by the cold autumn wind, pounding the shore in a marching funeral dirge. Lifting her head, she could see them, standing in the small boat, arms lifted, palms out: a warning, and a farewell. "Don't stand in the boat," Oleanna whispered.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Got a teaser?

Leave a comment with a link so I can visit!

Teaser Tuesday: Clockwork Princess

It's been so long since I've done a Teaser Tuesday! But I'm trying to get back into the swing of things,so here's a teaser from one of my most anticipated books of the year, Clockwork Princess, the final book in Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices trilogy.

From page 253:

     Tessa struggled upright, fighting a bout of dizziness and nausea. She put her hands on her stomach and tried to breathe deeply, though the fetid air inside the carriage did little to calm her stomach. She put her hands against her chest, feeling the sweat trickle down the bodice of her dress.
     "Not going to be sick are you?" said a rusty voice. "Chloroform does have that side effect, sometimes."

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Got a teaser?

Leave a comment with a link so I can visit!

Vintage Teaser Tuesday: Ladies in Waiting

“Then the first thing I knew Pitt stood up so straight he looked more than ten feet tall, and says he, ‘If you don’t marry me on a Friday, Huldah Rumford, you don’t marry me at all. You’re nothing but a mass of superstition, and if you’re so scared for fear it will rain on your wedding-bonnet on a Saturday, you can stay home under cover the rest of your life, for all I care. I’ll wash the top buggy, put the umbrella under the seat, and take Jennie Perkins; she won’t be afraid of a wetting so long as she gets it in good company.’

“‘You’re right,’ I said, ‘she won’t, especially if the company’s a man, for she’ll be so dumbfounded at getting one of ’em to sit beside her she won’t notice if it rains pitchforks, and so far as I’m concerned she’s welcome to my leavings.’ Then he went out and slammed the kitchen door after him, but not so quick that I didn’t get a good slam on the sitting room door first.”

Three stories of love worth waiting for from the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, together in the same volume for the first time with chapter artwork from Charles Dana Gibson and Charles E. Brock!

I really enjoyed this collection of three charming and heartwarming stories written between 1893 and 1919, featuring plucky, independent heroines who are nonetheless willing to wait a little while for the right man! That excerpt is from the second story in the collection, Huldah the Prophetess.

Visit The Vintage Reader to download it for 99-cents, and check out the articles featuring the stories behind the story!

Vintage Teaser Tuesday: Her Prairie Knight

“I love the wild, where I can ride and ride, and never meet a human being—where I can dream and dally and feast my eyes on a landscape man has not touched. I have lived most of my life in New York, and I love nature so well that I'm inclined to be jealous of her.”


***

Something in Beatrice's throat ached cruelly. It was the truth, and she knew it. He did love her, and the love of a brave man is not a thing to be thrust lightly aside. But it demanded such a lot in return! More, perhaps, than she could give. A love like that—a love that gives everything—demands everything in return. Anything less insults it.

When Eastern society girl Beatrice “Trix” Lansell arrives in Montana for a visit with her brother, she is swept off her feet by the majestic, rugged beauty of the land, by the simplicity and satisfaction of ranch life, and by a handsome cowboy named Keith Cameron. I loved Trix so much I had to share two teasers for her. I just fell in love with Bower's sassy dialogue, rich characters, and gorgeous poetic narrative. Bower lived in Montana at the turn of the 20th century, and she used her real life experiences to craft authentic novels that the Western-loving public couldn't get enough of. And Her Prairie Knight can still hold its own with today's Western romances: There's plenty of conflict as corporations start buying up the free range, plenty of excitement and danger from the elements and criminals, and of course, plenty of romance as a New York socialite and a ruggedly noble cowpuncher fall in love.

Visit The Vintage Reader to download it for 99-cents, and check out the articles featuring the stories behind the story!

Vintage Teaser Tuesday: Rose O' the River

"You frightened everybody almost to death, jumping into the river," chided Rose.

Stephen laughed. "They thought I was a fool to save a fool, I suppose."

"Perhaps not as bad as that, but it did seem reckless."

"I know, and the boy, no doubt, would be better off dead, but so should I be, if I could have let him die. Besides," Stephen argued, "I happened to be nearest to the river, and it was my job."

"How do you always happen to be nearest to the people in trouble, and why is it always your 'job'?"

"If there are any rewards for good conduct being distributed, I'm right in line with my hand stretched out," Stephen replied, with meaning in his voice.

Rose blushed under her flowery hat as he led the way to a bench under a sycamore tree that overhung the water.


That was from page 29 of this sweet romance from the bestselling author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Written in 1905, it's a story of a beautiful girl from a quaint logging village on the mighty Saco River in Maine who is torn when she gets the chance to live the life she's always dreamed of in the cosmopolitan city of Boston, because it means leaving behind the good boy who loves her and wants to make a life with her in the village. With its beautiful descriptions, colorful characters, and sprinkling of humor, Rose O’ the River is a tender homage to a simpler, sweeter way of life, and at its heart is a love story as moving and timeless as the river itself.

Visit The Vintage Reader to download it for 99-cents, and check out the articles featuring the stories behind the story!

Teaser Tuesday: Nell by Jeanette Baker

From page 169 of 337:

Donal O'Flaherty looked down from the knoll where his army was camped on what had once been the lordship of Kildare, the most fertile farmland in all of Ireland. No cattle grazed on the grassland. No villagers or farmers toiled in the fields. There was only blackened wasteland where Henry's troops had torched the plains. He felt a strange melancholy for this land that wasn't his. Yesterday seared by fire, tomorrow stained with blood.

I'm reading an ARC from NetGalley courtesy of Sourcebooks, who is giving this author's backlist a new lease on life. I enjoyed Baker's Irish Lady last year and am enjoying this one as well. Time travel between Northern Ireland: 1970s and 1530s. Very exciting and romantic! Love the Irish!

Vintage Teaser Tuesday: Kilmeny of the Orchard

Once she asked him naively, "Are there many people like you out in the world?"

"Thousands of them," said Eric, laughing.

She looked gravely at him. Then she gave her head a quick decided little shake.

"I do not think so," she wrote. "I do not know much of the world, but I do not think there are many people like you in it."

I loved this sweet romance novella from the author of Anne of Green Gables, in which a wealthy young man from the mainland spends a summer on Prince Edward Island and falls in love with a beautiful local girl, perfect in every way but one: she can't speak. It's a really moving story, I loved the descriptions of life on the island, I loved the characters, and I shed a tear when it was over. And  this enhanced version features full color artwork. A lovely way to while away a spring afternoon!

Vintage Teaser Tuesday: The Prince and Betty

Love comes to some gently, imperceptibly, creeping in as the tide, through unsuspected creeks and inlets, creeps on a sleeping man, until he wakes to find himself surrounded. But to others it comes as a wave, breaking on them, beating them down, whirling them away.

It was so with John.

*****

It seemed to her now that she must always have loved him, but it had been such a vague, gentle thing, this love, before that last meeting—hardly more than a pleasant accompaniment to her life, something to think about in idle moments, a help and a support when things were running crosswise. She had been so satisfied with it, so content to keep him a mere memory. It seemed so needless and wanton to destroy her illusion.

Vintage Teaser Tuesday: The Magnificent Ambersons

     “People who have repeated a slander either get ashamed or forget it, if they're let alone. Challenge them, and in self-defense they believe everything they've said; they'd rather believe you a sinner than believe themselves liars, naturally. Submit to gossip and you kill it; fight it and you make it strong. People will forget almost any slander except one that's been fought.”

*****

     "Your mother's good name!" Amberson cut him off impatiently. "Nobody has a good name in a bad mouth. Nobody has a good name in a silly mouth, either. Well, your mother's name was in some silly mouths, and all you've done was to go and have a scene with the worst old woman gossip in the town—a scene that's going to make her into a partisan against your mother, whereas she was a mere prattler before. Don't you suppose she'll be all over town with this tomorrow?”

Vintage Teaser Tuesday: To Have and to Hold

     “I had not met with much true love or courtesy or compassion in my life. When I saw the danger in which he stood because of me, I told him he might free himself from that coil, might swear to what they pleased, whistle me off, save himself, and I would say no word of blame. There was wine upon the table, and he filled a cup and brought it to me, and we drank of it together. We drank of the same cup then, your Honor, and we will drink of it still. We two were wedded, and the world strove to part us. Which of you here, in such quarrel, would not withstand the world?"

Vintage Teaser Tuesday: When A Man Marries

     

     "Contrary to the general belief, Kit," he began, "I did NOT intend to ask you to marry me."
     I breathed easier. He took a couple of steps toward me and stood with his arms folded, looking down at me. "I'm not at all sure, in fact, that I shall ever propose to you," he went on unpleasantly.
     "You have already done it twice. You are not going to take those back, are you, Max?" I asked, looking up at him.
     But Max was not to be cajoled. He came close and stood with his hand on the back of my chair. "What happened on the roof tonight?" He demanded hoarsely.

Teaser Tuesday: The Juliet Spell

My Teaser, from page 33:

     "Have ye no beer?"
     "How old are you?" I asked him.
     "Sixteen, near seventeen."
     "You have to be twenty-one to drink beer in California," I said.
     "Twenty-one? What the hell for?" he asked. "Are ye savages?"

Hee Hee! Got a teaser?

Leave a link so I can visit :)

From the Back Cover:

I wanted the role of Juliet more than anything. I studied hard. I gave a great reading for it—even with Bobby checking me out the whole time. I deserved the part.

I didn't get it. So I decided to level the playing field, though I actually might have leveled the whole play. You see, since there aren't any Success in Getting to Be Juliet in Your High School Play spells, I thought I'd cast the next best—a Fame spell. Good idea, right?

Yeah. Instead of bringing me a little fame, it brought me someone a little famous. Shakespeare. Well, Edmund Shakespeare. William's younger brother.

Good thing he's sweet and enthusiastic about helping me with the play...and—ahem—maybe a little bit hot. But he's from the past. Way past. Cars amaze him—cars! And cell phones? Ugh.

Still, there's something about him that's making my eyes go star-crossed....

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two "teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page


BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Teaser Tuesday + Review: A Clockwork Christmas

 From the Back Cover:

We Wish You a Steampunk Christmas

Changed forever after tragedy, a woman must draw strength from her husband's love. A man learns that love isn't always what you expect. A thief steals the heart of a vengeful professor. And an American inventor finds love Down Under. Enjoy Victorian Christmas with a clockwork twist in these four steampunk novellas.

My Teasers:

From Crime Wave in a Corset by Stacy Gail:

     Damn it all, in this enlightened age no human should know what it was to be beaten so brutally. Violence against women--even against Cornelia--was something he couldn't stand.
     So speaks the man who swore to all and sundry he would bring about her death in five days' time, he thought.


From This Winter Heart by PG Forte:

     Dario was already running toward the blaze, shrugging out of his coat as he went.
     But it was too late. He knew it was too late.


From Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz:

     "He's always going on about a person defending their rights." She smiled. "'Course, he was talking mining rights, but voting rights for women are just as important. So many women can't fight for themselves, but I can and I will."


From Far From Broken by JK Coi:

     "Did you realize that the operations you agreed to would make me faster than you? Do you know that I can see the sweat beading on your forehead right now with this new eye? That this hand could snap your neck in an instant? You wouldn't even see me move. You wouldn't have time to whisper a plea for your life."

My Thoughts:

This  is an imaginative and enjoyable quartet of novellas, and with the exception of Wanted: One Scoundrel, they're very steamy, too. Crime Wave in a Corset finds master thief Cornelia plotting the most important heist she's ever made in order to save herself from professor Roderick's plans for vengeance. Tasking her to retrieve the item she stole from him months earlier or face death, he's determined to bring the heartless criminal to her knees, but soon discovers Cornelia's not all that she appears in this sexy story of opposites attracting. This Winter Heart is wildly inventive, taking place in the southwest after the Confederacy won the Civil War, thanks in part to Ophelia's father's invention of the automaton soldier. But it was not happily ever after for the celebrated scholar, and after his death Ophelia is destitute, leaving her no choice but to return to Dario, the man who broke her heart years ago when he discovered her biggest secret. And now she has another secret to share with him--their son. I thought this story was the most creative out of the bunch, but Dario's close-mindedness was so infuriating and so insulting to Ophelia, that I had a hard time rooting for the two of them to find their way back to each other.

Esme and Jed from Wanted: One Scoundrel were probably my favorite characters, but their story was the least developed. Their story did have the most clockwork, though, with a lot of neat little inventions making Victorian life easier. Taking place in an Australian town on the verge of explosive growth and prosperity, Esme is fighting for women's rights but finds she needs a man in her corner to sway the members of the gentlemen's clubs. Fresh off the boat from America, Jed is more than willing to play a part in a beautiful woman's plans. But he finds he has a rival for Esme's affections, someone willing to go to any lengths to have Esme's fortune for himself. And last but not least, Far From Broken is a story with so much substance, emotion, and backstory that it would've made a great full-length novel. Colonel Jasper Carlisle is deeply involved in the British intelligence game, but kept that information from beautiful ballerina Calliandra when he wooed her and proposed marriage. Two years later, while Jasper was off on a mission, his enemies targeted his wife, abducting her and brutally torturing her. Suffering horrific injuries, a talented doctor reconstructs Callie, but the resulting body leaves her feeling like a monster, and her psychological injuries may never heal. Submerged in guilt and rage, Jasper spends the months of Callie's recovery tracking down her assailants and exacting his revenge. Finally ready to face his wife, Jasper returns and discovers that she's not ready to face him. He is determined to win her back, but as the couple starts to make headway and Callie finds new strength, an enemy returns to finish the job he started.

Overall, I enjoyed each of these romantic stories, but none of them had enough Christmas in them to make them Christmas stories, in my opinion, and in Wanted: One Scoundrel and Far From Broken, Christmas is barely even mentioned. So that disappointed me, because I was really looking forward to some steampunk Christmas celebrations, and I didn't find those in this collection. But if you're looking for something different in romance, you should definitely check this collection out, It's unlike anything else I've read this year, and that's a good thing! And since it's digital, you've still got plenty of time to download it and read it this Christmas!

My Rating:  3.5 Stars out of 5

*Please Note: This review references an advance digital copy received via NetGalley, and the finished copy may differ. Thouhg I received this book for review, these are my unbiased opnions and I was not compensated in any other way for reviewing this book.