Title: Book Of Shade
Series: Shadeborn
Author: K.C. Finn
Publisher: Starstorm
Release Date: 21st March 2015
BLURB supplied by Sparkle Book Tours
Lily Coltrane’s to-do list for starting
university life is pretty simple:
1. Make friends
2. Meet a cute guy
3. Survive her first year in Modern
History
In the little English town of Piketon
this seems more than achievable, so much so that Lily even joins The
Illustrious Minds Literary Society, an extra-curricular club that promises a
truly unique social experience. What Lily doesn’t bank on are the society’s
monthly visits to the mysterious Theatre Imaginique at the edge of town, a dark
venue that houses the most obscure cavalcade of carnival performers she has
ever laid eyes on.
Stranger still is the emergence of the
theatre’s enigmatic proprietor Lemarick Novel, a stupendous showman with a
frosty wit who never seems to smile, and who raises a plethora of questions in
Lily’s fearful mind. How does he levitate with no sign of wires or mirrors? Why
do the lightning bolts that shoot from his hands look so real? And why, of all
the people in the theatre, do his pale eyes keep locking on hers?
The answers to this and more lie buried
in heritage and blood. The Book of Shade is opening, and Lily Coltrane will
read it, whether she wants to or not.
PURCHASE LINKS
EXCERPT
“Ladies and gentlemen, your raucous
applause, if you please, for the sensational Monsieur Novel!”
The audience obeyed the MC’s command,
but when Baptiste had vacated the spotlight, nobody came to the stage. It
wasn’t until the last clap died, some moments later, that Lily heard footsteps
clicking along the old theatre boards. The illusionist stepped from total
blackness into the shadow at the edge of the stage, and even craning her head
only afforded Lily the frame of a man in a long Victorian coat. The tense air
in the dated theatre was thick enough to be sliceable, and every spectator
breathed in their portion of that heavy air, in anticipation of the moment when
the odd Monsieur would step into the spotlight.
Novel did not disappoint them. A shock
of lightning appeared from nowhere at all and in the split-second that it
flashed he appeared for the waiting patrons to see. It seemed as though the contents
of the theatre gasped as a single being, even those who must have seen him
before were transfixed in shock. His eyes were cast into black, shadowy sockets
by the bright white spotlight pouring down from above. Skin pale as a spectre’s
was exaggerated by the darkly drawn eyebrows arching into points above those
gloomy hollows. His lips too were black as coal, a superb effort in stage
makeup that reminded Lily of a haunting cross between a French mime and a
black-and-white movie serial killer. She didn’t know which to be more afraid
of.
Perhaps more astonishing still was
Monsieur Novel’s hair. It was long enough to be combed behind his ears, though
it did not grace his neck, and in the dusty spotlight it appeared to be totally
white. It was a strange whiteness, for even through his make-up, Lily thought
that the gentlemen couldn’t be more than ten years her senior. The
illusionist’s black mouth stretched into a serious sneer as he surveyed the
awestruck crowd. He held out one pale hand with a slow and deliberate grace.
Tiny blue sparks grew in his palm as he swept the hand from left to right in
welcome.
“Good evening,” he purred in the darkest
of tones.
And this time the lightning came
straight from his palm when it exploded into life.
The dumbstruck crowd suddenly applauded
in a blast of appreciation, but Lily’s hands remained still, clutching the
sides of her chair. Novel stalked the very edge of the stage like a patient
predator, the invisible orchestra striking up as the beams of lightning shot
about the cavernous space in time to the music. He appeared to be controlling
them, but his thin frame and well-fitted suit left no space in which to hide
any apparatus on his body. Occasionally, he seemed to lose control of the
larger forks of electricity which shot out towards the audience in
frighteningly loud snaps. The patrons flinched as the whip of energy crackled
above them.
All the while Monsieur Novel’s
expression remained dark and thoughtful. Not once did his lips rise into a
smile. They simply sneered continually at the power he was controlling, parting
for him to suck in precisely choreographed breaths when he turned in his
display of perfect grace, avoiding every spot the forks could hit. A few
patrons in the front row, perhaps those who had never seen him before, were
starting to panic at the multitude of power growing rapidly on the stage before
them, with no reasonable explanation in sight. It looked like a major fire
hazard for sure. One of them tried to get up.
“I would kindly recommend you stay in
your seat for this performance, good sir,” Novel said loudly over the buzz of
the lightning strikes. “It could be rather nasty for you, if you don’t.”
There was something foreign lurking in
the shadows of his accent. Perhaps he had been living in England a long time,
but he definitely wasn’t from around these parts. His voice had an amused kind
of youth in it that didn’t suit his skeletal pre-modern look, and though he
gazed upon the terrified patron as he sat back down in his chair, he still
didn’t let the mirth in his warning show on his face.
All at once the lightning stopped. Novel
stood in the dead centre of the stage, looking down at his feet with his
shadowed eyes. Lily caught her breath as the flicker of hot white energy grew
beneath his feet, sparking and growing into a ball of buzzing power. He thrust
out his pale hands, raising them upwards as he slowly began to levitate into
the air. Lily could see no wires to hoist him, and his clothes didn’t move as
though they were under any strain. He simply rose up in a slow, straight line
as the lightning ball grew larger and larger in the space where he’d been
standing. In his ascent, his face was lit from under his chin and Lily finally
saw a pair of pale blue eyes glowing out of the black sockets on his face.
And they glowed directly at her.
She started in her seat, shocked to find
his gaze so blatantly fixed. She would have sworn the floating man had raised
one of his black eyebrows at her, but a moment later the lightning ball
exploded with a deafening crack that made the entire contents of the theatre
sink down into their seats and clutch their heads in wild panic. When Lily
looked up again, Monsieur Novel was gone. Someone behind Lily broke the shocked
silence of the audience by starting to applaud. Gasps erupted as some of them
looked beyond her to the source of the clap, then suddenly everyone was giving
an ovation.
Lily craned her head around, almost
jumping out of her skin when she realised it was Monsieur Novel sitting in the
seat directly behind her. He had started his own applause. He sat with a casual
grace, an elegant hand accepting the praise as he slowly got back to his feet
and straightened out his beautiful clothes. Once more his frosty blue eyes
snapped to Lily. She wanted to look away, but it just didn’t happen. Novel
inclined his head to the rapt audience without breaking his stare, then swiftly
retreated up the theatre aisle, his long coat billowing in another invisible
gust of air.
Series: Shadeborn
Author: K.C. Finn
Publisher: Starstorm
Release Date: 4th April 2015
Shadeborn: Volume Two provides a unique
insight into the past of some of your favourite Book Of Shade characters,
through two spine-tingling novellas:
The Bloodshade Encounters shows readers
where present and past collide, as they learn the dark history of how the
charming and enigmatic Baptiste Du Nord came to know Lemarick Novel. Prepare
for vampires on the streets of revolutionary Paris, and the day when Novel
first laid eyes on the Theatre Imaginique. Amidst all this, a dark secret about
Novel is unearthed, one which may threaten his relationship with Lily in the
future.
The Songspinner begins with the
present-day Salem Cross, now weak and powerless, as the old shade looks back on
his life, and the dirty deals he made to try to make a success of himself.
Witch-trials loom in Salem’s murky past, and werewolves roam the streets of
Victorian London, not to mention a certain dark lady who would one day become
the mother of the heroic Novel. Can Salem face the demons of his past, or bear
the thought of a future with no magic? Or will he decide that the end of his
time has come?
PURCHASE LINKS
Series: Shadeborn
Author: K.C. Finn
Publisher: Starstorm
Release Date: Late May 2015
When humans break a mirror, the idea of
seven years of bad luck is little more than superstition. But, when it happens
to a magical being like a shade, that quaint old saying takes on a terrifying
new reality. As Lily Coltrane looks down at the smashed remains of Lemarick
Novel’s mirror, she can already feel that her luck is about to run dry, even
though her illusionist boyfriend is certain that he can protect her. With a
suicidal Salem Cross on red alert and newly-disabled best friend Jazzy to look
after, Lily’s not so sure that Novel is right.
Lily’s suspicions will be confirmed in
this, her second year of university, as the quiet English town of Piketon is
flooded with a new array of supernatural beings, including Jeronomie Parnell, a
gifted potioneer who seems to have solutions for Salem and Jazzy’s conditions.
Suspicion fills the air at the old Theatre Imaginique, as Lily uncovers yet
more secrets about the people she thought she knew. The question of who to
really trust will bombard Lily’s mind, especially after she is introduced to
the horror that is the House of Novel, and is forced to question the bloodline
that her new true love comes from.
It seems like having a soul mate isn’t
quite the ideal that Lily dreamed it would be, and she can only hope that The
Book Of Shade will give her the power to get through the trials that she’s
about to face. And as for the even greater darkness, slowly rising in the depths
of that ruined mirror? Well, that’s quite another story for Lily to unfold.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
K. C. Finn was born and raised in
Cardiff, South Wales, where her love for storytelling grew at a precociously
young age. After developing the medical condition M.E. / C.F.S., Kim turned to
writing to escape the pressures of disabled living, only to become hooked on
the incredible world of publishing.
As an author for Clean Teen Publishing
and Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Press, Kim spends most of her time
locked in the writing cave with an obscenely large mug of tea. When not
writing, she can be found studying for her MA in Linguistics, watching classic
British comedy, or concocting evil schemes in the secret laboratory in her
attic.
AUTHOR LINKS
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