Title: The Chalice and the Crown
Author: Kassandra Flamouri
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Release Date: 5th June 2020
BLURB supplied by Silver Dagger Book Tours
Driven, talented, and determined to live up to her family's fame, Sasha Nikolayeva is ballet’s crown princess. But just when Sasha lands her most prestigious role yet, she falls prey to a host of disturbing neurological symptoms that threaten to end her career and her very life. As her mind and body deteriorate, Sasha spirals into a nightmare world where beauty and cruelty exist in the same breath and villains rule from the shadows.
Driven, talented, and determined to live up to her family's fame, Sasha Nikolayeva is ballet’s crown princess. But just when Sasha lands her most prestigious role yet, she falls prey to a host of disturbing neurological symptoms that threaten to end her career and her very life. As her mind and body deteriorate, Sasha spirals into a nightmare world where beauty and cruelty exist in the same breath and villains rule from the shadows.
In the glittering, sharp-edged City of Roses, Sasha is no princess. She’s a
thrall, a slave. Thousands like her suffer in cursed silence while citizens
enjoy the splendor of the City, blissfully unaware that their servants are
anything more than living dolls enchanted to do their bidding. But the City's
slavers know the truth, and they are always watching. One misstep could cost
Sasha her life—or her soul.
Even as she endures the violence and indignity of captivity, Sasha can't help
being drawn to the beauty of her nightmare world and the underground rebels who
offer her friendship, shelter, even love. Before Sasha can break her chains for
good, she'll need choose between the life waiting for her at home and the
countless lives she could save if she stays. To choose a nightmare over her
real life, her future, would be madness...but maybe a little madness is just
what it takes to change the fate of a city built on lies.
PURCHASE LINKS
EXCERPT
“The
legends say that in the earliest days, we lived and died in darkness and
despair.” Luca’s voice tickles my ear, and, though he drops his hand, he stays
close. “Farmers toiled in the fields without respite, never tasting the fruits
of their labor. Blacksmiths forged tools and weapons, never toys or lovers’
trinkets. Housewives gave birth to children who grew too quickly into
adulthood, never knowing laughter. Soldiers killed and were killed without
mercy—without knowing why, even. But for all their toiling and striving, they
were pale, listless, fearful beings. There was no beauty or courage in the
world, only survival. Only hardship.
“But
one day, a young blacksmith dreamed of something better. He dreamed of the
three Graces: Joy, Passion…and, shining like a beacon, her arms around the
other two, Beauty. When the blacksmith awoke, he wept, for now he knew all that
his life lacked. He wept a lifetime of tears that had never been shed, and,
when his tears ran dry, he fell to his knees and prayed.
“When
the blacksmith rose, he went to his forge and fashioned a chalice from gold—a
soft, silly metal that served no useful purpose. So he had been told, and so he
had believed until he dreamed of Beauty. When the chalice was completed, he
went to the vineyards, where the vintner made vinegar to preserve food, clean
wounds, quench thirst—useful, practical, necessary tasks, of course. But the
blacksmith told the vintner of his dream and showed him the golden chalice, and
the vintner in turn showed him what he had discovered: His casks of vinegar, if
opened early, produced a liquid with a pleasant taste and even more pleasant
warmth.
“The
blacksmith and the vintner filled the chalice with wine and offered it to the
villagers, who began to laugh and then to sing. When the chief’s suspicious
soldiers came to investigate, they, too, drank the wine. One soldier after
another faltered in the march, and they began to dance.
“And
so the chalice performed its miracles, passing from hand to hand, intoxicating
the people not only with drink but with joy and wonder. ‘There is beauty in the
world,’ one villager would say. ‘Drink deep.’ ‘Life is sweet,’ the next might
say. ‘Drink deep.’ The villagers drank deep from the chalice and began to
expect more from life than mere survival. As they sought out beauty and
amusement and love, they also found genius and passion for good works, for
excellence, for innovation. They found their Gifts.
“The
villagers transformed their huts into houses, then villas. The villages grew
into towns, then cities, then a kingdom. To this day we gather in the Temple of
Graces to seek out the beauty in the world and in ourselves, and every year we
celebrate the blacksmith and his Chalice of Gifts.”
Luca
falls silent. I blink, still entranced by his story and dazzled by the stars.
Finally, I look at him and feel a smile spread across my face.
“I
love it,” I tell him, and it feels like something more, something like… I love you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In retrospect, I probably should have
realized a lot earlier that I was meant to be a writer. Even as early as
kindergarten, I struggled to pay attention in class because the outside world
was just not as interesting as what was going on in my head. By that time, I
had already made my storytelling debut ("Squirm the Worm," delivered
at age three) and had spent countless hours playing make-believe with my 284
stuffed animals, every one of whom had a name and detailed backstory.
Though I quickly learned to pay attention (or at least look like I was paying
attention) during school hours, I retained a tendency to daydream and a love of
stories. When I left high school to attend the Sunderman Conservatory at
Gettysburg College, I learned to translate both emotional and programatic
content into music. Now, as an exam prep and college essay tutor, I have the
time and flexibility to really dig into fiction again. My work has appeared
online and in print in such venues as Timeless Tales Magazine and Quantum Fairy
Tales.
GIVEAWAY
$20 Amazon Gift Card
No comments:
Post a Comment