Bitter Snow Series
Description
“We are the rulers of
Midwinter. In the most powerful cold of the winter, in the deepest
dark of the year, we hold sway, and all of your hearth fires cannot
stand against us. We are the winds that howl down the chimneys and
extinguish your candles. We are the northern lights and the hungry
wolves; the bitter crack of ice and the killing frost. The raging
blizzard and the deep, soft, final sleep of those lost forever in the
snow.”
Bitter Snow
is a modern retelling of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” in nine
novellas. It’s my all-time favorite fairy tale, about a girl’s
quest to save her childhood friend from the evil Snow Queen, through
her courage, determination, and the strength of her love for him.
Each volume is about 80-90 pages (32,000 words). The next three
installments are scheduled for release in spring/summer 2014, with
the final three to follow later in the year.
Bitter Snow
Bitter Snow
Volume One
Lauren Sweet
Genre: YA Paranormal
Romance
Date of Publication:
December 5, 2013
Number of pages: 85
Word Count: 32,000
Cover Artist: Jeanne
Gransee Barker
Book Description:
Whatever you do, don’t
open the door.
All Gilly Breslin wants
for her sixteenth birthday is for her best friend Kai to see her as
more than just the girl next door he’s known forever. So when she
receives a mysterious, romantic invitation to meet him at midnight,
she knows she has to go.
But it’s St. Nicholas’s
Eve, the ancient festival of Bellsnichol, when demons roam the dark
winter landscape. Tradition demands that everyone in the tiny town of
Bremerton stay inside, doors shut tight against evil.
Gilly thinks it’s just a
quaint old superstition. She has no idea that a malevolent power has
been unleashed in Bremerton—with Kai as its target. But when she
answers her door at midnight, her romantic date turns deadly…and
she’s drawn into an ancient web of fear and darkness that threatens
everything she loves.
Excerpt Bitter Snow:
At three minutes to
midnight, yells and demon howls erupted right outside my house. Feet
stomped on the porch—lots of them—and then there was a thunderous
knocking on the door.
Damn. It
couldn’t be Kai—he would have slipped off alone to meet me. There
was no way he’d bring a bunch of half-drunk boys to my birthday
celebration. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t been followed.
They howled again,
pounding. Someone whose voice I didn’t recognize yelled, “The
Demons of the Winter night are here! Let us in, sinner, that we may
feed on your wicked soul!”
Oh, crap. That
wasn’t in the script—at least, I’d never heard it before. I
suddenly realized they could see the lights on, but there was no food
or drink on the porch. Was this what they said when there were no
offerings? Or when they found someone home alone—someone who didn’t
have the protection of people around them? I suddenly felt scared.
They’re just
boys, I told myself. Boys I know. It’s only an old
tradition. Nothing to be afraid of.
But I was glad the
curtains were closed and they couldn’t see me. They didn’t know
for sure I was here. If I didn’t answer, they’d get bored and go
away.
There was more
howling, and then I heard them scrabbling at the windows. I suddenly
felt exposed—as if they could sense my presence, somehow. As if
they could smell me.
They pounded again,
and common sense took over. This was stupid. I wasn’t afraid of a
bunch of teenage boys. I walked to the door, put my hands on it the
way Mr. Kehrer had, and shouted, “We have no outcasts here. The
doors of this town are closed to you. You’ve taken our offerings to
feed your hunger. Now begone!”
If they could get
untraditional, so could I.
I finished the
speech and listened. I heard hoarse, guttural laughter, and something
scraped across the door, right under my hands. I almost screamed, but
choked it back. Heavy footsteps shook the porch, and then there was a
crash, as if someone had tripped over one of the planters. I jumped,
but for some reason I didn’t want to take my hands off the door. I
listened for sounds that they were moving off, but heard nothing.
I stood there,
palms against the door, not knowing what to do. There was no way I
was opening the door to look out, and going back across the room to
the couch would make me feel too exposed. I felt like I was in a
horror movie, in the moment of silence when it looked like the
zombies were going away—right before they crashed in all the doors
and windows at once. I held my breath.
No more stomping
came from inside. Instead, there was another knock on the door, right
between my hands. And a voice called out.
Kai! He sounded
hoarse, but it was definitely his voice, with the ripple of laughter
it always had when he was pretending to be serious, and trying to
keep a straight face.
“It’s the
Demons of the Winter Ni-ight!” he called in a weird singsong. “Open
the door, so we can celebrate with feasting!”
Relief shot through
me. My knees suddenly felt weak, the way they do when you’ve been
really scared and then suddenly you’re not. I grabbed for the
doorknob, fumbling a little, still shaky from adrenalin.
“Coming!” I
yelled.
And then I did
something I never should have done.
I opened the door.
Dark
Solstice
Bitter Snow
Bitter Snow
Volume Two
Lauren Sweet
Genre: YA Paranormal
Romance
Date of Publication:
December 21, 2013
Number of pages: 85
Word Count: 32,000
Cover Artist: Jeanne
Gransee Barker
Book Description:
On St. Nicholas’s Eve,
the festival of Bellsnichol, Gilly Breslin opened her door to an
ancient evil. A demon queen who’s slowly destroying Gilly’s best
friend Kai—the only guy she’s ever loved.
But it’s not just Kai.
Every guy who falls in love with the Snow Queen turns evil—and
every guy who sees her falls in love with her.
Gilly’s only hope is to
enlist the secret guardians of Bremerton, who may hold the key to
banishing the Snow Queen and her minions. But with the town erupting
in violence and the demons’ power increasing as the winter nights
grow longer, she’s in a race against time to stop them before it’s
too late.
Excerpt Dark Solstice:
I stood on the snowy walkway, staring in the window. There was a
dining table on one side of the room, and on the other Perchta was
sitting in a velvet-covered chair, her long blond hair spilling over
the back. Kai was standing behind her, brushing her hair, running his
hand over the smooth golden fall after each stroke.
Perchta had a folder in her lap—one of the ones Kai used to hold
his drawings. She was examining a drawing critically, holding it at
various distances and gazing at it. She finally tossed it to the
floor.
“Really,” she said, sounding bored. “Is that the best you can
do?” I could hear her clearly through the open window.
“I’m working on another one,” Kai said eagerly. “You’ll
like it. I just haven’t gotten it quite right yet.”
Perchta caught his hand as it stroked her hair, and ran her fingers
down his palm. She still had the glove over her right hand, but the
left was bare, and I could see that she had the same long, icicle
fingernails she’d had at my house. Not passing as human at the
moment, apparently. And Kai didn’t seem weirded out by this at all,
which freaked me out even more.
Perchta slowly pressed her icicle nail through the center of Kai’s
palm. I had to shove my fist in my mouth to muffle the sound I made.
She pulled the nail free and blood welled out. Kai hadn’t flinched
or made a sound. Perchta smiled like a cat, and licked the blood. Kai
looked dreamy, ecstatic.
Holy God. Was she some kind of vampire?
I didn’t see any fangs, and she wasn’t sucking his blood. Did
evil goddesses drink blood?
Or eat body part soup made from screaming bloody hearts?
On cue, Grandfather Winter came in carrying the tray. “Here we
are,” he said, with a heavy German accent that made the ‘w’
into a ‘v.’ “Something delicious for you.”
I bit down on my mitten. Don’t eat it! I wanted to scream.
At the same time, the smell drifted out the window, and I wanted to
dive through it and eat the soup myself.
Kai ran over and unloaded the tray, which Grandfather Winter took
back to the kitchen. Then Kai started setting up places at the table
like a good little boy. Perchta just lounged in her chair, watching
him. The napkins were cloth, and he folded Perchta’s into the shape
of a rose, then his own into the shape of an elephant. He’d learned
to do that years ago, once he found out that cabin stewards on cruise
ships could fold towels into animal shapes. But he’d never given me
a rose. A napkin one, or any other kind.
When everything was perfect, Perchta finally deigned to get her
princess butt out of her velvet throne and come to the table. Kai
held her chair out for her like a waiter in a fancy restaurant, and
then sat down himself. He took a handful of goldfish crackers and
sprinkled them in his soup. Perchta watched him avidly.
All the fairy tales I’d ever heard came rushing back into my mind,
about what happens when you eat fairy food. You’re stuck in the
fairy realm, and can never escape. But I couldn’t make myself call
out. I kept seeing the old man’s big, powerful hands, squeezing
blood from heart-things and wringing a bird’s neck. If he’d yank
his own eye out, what would he do to me?
A voice came from behind me, on the walk. Gravelly, with a heavy
German accent.
“So. Vat is it we haff here?”
I swung around,
terrified, to see Grandfather Winter standing on the pathway.
Bitter Snow
Volume Three
Lauren Sweet
Genre: YA Paranormal
Romance
Date
of Publication: January 5, 2014
Number of pages: 85
Word Count: 32,000
Cover Artist: Jeanne
Gransee Barker
Book Description:
Winter demons have invaded
the tiny town of Bremerton, and sixteen-year-old Gilly Breslin is the
only one who can banish them. The only problem is, she doesn’t know
how.
Digging through the town’s
historical archives, she and her friend Niko piece together clues to
an ancient ritual to send the demons back to the dark realm they
sprang from.
But the Snow Queen has
plans of her own. Her power is greatest at the darkest time of the
year, and her evil influence is spreading insidiously through the
town, leaving Gilly wondering if there’s anyone left who can be
trusted.
The demons must be
banished by Twelfth Night, or the town will be lost. But to do it,
Gilly may have to sacrifice everything that matters to her—including
her soul.
Excerpt Twelfth Night:
Niko and I dashed
to the back of the church sanctuary and slipped through the door into
the stairwell. At the far end of the hall was an exit door. A way
out. Or a way in. If we didn’t come out soon, Perchta’s demons
would come in after us.
Niko dragged me to
a stop. “What’s the plan?”
“I know a way out
to the roof,” I told him. “There’s a maintenance crawlspace
under the steeple. I don’t think anyone’s been there in years,
except me and Kai. It’s out of the storm, and you might be able to
light the candles and finish the banishing ritual before they find
you.”
“And what will
you be doing?”
“Climbing across
the roof to the bell tower.” In the mother of all blizzards,
surrounded by snow demons, with a three-story drop on every side. But
the church bell was the culmination of the ritual. Without it, the
banishment wouldn’t work.
Just for a second,
I saw a “you must be frickin’ nuts” expression flash across
Niko’s face. Then he gave me his famous troublemaker’s grin, and
said, “Let’s do it.”
“This way,” I
said, starting for the stairs to the choir room.
“One second.”
He went to a
storage cabinet against the wall. He didn’t bother with keys this
time, just kicked the door in and grabbed the tech headsets that were
used during church plays and pageants. He tossed one to me and I
hooked it over my ear, jamming my ski had down over it to keep it
from coming loose. Niko did the same.
Outside, there was
no sound except the moaning of the wind. The silence was almost
scarier than the crashing.
“Come on,” I
said.
Niko was already
moving. We headed up the stairs at a run, emerging into the choir
rehearsal room. I dashed around the battered piano and raised the
sash on the old wooden window. It screeched along its runners.
Snow billowed into
the room, borne on frigid wind. “Fire escape,” I said to Niko.
“Come on, quick. They’re going to surround the building any
minute, thinking we’re trying to get out the back.”
The fire escape was
a black metal staircase that spiraled to the ground, with a landing
on each floor. We climbed out and shut the window behind us, not
wanting to leave evidence of our escape if Perchta’s minions
searched the building.
Below, at ground
level, I could see a set of glowing eyes—one of the demons,
searching for us. I just prayed it wouldn’t occur to them to look
up.
There was a metal
ladder bolted to the brick wall of the church, leading to the edge of
the steep, pitched roof.
I’d done this
climb a bunch of times with Kai, including every Bellsnichol since we
were ten. So this wasn’t the first time I’d done it in the
winter. But I’d never tried it in a raging blizzard.
I went first, to
show Niko how it was done. The worst part was getting from the ladder
onto the roof. I was exposed to the full force of the wind, and it
almost knocked me off the ladder. This wasn’t just any storm—it
had a malevolent spirit in it. This blizzard wanted me dead.
There was nothing
on the roof to grab onto, no traction—just waves of snow blowing
over a slick sheet of old crusted snow. As I tried to pull myself up,
my hands broke through the crust and I fell forward with a jerk,
chest on the roof, legs scrabbling for a foothold. My hands were
trapped, shards of ice cutting into my wrists above my gloves. I
could feel a warm trickle of blood.
Wiggling and
heaving, I tried to get my knee over the gutter and inch myself up.
For a second I thought I wasn’t going to make it, and then I felt
Niko behind me, boosting me. I yanked my hands out of their icy
handcuffs and scrambled flat on the roof.
It was like being
in the Sahara during a sandstorm. Icy grains of snow scoured every
millimeter of exposed skin, making my face feel like it was being
sandpapered. “Gotta go,” said Niko’s voice in my headset.
“They’re spreading out around the building.”
I maneuvered myself
around like a crab until I was facing downwards, and kicked the toes
of my boots hard into the ice crust. It captured them the way it had
my hands, keeping me from sliding headfirst back down the roof.
Niko’s head came
over the gutter, and I reached out to him. He leaned forward and we
clasped wrists. With me pulling, he managed to scramble out onto the
roof. “I hope nobody saw that,” I said into my microphone. There
was no way he could have heard me otherwise, over the scream of the
wind.
“Me too,” Niko
said, his voice quiet in my ear. “But once I start the ritual,
they’ll feel the power and realize where we are. I just hope we
bought ourselves enough time.”
About
the Author:
I was born and raised in
New Jersey, and books were a big part of my childhood. When I was
about three and a half, I became obsessed with a Little Golden Book
about a goat that gets a bucket stuck on its head. Since no one would
read me the goat book as often as I wanted, I learned to read it
myself—and haven’t stopped reading since. It was only inevitable
that I turned to writing, so I could create more of the kind of
stories that I like to read!
My favorite genres are
mystery, sci-fi and paranormal/fantasy. I’ve always been fascinated
by myths and fairy tales, and I love incorporating elements of
ancient lore into modern stories. I have a Master of Fine Arts degree
in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska Anchorage, and I
currently live near Portland, OR, where I am a freelance writer and
editor. My other esoteric skills include astrology, figure skating,
and the ability to do a perfect split.
Website:
www.laurensweet.com
Twitter: @writerlaurens
December 5 Guest blog
The Creatively Green Write at Home mom
December 6 Guest blog
The Book Landers
December 9 Recipe for Mama's Monday Kitchen and review
Cabin Goddess
December 10 Infamous Cabin Goddess Interview
Cabin Goddess
December 11 Interview
Skye Malone
December 12 Spotlight
3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too!
December 13 Interview
Roxanne’s Realm
December 16 Spotlight
Howling Books and Design
December 17 Guest blog
Fang-tastic Books
December 18 Spotlight
Lisa’s World of Books
December 19 spotlight
Soaring Eagle Publicity
December 20 Spotlight
Night Owl Reviews
December 20 Spotlight
Paranormal Romance Fans for Life
December 23 Spotlight
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Krystal's Enchanting Reads ...
December 26 Guest blog
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December 27 Interview and review
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January 2 review
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January 3 Spotlight and review
Curse of the Bibliophile
January 3 review
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January 6 Guest blog and review
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January 6 review
Tanyas Book Nook,
Sounds like an intriguing series. Thanks for the spotlight and the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteelewkf1 at yahoo dot com