Title: Ashes & Ice
Author: Rochelle Maya Callen
Release Day: February 4th, 2013
Genre: Young Adult
Blitz Host: Lady
Amber's Tours
Synopsis:
She is desperate to remember.
He is aching to forget.
Together, they are not broken.
But together, one may not survive.
Jade wakes up with no memory of her past and blood on her hands.
Plagued by wicked thoughts, she searches for answers. Instead, she finds a boy who doesn't offer her answers, but hope. But sometimes, when nightmares turn into reality and death follows you everywhere, hope is not enough.
LUST. LOVE. LOSS. Sometimes, all that is left are Ashes and Ice
He is aching to forget.
Together, they are not broken.
But together, one may not survive.
Jade wakes up with no memory of her past and blood on her hands.
Plagued by wicked thoughts, she searches for answers. Instead, she finds a boy who doesn't offer her answers, but hope. But sometimes, when nightmares turn into reality and death follows you everywhere, hope is not enough.
LUST. LOVE. LOSS. Sometimes, all that is left are Ashes and Ice
Character Interview!
Lavering:
Thanks for being on my blog! I am excited to interview you all. I know my
audience is dying to get to know you better. So Jade, in the book you watch a
lot of movies, what is your favorite one? Or do you have a whole genera you
like?
Jade:
Yes, I love movies! I really don’t like horror movies, I get plenty of that in
my life. I enjoy romantic comedies because I like to daydream about being the
leading lady with a normal life with normal problems. You know, not dead people
haunting me problems… just regular ol’ guy won’t call me back problems.
Lavering:
I love romantic comedies, too! So, how many movies did you watch before you
felt comfortable with using the modern slang you were unaccustomed to using?
Jade:
127. Trust me… a few of those weren’t too great. You should have seen my very
short-lived “Classic” phase. Clara made me realize that was weird pretty
quickly…
Lavering:
Lol. Yup some of those “Classics” are outdated. Switching gears, I think that
your ability to see Connor’s aura is awesome! Can you see other peoples aura’s,
too? Does it ever get old or distracting?
Jade:
Never gets old! It is exhilarating! An amazing adrenaline rush. I see hints of
color around other people sometimes, but it is so faint compared to Connor’s
that I barely notice it. Connor’s aura is distracting… but I love it.
Lavering:
That is so cool. Thanks Jade! It has been so fun getting to know you better.
Next, I have the ever so handsome, Connor, with me here. So Connor, I hear that
you love to run. What makes running so exhilarating for you? And how long have
you loved running?
Connor:
*Blushes* Um, thanks for having me. I started running with my dad when I was
12. I get a high when I am running… everything—all my worries, problems—are
gone when I am running and I like to just hear the sound of my feet against the
pavement and feel the breath in my lungs. I am in my own world when I am
running.
Lavering:
Did you know you light up like a beacon of green light when you run?
Connor:
Haha! Um, no. My coach failed to tell me about that. J
Lavering:
*smiles secretively before resuming the interview* Your father loved ancient
languages. Do you have that same love of languages? Do you speak a foreign
language?
Connor:
I don’t… I never really had an interest which is probably why dad never talked
much about his projects with me. But… recently, I’ve been, I dunno, seeing…and
hearing…things I shouldn’t understand… but do…somehow ***PRODUCTION: Confused?
Watch out for Ashes and Ice #2***
Lavering:
That is really intriguing. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.
Conner, thanks so much for sharing with us. Next, I have the dashing Angel,
Giovann. Welcome. My first question for you is as a protector, was it hard to
protect something that was also evil?
Giovanni:
**Furrows brow, clenches jaw** Who are you? Who sent you? Is this on record?
**Looks around and narrows eyes at camera man**
Lavering:
Ummm… **Shifts uncomfortably*** Do you like Earth? Do you miss anything about
it when you leave?
Giovann:
**Crosses arms, glares, crinkles his nose** You humans smell bad… I don’t like
it here. I won’t miss a thing about this place. **Gets up, tears off mic and
leaves** PRODUCTION: So sorry everyone… Giovanni isn’t very communicative and
pretty suspicious of people in general. Find out why in Ashes and Ice Book 2 ;)
Lavering:
Okay then. Well, thank you Connor and Jade for being here with us. I really
hope things go well for you in book two. I will be anxiously awaiting the next
stage in your story. It was great having you all on my blog! Thanks for
visiting with us.
4 Star Review
I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book. It started out
somewhat gruesome and with a lot of mystery that kept me intrigued. But by the
end I loved it!! I do have to admit that I was confused the first few chapters
but by the 8th chapter I had enough information to get attached to
the characters. And when Connor and Jade finally meet, I was hooked. When Jade
learned about the Eskimo kiss, I laughed soo hard!!! It was great. Connor is
such a great guy. I loved the twists and turns in this book and can’t wait to
read book 2!
Note: Four Stars. For Readers 16+
Autrhor Bio:
Rochelle grew up dreaming up stories. When she entered high
school, she tucked away her creative side and jumped head-first into academics,
work, and service projects. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in
Political Science and Communication when she was twenty years old. After years
away from her writing, Rochelle picked up a pen and started fleshing out a
character sketch that she outlined when she was twelve. That sketch was the
start of the Ashes and Ice story. Rochelle lives in the DC metro area with her
husband and daughter. By day she works as a behavioral therapist. By night, she
is a dreamer and is busy tapping out new stories on her keyboard.
Links:
twitter: rockyiswriting
Excerpt #1
Jade
The girl’s glassy, dead eyes stare into me, through me, pierce me with a fierce
urgency, with a wicked accusation. The blood is still on my hands.
Red hair, blue eyes, a constellation of freckles on pale skin. She was fragile
and innocent, a lovely thing. That is what I think until I see the gashes on
her wrists and throat. With her blood spilling out, she looks delicious. She’s
mine. Possessiveness shocks me, stabs into me. I run, tearing away from a craving
I don't understand.
Breathless, I grit my teeth and run harder, faster.
My feet pound against the earth, away from the lifeless body and toward the
lights of the city lingering on the horizon. Rot and death linger in my
nostrils. Unscarred skin stretches taut over my freezing bones. Echoes of an
empty memory reverberate in my mind, taunting me. The ice chases me, clutches
me, and bites at my heels, sending shivers up my spine. The ice wants me back,
but I run forward, toward the lights, toward the heat, toward a world that
burns me, because I have no other choice.
The lights are so close. Heat scalds my skin.
Images race through my mind, paralyzing me. I skid to a stop, my boots digging
into the mud. The vision’s blurred edges materialize into solid shapes.
I gasp.
A new horror rakes my insides. Desperation propels me forward; the pictures
nagging at my seams threaten to tear me apart.
Scorching fire licks over my skin. In my vision, I contort like a vile, ugly
creature, eyes as black as decay. My frame hunches over the small, dead girl,
like a demon looming over a defenseless child. Her blood drips from my mouth.
I lick my lips and taste only salty sweat.
I run, desperate to trample the vision under my feet, to crush it deep into the
ground.
I refuse to believe the image, refuse to acknowledge the monster within me
demanding to be unleashed—and the possibility it has already been unbound. An
unrelenting tide of fear washes over me. Past the denial, the fear, and the
hope, I think I can still taste her.
The cold stillness inside me cracks open just as the lights of the city slam
into me.
Excerpt #2
Connor
Tears burn. I never realized it before, but they do. Tears reach down my throat
and settle in my gut until the pain cripples me. I clutch my stomach as I look
into the casket. His face doesn’t even look the same. Bloated like a Mardi Gras
float, discolored like a mannequin. This isn’t my father.
But it is.
If I have learned anything in my short life, it is this: funerals are bullshit.
People dress in carefully pressed black suits. Parents give me “meaningful”
nods as if that could ease the grief. It doesn’t.
Then there are the kids from school, the ones dragged along by their parents.
People drag their kids along as if filling the church was a necessary thing. As
if the more pews filled somehow expedite the dead’s trip to heaven. I doubt it
does. Maybe some of the girls went shopping to buy just the right outfit so
their cleavage to respectability ratio was just right, or their ass to
waist ratio was cinched properly.
People sit in the pews dressed in their finest
let’s-go-pay-our-respects-to-the-dead-guy-we-never-knew wear, smacking the gum
in their mouths, cupping cellphones so they can LOL any comment buzzing
in, and drumming their fingers because the pastor is going on too long.
All they want to do is go home, sneak in a make-out session with their
girlfriends, eat their dinners, and maybe catch a 7 o’clock movie.
I hate these kids. The ones who stare at me, roll their eyes, and yawn. The
ones who trip me at school and slam me into lockers. The ones who sit in a pew,
contributing to the headcount, while I sit up here in front, holding back the
tears fighting to make their appearance. I swallow them down. I won’t cry. Not
here. Not with these people.
Dad’s funeral should be an empty church with mom, his three brothers, and me.
It should be the five of us having a messy, sloppy, sobbing affair where we
cling to each other because we are all we have left. The marble floors should
be slick with our tears. It isn’t. We sit here, straight backed, completely
composed as if death is just a passing expiration date and our small,
insignificant world has not been split open and left gaping.
***
I’m in my room, staring at the ceiling. The funeral service was hours ago.
The house feels empty and cold. I hear a stifled whimper from down the hall.
Mom.
Probably crying into a pillow so the house can’t hear, but it can. It seems
unfair she can’t wail aloud, so loud the house’s hundred-year-old studs
tremble.
She doesn’t. I don’t either. We cry in our own rooms, remembering a man who
will never be here again.
The house creaks. Maybe it feels the weight of our grief, maybe the floorboards
are buckling because the burden is too heavy.
I ache, desperate to forget the long battle with cancer, the blood sputtering
out of his mouth with his last words—what where they? I can’t remember because
the fear in his eyes overshadowed anything he said. Now the loss. I don’t want
to feel this loss. Some divine entity has taken dull scissors and cut out a
piece of my life and now I have jagged scars to remind me I lost too much. Too
much.
I want to forget, because it hurts to remember.
I bury my head in the pillow, hoping to suffocate the memories, to choke out
the pain.
Excerpt #3
“Have you ever been in love?”
I spill my popcorn on my lap. “I, uh, what?” I say, swiping off the kernels.
The question catches me off guard.
“You know, in love.”
“No. No, I haven’t.” I shift on the couch, needing more space between us. “What
about you?”
“Nah.” She flicks her hand toward me as if she is brushing away nonsense, but
the hard look in her eyes says something different.
“Why?”
She points to the TV screen and the couple making out there. “Figured if you
had been, then you could explain that to me.”
The guy sweeps the girl up and carries her into bed before they… you know. “Uh,
sex?”
She bursts out laughing. “That too. But I was talking about what it feels
like to be, you know, in love. Totally, without question. Like, does that,” she
points to the screen again, “exist?”
“Yeah, I think it exists.” I think of mom and dad—the way they kissed every
morning, hugged a few moments longer than anyone else, laughed so hard they
cried, and cuddled, shutting out the world, looking more content than these
fakers on the screen. “It exists. And in real life, it’s better than that
crap.” I say, suddenly uncomfortable by the moaning coming from the TV.
“I thought you said you’ve never been in love?”
“I haven’t. But I’ve seen it. And I haven’t ever seen anything come close to
that in the movies.”
She opens her mouth as if about to ask a question, but then closes it and
smiles, accepting my answer. “Well, it’s good that there may be something in
life to look forward to.” She drops a kernel of popcorn in her mouth.
“May be?”
“Well nothing is guaranteed. Who knows, I may die an old spinster.” She’s
smiling, but her eyes aren’t.
I think about the movie store guy’s possessive eyes, Jesse’s chair fiasco, and
Dominic’s leering, my heart. “I doubt that.”
Excerpt #4
He smiles a bit wider and hands out
the pin.
As, I reach to pluck it from his palm, he snatches my wrist with one hand, my
bicep with the other and crushes me against his chest.
His grip is tight—too tight, it hurts—and the bend of him hovers over me,
leaning in. I try to shake him off, but he doesn’t let go. I squirm as I feel
his thumb trace circles on the inside of my wrist. The touch sends a skitter of
sensation over me. Something tinges the air; a sweet, cool feeling brushes over
my skin, making my knees want to buckle. He smells like mint, his breath
tickles my face. I pull back, hating the sensations that please my skin and
curdle my insides. Bile surges in my throat. I tear myself away from him,
glaring.
“What?” He says coolly as if he hadn’t just bruised my arms with his clutching
fingertips.
“That. Hurt.” I say. I don’t say he smells sweet or his breath is refreshing on
my skin or his touch sends chills up my spine, delicious chills. I step away.
His smile is unnerving. “Don’t worry, Jade.” He winks at me. Damn that wink of
his. “One day, you’ll like it.”
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