Today Christine O’Neil and Entangled Teen Ember are revealing the cover for
book 1 in The Kardia Chronicles Series, CHAOS. Coming out this
August! Check out the links below for more info on pre-ordering and a Rafflecopter Giveaway!
My name is Maggie Raynard. After sixteen years being just plain me, suddenly I can kill
people when I lose my temper. Turns out I'm a semi-god, descended from
Aphrodite. Sounds cool in theory, but when I accidentally put my ex-boyfriend
in a coma, things go downhill pretty fast.
Now some new guy named Mac Finnegan has made it his mission in life to
continually piss me off. I'm stuck learning how to use my new powers while also
dealing with regular high school problems, and with this---annoying and
super-hot---guy all up in my business, I'm about to flip out.
But it gets worse. I just learned there's this council for semis that wants me
dead. They think I'm bad to the bone and when my ex suddenly dies, it's like
everyone is determined to take me out. Mac might turn out to be my only
salvation, but he's got secrets of his own---that may just kill us both.
On to the reveal!
Exclusive Excerpt
I was done with guys.
Not in that fake,
I-say-that-but-deep-down-I-really-want-a-boyfriend kind of
way, but in, like,
the seriously-I'd-rather-eat-maggoty-cheese kind of way. No
relationships. Not
for me. Not now and maybe not ever. Who I am…what I am, and
what I’m capable
of? Everyone’s better off this way.
"I have to stop at my
locker
real quick," I said, veering to the right and cutting
through the crush of
kids heading straight like wildebeests to a watering hole.
Libby followed and
then stood by me as I fiddled with the
lock.
"What's that?"
She
pointed to a white piece of paper sticking out half an inch
from one of the
slots in the olive metal
door.
I tugged the padlock open
and
flicked the catch with my thumb. "Dunno." Maybe
Bink had left me
another note. Bink was my neighbor, bud, and—most days—my
ride home. Last time
I’d found a note in my locker, it was when his cell phone
died and he needed to
bail early. I seriously hoped this wasn’t a repeat
performance.
I mentally ran down the
list of
people I could bug for a ride and came up empty. Libby
always had to stay after
for some activity or another, and I only really had two
other people I could
call "friends" and neither lived near me. I
wrinkled my nose in
anticipation of the dirty-sneakers-meets-day-old-bologna
smell of a bus filled
with kids who'd had last-period gym and opted not to change
clothes.
With a
sigh, I pulled open the door and the white rectangle floated
to the floor.
Libby bent to grab it and
read it
out loud. "'Dear Sad and Lonely…'" She trailed off
and went quiet
for
a few seconds until her peachy complexion went hot pink, and
then she gasped.
"Oh my God.
Holy… Oh, Mags, you are so
not going to like this."
I snatched the paper from
her,
trying to ward off the growing pit in my
gut.
Dear Sad and
Lonely,
Since I can almost
guarantee She is
about to give you some seriously shite advice like she does
every week, let me
be the voice of reason. Your boyfriend is just like most
high school guys. Cut
him some slack and, even better, why not offer to learn how
to play some of the
games he likes? He'd probably appreciate the effort and
might even take you
somewhere nice after. If that doesn't work, sit him down and
let him know how
you're feeling so he can tell you what's going on with him.
Could be that
constantly calling the things he likes stupid isn't the best
way to get what
you want in this situation, yeah? In any case, don't let the
ramblings of some
bitter emo chick who's probably never had a boyfriend ruin
your relationship.
Hope
it helps,
He
The shock was too thick to
let
the anger in right away, but as stunned as I was, I knew
exactly who was behind
this. There was only one person in the whole school who
would use the word
“shite.”
Mac Finnegan.
Opinionated, annoying,
hot—did I
mention annoying?—Mac Finnegan, who had barely given me the
time of day since
he'd come to Crestwood High a couple months ago. Mac
Finnegan, who thought he
was soooo cool with his Irish accent and his mocking smile.
Mac Finnegan, who
inexplicably made me want to lick him like an ice cream cone
and then immediately
rinse my mouth out with acid.
How had he discovered my
secret?
Only Bink and Libby knew I was the girl behind “That's What
She Said,” and I
would have bet everything I owned that neither of them would
have ratted me
out.
Didn’t matter, though. One
way or
another, he knew. Even worse, he'd chosen to taunt me with
it. Bitter emo chick
who’s probably never had a boyfriend, indeed. I had a
boyfriend once and it
hadn’t ended well for either of us. I was in no rush to
repeat the experience.
Besides, what did this Irish asshat care?
Anger tightened my chest. I
could
feel the power rising in me, clawing to get out, roaring to
be heard. The hair
on my arms stood on end as I tried to breathe through it, to
let the fury
dissipate and flow out of my pores in harmless pings of
energy, but it was no
use. I pressed a hand to my locker and opened up the tiniest
of escape valves,
the spout of the teakettle, whistling off a stream of steam.
The cheap metal
instantly heated against my skin, the door buckling and
warping on the spot
just beneath my
fingertips.
"Uh, Mags—" Libby
whispered urgently, but a male voice cut her
off.
"How's it going there,
Libby? Maggie."
I turned around, still
trying to
catch my breath, and there he was, strolling by, a grin
splitting his sinfully beautiful
face.
Mac Finnegan, who had
decided
that being the new kid wasn't bad enough, so he had to
actively go out of his
way to make enemies. Mac Finnegan, who wanted to turn my
world upside down
rather than minding his own business. Mac Finnegan, who
didn't know the meaning
of live and let live.
Mac Finnegan, who clearly
had no
idea who he was fucking
with.
Christine O'Neil was born and raised in Connecticut, where she spent most of her childhood outdoors catching salamanders, frogs and colds. When she wasn't terrorizing Mother Nature, she was curled up under the covers with her nose in a book. As an adult, she's stopped stalking amphibians, but still loves books. When she isn't reading, she likes to spend her time people-watching. In fact, she's probably watching you RIGHT NOW O_O She's also pretty obsessed with writing YA books, but if she had to pick another profession she would be a ninja...or a Professor of the Dark Arts.
No comments:
Post a Comment