Bitter Snow
(Bitter Snow #1)
Author: Lauren Sweet
Release Date: December 5, 2013
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal,
Romance
Summary
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.
Dark Solstice
(Bitter Snow #2)
Author: Lauren Sweet
Release Date: December 21, 2013
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal,
Romance
Summary
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.
Twelfth Night
(Bitter Snow #3)
Author: Lauren Sweet
Release Date: January 5, 2014
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal,
Romance
Summary
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.”
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.
Twitter:
@writerlaurens
Giveaway
Win Gilly’s necklace from Bitter Snow Volume Two: Dark Solstice!
In folklore, iron protects against the influence of
evil spirits. Handmade from real horseshoe nails and sterling silver by
Connie Pardini of Wirestorm Creations (www.wirestormcreations.com), this necklace is a replica of the one Gilly wears to protect herself from harmful spells and illusions.
Open to US Shipping, retail value of necklace $80
Ariella Moon writes about magic, friendship, secrets, and love in her Young Adult novels, Spell Check, Spell Struck, and Spell Fire, Books 1, 2, & 3 in The Teen Wytche Saga. Ariella spent her childhood searching for a magical wardrobe that would transport her to Narnia. Extreme math anxiety, and taller students who mistook her for a leaning post, marred Ariella’s teen years. Despite these horrors, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at Davis. An author and shaman, she now lives a nearly normal life with her extraordinary daughter, shamelessly spoiled dog, and an enormous dragon.
