Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser is a weekly bookish meme (rhymes with “cream"), hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share at least two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

I'm adapting the rules slightly. I'll be quoting some random lines from the last chapter I read before I post a teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book from me. Here's my second teaser from Soulfire, by Betsy Love.

"Alma?" She went to him and turned his face to the moonlight.

He looked up at her. "Where were you?"

She couldn't believe this was the same man who had protected her in the forest only a few days before. The smell of balche clung to his clothes and wafted about him.

(From Soulfire, p 128)

If you'd like to share a teaser from a book you're currently reading, I'd love you to do so in the comment section. And you don't even have to share it on a Tuesday! Be sure to include the title, author, and page number in case others would like to check out the book you're reading.

Summary Sunday

These sentences this week from The Lady and the Minstrel all take place while Marguerite is visiting her beloved tutor, Odo of Wedmore, on her late grandfather's estates in Northumberland, England, still waiting impatiently for Robert to come home from the wars in France. Her betrothed, the Earl of Strode, has sent his squire to attend--or perhaps, spy--upon Marguerite in his absence. The squire is speaking in the Monday sentences. If you were Marguerite, how would you respond to the squire here? ;-)

Monday: “But the earl will not be so liberal with his wife’s conduct. I really cannot allow you to enter that cottage.”

Tuesday: She blinked rapidly and hard until the vision of that horror retreated. Let him think the sun’s brilliance stung her eyes.

Wednesday: It should have been Robert standing here, holding her, kissing her . . .

Thursday: It was the one weapon Odo possessed to wound her, and he had used it.

Friday: (Marguerite thinking of her grandfather) But you did not live. You left me alone and I have found someone to love me and I cannot live my life for a memory, however dear.

Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser is a weekly bookish meme (rhymes with “cream"), hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share at least two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

I'm adapting the rules slightly. I'll be quoting some random lines from the last chapter I read before I post a teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book from me. Here's a teaser from Soulfire, by Betsy Love.

Zephenia crept deeper into the underbrush and wrapped her arms around her legs. A bird's piercing screech echoed through the jungle--or was it the cry of another enemy?

For many minutes the silence and darkness around her reminded her of another time. She tried to push them away, but images of that evil man standing over the cabinet waving her torch, burned into her mind.

(From Soulfire, p 43)

If you'd like to share a teaser from a book you're currently reading, I'd love you to do so in the comment section. And you don't even have to share it on a Tuesday! Be sure to include the title, author, and page number in case others would like to check out the book you're reading.

What Am I Reading Now?

I finished reading Farewell, My Denmark, by Tina Peterson Scott, last week. If you'd like to know why I enjoyed it, you can read my review on Amazon.

A new take on LDS Pioneer fiction

Next on my list is another LDS fiction book I've been wanting to read for awhile: Soulfire, by Betsy Love. In full disclosure, Betsy and I have been in a critique group together where she was working on a sequel to her Book of Mormon novel, Soulfire. I recently had to leave the group to find more time to focus on my current writing goals, but I was enjoying her sequel so much that I decided it was finally time to pluck Soulfire off my "to read" shelf and read it.

Here's a synopsis from the back cover copy:

It is 148 bc, and the city of Nephi is ruled by the wicked King Noah and his corrupt priests. Zephenia's father has turned to his drink after the death of her mother, and her younger sister Sari dreams of living in the king's palace. When the family's hut is destroyed and the sisters are unjustly imprisoned, Zephenia wonders if God has forgotten her. If they survive their tribulations, whom will her father choose as her husband? The only unmarried believer she knows is Gideon, and he is smitten with Sari.

Zephenia's thoughts keep drifting to Alma, the handsome high priest she met while gathering herbs in the jungle. She senses a goodness about him, yet because he is a priest in Noah's court, she knows he couldn't possibly be a righteous man. But when the prophet Abinadi is martyred and Zephenia must decide between her faith and her family, she learns of a mighty change that has happened in Alma's heart.

Drop by on Tuesday and I'll share a Tuesday Teaser from Soulfire with you!

Summary Sunday

This week, The Lady and the Minstrel continued in England with my heroine, Marguerite. Earlier in the story we learned that her grandfather placed a clause in his will that discouraged men from seeking her hand in marriage after his death. This week I finally learned why he placed that clause in his will. (My characters don't always like to tell me their motivations ahead of time.) Thursday's sentence relates to this discovery. Marguerite's grandfather's chaplain, a man named Odo, is speaking to Marguerite, but that's all I can tell you for now. :-)

Monday: Lady Leah spat the pins she’d been holding between her lips into her hand, for Marguerite knew her mother could not pronounce her name in rebuke without spilling the pins.

Tuesday: This stifling ignorance of Robert would drive Marguerite mad!

Wednesday: Words of affection had fallen awkwardly from his tongue, as though he had only recently learned to speak them.

Thursday: “As he lay confessing through both our tears, begging for the pardon of Heaven, the thought came to me that I could make something good of his death.”

Friday: He added more firmly when Marguerite merely bade him boost her into the saddle, “The earl will not like it.”