Cover Artist: Michelle Johnson of Blue Sky Designs
Description:
From senior class president to dejected social outcast, with just the flick of a match.
After accusations of torching her ex-boyfriend’s home are followed by the mysterious poisoning of her ex-best friend, seventeen-year-old Holland Briggs assumes her life is over. And it is. But not in the way she thinks.
As Holland learns the truth about her cursed fate—that she is descended from the Beast most have only ever heard of in fairytales—she unites with an unlikely ally, good-looking newcomer Mick Stevenson.
Mick knows more about Holland’s twisted history than she does, and enlightening as it is to learn about, his suggestion for a cure is unsettling at best. Holland must fall in love with Mick in order to break the spell, and save their future generations from repeating her cursed fate. Having sworn off love after the betrayals of her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend, this may be difficult to accomplish.
Complicating things further for Holland and Mick, time runs out, and Holland’s change begins way before schedule. With Holland quickly morphing into a dangerous mythical creature, Mick struggles to save her.
Should they fail, Holland will be lost to the beast inside her forever.
GUEST POST
Why a Retelling?
I’m not quite sure how to answer “why a retelling?” aside from the boring fact that my brain decided it wanted to rewrite Beauty and the Beast . . . with a twist. Exciting stuff, huh? Honestly, I was driving down my street, and the question came to me . . . what if the beauty was also the beast? It was a light bulb moment, and from then on, the story took hold. Unfortunately, I was still trying to finish up the second book of The Ever Trilogy, so my B&tB redux would have to wait.
Fat chance.
A little while later, I sat down to begin NaNoWriMo for the first time, with the full intention of making myself finish Ever’s story—or, well, the second installment, at least. But when my fingertips hit the keyboard that morning, something else entirely flowed onto the pages.
Holland’s story. My beauty. My beast. She walked through the halls of her once-beloved high school, torn between wanting to be ignored and hating the fact that she’d gone from princess to social leper in such a brief moment in time. The fallen prom queen. I can remember thinking I’d just get those first words down, that I’d just get the idea out, then return to Ever’s story. Holland had other plans.
Holland’s story was easy for me to write. She’d captivated me. What made this girl tick? What made her loveable, relatable? How could I make my readers care for the scorned princess? These questions arose, and I answered them—I hope well—but it wasn’t until later on that I realized the difficulty in writing a new take on an old classic: how do you honor the original(s) without making your story predictable?
I wanted to honor the base elements of the original version of B&tB: the curse, the love, the magic, but I wanted to make my own twsit, my own unique version of the story. The funny thing is I’d already started doing that without even knowing it. My critique partner commented once about how much she loved that I mashed up B&tB with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I scratched me head. Huh? She explained, teasing me for not even realizing I’d created this mash up! But I had . . . subconsciously, maybe? I mean, where do the stories come from anyway, right? So from that moment on, I wrote with those two stories in mind, and DIVIDE was born.
And, after all is said and done, I’m proud of the story I wrote. DIVIDE stays true to the main ingredients of a fairytale, the elements I wanted so badly to honor, while standing on its own two feet. And that’s the true test of any story, not just a retelling.
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About the author:
Jessa Russo believes in fairytales, ghosts, and Jake Ryan. She insists mimosas were created for Sundays, and that’s not up for discussion. She’s obsessed with the great city of New Orleans—where she’s collected too many beads to count, eventually married her sweetheart, and visited graveyards they don’t include on maps.
She’s loud, painfully honest, and passionate about living life to the fullest, because she’s seen how abruptly it can be taken away.
What began as a desire for reading and writing young adult paranormal has bled into stories of all kinds. From fantasy to pre-dystopian to erotic contemporary, Jessa’s stories always include romance, though she’s given up on pigeonholing her work into a category or genre box.
Jessa was born and raised in Southern California, and remains there to this day with her husband (a classic car fanatic), their daughter (a Tim Burton superfan), and a Great Dane who thinks he’s the same size as his Chihuahua sister.
ENTWINED, the final installment of Russo’s Ever Trilogy, will be released later this year, as well as an erotic romance written under the pseudonym Parker Jameson, so please stay tuned!
If you'd like to connect with Jessa online, please visit the following pages:
Author's Giveaway
12 comments:
Nice giveaway :)
Awesome cover looks cool book looks very good.
YAY! What a fabulous cover!
This sounds like a really interesting read... thanks!
I would love to read it! :)
Awesome! Thanks so much.
Thank you so much for hosting!
I adore the cover as well as the description :D Fingers crossed :D**
I love the retelling of the classics in a new creative way.
Been trying to read more classic retellings etc and these look really fun :D
looks great thank you
Sounds good!
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