Description:
Sixteen-year-old Sophie Bloom wishes she’d been taught the following:
a) Bad boy’s presence (TrOuBlE) + teen girl’s brain (DraMa) = TrAuMa (Highly unstable and very volatile.)
b) The Genus Greekulum Godissimus is notable for three traits: 1) awesome abilities, 2) grudges, and 3) hook-ups, break-ups, and in-fighting that puts cable to shame.
Prior to the Halloween dance, Sophie figures her worst problems involve adolescent theatrics, bitchy teen yoga girls, and being on probation at her boarding school for mouthy behaviour. Then she meets bad boy Kai and gets the kiss that rocks her world.
Literally.
This breath stealing lip lock reawakens Sophie’s true identity: Persephone, Goddess of Spring. She’s key to saving humanity in the war between the Underworld and Olympus, target numero uno of Hades and Zeus, and totally screwed.
Plus there’s also the little issue that Sophie’s last memory as Persephone was just before someone tried to murder her.
Big picture: master her powers, get her memories back, defeat Persephone’s would be assassin, and save the world. Also, sneak into the Underworld to retrieve stolen property, battle the minions of Hades and Zeus, outwit psycho nymphs, slay a dragon, rescue a classmate, keep from getting her butt expelled from the one place designed to keep her safe …
… and stop kissing Kai, Prince of the Underworld.
My Ex From Hell is a YA romantic comedy, Greek mythology smackdown. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book one of this teen fantasy romance series. Compared to Kai and Sophie, Romeo and Juliet had it easy.
GUEST POST
Inside Tellulah’s head: The writing of The Blooming Goddess Trilogy
I am obsessed with the naming of things. Characters, projects, I can spend ages finding just the perfect fit. And while that may sound like procrastination, it’s super important procrastination. Since I’m gearing up to release My Life From Hell, the final book in my YA romantic comedy/Greek mythology series, The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, I thought I’d share the thinking behind my book titles in this trilogy.
The one thing I knew going in was that this was the story of an underachieving girl who discovers that she is Persephone, Goddess of Spring. When it came time to name this girl, Sophie Bloom just immediately popped into my head. Sophie as the human derivative of Persephone, and Bloom both for spring and for her journey. Because, what was clear to me, was that each book thematically had a flowering-esque cycle to it.
Book one, My Ex From Hell, dealt thematically with the idea of “emerge.” I remember being sixteen and waiting for the day my “real” life would start. But is there really any event that allows that to happen? Once I got into university, maybe I’d wait for my real job? Or the love of my life, or children, or success, or ... You get the picture. So I wanted to explore this idea that here’s this girl, waiting, and suddenly, with the discovery that she is the Goddess of Spring and key to humanity’s survival, there can be no more waiting. Life has just very gotten real. And should be real for every moment we live it.
To get all obvious here, Sophie is the bud emerging from the sleep of her life. However, I chose to start her journey on Halloween and not in spring. To me, spring is the height of Sophie’s powers and abilities. Therefore, I wanted to start her at the furthest point from spring and gradually build her up to that point.
It’s important to remember as well, that this entire trilogy is a romantic comedy. Again, then, for the relationship between Sophie and Kai, the idea of “emerge” is in place. It’s the classic “meet cute” of our couple.
Book two, My Date From Hell, moves Sophie’s journey along to the idea of “grow.” Without any spoilers, Sophie grows in terms of her abilities and her sense of self. And for the romance? See how the titles move from My Ex From Hell to My Date From Hell? Progress/growth for Sophie and Kai as well.
The final book in the trilogy is called My Life From Hell. This, thematically, is the “bloom” stage. Sophie finally, and in all ways, will come into her fabulous self. “But Tellulah,” you protest, “you’ve taken the relationship element out of the title.” I don’t know about any of you, but when I was teenager, my idea of love was all-consuming. Overwhelming. A girl could get lost in that vision. And maybe, just maybe, that’s going to be part of Sophie’s journey as well. Learning that romantic love is only one (albeit important) part of life.
Or maybe I’m just going to kill Kai. heh heh
Anyhoo, all that to say, that if you take the emerge/grow/bloom idea as a whole, it brings us back to why this is The Blooming Goddess Trilogy. And also, a bit cheekily, I also liked the Brit slang aspect of “blooming.”
There you have it. Questions? Thoughts? Discuss.
EXCERPT
One minute, I was feeling all smug about my powers, the next, I caught sight of about a
dozen Infernorators hovering just outside the fence like a firing squad. Yikes! I froze in terror as they advanced en masse toward me, reaching out their flaming tentacles.
Bless Theo and his wards. Their fire simply bounced harmlessly off the air above the fence. I really was in a giant protective shield. I smiled, thinly. My turn. I figured that since I had the upper hand, I should take these things out.
In my defense, it never even occurred to me that this was a two-way ward. In my head, it was all about me, me, me. So of course I’d be able to fire outwards.
Yeah ... no. I sent my ribbons of light lashing out toward those bad boys. They hit the invisible shield at full speed, then bounced off it to rebound back at me.
That was the point at which I totally forgot how to control them and just yelped, wildly waving my hands around as I ducked and bobbed and tried not to trip over my own superpower.
A low laugh penetrated my fear. I glanced over, wide-eyed, to see Kai smirking from over by the back fence. For a second. The smirk quickly disappeared as I sent the creepers directly for him.
I will swear on a stack of bibles or whatever that I didn’t mean to take him out. It was instinctive. Better him a target than me.
“Duck!” I yelled feebly. He just glowered at me and put out his hand to stop them in their path. I might have felt like a busted bottle of Silly String, shooting these puppies out willy-nilly, but it was pretty impressive the way Kai had them twisting in place like that.
I stood there gaping until he growled, “Quit it” and I snapped back into action. I dropped my hands but that didn’t seem to blink the vines out of existence.
“Hurry up!” he snapped, the strain of holding them at bay wearing on him.
Honestly, I had no clue what to do. I tried to shoo them away from him. Less than successful. I only managed to redirect one toward a small sapling, which I then uprooted and used to conk him on the shoulder.
“Of all the useless ...” he began.
“Who asked you to show up, anyway?” I shot back. Especially with me once again looking like Grimy, the eighth dwarf. I did the only thing I could think of at that point. Since I’d called the ribbons up with my energy, maybe I could draw them back in. I concentrated on pulling them back into me.
It worked. They dissipated in a rush. Their power flooded inside of me and knocked me back about twenty feet.
I landed like a rag doll. The wind was knocked out of me. I fluttered my eyes open several minutes later to find Kai frowning.
“That was stellar,” he commented. “Zeus and Hades won’t have to kill you. You’re a walking suicide mission.”
At the reminder of my nemeses, I turned my head back toward where the Infernorators had been.
“Forget it. The Pyrosim are gone,” he said, rubbing his shoulder. “You okay?” “The tree didn’t help.” “Oops. Sorry. You hid it well,” I said.
“I’m a god. I don’t show weakness. Around you,” he added, “that seems to be a survival skill.”
“Ha ha. Next time I’ll try and warn you if I’m getting ready to sprout. We could have a hand signal. I’ll bet the gods have great hand signals.”
“No.” Kai crossed his arms. End of discussion.
Or changing of subjects. “Why are you here?” I demanded, refusing his help as I struggled to sit up.
“I told you. Your whereabouts flash in my head.” “No. Here. Hope Park. What do you want?” “Answers. Why did you disappear on me?” “Someone tried to hurt me. Maybe it was you.” “It wasn’t me,” he stated darkly.
“Whatever. Theo didn’t know what fate was in store for me so he got me out of dodge.” “And you believe him?” “Do you have a better explanation for all this? Two days ago, I had no idea who I really
was. Theo sure wasn’t thrilled to learn what happened when you kissed me.” Kai smirked. “It was my kiss that set this off?” “Yes. You’re very manly. Good for you.” “I think it’s good for you,” he insisted.
Then he kissed me.
dozen Infernorators hovering just outside the fence like a firing squad. Yikes! I froze in terror as they advanced en masse toward me, reaching out their flaming tentacles.
Bless Theo and his wards. Their fire simply bounced harmlessly off the air above the fence. I really was in a giant protective shield. I smiled, thinly. My turn. I figured that since I had the upper hand, I should take these things out.
In my defense, it never even occurred to me that this was a two-way ward. In my head, it was all about me, me, me. So of course I’d be able to fire outwards.
Yeah ... no. I sent my ribbons of light lashing out toward those bad boys. They hit the invisible shield at full speed, then bounced off it to rebound back at me.
That was the point at which I totally forgot how to control them and just yelped, wildly waving my hands around as I ducked and bobbed and tried not to trip over my own superpower.
A low laugh penetrated my fear. I glanced over, wide-eyed, to see Kai smirking from over by the back fence. For a second. The smirk quickly disappeared as I sent the creepers directly for him.
I will swear on a stack of bibles or whatever that I didn’t mean to take him out. It was instinctive. Better him a target than me.
“Duck!” I yelled feebly. He just glowered at me and put out his hand to stop them in their path. I might have felt like a busted bottle of Silly String, shooting these puppies out willy-nilly, but it was pretty impressive the way Kai had them twisting in place like that.
I stood there gaping until he growled, “Quit it” and I snapped back into action. I dropped my hands but that didn’t seem to blink the vines out of existence.
“Hurry up!” he snapped, the strain of holding them at bay wearing on him.
Honestly, I had no clue what to do. I tried to shoo them away from him. Less than successful. I only managed to redirect one toward a small sapling, which I then uprooted and used to conk him on the shoulder.
“Of all the useless ...” he began.
“Who asked you to show up, anyway?” I shot back. Especially with me once again looking like Grimy, the eighth dwarf. I did the only thing I could think of at that point. Since I’d called the ribbons up with my energy, maybe I could draw them back in. I concentrated on pulling them back into me.
It worked. They dissipated in a rush. Their power flooded inside of me and knocked me back about twenty feet.
I landed like a rag doll. The wind was knocked out of me. I fluttered my eyes open several minutes later to find Kai frowning.
“That was stellar,” he commented. “Zeus and Hades won’t have to kill you. You’re a walking suicide mission.”
At the reminder of my nemeses, I turned my head back toward where the Infernorators had been.
“Forget it. The Pyrosim are gone,” he said, rubbing his shoulder. “You okay?” “The tree didn’t help.” “Oops. Sorry. You hid it well,” I said.
“I’m a god. I don’t show weakness. Around you,” he added, “that seems to be a survival skill.”
“Ha ha. Next time I’ll try and warn you if I’m getting ready to sprout. We could have a hand signal. I’ll bet the gods have great hand signals.”
“No.” Kai crossed his arms. End of discussion.
Or changing of subjects. “Why are you here?” I demanded, refusing his help as I struggled to sit up.
“I told you. Your whereabouts flash in my head.” “No. Here. Hope Park. What do you want?” “Answers. Why did you disappear on me?” “Someone tried to hurt me. Maybe it was you.” “It wasn’t me,” he stated darkly.
“Whatever. Theo didn’t know what fate was in store for me so he got me out of dodge.” “And you believe him?” “Do you have a better explanation for all this? Two days ago, I had no idea who I really
was. Theo sure wasn’t thrilled to learn what happened when you kissed me.” Kai smirked. “It was my kiss that set this off?” “Yes. You’re very manly. Good for you.” “I think it’s good for you,” he insisted.
Then he kissed me.
My Ex From Hell will be on sale for 99 cents from November 28th to December 12th!
About the author:
Tellulah Darling
noun
1. YA romantic comedy author because her first kiss sucked and she's compensating.
2. Alter ego of former screenwriter.
3. Sassy minx.
Geeks out over: cool tech.
Squees for: great storytelling.
Delights in: fabulous conversation.
Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.
Sassy girls. Swoony boys. What could go wrong?
13 comments:
After reading the excerpt, now I want to read this. it looks really good. thanks for the giveaway.
Book looks very good will have to read.
This book looks excellent and should be fun to read. I look forward to it. Thanks!
sounds a good book..
thx u for hosting :)
The excerpt was very interesting. Thank you for sharing :)
Thank you for the excerpt and the book sound intriguing
Seems like it would be a fun, easy read!
would love to read this book
I enjoyed reading the excerpt. This book sounds like such an interesting read! I will totally have to add it to my "to-read" list.
Thank you for the chance!
thanks for the chance!
Thanks for the giveaway
sounds like a great book! Thanks for the giveaway.
rounder9834 @yahoo.com
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