Teaser Tuesday: Angels Twice Descending by Cassandra Clare and Robin Wassermann

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 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!

Angels Twice Descending by Cassandra Clare and Robin Wassermann.

Angels Twice Descending –
Margaret K. McElderry Books

Don’t do this because you think you have to. Do it because you want to.
Only if you want to.
— 53%

Not someone you chose—someone the fates assigned you, someone who, under any other circumstances, might never have given you a second look, nor you him. Someone you would die for and kill for without a second thought, because he was family.
— 66%

The very last short story in the Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy series and as the back cover says someone lives and someone dies. In true Cassie fashion it’s not unreasonable (in a way as there were signs and all that jazz) but it’s still a swift kick and double punch in the feels. There were also other aspects about this story that I liked seeing as for example how Magnus’ flat has changed due to a certain addition to the family. And Izzy, fierce, fabulous, lovable Izzy with her tender warrior heart. I’ll dearly miss having the TMI cast as main characters and will hunt for every morsel of information in the books to come. But at the same time I can hardly wait for the new characters to take over the scene and tell their story.
This short story collection was a perfect way to tie up a few loose ends and give a proper good bye to the characters. Now the wait for the new full book begins in earnest. Is it March yet?

While we all want the next book in a series sooner rather than later sometimes things get in the way. What is the longest you’d be willing to wait between books? 18 months? 2 years? Longer? Share your opinion and teasers in the comments.

Teaser Tuesday: Breakaway by Kat Spears

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 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!

Breakaway by Kat Spears.

Breakaway – St. Martin’s Griffin

“That’s the problem with you rich kids,” I said, hearing myself turn snide. “You’re never prepared for life when it happens.”
— Chapter 23

“If you kiss me, I promise I won’t hit you,” she said.
“Wow. That was almost … romantic,” I said.
— Chapter 26

There are a great number of things I want to say about this book, but the first thing that comes to my mind and vehemently demands to be said is “unexpected”. I don’t quite know what I was expecting from Kat Spear’s new book and therefore I cannot with all certainty say if the story honestly surprised me ... but it’s fair to say that this was quite different. Sure, there is the troubled male character I already knew she can write well, but his troubles were very different from those of Jesse “Sway” Alderman. For one instance, they are not self-made, at least not all of them. No one can choose the family and circumstances they are born into or whether or not they are the in the centre or on the margins of the family’s attention. But a few things are influenceable, like the choice of friends and how they are treated.
When is anyone ever truly prepared for the moment life happens? Yes, there are measures one can take to cushion the blow, but in the end if one wants to live, it will be necessary to find an acceptable balance between the amount of hurt one is willing to risk and the possibility to experience life. There are some hard truths in this book. There is no guarantee for a fulfilled life, no matter how much it is deserved or struggled towards. Sometimes reality is just furiously unfair. And I also think that is why this book is able to elicit so many different responses, because for example either the reader recognises and accepts that it is a contemporary depiction of one possible truth or they reject the story for its very nature. I have to admit that it took me a while to accept the end as it is very true to the story: where it begins right in the middle of something it also left me as a reader feeling as if I was yanked right out of it again. The edges are very frayed and raw. Life, as depicted, is messy and seldom neatly tied up, not matter where or when the observation begins or ends.
And while I know that it is extremely unlikely that it will all turn out well with rainbows and unicorns for all the characters, I really hope that they will be able to find a way to live their life to the fullest within the mostly limiting parameters they find themselves in. There is always hope and the aspiration to make to most out of the hand one is dealt. Anything less makes characters in stories and people in general uninteresting.

Writing this actually helped me appreciate the book more. It probably won’t make it onto the same shelf as Sway, but I understand the story better. Has there been a book that suddenly clicked for you the longer you thought/wrote about it? Let’s hear about it and your teaser in the comments!

Teaser Tuesday: Dead of Winter by Kresley Cole

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 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!

Dead of Winter by Kresley Cole.

Dead of Winter –
Simon & Schuster

I take no actions that I wouldn’t publicly recount. If you can’t speak your deeds, then don’t do them.
— Chapter 27

In our first meeting, you skewered me with your sword. In other words: you started it.
— Chapter 29

Third book in the Arcana Chronicles ... and not a trilogy, which wasn’t unexpected, but the end still completely gutted me. Luckily for me I managed to wait this long to read this one so the next won’t be a year away. That would have been brutal and everyone already suffering has my complete sympathies.
Without spoiling the first two books there isn’t much to be said about the plot of this, but the more I think about it the more I love the fact that I completely changed my mind about several of the characters from when they were first introduced up until now. Usually this could be a sign of bad characterisation skills yet in this case it’s actually a great way of showing how first impressions and prejudices (in the story as well as introduced by tropes) can influence character perception. The author uses a very subtle way to shift these perceptions – or I at least thought so, because I can’t completely pinpoint when I started liking one character and mistrust another one. Or when I started caring so much for one (or two) of them that the last few pages turned me into a total mess.
I absolutely liked the news that this series will be at least five books (even if that means at least one and a half years of turmoil, but when am I not hanging from at least one cliff – not literally!). Not sure what to make of the movie/TV announcement though as I am growing more and more sceptical of the conversion of books I love into movies and the likes. Burnt child dreads the flame syndrome.

Are you currently hanging from a book series cliff? Or having feelings about book-to-screen adaptions? Share both or any along with your teasers in the comments.

Teaser Tuesday: Lock & Mori by Heather W. Petty

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.
To play along just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 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!

Lock & Mori by Heather W. Petty.

Lock & Mori –
Simon & Schuster

“You think you’re more clever than me.”
It was true, but I supposed I should show him a bit of deference. “I am female. That comes with a few advantages.”
“Such as?”
“Understanding and perception, a unique worldview, and the power that comes with being constantly underestimated.”
— Chapter 10

“I don’t understand the need for power, really. There are more important pursuits.”
“Only those who have never felt powerless can afford to think like you.”
— Chapter 10

Two teasers from the same chapter. But I really couldn’t choose between the two and while there are other brilliant sentences in the book, these two really encompass all that I love about it. Yes, Sherlock is crazy smart and a savant genius, but who’s to say that Moriaty isn’t as well and can give him a run for his money? I also enjoy that the explanation of how the two became mortal enemies is that such a deep feeling must be born from another deep feeling and a severe betrayal of trust. Very clever and admirably executed. I feel so sad on behalf of them, because they would have been absolutely amazing together. Here we have a perfect tragedy (as opposed to a tragic event) where the protagonists are set on a path to ruin from the very beginning either by fate or in this case their family history and very nature. There was a minimal chance that this could have been solved differently, but then the characters wouldn’t have been true to themselves and therefore believable.
Confession: The plot doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But honestly, why should anyone have to reinvent it when the wheel is a perfectly fine tool? Only get back to me about that when someone has finally managed to build an affordable hover-board or a functional teleportation device. Until then wheels are just splendid. And this series will use your heartstrings as a harp. Can have the next one, please?

Down to business: Benedict Cumberbatch or Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock? And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, name your favourite detective along with sharing your teasers in the comments!