Mundie Moms

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Sarah Rees Brennan's May COOKIE for Demon's Covenant

Don't forget, you can go pick up The Demon's Covenant NEXT Tuesday, the 18th. I have to say, it's a MUST read. Here's a little teaser from Sarah's Demon's Covenant cookie:

“Hello,” her mother said, going for the fridge. Mae waved her coffee cup in greeting and watched as Annabel drew out a packet of lettuce leaves that had turned brown and dispirited.

“Oh dear,” she said. “Thai food all right by you?”

“I’ll be honest: I wasn’t going to eat salad either way.”

Annabel nodded with just a hint of pain. She and Mae had gone back and forth on this a thousand times, and Mae had made it extremely clear that she cared more about eating cheese sandwiches today than being skinny when she was forty. “Is James home? I’ll ask him what he wants.”

“Yeah. Um, he has a friend from school with him. They’re studying.”

Mae realized what an enormous tactical error that had been when she saw her mother’s face light up.

“A friend?” she asked. “Jamie?”

“Yeah,” said Mae, getting up very quickly and almost spilling her coffee in the process. “Look, maybe you shouldn’t—”

“A girl or a boy?” Annabel asked, and went for the stairs.

She was much too fast for a woman in six-inch heels, Mae thought, and dashed after her.

“A boy,” she called after Annabel’s swiftly ascending back, stricken with horror at the very idea of her mother opening Jamie’s bedroom door expecting a studious young lady, possibly in a blouse and spectacles, and finding Nick Ryves.

“He must stay for dinner,” Annabel said with determination, doing a wickedly fast turn on the landing and heading for the second set of stairs. “I’m so glad that James is getting on better at school. I couldn’t think what to do. He said he didn’t want to move schools.”

“I didn’t know you wanted him to change schools!” Mae shouted after her. Annabel was outside Jamie’s door now, and Mae wasn’t going to reach her in time. Disaster was inevitable.

“How do you move so fast?”

“All my shoes are designer,” Annabel informed her. “Quality always tells,” she added as she opened the door.

“‘There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well,’” Jamie read out, doing what Mae thought was supposed to be an upper-class Victorian lady’s voice. He sounded as if someone was choking him to death with bonnet ribbons.

He was sitting on the window seat, feet up on a chair.

Nick was sitting on Jamie’s bed. Only the lamp in Jamie’s room was on, a yellow pool of light stopping short at Nick’s feet, throwing tiny yellow shards of light into the dark hollows of his eyes. He was turning his magic knife over and over in his hands, the rough carvings glinting in the light.

“Mavis and I were wondering if your friend wanted to stay for dinner,” Annabel said in a voice that lacked all conviction, but also belonged to a woman so dismayed she had no idea what else to offer.

Nick lifted an eyebrow. “Mavis?”

“Shut up,” Mae told him.

“All right,” said Nick. “Mavis.”

You can read more of Sarah's cookie here http://sarahtales.livejournal.com/165883.html. Don't forget, if you're the Houston/Austin area next weekend, both Sarah and Holly will be signing books at Murder By The Books. See our side bar for more information.

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