Mundie Moms

Friday, May 2, 2014

CoLS Read-A-Long Day #1 - The Prologue & Chapter 1


Hello & welcome to day #1 of our City of Lost Souls Read-A-Long. You can find out more about the read along and find the schedule here. There is no right or wrong way to participate. Your comments can be as long or as short as you'd like them to be. 

Today's discussion is about the Prologue & Chapter 1: The Last Council.
  • That is one killer of a prologue! Poor Simon! My heart breaks for him. Then we learn that not only is Jace gone, but Sebastian isn't dead, and he's also gone. What were your first thoughts when you read the prologue? I was in tears.
  • Chapter 1 - Clary is cleared of any wrong doing, and after searching for two weeks, the Clave has decided to re-prioritize their focus. I don't know about you guys, but I was a little miffed that they gave up so quickly. What did you think? 
  • I love how the group bands together, and regardless of laws, they're willing to risk so much to find Jace. I'm a little worried about Clary being so willing to seek out the Seelie Queen. We all know what happens when she's in the picture. Do you agree with Clary using her as help in finding Jace?
Please DO NOT POST SPOILERS. There's some fans who are joining the read-a-long who are reading Clockwork Prince for the first time. 


City of Lost Souls Read-A-Long Kicks off TODAY!

Hello Shadowhunters! City of Heavenly Fire will out THIS MONTH! In preparation for it's release, I'm hosting a read along for City of Lost Souls. Each year leading up to a release of Cassie's book, I always host a Shadowhunter Read-A-Long for the previously release book. Check out the schedule and feel free to join along. The Read Along kicks off TODAY!


The Schedule
May 2014
2nd:  Prologue & Chapter 1, The Last Counsel
3rd: Chapter 2, Thorns
4th: Chapter 3, Bad Angels
5th: Chapter 4, And Immortality
6th: Chapter 5, Valentine's Son
7th: Chapter 6, No Weapon in the World
8th: Chapter 7, A Sea Change
9th: Part II: Chapter 8, Fire Test Gold
10th: Chapter 9, The Iron Sisters
11th: Chapter 10, The Wild Hunt
12th: Chapter 11, Ascribe All Sin
13th: Chapter 12, The Stuff of Heaven
14th: Chapter 13, The Bone Chandelier
15th: Chapter 14, As Ashes
16th: Chapter 15, Magdalena
17th: Chapter 16, Brothers and Sisters
18th: Chapter 17, Valediction
19th: Part III: Chapter 18, Raziel
20th: Chapter 19: Love and Blood
21st: Chapter 20: A Door Into The Dark
22nd: Chapter 21: Raising Hell
23rd: Epilogue
24th: Wrap up & our predictions for City of Heavenly Fire

There's no right or wrong way to take part in this read along. Please feel free or listen to the audiobook. You can join in at the start of the read along, a few days after we start, the middle etc. You can read the book through in one night or read one chapter a night, like I'm going to do.

Each morning I'll post questions pertaining to the chapter we just read the night before. Like the previous read alongs, I'll include the links for each post on the date that's listed above. There are no right or wrong answers. The only thing I ask is that you please be respectful to everyone's comments. No bashing, and please do not list spoilers, as some readers will be reading CoLS for the first time.

Get The City of Bones e-Book for $0.99 via Amazon UK!


Check it out UK Shadowhunters! City of Bones is only $0.99! Walker Books UK shared the exciting news via Twitter this morning. Head over to Amazon UK to get your ebook!

DESCENT by Kallie Ross, Cover Reveal

You guys, I am so excited to share a cover for a friend of mine who's debut book, DESCENT is coming out next month! Now I have to confess something. I feel so lame, because I was so thrilled to be apart of her cover reveal hosted by Inkspell PR (which already took place), and somehow totally MISSED IT, even though I had an email for it. How horrible is that?!!? Now that I'm off to go hide under a rock, I'd love for you guys to check out Kallie's cover and book info! 

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We are over the moon excited about the cover reveal for Kallie Ross' DESCENT!! DESCENT is a Young Adult fantasy that comes out June 9th!!

Add this one to your Goodreads TBR pile ASAP!

Descent Cover 

  DESCENT Synopsis

 Seventeen year old Ollie Miller is ready to leave all of her hurt feelings behind, but moving on seems impossible while living next door to her ex-best friend, Mateo. When curious earthquakes begin to shake and rip open the foundation of her small town, the ground becomes as unsteady as her feelings for him. When they fall, they fall hard… Ollie’s disastrous attempt to save Mateo’s brother from falling into a curious chasm results in their descent into a cavernous wonderland. Ollie, Mateo, Jesse, and Alexis search for a way back home, and encounter a mysterious tribe of natives. Gabriel, the next in line to lead his people, is granted permission to guide them to the surface. On their treacherous journey, an overzealous elder threatens all of their lives, because he can’t risk them exposing his people, or the power he wields. The group discovers ancient secrets, unexpected truths, and uncharted feelings. Ollie must find a way out or risk being stuck in the caves forever—or worse, dead.

Descent Teaser

ABOUT KALLIE ROSS

Author Photo

Over time my love for learning gravitated toward studying conspiracy theories and contradictions in our culture. My conclusions have ignited a passion to write compelling young adult fiction that incorporates legend, conjecture, fantasy, and conviction. I love being a wife, mother, friend, writer, and teacher. I began teaching high school English in 2002 and started blogging and podcasting in 2008. I have a brilliant husband, two redheads, and never imagined my life would ever be this fun!

 LINKS
KallieRoss.com
Kallie Ross Facebook
@KallieRoss Twitter
KallieRossWrites Tumblr
Descent: A Lost Tribe Facebook
Kallie Ross Goodreads

Descent Teaser 2

The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset: The Faerie Court Week #2


Hello and welcome to week #2 of Skylar Dorest's The Girl Who Never Was, Faerie Court. This week Skylar tells us a little bit about the Seelie Court and the Four Fays of the Season. Be sure to check our Skylar's blog for more.


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The Seelie Court

Scottish mythology uses the term "Seelie Court" to refer to “good” faeries. But the Seelies have undergone a perversion from the times when they enjoyed their positive reputation among the Scots, so that by Selkie’s time, the term “Seelie” no longer indicates "good," and that is, in fact, why we don’t see faeries as much anymore: The witches and wizards on our side have closed the borders for our own protection.

As understood by inhabitants of the Otherworld, the “Seelies” are a specific line of incredibly powerful faeries. Severely inbred for a long period of time, they consolidated their genetic talents until they reached the point where they had gained a power not held by any other faerie: the power to dissolve another being with the use of their name. Naming is always painful and destructive to all supernatural creatures, but only the Seelies managed to hone it into an effective murder weapon. Using this power, the Seelies realized they could control the entire Otherworld. They then undertook a war to force adherence to their Court, which resulted in a bank of names which the Seelies use to keep their subjects in line. Seelies are also very well-schooled in methods of “persuasion” to compel actions on the parts of others, including the divulgence of their names.

Once they consolidated power, the Seelies determined to keep it forever. They did this by freezing their numbers, forbidding procreation, in order to make sure that power did not have to be shared by more than the three dozen or so Seelies who already existed. They also set out on a campaign of re-writing history. The Seelies simply wanted everyone to forget the unpleasant way in which they came to power, so they learned how to make forgetting a specialty of theirs. They outlawed the writing of books, because the power of words written down is one of the few things that can destroy the Seelie power to compel forgetfulness.

In the folklore, Seelies are capricious souls who do everything on a whim. Like most faeries, they are fairly bad at advance planning and impulse control. Unlike most faeries, this results in a terrifying amount of senseless violence. Seelies enjoy a special rush of power during a naming that drives them to name other faeries; they need no further reason. This has provoked such panicked terror in their subjects that the Otherworld has become an intensely paranoid and mistrusting place, where creatures seldom speak for fear of attracting any attention.

The mythology of the Seelie Court also usually painted the Seelie Court as gay and happy, forgetting their sorrows quickly. But that's what makes the Seelie Court so terrifying: the Seelies forget, quickly, which makes them almost emotionless. If you can’t remember your sorrows, then you have no understanding that you are happy. You just are. This also dovetails with another frequent Seelie Court trait in the folklore: Seelies hurt humans without realizing it, because they simply don't understand human feelings. The Seelie Court just cannot comprehend being attached to people or things. They are simply not that way. They have no loyalty, no sense of liking or even disliking the things in the world with them. They like being in charge, and beyond that they don’t care. 

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The Four Fays of the Seasons

There was a prophecy. Prophecies are tricky things, difficult to read. The future is never set in stone and there is never just one path to take. So it is never clear what a prophecy actually means. Some faeries excel at reading the stars and the cards and the swirl of the dancing dust motes and the patterns in spices like salt and pepper. And those faeries will tell you that there was a prophecy. 

The prophecy was that there would be four fays born of Seelie blood, one for each season, just as one season ended and the next season began. These four fays would band together to overthrow the tyranny of the Seelie Court and rescue the Otherworld. They would bring about an era of unrivaled peace and joy and happiness. 

Or they wouldn't at all. In fact, they would do the exact opposite. 

You see, that's the thing about a prophecy: There's never just one side to it. 

One thing all of the faeries agreed on, though: The four fays of the seasons might not succeed in overthrowing the Seelie Court. But the Otherworld would never overthrow the Seelie Court without them. And so the Otherworld fastened all of its hopes and dreams on four unknown fays. And waited. 

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Skylar Dorset

THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS (June 3, from Sourcebooks)
(Pre-order on Amazon – Barnes & Noble – IndieBound)



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