Mundie Moms

Friday, February 17, 2017

DAUGHTER OF THE BURNING CITY by Amanda Foody / Cover Reveal, Excerpt + Giveaway

WELCOME TO TODAY'S COVER REVEAL for debut author Amanda Foody's DAUGHTER OF THE BURNING CITY. I am so excited about this book's upcoming release. I absolutely LOVE this cover. Along with today's exciting cover reveal, you can read Amanda's thoughts on the cover, read an excerpt & enter to WIN! CHECK OUT THE COVER BELOW!

COVER REVEAL




I LOVE this cover! What are your thoughts on the cover? I'm completely intrigued. Yes, I would totally pick up this book based on the cover alone. This is one carnival I want to know more about. The details are amazing. I'm want to know more about the tents, the smoke, and the performers. This is one story I am looking forward to reading. 

FROM THE AUTHOR

Daughter of the Burning City is a weird book that meshes a lot of elements of sweeping YA fantasies, magical carnival stories, and murder mysteries all into a single novel--which is why I love the direction of this cover. I think the combination of images, colors, and style reflects the themes of the book perfectly. The massive circus city below is a great representation of the smoldering Gomorrah Festival, and the smoked effects on the font strengthen the impact of the title and the image. I also love the font for the tagline, as it looks so creepy horror. The purple and pink colors are representative of colors mentioned in the story: the theme colors of the Gomorrah Festival are black (of course--how could a carnival of debauchery not be full darkness?), and then secondary colors of red, violet, and fuschia because everything in the Festival is over the top and clashy. The artists did a great job reflecting those strange colors while still allowing them to reflect the darker, murderous themes in a book where no one is safe and nothing is as it seems...


ABOUT THE BOOK

By: Amanda Foody
Published by: Harlequin Teen
To Be Released on: July 25th, 2017
Pre-Order fromAmazon 
Add it to Goodreads


Sixteen-year-old Sorina works for the Gomorrah Festival, a traveling carnival of debauchery meant to cater to any pleasure or desire, whether that be the famous Gomorrah licorice cherries, or even sweeter nights spent at a renowned bordello. Sorina is an illusion-worker, meaning she can create illusions that others can see, feel and touch—which are nearly real, except for Sorina’s ability to control them or make them disappear as needed. Her illusions are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Gomorrah Festival Freak Show.

When one of her illusions is murdered, Sorina must determine who killed him, why, and most importantly, how they killed a person who doesn’t exist.

READ AN EXCERPT 



I peek from behind the tattered velvet curtains at the chatter­ing audience, their mouths full of candied pineapple and kettle corn. With their pale faces flushed from excitement and the heat, they look as gullible as dandelions, much like the patrons in the past five cities. The Gomorrah Festival hasn’t been permitted to travel this far north in the Up-Mountains in over three years, and these people look like they’re attending the opera or the theater rather than our traveling carnival of debauchery.
The women wear frilly dresses in burnt golds and oranges, buckled to the point of suffocation, some with rosy-cheeked children bouncing on their laps, others with cleavage as high as their chins. The men have shoulder pads to seem broader, stilted loafers to seem taller and painted silver pocket watches to seem richer.
If buckles, stilts and paint are enough to hoodwink them, then they won’t notice that the eight “freaks” of my freak show are, in fact, only one.
Tonight’s mark, Count Pomp-di-pomp—or is it Count Pomp-von-Pompa?—smokes an expensive pipe in the second row, his mustache gleaming with leftover saffron honey from the pastry he had earlier. He’s sitting too close to the front, which won’t make it easy for Iosef to steal the count’s ring.
That’s where I come in.
My job is to distract the audience so that Pomp-di-pomp doesn’t notice Iosef’s shadow-work coaxing the sapphire ring off of his porky finger and dropping it onto the grass below.
A drum and fiddle play an exotic Down-Mountain tune to quiet the audience’s chatter, and I let the curtain fall, blocking my view. The Gomorrah Festival Freak Show will soon begin.
This is my favorite part of the performance: the anticipa­tion. The drumbeats pound erratically, as if dizzy from drink­ing several mugs of the Festival’s spiced wine. Everything sticks in this humid air: the aromas of carnival food, the gray smoke that shrouds Gomorrah like a cloak and the jittery intakes of breaths from the audience, wondering whether the freak show will prove as gruesome as the sign outside promised:
The Gomorrah Festival Freak Show.
Walk the line between abnormal and monstrous.
From the opposite end of the stage, behind the curtain on stage right, Nicoleta nods at me. I reach for the rope and yank down. The pulley spins and whistles, and the curtain rises.
Nicoleta struts—a very practiced, rigid strut—into the spot­light, her heels clicking and the slit in her gown revealing a lacy violet garter at the curve of her thigh. When I first created her three years ago, she had knee-shaking stage fright, and I needed to control her during the show like a puppet. Now she’s so ac­customed to her role that I turn away, unneeded, and tie on my best mask. Rhinestones of varying sizes and shades of red cover it, from the curled edges near my temples to the tip of my nose. I need to dazzle, after all.
“Welcome to the Gomorrah Festival Freak Show,” Nicoleta says.
The audience gawks at her. Like them, Nicoleta has fair skin. Freckles. Pale brown hair draped to her elbows. Skinny wrists and skinnier, child-like legs. Many members of Gomorrah have Up-Mountain heritage, whether obvious or diluted, but these northern city dwellers always expect the enticingly unfamiliar: sensual, audacious and wild.
The audience’s expressions seem to say, Poor, lost girl, what are you doing working at Gomorrah? Where are your parents? Your chap­erone? You can’t be more than twenty-two.
“I am Nicoleta, the show’s manager, and I hope you’re en­joying your first Gomorrah Festival in…three years, I hear?”
The audience stiffens; they stop fanning themselves, stop chewing their candied pineapple. I curse under my breath. Ni­coleta has a knack—a compulsion, really—for saying the wrong thing. This is the Festival’s first night in Frice, a city-state known—like many others—for its strict religious leaders and disapproval of the Gomorrah lifestyle. Three years ago, a minor rebellion in the Vurundi kingdom ousted the Frician merchants from power there. Despite quickly reclaiming its tyrannous gov­ernorships, and despite Gomorrah’s utter lack of involvement, Frice decided to restrict the Festival’s traveling in this region. I can’t have Nicoleta scaring away our few visitors by remind­ing them that their city officials disapprove of them being here, even to an attraction as innocent as a freak show.
“For those of you with weaker constitutions, I suggest you exit before our opening act,” Nicoleta says. Her tone rises and falls at the proper moments. The theatrics of her performance in our show are the opposite of Nicoleta’s role in our family, which Unu and Du have dubbed “stick in the bum.” Every night, she manages to transform—or, better put, improve—her entire de­meanor for the sake of the show, since her own abilities are too unreliable to deserve an act. Some days, she can pull our cara­vans better than our two horses combined. Others, she needs Tree to open our jars of lychee preserves.
“The sights you are about to witness are shocking, even mon­strous,” she continues. A young boy in the front row clings to his mother, pulling at her puffed, apricot sleeves. “Children, cover your eyes. Parents, beware. Because the show is about to begin.”
While the audience leans forward in their seats, I prepare for the upcoming act by picturing the Strings, as I call them. I have almost two hundred Strings, glowing silver, dragging behind me as I walk, like the train of a fraying gown. Only I can see them and, even then, only when I focus. I mentally reach down and pluck out four particular Strings and circle them around my hands until they’re taut. The others remain in a heap on the wooden floor.
“I’d like to introduce you to a man found within the faraway Forest of Ruins,” Nicoleta lies. Backstage, Hawk stops playing the fiddle, and Unu and Du reduce the tempo on their drums. I yank on the Strings to command my puppet.
Thump. Thump.
The audience gasps as the Human Tree stomps onto the stage. His skin is made entirely of bark, and his midsection measures as wide as a hundred-year-old oak trunk. It’s difficult to make out his facial features in the twisted lumps of wood, except for his sunken, beetle-black eyes and emptiness of expression. Leaves droop from the branches jutting out from his shoulders, adding several feet to his already daunting stature. His fingers curl into splintery twigs as he waves hello.
From backstage, my hand waves, as well. If I don’t control Tree, he’ll scream profanity that will make half these fancy la­dies faint. If he works himself into a real tantrum, he’ll tear off the bark on his stomach until blood trickles out like sap.
His act begins, which is mostly him stomping around and grunting, and me yanking this way and that on his Strings to make him do so. I crafted him when I was three years old, be­fore I considered the performance potential of my illusions.
The six other illusions wait with me backstage.
Venera, the boneless acrobat more flexible than a dripping egg yolk, brushes rouge on her painted white cheeks at a vanity. She pouts in the mirror and then pushes aside a strand of dark hair from her face. She’s beautiful, especially in her skintight, black-and-purple-striped suit. Every night, the audience prac­tically drools over her…until they watch her body flatten into a puddle or her arms roll up like a croissant.
Beside her, Crown files the fingernails that grow from his body where hair should be. He keeps the nails on his arms and legs smooth, giving him a scaly look, but he doesn’t touch the ones on his hands and head, which are curled, yellow daggers as long as butcher knives. Though Crown was my second illu­sion, made ten years ago, he appears to be seventy-five. He al­ways smokes a cigar before his performance so his gentle voice will sound as prickly as his skin.
Hawk plays the fiddle in an almost spiritual concentration while what’s left of a chipmunk—dinner—hangs out of her mouth. Her brown wings are tucked under her fuchsia cape, where they will remain until she unfolds them during her act, screeches and flies over the—usually shrieking—audience. Her talons pluck at the fiddle’s strings at an incomparable speed. Her ultimate goal is to challenge the devil himself to a fiddle con­test, and she figures by traveling with the world’s most famous festival of depravity, she’s bound to run into him one day.
Blister, the chubby one-year-old, plays with the beads dan­gling off of Unu and Du’s drum. Rather than focusing on their rhythm, Unu and Du bicker about something, per usual. Du punches Unu with their shared left arm. Unu hisses an unpleas­ant word loudly, which Blister then tries out for himself, miss­ing the double s sound and saying something resembling a-owl.
Gill snaps at them all to be quiet and then resumes reading his novel. Even wearing a rusted diver’s helmet full of water, he manages to make out the words on the pages. Bubbles seep from the gills on his cheeks as he sighs. As the loner of our family, he generally prefers the quiet company of books to our boisterous, pre-show jitters. He only raises his voice during our games of lucky coins—he holds the family record for the most consecu­tive wins (twenty-one). I suspect he’s been cheating by allowing Hawk, Unu and Du to forfeit games on purpose in exchange for lighter homework assignments.
“Keep an eye on Blister,” I remind the boys. “Those drums are flammable.”
“Tell Unu to stuff a drumstick up his—” Du glances hesi­tantly at Gill “—backside.”
“That’s your backside, too, dung-brain,” Unu says.
“It’s an expression,” says Du. “I like its sentiment.”
It would hardly be a classic Gomorrah Festival Freak Show if the audience couldn’t hear my brothers tormenting each other backstage.
“I’ll stick it up both your assholes if you don’t shut it,” I say. They pay me no attention; they know I never follow through with my threats.
“A-owl,” Blister says again.
“Language, Sorina,” Gill groans.
“S*it. Sorry,” I reply, but I’m only mildly chagrined. Blister’s been hearing all our foul mouths since the day he came to be.
One by one, they perform their acts: the Boneless Acrobat; the Fingernail Mace; the Half Girl, Half Hawk; the Fire-Breathing Baby; the Two-Headed Boy; and the Trout Man. The audience roars as Hawk screeches and soars over their seats, cheers at each splash of Gill flipping in and out of his tank like a trained dol­phin. They are utterly unaware that the “freaks” are actually my illusions, projected for anyone to see.
The only real freak in Gomorrah is me.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Amanda Foody has always considered imagination to be our best attempt at magic. After spending her childhood longing to attend Hogwarts, she now loves to write about immersive settings and characters grappling with insurmountable destinies. She holds a Masters in Accountancy from Villanova University, and a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from the College of William and Mary. Currently, she works as a tax accountant in Philadelphia, PA, surrounded by her many siblings and many books.
DAUGHTER OF THE BURNING CITY, her first novel, will be published by Harlequin TEEN on July 25, 2017. Her second, ACE OF SHADES, will follow in April 2018. (source)
Find Amanda online: Website | Twitter | Instagram 

ENTER TO WIN


Thank you to Harlequin Teen, we have a giveaway for (1) galley of Daughter of the Burning City to giveaway to a Mundie Moms reader:


a Rafflecopter giveaway 




Don't miss Amanda's swag pack giveaway! Details in the image above.

ShadowhuntersTV Series, S2; E7: HOW ARE THOU FALLEN / Review #shadowhunters


From Freeform's Shadowhunters webpage.
WOW! A lot happened this week on Shadowhunters. Here are our thoughts on this week's episode:

SOPHIE'S REVIEW

WOWIE. Did this episode start off with a bang. Big Bad Daddy, Valentine, is back and is literally jumping down off of the rafters. I know what you're thinking -- WHAT? WHY? THIS WASN'T IN THE BOOK.


Speaking of Not in the Book, Cleophas. Luke's sister, who will now assume the role of double agent. Every good uprising needs a double agent, right?





Clary (hearing distress calls from Valentine's captured angel, Ithuriel) visits Simon and we have our first shirtless moment of the episode:




And we have Clary's reaction, which mirrors all our feelings:




Clary is only there to reassure Simon he looks hot for his date with Maia. So, basically this is a throwaway Shirtless Scene. Speaking of those, Alec and Magnus are back from their date and they are ready to...wait, why is Jace in bed with a faerie and more importantly, why is he in boxer briefs for that length of time? It was a little Fifty Shade-sy with the close up of a carnival mask and all the mentions of tie ups. Hey, "Fifty Shades Darker" was released this past week, why not work in a tie-in (forgive the pun) promo?


The yin-fen addict plotline with Isabelle is driving me crazy, because there is no reason for it to exist. OH WAIT. There is. Simon is a vampire. Yin-fen is made of vamp venom. Maybe it's the writers' way to give us Sizzy??? If it is, it's a weird way to go about it. But, not weird for Freeform because pretty much every one of their shows contains this very plot. And now, thanks to Magnus, we know there's a yin-fen distribution kingpin. UGH. More nonsensical plot points to tie up later. Yes, I'm still tying things. Also, Magnus mentioned JEM. Don't touch Infernal Devices, Freeform, pretty please.


Let me just wrap up (see I avoided tying!), the good parts of this episode are the actors. Bless them for delivering bits and moments of our beloved characters that we can recognize. The moments of Jace and Simon doing their banter back and forth was awesome (not awesome was Jace using the shapeshifting rune to show Simon how to pick up *Hamilton voice* laaaaaadies). In fact, props to the writers for getting the gist of the relationships between the characters. But sadly, what the writers, Constantin Films and the showrunner can't seem to do is give us a plot that resembles something we recognize from the thousands of pages we've all read.


I'm left with wondering -- is it too late to figure out how to do it right? As usual, please, share your thoughts with us.



EMMALY'S REVIEW

So I'm not seeing any massive improvements but I think this episode gave me a hope. No huge battle scenes or crazy info dumping happened and it wasn't too fast paced. But it gave us a lot more character development that I think us book lovers were missing. 

We got to see a lot more of the sad, snarky and troubled Jace. He has gone back to old habits of hanging out with girls from many walks of life. We know this is a distraction from being kicked out of the Institute, still being in love with Clary and being messed up about being Valentines son. We also see Alec calling him out on this. Again a good representation of their relationship.


I am loving the Alec & Magnus story line. They are getting along well, I wish I could get a portal to Tokyo too! This is such an important relationship for book fans I'm glad they are doing this justice, especially for gay fans watching.


Ah Izzy the Yin Fen is such a horrible drug. Please stay away. We all know what can happen. Even Magnus name dropped to remind us of the terrible things that can happen. Let me just shout Jem Jem Jem!!! Thanks Magnus!! 


When Simon says "Wow is this the only bar in Brooklyn" we were thinking the same thing. But I loved all the scenes here. We had already seen Clary being cute about Simon going out with Maia, and then we see Jace giving Simon some dating advise. BTW Maia, oh we'd like to spit in one of those drinks too. Finally some humour that is actually funny in this show!!


When Jace is giving Simon a pep talk it was so spot on for their personalities. I was waiting for them to discuss Mangos! Poor Simon we just love him. I thought it was very clever when Jace impersonates Simon. 


I found the Luke/Clary/Cleophis story very similar to many we have already seen in this show that just seem predictable and fall flat. It was the sideline story in this episode thankfully. 


But we get a glimpse of the captive angel story. Poor Etherial. I'm hoping this angel story keeps going and we learn more about Clary & Jace's background soon. 


Keep up the good work writers. Going back to the source material if what we want, and you know what, we will love you more for it.


KATIE'S THOUGHTS


Kudos to this awesome cast for their acting ability, because the writing is horrible. Once again I'm left wondering why out of the hundreds of pages many of us fans have read, can't anyone pull something out of them, and use it in the plot. That would at least help out the series a lot (ratings are at an all time low right now). It would make what we're watching that much more exciting, and not leave us wondering why we're still turning in every week. 


This week's episode was a hot mess. Yes, there were some great elements, but sadly the bad out weighs the good. Let's talk about the good.... The Jace / Simon pep talk was spot on. We got a glimpse of book Jace and Simon, and I loved it. Plus, Simon is, well Simon. I love the way Alberto just gets him. I absolutely adore TV series Simon, maybe a little more so than I did at the beginning of the book series. Another good thing, we get more Malec (more on that in a moment), we see more of the Clary & Simon chemistry, and we have some good Alec and Jace moments. Simon is my favorite vampire, but Raphael is definitely becoming a close second when it comes to favorites.

The bad... Am I the only one who's having a hard time with Izzy being addicted to Yin Fen? I'm not liking the road she's heading down. I'm also having a hard time accepting Izzy doing drugs. Speaking of Yin Fen, Freeform, please do NOT touch The Infernal Devices. This show is already bad enough, screwing up TID would be even worse. 

Speaking of screwing things up, I am beyond disappointed with Freeform, and the show runners, as well as the writers for the Malec scene. NO, I'm not disappointed we got a Malec scene. I'm mad about what the scene entailed (as are many other fans, see here & here). How is it okay for there to be no consent? I'm so tired of our society's view of consent, and what the lack of saying yes means, also called CONSENT. Tonight Freeform proved how they felt about it too. What transpired during the Malec scene was not okay. It is NOT something that Magnus or Alec would ever do to each other.  Not to mention, why is it okay to show Jace having a moment (okay more than a moment, which I didn't need to see any of that), and not Malec? Tonight we saw why ABC Family became Freeform. 

Though lack of consent is the biggest problem with the Malec scenes and will taint every scene they have going forward, part of the reason it likely happened is that they were given so little screen time. They had three sentences to establish what Jace and a nameless faerie girl had ten minutes to establish as Jace and the girl rolled around naked and affectionate. 

Speaking of couples sidelined on this show, Clace continues to be a hot mess as the showrunners have no clue how to let us know Clary cares about Jace. It appears to be entirely one sided on Jace's part, rendering Clary totally unsympathetic for her clueless cruelty and making forbidden love once again into boring love. I really wish the writers would stick to the book content, or at least consult with Cassie to help make a better adaptation (see her interview here talking about the show). 


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As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts on this week's episode. If you missed it, be sure to catch up with it here on Shadowhunterstv.com.  
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