Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week my teaser comes from Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan. This is a book I bought ages ago then accidentally requested on NetGalley and got approved. I read it at the end of last week as I was looking for something different and it’s definitely that. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. There were bits I loved and bits I didn’t. I’m so confused

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My Teaser

‘Settling,’ scoffs Gwen. ‘We all settle. There isn’t a person alive who matches every element of the fantasy we wish for. Every person in a relationship has settled. What you choose to compromise on is up to you.’

~ 81% Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan

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Blurb

‘We’re going to be fine.’ 
He looks around, but there’s nothing out here: nothing but the bottomless black universe on their left, the Earth suspended in glorious technicolour to their right.

Carys and Max have ninety minutes of air left.
None of this was supposed to happen.
But, perhaps this doesn’t need to be the end…
Adrift in space with nothing to hold on to but each other, Carys and Max can’t help but look back at the well-ordered world they have left behind – at the rules they couldn’t reconcile themselves to, and a life to which they might now never return.
For in a world where love is banned, what happens when you find it?

Hold Back the Stars is a love story like no other.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week my teaser comes from Copycat by Alex Lake, a book I had to put on the back burner while I caught up on ARCs but have finally managed to pick up again. I actually won this in a GoodReads giveaway. It’s a psychological thriller about a woman who someone has it in for. They set up a fake facebook profile in her name, send emails claiming to be from her…. It’s pretty creepy and does make you a bit paranoid about your online presence.

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My Teaser

There was a strange paradox at the heart of it: she felt totally comfortable with him, trusted he loved her whatever she did, yet at the same time she still wanted to impress him, still wanted to show him she was a strong and intelligent and beautiful woman who merited his ongoing love and attention. She didn’t resent the feeling, because she didn’t think she had to do it.

~ Pg 83 Copycat by Alex Lake

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Blurb

Your stalker is everywhere.
Your stalker knows everything.
But the real problem is that your stalker is you.

Sarah Havenant discovers–when an old friend points it out–that there are two Facebook profiles in her name.

One, she recognizes: it is hers. The other, she has never seen. But everything in it is accurate. Recent photos of her and her friends, her and her husband, her and her kids. Even of her new kitchen. A photo taken inside her house.

She is bemused, angry, and worried. Who was able to do this? Any why?

But this, it soon turns out, is just the beginning. It is only now–almost as though someone has been watching, waiting for her to find the profile–that her problems really start…

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week my teaser comes from Strange Weather by Joe Hill which I received from NetGalley. It’s a collection of four novellas (each around 100-150pgs) written at different points in Hill’s career each with some kind of weather link. I enjoyed some a little more than others (Aloft was my favorite) but all are brilliant.

My teaser is from the first story Snapshot about a Polaroid camera that erases memories with each picture it takes.

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My Teaser

“Invent a way not to ged old,” he said. “It is a terrible goddem trick to play on someone. Gedding old is no way to stop being young.”

~ 3% Strange Weather by Joe Hill

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Blurb

A collection of four chilling novels, ingeniously wrought gems of terror from the brilliantly imaginative, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman, Joe Hill

“Snapshot” is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by “The Phoenician,” a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap.

A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in “Aloft.”

On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails—splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. “Rain” explores this escalating apocalyptic event, as the deluge of nails spreads out across the country and around the world.

In “Loaded,” a mall security guard in a coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on one last day of reckoning.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week my teaser comes from The Empress by S.J. Kincaid which I was very excited to receive from NetGalley and couldn’t resist reading immediately. It’s the follow up to The Diabolic, one of my favorite books last year, and is just about as brilliant. It is a sci fi rather than a horror but I’ve managed to find a teaser that’s perfect for Halloween.

I do need to add a warning that while my teaser is spoiler free the blurb below is not so don’t read it if you haven’t read the Diabolic (and were thinking about it).

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My Teaser

And that felt right, and then I realized I was talking to a corpse and this was ridiculous. This was something a crazy person would do. I turned and walked away from the corpse. I had a book now.

~ 77% The Empress by S.J. Kincaid

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Blurb

It’s a new day in the Empire. Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side and now they can find a new way forward—one where they don’t have to hide or scheme or kill. One where creatures like Nemesis will be given worth and recognition, where science and information can be shared with everyone and not just the elite.

But having power isn’t the same thing as keeping it, and change isn’t always welcome. The ruling class, the Grandiloquy, has held control over planets and systems for centuries—and they are plotting to stop this teenage Emperor and Nemesis, who is considered nothing more than a creature and certainly not worthy of being Empress.

Nemesis will protect Tyrus at any cost. He is the love of her life, and they are partners in this new beginning. But she cannot protect him by being the killing machine she once was. She will have to prove the humanity that she’s found inside herself to the whole Empire—or she and Tyrus may lose more than just the throne. But if proving her humanity means that she and Tyrus must do inhuman things, is the fight worth the cost of winning it?

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week my teaser comes from Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas which I have been working my way through over the last week or so. Technically not a horror but there have been more than a few seriously creepy moments.

I should add a quick warning that this is book 6 in the series so while there are no spoilers in my teaser the synopsis below is full of them.

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My Teaser

She had never once feared for her safety, not from the moment she had set foot within these walls, but Yrene found herself going still as she stared into that gloom to her right. Then slowly over her shoulder.

~ Pg 127 Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas

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Blurb

In the next installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, follow Chaol on his sweeping journey to a distant empire.

Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken.

His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica—the stronghold of the southern continent’s mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them.

But what they discover in Antica will change them both—and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

 

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week my teaser comes from The Scandal (aka Beartown) by Fredrik Backman. I was originally planning to continue my horror themed teasers but I read this at the weekend and loved it so much I had to share something from it. The writing is just incredible and I honestly think I’ve highlighted pretty much the whole book. Definitely one I’d recommend.

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My Teaser

Her little Benjamin, the fighter with whom it’s far too easy for the girls of Beartown to fall in love. The boy with the most handsome face, the saddest eyes and the wildest heart they’ve ever seen.

~ 10% The Scandal by Fredrik Backman

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Blurb

‘Late one evening towards the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barrelled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there.’ 

Beartown is a small town in a large Swedish forest.

For most of the year it is under a thick blanket of snow, experiencing the kind of cold and dark that brings people closer together – or pulls them apart.

Its isolation means that Beartown has been slowly shrinking with each passing year. But now the town is on the verge of an astonishing revival. Everyone can feel the excitement. Change is in the air and a bright new future is just around the corner.

Until the day it is all put in jeopardy by a single, brutal act. It divides the town into those who think it should be hushed up and forgotten, and those who’ll risk the future to see justice done. At last, it falls to one young man to find the courage to speak the truth that it seems no one else wants to hear.

No one can stand by or stay silent. You’re on one side or another.

Which side will you find yourself on?

 

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week I’m continuing my horror themed teasers with one from The Lifeguard by Richie Tankersley Cusick. This was first published in 1988 as part of the Point Horror series and was one of my favorite books when I was younger. I couldn’t resist a re read at the weekend when I came across it on Kindle Unlimited. Brought back some great memories.

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My Teaser

He covered his face with his hands and felt the cold sweat pouring off him. He always felt like this – sick and sad and empty – when it was time for the game to be over. When it was time to do what he had to do.

~ 73% The Lifeguard by Richie Tankersley Cusick

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Blurb

A summer of sun, sand and murder.

Kelsey’s summer should have been paradise: An invitation to rich and famous Beverly Island, complete with sun-drenched beaches and three gorgeous lifeguards on duty. But Kelsey’s summer is the opposite of paradise. It starts with the note under her pillow from a girl who’s missing. Then there’s the crazy man in the lighthouse who won’t leave Kelsey alone.

And there have been a number of suspicious drownings…. At least she has the lifeguards around to protect her….

Poor Kelsey. Someone forgot to tell her that lifeguards don’t always like to save lives.