Hi everyone!
Today is the official release of Frost by Kate Avery Ellison!
Summary:
In the icy, monster-plagued world of the Frost, one wrong
move and a person might end up dead—and Lia Weaver knows this better than
anyone. After monsters kill her parents, she must keep the family farm running
despite the freezing weather and threat of monster attacks, or risk losing her
siblings to reassignment by the village Elders. With dangers on all sides and
treachery just one wrong step away, she can’t afford to let her emotions lead
her astray. So when her sister finds a fugitive bleeding to death in the
forest, a young man from beyond the Frost named Gabe, Lia surprises herself and
does the unthinkable.
She saves his life.
Giving shelter to the fugitive could get her in serious trouble. The Elders have always described the advanced society of people beyond the Frost, the “Farthers,” as ruthless and cruel, and her village has nothing to do with them. But Lia is startled to find that Gabe is empathetic and intelligent…and handsome. She might even be falling in love with him.
But time is running out. The monsters from the forest circle her farm at night. The village leader is starting to ask questions. Farther soldiers are searching for Gabe. Lia must locate a secret organization called the Thorns to help Gabe escape to safety, but each move she makes puts her in greater danger. Is compassion—and love—worth the risk?
She saves his life.
Giving shelter to the fugitive could get her in serious trouble. The Elders have always described the advanced society of people beyond the Frost, the “Farthers,” as ruthless and cruel, and her village has nothing to do with them. But Lia is startled to find that Gabe is empathetic and intelligent…and handsome. She might even be falling in love with him.
But time is running out. The monsters from the forest circle her farm at night. The village leader is starting to ask questions. Farther soldiers are searching for Gabe. Lia must locate a secret organization called the Thorns to help Gabe escape to safety, but each move she makes puts her in greater danger. Is compassion—and love—worth the risk?
Sound good?
I just finished reading Frost and thought it was a wonderful read. I hope you enjoy the excerpt below!
Frost Excerpt
“Where’s Ivy?” I swept
my gaze across the main room of the house. Dried laundry draped across my
great-grandmother’s furniture, laundry my little sister had been supposed to
fold and put away before I got home. A curl of anger kindled in the pit of my
stomach—we were barely making quota, the winter storms were upon us, and she
wasn’t even keeping up with the basic chores I gave her. She was almost
fourteen—she was old enough to do her share of the work.
Jonn raised his
eyebrows. “I haven’t seen her all afternoon. I thought she was with you.”
A little piece of my
insides froze at his words. Our eyes met and held, and a million wordless
things passed between us. I went back to the door and opened it.
Darkness was falling
along with the snow. I hadn’t seen my sister in the village, and she hadn’t
been in the barn. It was a small farm—just a round clearing in the woods,
really. There was no sign of her in the yard. I shouted her name, but the wind
snatched the word from my lips and flung it away. The Watcher Ward rattled
above me, and the sound was like bones shaking.
My heart beat fast. My
lungs were suddenly empty. I took a shaky breath and then exhaled slowly before
turning to my brother.
“I’m going out to find
her.”
Jonn looked at the
fire. I knew he wouldn’t argue with me—he wasn’t the type to voice
disagreements, especially not with me—but his whole face tightened and his lips
turned white.
“The Watchers...”
“It’s too early for
Watchers to be out,” I said. “There’s still light left. Besides, nobody’s seen
one in months.”
That was a half-lie, as
their tracks were spotted almost every week crisscrossing the paths or
wandering around the edges of the village where the border of snow blossoms was
planted to keep them out. But it was a half-truth, too. We hadn’t seen them
recently.
But Jonn and I knew
better than anybody that there was still a risk.
“I’m going,” I said.
He didn’t reply, but I
could tell by his expression that he was furious that he couldn’t go. He wasn’t
mad at me. It was just the way things were. There was no point in wasting time
talking about it, so we didn’t.
I pulled on my cloak
again and struggled into my heavy boots with the snowshoes for walking on top
of the snow. Opening the front door, I threw one final look over my shoulder at
Jonn before ducking back out into the wintery evening.
It had grown colder
since I’d been inside, or maybe that was just the wind stealing the warmth from
my body. I padded through the dusting of snow that covered everything, cupping
my hands over my mouth to call her again. “Ivy!”
Most of the time fear
was just like a rat in my belly, gnawing and gnawing a hole in the same place
day after day whenever I’d let it. But now the rat had turned into a lion, and
it was tearing me apart from the inside out. I reached the edge of the yard,
where the trees formed a wall of brown and green, and I stopped. The wind
shivered through my hair.
“Ivy!” I screamed
again.
She was always
wandering the farm with a dream in her eyes and a song in her mouth. She had a
head full of thoughts about things that didn’t matter and never would, and she
didn’t have an ounce of sense when it came to our survival. I wrapped both arms
tight around my middle to hold in the fear, and I sucked in another breath to
call again when I heard it, lost against the wind. My name.
“Lia...?”
Her voice was faint,
almost imperceptible, but my ears were fine-tuned with terror and I heard it.
I surged forward into
the woods, kicking up snow. “Ivy?”
She appeared out of the
shadows suddenly. Her cheeks were bitten red with cold and her long dark hair
was wet with melting ice. She stumbled, grabbed my hands. Her mittens were
missing.
“Hurry,” she breathed,
tugging at me. “Quickly.”
“Ivy Augusta Weaver,” I
hissed, torn between joyful relief and flickering anger. “It’s almost night
time. There is a storm coming. What were you thinking? Where have you been?”
“There is a boy,” she panted, ignoring my scolding. “In the
woods.”
Want to read Frost? You can find it:
About the Author:
Kate Avery Ellison has been making up stories since she was five years old, and is now doing it as a full-time job. She has an obsession with dark fantasy, dystopian futures, and Pride and Prejudice-style love stories full of witty banter and sizzling, unspoken feelings. When she isn't writing, she spends her time gardening, composing music, tweeting, reading funny blogs, and watching TV. She lives with her geeky husband and their two bad cats in Atlanta, GA.
Be sure to check back on April 7 for my review!
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