If you do not know yet how much I loved Crewel you can read my review here (it has giraffe balls)! For the rest of you, you must know how excited I am to be on this chapter reveal tour for its sequel, Altered. On each stop, you will ge part of the 1st chapter until you've read it all! Plus, you get a chance to win an ARC!
*Altered, the sequel to Crewel, does not yet have a cover*
Altered Chapter One (Part 3)
[...Continued from Part 1 at Bewitched Bookworms and Part 2 at Cuddlebuggery Book Blog]
“Clearly the fact that we are in some type of forsaken alternate reality is much less important than your grudge against me, so can we get this over with and move on?” Erik asks. He moves out of the shadows to face his brother. Standing there, they mirror each other, and for the first time I study them as brothers. I’d only just figured out the real reason they were cold to each other at the Coventry: they were both hiding that secret. They’re exactly the same height, something I’d not noticed before, but Jost is bulkier from his work at the Coventry. He’s dressed in casual work clothes, unlike Erik, whose suit, while wrinkly, is still smart. Erik’s hair brushes his shoulders and Jost’s is longer, but although they share the same unruly waves, Erik’s silvery hair is smoothly slicked into place. Jost’s wild dark locks look like you’d expect after as much action as we’ve seen. The one thing that’s exactly the same is their piercing blue eyes.
“Grudge?” Jost laughs, but there’s a hollowness to it. “You think watching my wife, our sister, our mother get wiped from Arras resulted in a grudge?”
“Then why are you here? What purpose does it serve to run to the Guild if you hate them so much for what they did to Rozenn?” Erik demands.
“That’s our problem.” Jost steps closer to him. “You’ve never understood. Even I knew why Rozenn’s brother and his friends were discontent. I know what the Guild is capable of, and so do you. How can you turn a blind eye? You’ve become one of them.”
“Jost, you were at the Coventry for two years, and I never once let it slip you were from Saxun.”
“It would have given away your own secret. You wouldn’t want those officials knowing you were a fisherman’s son,” Jost accuses.
Erik’s jaw tightens. “I never once gave them a reason to suspect your motives, but I’ll be honest with you, I don’t understand what you were waiting for. I expected you to attack them, maybe even kill the Spinster who did it. Anything,” Erik says. “I wouldn’t have blamed you. I stood back, and you did nothing. I actually thought maybe you’d formed some type of twisted dependency on them.”
“That’s not it.” Jost sighs, and the lightest of lines remain on his forehead and around his eyes. “If you understood then you’d know I wasn’t looking for some quick, simple payback. I want to understand how the system operates.”
“How will that help you heal?” Erik demands. “What can you possibly gain?”
“Myself ? Not much. But understanding the system and getting the information into the right hands could do more damage.”
“So that’s it,” Erik says in a quiet voice. “You were plotting treason.”
“And killing Spinsters wouldn’t have been that?” Jost asks, responding to the allegation in his brother’s voice.
“Killing the one responsible would be reasonable,” Erik says. “But destroying the system would undermine the peace the Guild has established.”
“Peace?” Jost echoes with a laugh.
I think of the people who have been ripped, the neatly orga- nized proof in storage at the Coventry, the look of defeat on my father’s face as he tried to shove me into the tunnel the night the Guild came to claim me. No part of me wants to laugh.
Jost grabs my arm. “Ask Adelice. Ask her what it’s like to rip someone from Arras. Ask her if it’s peaceful for them.”
I open my mouth to protest being dragged into the middle of this, but Jost doesn’t wait for me to respond to his point.
“Or better yet, ask me, Erik. Ask me what it was like to see it happen.” Jost’s voice drops down and trails off. None of us speak. “I watched it. I saw her slip away piece by piece. I watched as they took her away from me.”
“I’m sorry,” Erik offers. He sounds sincere, but even I know his words are far from enough.
Jost shakes his head slightly as if to clear his thoughts, and looks out into the dark. “Rozenn was better than any of us. You or me. So was our mother.” He pauses. “And my daughter.” Erik’s shock registers like a slap across the face.
“Daughter?” he mouths. No actual sound comes, but the heaviness of the word presses on my chest, and judging from their expressions, they feel it, too.
“You missed out on a lot when you took off.” Jost’s words are dismissive, but he doesn’t look away from Erik.
“You could have telebounded me,” Erik insists. Now he’s the one who sounds accusatory.
“And what?” Jost asks. “You would have come to visit? You didn’t come when Dad got sick or I got married. I knew where we stood with you when you left to serve the Guild. Your family couldn’t help you move forward politically, so we were of no use to you.
“You wouldn’t have cared,” Jost continues. “You were busy cozying up to Maela, following her orders like the perfect Spinster’s errand boy. Just like you’ve been busy weaseling your way into Adelice’s heart.”
...Read more tomorrow over at The Book Cellar!
Have not heard of Crewel yet? *gasp* Check what you're missing:
Crewel
Gennifer AlbinSeries: Crewel World #1
Publication date: October 16th 2012
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Enter a tangled world of secrets and intrigue where a girl is in charge of other’s destinies, but not her own.
Sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys has always been special. When her parents discover her gift—the ability to weave the very fabric of reality—they train her to hide it. For good reason, they don’t want her to become a Spinster — one of the elite, beautiful, and deadly women who determine what people eat, where they live, how many children they have, and even when they die.
Thrust into the opulent Western Coventry, Adelice will be tried, tested and tempted as she navigates the deadly politics at play behind its walls. Now caught in a web of lies and forbidden romance, she must unravel the sinister truth behind her own unspeakable power. Her world is hanging by a thread, and Adelice, alone, can decide to save it — or destroy it.
About the Author
--
Altered Chapter One Reveal Tour:
Monday, May 20—Prologue and Part One of Chapter One
Bewitched Bookworms
Tuesday, May 21—Part Two of Chapter One
Cuddlebuggery
Wednesday, May 22—Part Three of Chapter One
Xpresso Reads
Thursday, May 23—Part Four of Chapter One
The Book Cellar
Friday, May 24—Part Five of Chapter One
BookYAReview
Bewitched Bookworms
Tuesday, May 21—Part Two of Chapter One
Cuddlebuggery
Wednesday, May 22—Part Three of Chapter One
Xpresso Reads
Thursday, May 23—Part Four of Chapter One
The Book Cellar
Friday, May 24—Part Five of Chapter One
BookYAReview
Giveaway
The lovely people at Macmillan Children's Publishing Group have generously offered up one ARC of Altered (Crewel World, #2) for giveaway.
· Open to US and Canada addresses only
· Full contest terms and conditions found on Rafflecopter
Giveaway ends June 3rd, 2013
Use the Rafflecopter below to enter
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The lovely people at Macmillan Children's Publishing Group have generously offered up one ARC of Altered (Crewel World, #2) for giveaway.
· Open to US and Canada addresses only
· Full contest terms and conditions found on Rafflecopter
Giveaway ends June 3rd, 2013
Use the Rafflecopter below to enter
a Rafflecopter giveaway
