by Denise Marques Leitao Genre: YA Fantasy Release Date: September 18th 2017 Summary:
Sheâs got the fate of a kingdom in her handsâor rather, in her shoes.
14-year old Karina is not sure what she wants, but she knows what sheâs found: fascinating silver shoes. Fascinating, dangerous, and potentially evil. On the upside, they do bring cool visitors. When two princesses ask her to go to Whyland, a kingdom in a parallel dimension, to destroy the shoes, of course Karina accepts. Who would refuse a free trip to an alternate world? Advised by a wise master, threatened by a beautiful stepmother, Karina goes on a journey with a princess to defeat a powerful witch. But Whyland is nothing like she expected. Karina finds herself stuck in a kingdom she doesnât understand, with no clue on who to trust. Before saving anyone, sheâd better save herselfâif she figures out how.
From Brazilian / Canadian writer Denise Marques Leitao comes a teen parody of fantasy and fairy-tale tropes with many female characters, friendships between girls and women, and some subtle romance. If you like to read about strong girls and women, youâve found your book.
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Excerpt:
Slowly, the sense of reality came back to Karina. Sparkly dust. Yeah, that was from blinking or whatever. Grant a wish. Was Karina still at the age of believing in fairy tales? She was a normal, logical person. Most fairy tales she knew were from a time when she had no word on the kind of entertainment assigned to her. How could she have fallen for such crap? Thankfully she didnât sell the shoes for an empty promise. Wait. Did the woman have the nerve to steal the shoes right under her nose? Karina hurried to the closet and picked up her purse. The shoes were still there. What had this visit been all about then? Maybe Karina was just tired and seeing things, but what troubled her most was not having visions but believing what they said. Instead of watching a movie, she put on her pajamas, turned off all the lights and lay on her bed. If she was going to believe in fairy tales, sheâd better sleep before nine.
While midway on her journey between being awake and asleep, Karina heard what seemed to be something heavy falling in her bedroom. The sound would have startled her, had she not had enough of weird stuff and decided just to convince herself she was dreaming. Then she heard girlsâ voices:
âOuch.â
âCareful.â
âYouâre the one who needs to be careful. You fell over me.â
âWhat can I do? Itâs all dark in here. I didnât think itâd be like that.â
âAyanna, you werenât even supposed to come. We need lights.â
âWe can try to find them.â
âNo, Iâll take care of that.â
âCayla, youâre not supposed to!â
âShhh. Nobody will know about it.â
âWow! Thatâs so cool. Look, you broke something. Do you think you can fix it?â
âYou mean you broke it. Weâre not supposed to.â
âI wanna see it.â
âAll right. Iâll try.â
At this point, Karina had the notion that she was awake and the voices were really in her bedroom. Her eyes were still closed in the hopes the voices would fade away on their own, but instead, they only got clearer and more real, to a point she could no longer hold her curiosity and had to look. She opened her eyes just enough to see without being noticed. A strange, orange glow illuminated the room. Two teenage girls were there, reminding her of the woman she had previously seen, especially the older one, but dressed in very simple green and orange dresses. The oldest girl passed her hands over Karinaâs study lamp, which seemed to have been broken.
The younger girl laughed. âI donât think you can do it. Can I try it?â
âBreak something of your own.â
âDidnât you say I was the one who broke it?â
This was getting too much. One thing was arguing in her room, but starting to break things, no. Karina sat up. âHey, what are you doing here?â
About the Author
Denise Marques Leitao was born and raised in Brazil. When sheâs not creating worlds and characters, sheâs discussing the meaning of the Universe with her son, writing unintellectual poetry, podcasting about popular culture, or teaching. She lives in Montreal, Canada, and has a Master's in English Literature.
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4 Comments
Sara Zielinski
9/18/2017 12:09:21 pm
Congrats on the release!
Reply
Rita Wray
9/18/2017 02:49:37 pm
I liked the excerpt, thank you.
Reply
Dale Wilken
9/18/2017 09:43:51 pm
I really enjoyed the excerpt.
Reply
heather
9/19/2017 04:11:31 pm
Love the cover of this one.
Reply
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