Title: The
Grove
Author: Karri
Thompson
Genre: YA
Fantasy
Cover Designer:
KimGDesign
Editor: Jennifer
Murgia
Publisher: Reign
Publishing
Publication
Date: September 21st, 2021
Hosted by: Lady Amber’s PR
Blurb
Entering the woods is forbidden. To go in can mean a fate worse than
death. At least that’s what seventeen-year-old Laura has been told. But living
in a new town with nothing to do, she ignores her mother’s dire warnings and
explores the forest near her home.
The trees entice Laura deeper into the woods. A mysterious, soothing voice calls her name, and she becomes lost. When a young man finds her, she thinks she’s saved. But he insists their meeting is more than a coincidence. For centuries, his colony has been waiting for a savior. With his alluring eyes and gentle smile, Laura almost believes his crazy story.
Caught between worlds, and with her life at stake, she doesn’t know who to believe or trust. Her heart tells her one thing and her head another.
Is it her destiny, or will her fate only postpone the inevitable?
Karri Thompson, a native of San Diego, attended San Diego State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in education. When she’s not writing novels and teaching high school English, she can be found nerding out at San Diego Comic-Con and cooking delicious meals for her family. Karri is the recipient of the San Diego Book Awards Best Published Young Adult Novel for 2014.
Author Links:
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Goodreads | Bookbub | Website | Amazon
The hair on my arms rose. My heart thumped
hard, the blood pulsing through my chest into my throat. Looking left and
right, my muscles tensed to run or fight.
“Who’s there?
What do you want?” I said at the same low whisper, my voice shaking.
A shimmering
blur disappeared behind a tree—a featureless something, flashing in
indistinguishable color as quickly as a silent whip.
“Laura,”
someone said again, gentle and feather-light, drifting between the largest
trees in front of me.
I held my
breath.
“Laura.” My
name resonated through the humid night air, echoing through the sugar maples
before it thinned and died.
It was a male
voice, full- bodied, but lacking malevolence and hostility. Strangely, it put
me at ease. There must be a boy somewhere out here in the woods. I was sure of
it. The voice sounded young, maybe my age of seventeen.
Or maybe it was a ghost. My Uncle
Dean had told me the locals believed these woods were haunted. But ghosts
couldn’t kill. At least that’s what I believed.
“Who are you?”
I asked, relaxing my stiff muscles just enough to take a step forward. My
shoulders dropped as I exhaled a pent-up breath. Broadening my stance, I leaned
forward, raising the branch, and squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to hear it
again.
“Laura,” it
repeated. The word lingered through the dead of night, ringing softly in my
ears. I opened my eyes.
“How do you know my name?” I asked, moving
toward the direction of the voice. As a cool breeze rustled my pajama shorts, I
wrapped one arm around myself.
A bird chirp
rode the wind, followed by several more, weaving into a rhythm of tweets and
trills. I looked up. Within the tousle of leaves and sway of thin limbs,
perched a gathering of birds, flexing their wings for flight.
I took a step
backwards, my eyes fixed on the canopy of leaves.
The bird calls
increased, one squawk overlapping the other until their unique melody
collapsed, twisting into an eerie song and wing beats.
“A–are you
still there?” I breathed, eyeing the woods ahead of me and taking another step
back.
A smear of
color flashed to my left, and a cloud of leaves rose from the forest floor.
“Don’t go,” I
said, breaking from a whisper.
The woods
resonated with angry bird speak, their unnatural song thumping in my ears.
“I want to see
you,” I shouted above the rising mad twitter.
A shadow skated across the ground at my feet. Wings flapped overhead, and a bird beak met my scalp with a hard peck.
