I've got some awesomesauce things ahead for you all so sit back and scroll on!! ;D
The Author:
Helen Keeble is not, and never has been, a vampire. She has however been a teenager. She grew up partly in America and partly in England, which has left her with an unidentifiable accent and a fondness for peanut butter crackers washed down with a nice cup of tea. She now lives in West Sussex, England, with her husband, daughter, two cats, and a variable number of fish. To the best of her knowledge, none of the fish are undead.
The Book:
Fang Girl
Author: Helen Keeble
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Things That Are Destroying Jane Greene’s Undead Social Life Before It Can Even Begin:
1) A twelve-year-old brother who’s convinced she’s a zombie.
2) Parents who are begging her to turn them into vampires.
3) The pet goldfish she accidentally turns instead.
4) Weird superpowers that let her rip the heads off of every other vampire she meets.(Sounds cool, but it doesn’t win you many friends.) 5) A pyschotic vampire creator who’s using her to carry out a plan for world domination.
And finally:
6) A seriously ripped vampire hunter who either wants to stake her or make out with her. Not sure which. Being an undead, eternally pasty fifteen-year-old isn’t quite the sexy, brooding, angst-fest Jane always imagined.... Helen Keeble’s riotous debut novel combines the humor of Vladimir Tod with Ally Carter’s spot-on teen voice. With a one-of-a-kind vampire mythology and an irresistibly relatable undead heroine, this uproarious page-turner will leave readers bloodthirsty for more. {
Goodreads}
The Excerpt Fun:
“Cease!”
We
all jumped, my attackers whirling round. Someone stood poised on the roof of
the parked Range Rover,
silhouetted against the starry sky. In a breathtaking
arc, he leaped ten feet, landing crouched in the middle
of the road. He
unfurled back to his full height, his velvet frock coat billowing around him,
the moonlight
turning his hair to pure silver. His high-cheekboned, elegant
face was set in an expression of icy
determination. As he faced my stunned
attackers, his lips drew back in a contemptuous snarl . . .
exposing
jagged, sharp-edged teeth.
He
was a vampire.
His
pale eyes flicked to me. “Run, ma chérie,” he said. His voice was as
light and golden as honey, with a rich
French accent that made the simple
phrase sound like an invitation to unspeakable immoral delights. He
dropped
into a combat crouch, empty hands spread. “I shall take care of these—”
And
that was as far as he got, because as my attackers had been conveniently
distracted by his appearance, I
punted them fifteen feet down the road.
I
hadn’t actually intended to do so. I’d only hoped to knock them off
balance to give my unexpected rescuer
an opening—after all, a dramatic pose was
no match for two guns. So I’d kicked them, with all the strength I
could
muster.
Which,
as it turned out, was quite a lot of strength.
“Quick!”
I yelled as they skidded away, trailing shocked swear words. I dashed past the
suddenly slack-
jawed vampire. “Get them before they escape!” One of my
attackers was already rolling to his feet—without
thought, my blood roaring in
my veins, I leaped for him. We crashed back to the ground, him flailing, me
desperately trying to work out some way to subdue him. I grabbed for his hair,
yanking upward with the
vague thought of slamming his skull back down against
the road—
I’d
forgotten my vampiric strength again.
“AIEEEEEEEEEE!”
I shrieked, reaching a high enough pitch to stun bats. I flung the severed head
away
with all my strength. “AIEEEEEEEEE!” I hopped from foot to foot,
overcome with utter squick.
“Shh,
hush, it’s all right!” The other vampire’s hands captured my flailing wrists.
“Xanthe!” Lights were
coming on in the nearest house; with a quick look around,
he grabbed the corpse by the back of its collar.
“Quick, back here.” He dragged
us both into the shadow of the garage. After a few moments, the lights
clicked
off again, leaving us in darkness. I felt the vampire tension in the vampire’s
muscles ease. “Well, that
went . . . differently.”
I
managed to get enough of a grip on myself to speak, though my voice came out in
a Mickey Mouse squeak.
“Is he dead? Is he dead?”
The
vampire looked down at the headless corpse. “Yes,” he said. “He is very, very
dead.” He cleared his
throat. “You must be wondering who I am.”
My
legs didn’t want to support me anymore. I sat down hard. “What . . .
what happened to the other guy?”
“I
believe that he has fled, rather understandably. Now, my name—”
“Oh
God, he escaped?” Even though I didn’t need to breathe, I was starting to
hyperventilate. “Is he coming
back?”
“No,”
the vampire said firmly, catching my hands between his own. “Because I will not
let him. I’m here to
protect you.”
I
looked at him. I looked down at the corpse. I looked at him.
“Ah . . .”
He appeared mildly embarrassed. “I can also help you dispose of bodies?”
“Okay,”
I said, still feeling a bit shell-shocked. “You sound very useful. Um. Who are
you, exactly?”
He
let go of my hand and stood, clearing his throat again. “In life, I was the
Comte Ebène Bellefleur. Now, I am
simply Ebène de Sanguine.” He bowed deeply,
sweeping back his long, black frock coat with perfect grace,
as though this was
his customary attire. “I would be pleased if you would call me Ebon. I have
come to bring
you home.”
The
best I could muster was a heartfelt “huh?” I was lagging about two minutes
behind the conversation. I
kept thinking of that horrible crunch through
my hands.
“I
must deeply apologize from the bottom of my soul that it has taken so long for
us to send one of the Blood
to welcome you,” Ebon said, somehow managing to
enunciate the capitalization. “I must confess that we
were unprepared for your
Transfiguration”—once again I could hear the capitals clanging into place—“but
I
can assure you that you will be a treasured jewel among us. Now, ma chérie,
we must make haste.” His face
turned serious, and he held out a long,
white-fingered hand. “This place is not safe. As you have
discovered, the
hunters are closing in. I will protect you with my very life, but I cannot hold
this place secure
for long. You must come.”
I
struggled to get my brain to concentrate. “Come . . . with you?
Where?”
“To
your true home,” he said—and suddenly his face was only inches from mine. I
froze, transfixed by the pale
blue of his eyes, as clear and cool as the light
at the heart of a glacier. “Come, Xanthe,” he murmured, shaping
the hated sound
of my name into something beautiful and wild. “I long to teach you. To show you
who you
are, and the power you will become. It is time for you to learn
everything.”
I
stared at him, and he didn’t become any less real. There was an actual gorgeous
vampire aristocrat in
velvet on his knees in front of me, vowing to lay down
his life in my defense. All I had to do was take his hand.
“Okay,”
I whispered, my throat dry. “First let’s hide this body somewhere, and
then . . .”
“And
then?” he whispered back, his breath cool on my lips. His pale eyes gazed into
mine, wordlessly
promising to whisk me away from all my troubles.
Or,
to put it another way, a very strange man with predator’s teeth wanted to get me
alone.
“And
then,” I said firmly, taking his hand, “you’re coming home to meet my parents.”
The Giveaway:
The Prize:
*1 Fang Girl prize pack including....
- one signed copy of Fang Girl (can be personalized)
- a voucher for an ARC of Helen's next book NO ANGEL as soon as they are available (likely to be Spring/Summer 2013)
- a cheerful vampire goldfish paperclip
- Fang Girl stickers featuring the cover and quotes from the book
The Details:
This giveaway is INT
Ends December 25, 2012
*This giveaway is a part of the Xpresso Tour Book Blitz. All additional details, rules, shipping and handling, etc is up to the Blitz host and author*
Thanks! Fun wasn't it!?
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! <3
~Jaiden
