Blog Tour | Excerpt + Giveaway: Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones

About the book:

Title: Shadowsong
Author: S. Jae-Jones
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication date: February 6, 2018
ISBN: 9781250129130
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Synopsis:
Six months after the end of Wintersong, Liesl is working toward furthering both her brother’s and her own musical careers. Although she is determined to look forward and not behind, life in the world above is not as easy as Liesl had hoped. Her younger brother Josef is cold, distant, and withdrawn, while Liesl can’t forget the austere young man she left beneath the earth, and the music he inspired in her.

When troubling signs arise that the barrier between worlds is crumbling, Liesl must return to the Underground to unravel the mystery of life, death, and the Goblin King—who he was, who he is, and who he will be. What will it take to break the old laws once and for all? What is the true meaning of sacrifice when the fate of the world—or the ones Liesl loves—is in her hands?

Excerpt:

"Absolutely not,” Constanze said, thumping the floor with her cane. “I forbid it!”
We were all gathered in the kitchens after supper.
Mother was washing up after the guests while Käthe threw together a quick meal of spätzle and fried onions for the rest of us. Josef’s letter lay open and face up on the table, the source of my salvation and my grandmother’s strife.
Master Antonius is dead. I am in Vienna. Come quickly.
Come quickly. My brother’s words lay stark and simple on the page, but neither Constanze nor I could agree upon their meaning. I believed it was a summons. My grandmother believed otherwise.
“Forbid what?” I retorted. “Replying to Josef?” “Indulging your brother in this nonsense!” Constanze
pointed an accusing, emphatic finger at the letter on the table between us before sweeping her arm in a wild, vague ges- ture toward the dark outside, the unknown beyond our doorstep. “This . . . this musical folly!”
“Nonsense?” Mother asked sharply, pausing in scrubbing out the pots and pans. “What nonsense, Constanze? His career, you mean?”
Last year, my brother left behind the world he had known to follow his dreams—our dreams—of becoming a world- class violinist. While running the inn had been our family’s bread and butter for generations, music had ever and always been our manna. Papa was once a court musician in Salzburg, where he met Mother, who was then a singer in a troupe. But that had been before Papa’s profligate and prodigal ways chased him back to the backwoods of Bavaria. Josef was the best and brightest of us, the most educated, the most disciplined, the most talented, and he had done what the rest of us had not or could not: he had escaped.
“None of your business,” Constanze snapped at her daughter-in-law. “Keep that sharp, shrewish nose out of mat- ters about which you know nothing.”
“It is too my business.” Mother’s nostrils flared. Cool, calm, and collected had ever been her way, but our grandmother knew how best to get under her skin. “Josef is my son.”
“He is Der Erlkönig’s own,” Constanze muttered, her dark eyes alight with feverish faith. “And none of yours.”


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About the author:

S. Jae-Jones, called JJ, is an artist, an adrenaline junkie, and the NYT bestselling author of Wintersong.

Born and raised in sunny Los Angeles, she lived in New York City for ten years before relocating down to Dixie, where she is comfortably growing fat on grits and barbecue. When not writing, she can be found rock-climbing, skydiving, taking photographs, drawing pictures, and dragging her dog on ridiculously long hikes.



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