Emerald Bound By Teresa Richards ~ GUEST POST ~ GIVEAWAY

Emerald Bound

By Teresa Richards

Giveaway:   $20 Amazon Gift Card. Please use the RaffleCopter below to enter. 

~*~*~*~*~*~
Guest Post:

Hi everyone! I’m Teresa Richards and my debut novel, Emerald Bound is now out in the world. Emerald Bound is a dark YA retelling of the fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea. Here’s my super-short twitter pitch so you can quickly get the gist of it:

A semi-reformed stalker. A down-and-out princess. Together, they must stop an enchanted, power-hungry emerald.

And, okay, here’s the official blurb in case you want more:

A princess, a pea, and a tower of mattresses. This is the sliver that survives of a story more nightmare than fairy tale. 
Maggie Rhodes, high school junior and semi-reformed stalker, learns the tale’s true roots after a spying attempt goes awry and her best friend Kate ends up as the victim of an ancient curse. At the center of the curse lies an enchanted emerald that has been residing quietly in a museum for the past fifty years. Admirers of the gem have no idea that it feeds on life. Or that it’s found its next victim in Kate.  

Enter Lindy, a school acquaintance who knows more than she’s letting on, and Garon, a handsome stranger claiming he knows how to help, and Maggie is left wondering who to trust and how to save her best friend before it’s too late.

If only Maggie knew her connection to the fairy tale was rooted far deeper than an endangered best friend. 
*

I am so excited for you all to read it! Having my baby out there is all kinds of terrifying and all kinds of exhilarating, all at the same time. This is the first stop in my week-long blog tour to celebrate the release of Emerald Bound. What better way to celebrate than with a little glitz?

One of the earliest scenes I wrote for this book was the one where Maggie attempts to sneak into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC to steal the emerald that holds her friend captive. In preparation to write this scene, I visited the museum to scope everything out. My favorite area of the museum (Maggie’s favorite as well) was the national gem collection on the second floor. I based my descriptions of the cursed emerald that causes so much trouble for my characters on the MacKay emerald necklace, which I fell in love with during my visit. Here’s a picture of it—isn’t it gorgeous? 







There were so many other amazing jewels there. I don’t wear much jewelry (aside from earrings—I love earrings), but one visit to the national gem collection, and I was pining for a giant necklace full of sparkly rocks.

Here are some of the other gorgeous items on display:













The Victoria-Transvaal Diamond













The Hope Diamond














The Carmen Lucia Ruby


I could go on and on. But I’m sure you’re wondering… is Maggie successful in her attempt to steal the gorgeous yet cursed national treasure? Does she get distracted by all of the sparkly things around her and forget why she’s there? What will happen to her friend if Maggie turns into a jewel-crazed zombie, ogling the Harry Winstons and French crowned jewels along with the rest of the museum’s patrons?

Sorry, but I can’t spoil it for you. I just can’t.

But I can tell you I had so much fun taking this fairy tale and twisting it up to create Emerald Bound. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Oh, and next time you’re at the Smithsonian, maybe keep your distance when you’re admiring the emeralds. They’re a sneaky lot.


~*~*~*~*~*~
BLURB:


A princess, a pea, and a tower of mattresses. This is the sliver that survives of a story more nightmare than fairytale...

 Maggie Rhodes, high school junior and semi-reformed stalker, learns the tale’s true roots after a spying attempt goes awry and her best friend Kate ends up as the victim of an ancient curse. At the center of the curse lies an enchanted emerald that has been residing quietly in a museum for the past fifty years. Admirers of the gem have no idea that it feeds on life. Or that it’s found its next victim in Kate.
 Enter Lindy, a school acquaintance who knows more than she’s letting on, and Garon, a handsome stranger claiming he knows how to help, and Maggie is left wondering who to trust and how to save her best friend before it’s too late.
 If only Maggie knew her connection to the fairy tale was rooted far deeper than an endangered best friend.

Fantasy, Romance, Suspense
Evernight Teen Publishing ~ 83,000 words
Editor's Pick

~*~*~*~*~*~
Buy Links:  

Evernight Teen    Amazon

Follow along with the tour HERE

~*~*~*~*~*~
Excerpt:

A part of me died long ago.
It was the part of me that feels, and it was Calista’s fault.
What happened tonight was nothing new—innocent victims welcomed into our home, not knowing they would never leave. I learned long ago I could not help them, so I stopped trying.
But this time something was different. This time I was awake, burning with a gut-wrenching guilt, as the next victims slept downstairs. This time I knew the victims. And they didn’t deserve what was coming.
It had always been hard for me to make friends. I’d been called loner, loser, outcast, and freak. Even still, I remembered Maggie offering to show me around when I first transferred to their school. Through her, I met Kate and Piper. The three of them were always nice to me, while other kids kept their distance and spread rumors behind my back. I told myself I didn’t care—I wasn’t like them.
But being a loner was lonely.
So tonight when I saw Maggie and her friends here, something inside me snapped. Or, perhaps it was the dead piece of me coming back to life. Now I cared desperately about what was happening in the room below mine.
But there was still nothing I could do.
Calista usually lured in victims from out of town to avoid arousing suspicion. Pregnant ones were a particular favorite—easy prey, she called them. But Maggie and her friends came here all on their own. The opportunity was too good for Calista to pass up.
Everyone thought Calista was my mother, but she wasn’t.
Back in my day, almost four centuries ago, Calista had an alternate method of luring in victims. She and her husband, Theodore, advertised for hired help with their inn. The number of parents willing to sell their daughters into a life of servitude in exchange for a forgiven debt or a clean slate was staggering.
My father was one of them.
By the time my mother found out what he’d done, it was too late. There was no escape. I was bound.
My story was well known in this land, whispered as a bedtime tale to ease children into sleep. But, just like any other story passed down through time by rumors and idle gossip, the fragment that survived was woefully incomplete. It began something like this:
There is rumored to have been (once upon a time, of course) a princess, a pea, and a tower of mattresses.
That much was true, though in actuality it was only one mattress, not twenty. The pea was also real, though most would call it a precious stone—an emerald, to be precise.
The gem that sealed my fate was now in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. Calista was furious when she found it missing. She thought I’d stolen it until she remembered my limits. The identity of the true thief remains unknown.
Even though the emerald is no longer in our possession, we are still bound to it, as it is bound to us. Admirers of the opulent necklace where it rests don’t understand it. Like me, the gem is a prisoner, struggling against its fate.
Even now, centuries later, I don’t understand all the details of what happened to me that night. But it began with a troubled slumber on a bed of enchanted emeralds.



~*~*~*~*~*~
About the Author:

Teresa Richards writes YA, but loves anything that can be given a unique twist. Her zombie stories 'Are You My Mombie?' and 'The Zombie Code' can be found in Z Tales: Stories from the Zombieverse by The Fairfield Scribes.
When Teresa’s not writing, she can be found either chasing after one of her five kids, or hiding someplace in the house with a treat her children overlooked. Emerald Bound is her debut novel.
You can connect with her on twitter @BYUtm33 or at authorteresarichards.com.





a Rafflecopter giveaway