Fractured Soul Blog Tour: excerpt, review & giveaway

Hello and welcome to our stop on the Fractured Soul blog tour, hosted by Cedar Fort Books. Fractured Soul is the second book in author Rachel McClellan's YA fantasy series. We loved the first book, Fractured Light (our review) and are thrilled to host the next book as well. There's an exciting excerpt to read, our review, and a giveaway. To see the tour  line-up, go here.

Fractured Soul (Fractured Light #2) by Rachel McClellan

YA fantasy*Hardcover/ebook, 336 pages 

Published February 12th 2013 by Cedar Fort (first published February 2013)

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes and Noble 

Llona will do whatever it takes to protect her new found friends and home, but the dark plot threatening Lucent Academy, a school that’s supposed to be a safe place for Auras, may be too powerful for even Llona to defeat. This fast-paced tale of love, loyalty, and overcoming the darkness will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page!

Excerpt:

As soon as the Vyken appeared in the doorway, I tossed a ball hard. He dodged it by jumping up along the side of the wall, his nails and bare toes somehow finding a hold in the thin cracks of the wall. I threw another one, but he was already moving, scrambling alongside the stones like a spider. He was grinning.

I rolled away from the wall until I was in the middle of the room. I lost sight of him for just a fraction of a second, but that was enough. The Vyken was gone, or, I should say, hiding. He was still here. I could feel him. I looked up toward the rafters of the tower roof. It was pitch black. 

At the bottom of the tower, I heard Christian begin to ascend the stairs. “I’m coming, Llona!” he yelled.

Still staring up, I created Light again in the palm of my hand and willed it to rise. The closer it got to the rafters the faster my heart beat. Sweat rolled down the small of my back.

Light began to fill dark spaces, exposing that which wished to remain hidden. My Vyken was there, but he wasn’t alone. Another sat crouched on a beam. Where his left eye should’ve been there was an empty hole.

I screamed when my Vyken dropped from the ceiling, extinguishing the light. He fell onto my stomach, pushing my shoulders into the floor. I tried to create Light, but it was as if he knew what I was going to do because his hands slipped up and pinned my wrists together. He bent forward and inhaled my skin. The warmth of his breath steamed my ear when he said, “I’m going to eat every part of you.” 

What others are saying: 

“I love these books! A kick-butt heroine and a hottie love interest, with a refreshingly original concept. Be prepared—once you start, these are hard to put down.”

—Paula Cotton, book reviewer at ReadingLark.blogspot.com

“Fractured Soul is a brilliant sequel, exceeding even the remarkable first book in the series. It will haunt your every waking moment between the times you’re reading it, and it will stay with you long after you’ve finished. It’s an amazingly well written and engrossing story that I highly recommend—after you’ve read the first one, of course.”

—Cindy Bennett, bestselling author of Geek Girl and Rapunzel Untangled

Book One, Fractured Light 

Fractured Light (Fractured Light #1) by Rachel McClellan 

Hardcover/ebook, 304 pages 

Published February 8th 2012 by Sweetwater Books

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes and Noble 

I’m dying, I thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of ice.

Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After the Vykens killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down. Big mistake.

As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something even bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.

About the author:

Rachel McClellan

Facebook | Blog | Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Book Trailer

Rachel McClellan was born and raised in Idaho, a place secretly known for its supernatural creatures. When she's not in her writing lair, she's partying with her husband and four crazy, yet lovable, children. Rachel's love for storytelling began as a child when the moon first possessed the night. For when the lights went out, her imagination painted a whole new world. And what a scary world it was...

 

Fractured Light was one of my favorite fantasy novels of 2012. I loved the fantastical world Rachel McClellan introduced, along with her sassy, independent heroine, Llona. Fractured Soul continues Llona's journey as she travels from her home in Utah to Lucent Academy, a special school for auras like herself, run by her Aunt Sophie. As soon as Llona enters her room, she smells blood, and the reader knows this book is going to pack a lot into it. Mystery, romance, action, and more action has made Fractured Soul an instant favorite for 2013. 

Llona is a wonderful character. Flawed, feisty, skeptical, sarcastic, and strong--she reminds me of another beloved YA heroine of mine, Rose Hathaway, of the Vampire Academy series. Llona is adjusting to a new school and the new feelings and power developing inside her. After she killed her Vyken teacher in the first book, she carries his bite mark on her neck. Being bitten by a foul creature has its consequences as she soon learns. Her boyfriend and guardian, Christian, comes to the school, as Llona begins to see just how powerful she has become. On top of all of this, is themystery of the increased presence of Vykens in the woods surrounding the school and the reason why they are there.

There is a lot of action in this book and it's great seeing Llona fight Vykens while recognizing the growing darkness inside her for what it is. We also get to see the attributes we first loved about her: the way she cares for her friend, May, how she reaches out to the Lizens and befriends Tessa, the way her Aunt Sophie reminds her of her mother, her nightmares concerning Christian and why she doesn't want her feelings to jeopardize his survival, and her grim determination to show the other auras they can take control of their powers for good and create a better place for others. 

Rachel McClellan's writing is stellar, again. Beautiful imagery, tight action scenes, fast paced, creating wonderful additions to her fantasy cannon of characters from the lizens to Liam, and a cool setting at Lucent Academy. There are the mysteries and revelations Llona deals with as well as the inner struggle of light against dark. I would recommend reading Fractured Light first in order to discover Llona's normal life before she finds out about the auras and vykens and to see how she meets Christian. 

Fractured Soul features fantastical creatures, a kick ass complex heroine in Llona, and a romance to make readers swoon. After the ending (why Rachel McClellan? why do that your readers? lol), I simply cannot wait to see what the author has in store for us in the third book, Fractured Truth. Too bad we have to wait until next February to find out!

Rating: really liked it!

1/2 

Cover comment: I like how are the covers are constant in keeping with Llona's aura power of light and how her image is mixed with things which represent the installment of this series. 

Book source: Netgalley. I received a promotional copy in return for my honest review during a book tour.

We thank Rachel McClellan and Cedar Fort Books for giving us the opportunity to offer one hardcover copy of Fractured Soul to one lucky reader. Our giveaway runs until midnight, March 10 and is open internationally.

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