First Chapter Tuesday is hosted every Tuesday by Diane over at Bibiophile by the Sea. Join the fun by making your own post and linking up over at Diane's blog, or simple check it out to find more new books to read!
This week I've chosen to feature The Waking Land by Callie Bates! I was so thrilled when this ARC showed up in the mail because I have been seeing some fantastic things about this book, not to mention how interesting it sounds. Fortunately I am able to share an excerpt of this with you because there is already a a preview of the book up on the Penguin Random House website. So without further ado, I present to you the beginning of the Prologue from The Waking Land.
The Waking Land by Callie Bates
Prologue
"I felt safe that night in Laon, safer than I had any night before in the city. My nurse and I were eating dessert in the nursery. I never knew her name; I called her Nursie. Downstairs my parents were hosting a dinner party. It was the first time I had ever been in Laon, in the townhouse my family kept for state occasions, aired out only once every year or two. On the newly crowned king’s invitation, we’d come south for the Harvest Feast from our country house in the north, and every noise of the city still seemed foreign. So that must have been why we didn’t hear them at first: the screams, the clicks as the muskets caught.
I remember cradling my wooden doll, a Harvest Feast gift from my parents, made by a wood-carver in the city. I was feeding her pretend bites of the caramel pudding the servants had brought up earlier, baked in a dish until the sugar on top was crackling hot. Nursie drew the chintz curtains over the wide, sashed windows. My doll and I sat snug and certain in the glow of candlelight. Safe. We were supposed to go home the next day."
What do you think? Would you keep reading this? (And feel free to join in and make your own post!)
If you're enticed by this chapter, be sure to check out the full synopsis on Goodreads!
*Excerpt taken from the novel itself; I do not claim to own any part of the excerpt.
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