Teasers & Top Tens – July 16, 2024

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker. Here are the rules if you want to play along:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week’s teaser is from The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey.

“You’re not like any Fairy Godmother I ever heard of,” young Kay said, sullenly, his voice echoing in the enormous, and otherwise empty, throne room. He broke the silence and in doing so, created a reminder of how empty the room was. If Kay had taken the time to think – which he did not, because at the moment, the only thing he ever thought about was himself – he might have wondered why such a room existed here in the Palace of Ever-Winter at all.

When it comes to choosing my next reads, I often zig when I think I’m gonna zag. This one wasn’t originally something I had planned on, but I wanted something fun and light to read and this series is adorable. Plus it’s on my “Complete the Series” list.

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is:

Ten Things I Loved About My Favorite Book

This is so hard, not because I don’t have a favorite book, but because I have too many! I think if I was going to chose my all-time favorite book, one of the top contenders would be The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. What did I love about that book? Everything, really, but let’s get into some specifics.

  1. The atmosphere is absolutely amazing. Morgenstern’s writing is such that you experience it with all of your senses – sight, sound, touch.
  2. Speaking of this, one of the ways Morgenstern draws you into the atmosphere is by including small interludes written in second person POV. This isn’t used very much by authors these days and it’s very hard to pull off, but Morgenstern does it masterfully. It really makes you feel like you are there, walking in between the tents and exploring what’s there.
  3. I love circuses and carnivals in general, but throw in a slightly spooky and mysterious vibe? I’m hooked.
  4. Specifically in the setting, there is a magnificent clock that has all different kinds of automatons and mechanics to make it a moving piece of art. I want to see that clock so badly!
  5. The color scheme of the entire book, but particularly the Cirque du Reves, is so satisfying to me. The circus itself is all black and white, from the tents to the costumes of the performers. The people who start following the circus regularly will also dress in black and white, but throw in a splash of something bright red as an accent.
  6. I like that this is a love story without the LOVE STORY being the main thing. Celia and Marco are central to the story, but they aren’t the entire story. That said, the love story is absolutely beautiful and tragic and lovely.
  7. There are two characters called Poppet and Widget and I love them so much. They are twins who were born at the circus and have special powers that no one really understands (including them). Plus their act is with kittens – how cute is that!
  8. Bailey is one of the sweetest characters I have ever read about and I absolutely adore how much he loves the circus. I would be the same way, honestly.
  9. One of the main cruxes of the story is a magical competition between to old curmudgeons who have sent in two younger magicians to be their champions. They’ve chosen the circus as the “venue” and that’s why the place is so wonderful – it’s partly created by magic.
  10. There isn’t a specific antagonist, not really. If you had to pick one (or two), it would be the aforementioned curmudgeons, but they aren’t really fighting against any of the main characters – they’ve just set some events in motion. All of the conflict and tension of the story comes from what is happening to the circus.

Please leave your teasers and top tens in comments!



Categories: Teaser Tuesday, Top Ten Tuesdays

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6 replies

  1. Yes, #2 isn’t common at all these days. It’s nice to see old writing styles come back, though. 🙂

    Here is my <a href=”https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-ten-things-i-loved-about-shepherds-sight/“>Top Ten Tuesday.</a>

  2. I haven’t read this book, but you make a good case for picking it up!

    Here is our <a href=”https://www.longandshortreviews.com/miscellaneous-musings/top-ten-tuesday-ten-things-i-loved-about-waiting-for-spring/“>Top Ten Tuesday.<a/> Thank you!

  3. I haven’t read The Night Circus, but after reading your post, I am curious.

    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
    https://readbakecreate.com/reasons-i-love-listening-to-audiobooks/

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