Blogtour Excerpt from Frostbite by Adrienne Woods!

Title: Frostbite 

Author: Adrienne Woods 

Series:  (The Dragonian Series #3)

Synopsis:

Losing Lucian McKenzie, the Prince of her heart and discovering her true identity has made Elena Watkins' life almost unbearable. However, new trials will test the 17 year-old's strength and push her to limits she didn’t think were possible.

Only a mysterious offer from Blake Leaf, the Rubicon and a dragon predestined for evil, reveals there may be a light at the end of Elena’s dark tunnel.

With the life she thought she knew crashing down around her, Elena will have to face a monumental decision about the fate of Paegeia. She can either make peace with Blake’s demands or try once again to unravel the Queen’s secrets that lie deep within her dragon, Tanya La Frey’s, heart.

The third heart pounding novel in The Dragonian Series by Adrienne Wood

Excerpt:

      I DIDN’T FEEL HUNGRY that night, skipped dinner, and went to bed early. My dragon form really drained my energy.
     When I walked into the cafeteria the next morning everyone stared at me. There were even a couple of Dragonians whispering about trying to claim me. I rolled my eyes at that piece of information. As if I was going to be an easier claim than Blake. If they knew her the way I was starting to, they wouldn’t be thinking that.
     Around ten, Master Longwei’s voice came from the speaker system. “Elena Watkins come to the office, please.”
Professor Pheizer, who’d helped us with developing our abilities while we’re in human form, nodded her head and I packed my books and left.
    She wasn’t so helpful anymore and even limited her advice, but I still saw the question in her eyes of what I was whenever I found her staring at me. She would look away of course, but my dragon eyes were a lot faster than hers. Sometimes that second that our eyes met felt like minutes before she’d drop her gaze. It was hard to explain, I just felt . . . different.
    I found Master Longwei behind his desk and he gestured with his hand to the chair in front. I took a seat. He held both his hands with his fingers rested against one another in front of his mouth. “You need help, Elena.”
    I huffed. “What’s new?”
    His lips curved into a smile and he dropped his hands as he moved his chair underneath his desk. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Blake has agreed to help you find your dragon.”
I froze. What! Blake had actually agreed to help someone else besides himself? Latin jumped into my mind and I shook my head at the words from the last conversation that had taken place between Master Longwei and Blake, right here in his office, after my secret had been revealed. “No, it’s fine. I’ll make peace with her some other way.”
    “Elena. The two of you are from the same species. It won’t be anything like your Latin lessons, I promise.”
    I laughed. “How do you know, did he say so? For all I know it could be his way of getting closer to me and killing me off. Two Rubicons can’t live together in this world. You know that.”
    “He gave me his word that he would not hurt you. He wants to figure this out as much as you do, Elena, and I promise you he doesn’t want to kill you.”
    “Just like the way Paul promised you.” It just slipped out but I didn’t regret it. Lucian died because of that choice.
    Master Longwei’s eyes froze at my words, and he looked away. “I was fooled. It is a mistake I’ll never make again.”
    I took a deep breath. “I probably don’t have a choice, do I?”
   “Not this time.”
   “Fine, where do I meet him?”
    He raised his eyes and looked as if I hadn’t just offended him a couple of seconds ago. “That is up to you two. I’m only the messenger.”
     You mean I have to hunt him down and ask him. “Fine, thanks.” I wasn’t thankful really. I didn’t want to spend time with Blake any more than he wanted to spend time with me. I hated how he made me feel. Sometimes I felt like a toy. He was always there, except the last time, when I was in danger, but afterward he would push me away as if he hadn’t just saved my ass. It was a frustrating little game and one I really didn’t have the time or energy for anymore.
   “Have fun.” He smiled awkwardly. “Not too much though.”
    For some reason I wanted to snicker at his sentence. I’d always wondered if Master Longwei could read minds. As if Blake and I would ever have fun. Nothing had changed and he was still the arrogant bastard he had been a couple of months ago.

Bonus Excerpt:
   DEATH WAS MY constant companion. I’d escaped its icy clutches three times in my short life.
   My first brush with the spirit I now knew as Death was the night I learned who my father truly was. The night I witnessed his transformation into a dragon on Interstate 40.
   The night we were attacked by dragons. I lost my hero that night, and my world was completely turned upside-down when I was whisked away to Paegeia: a world where dragons and magic exist; a world located inside the Bermuda Triangle, hidden from the human realm behind a magical wall.
   Humans have the ability to penetrate the wall, but if they try to exit Paegeia, they are instantly disintegrated.
   I used to call it my one-way ticket to Neverland. Now it has become my home.
   While the wall may be limiting to humans, dragons are free to come and go as they please, and they’ve done so for the past nine hundred years, hiding amongst the human race to protect the weak, help the poor and trade with the rest of the world.
   The second time I almost died was right after I received my foretelling from the Viden. Foretellings are a type of prophecy intended to lead the people of Paegeia to their destinies, but the Viden gives them in a messed up way, in the form of a riddle.
    Mine could mean anything, but I knew now that it would only bring death. What the words in my foretelling meant, I still needed to figure out. The question was, would it be worth it?
    The first time I thought I had figured out my destiny was when I went to retrieve the King of Lion sword. It was formidable, magical and could slay evil in any form. Brian, a Sun-Burst dragon, died saving my life, and the lives of my friends who were dumb enough to follow me into the madness.
The second time I had the opportunity to fulfill the twisted words of the opaque riddle was when I had the opportunity to claim Paul, a Wyvern, to prove once and for all that Wyverns had the capacity to be good like all the other dragons. Once again I was wrong, and my only love, Lucian, paid the ultimate price. He died saving my life, but not before I turned into a dragon myself.
   I was a dragon, I had always been a dragon, and I had never known. It was still a mystery why I hadn’t been able to shift before, and they were still studying why only my anger and fear had brought on the change.
   To be honest, I didn’t care about my foretelling anymore. People I loved died, and I couldn’t stop feeling like all of this was my fault.
   Losing Lucian took a huge toll on me. I didn’t want to live, but for some reason now that I wanted to die the spirit of death didn’t come to claim his prize. Instead I was left with a hollow feeling deep inside my chest, one that would never be filled. I was left with a broken heart: ice cold, as if no amount of heat could ever warm me again. Arianna is right, I am like poison.
   No, not poison.
   The people in my life, the ones I love, didn’t die from my touch, their deaths were written in the choices I made. All of them were on death’s list; waiting for the day they would take their last breath.
   I’d paralyzed their lives, their futures. I was like ice, like frost freezing their hopes and dreams. I was the living embodiment of frostbite.

Blogtour Excerpt from Thunderlight by Adrienne Woods!

Excerpt:
  SUMMER WAS ALMOST over but everyone’s spirits were high as Sammy searched for something in her room. I had recently arrived at the Leaf’s after spending the first weeks of my vacation with Becky. Sammy was in rare form this evening as she bounced off the walls of the room with barely contained excitement.
  Elena, cheer up! We’re going to the Warbel games and I know it sucks that Lucian won’t be there, but I promise, you’re going to enjoy it, okay.” Sammy spoke fast as I moved out of the way of one of her shirts as it sailed toward me.
  “Sammy, it’s not like I’m trying to be like this, I just really miss him …” my lips puffed out a breath. “Tell me again why the Warbel games are so mind-blowing.” I tried to change the subject away from Lucian. He was still away on a hunting trip with his father and the girls had decided the best way to brighten my mood was a sport that basically sounded like Greek warfare. I still had no clue what the Warbel games were about even after Sammy tried to explain it to me as she searched for the jersey of her favorite team. It sounded exciting as words like soldiers, attackers and scorers made it into her lengthy explanation.
  “Because it’s the Warbel games,” she simply said.
  The only thing I retained was that Warbel was some sort of dragon and human sport that they loved to play on this side of the wall. She also said that Dragonia had a similar game at the beginning of each school year, but it wasn’t as dangerous as the real one. I became even more confused when she started talking about raiders and incantations and couldn’t figure out how all of it came together.
  Guess I’ll have to see it before I can really understand what it’s all about.
  “The one thing you need to understand is that the game we are going to tonight is really dangerous,” she added as she continued to tear apart her closet, “and that the humans who participate are extremely well developed magic wielders, for their own safety as much as winning the game.”
  Okay, awesome. I thought sarcastically as I still had no clue what the Warbel games were about.
Sir Robert had gotten five tickets for all of us from a friend who couldn’t make tonight’s game.
  Lucille, Becky’s mom, had also gotten tickets for her, Becky and George, so we were all going to the game together.          
  I had spent the first three weeks of my vacation with Becky and Lucille. Lucille was not a typical mother, but was the most selfless person I’d ever met. She also seemed way too young to be Becky’s mom and looked more like Becky’s older sister. She hated it when I called her Mam or Mrs. Johnson, and insisted that I called her by her first name. She was a lot like Becky in a sense, they shared the same type of fashion choices and clever comments, but she also had a love of art, which Becky didn’t have. That part connected with me one hundred percent.
  Becky and her mother lived in the totally opposite neighborhood of the Leafs, and they had more money than I could even dream of. I guessed it was why Becky was a bit of a brat. Staying with them made me realize what type of a person she could be sometimes. Having all that money made Becky bossy and turned her into someone I never thought I would be friends with. But the thought of not having her around to give me her two cent comments, especially when I didn’t ask for them, was unthinkable. She was also one of the bravest and fiercest girls I knew and the best friend, apart from Sammy, a girl could ask for.

Bonus Excerpt:
  ANGER, BETRAYAL, AND HATE turned my stomach to acid. It consumed my mind and I watched as bottles, papers and books on the desk flew off and crashed to the floor.
  A maid rushed to my side. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes reflected fear in their watery depths. The dustpan in her hand trembled as she started to sweep up the jagged shards of glass. Rising, she began to straighten the books that had fallen to the floor in a heap. Every few seconds her eyes darted nervously in my direction as if a mere breath would make me lash out at her with my outstretched hand.
  I touched her face gently until my hand reached her neck, tightening slowly as my anger began to rise once again. My grip tightened around her soft, shapely neck as I lifted her up from her position at my feet until her face was level with mine.  Listening carefully I heard her heart fluttering like a bird trapped inside a cage.
  “How did I become this way?” I spoke, giving voice to my reality softly.
  She just stared at me with round, brown unblinking eyes. Her eyes were sunken deep into the surface of her face and her cheek bones were sharply defined.
  Looking at her sullen face made me feel worse.  I lifted up my other hand and struck the woman hard across her cheek.
  A cry left her mouth and I threw her from me as if she weighed nothing. She skidded across the floor landing in a heap against a wall of cold, unforgiving stone.  If I was a dragon I would blast fire, reduce this wretched place to a pile of insignificant ashes.
  Two other maids, hearing the startled cry, rushed into the room. Their eyes were wide as they took in the room and the immobile heap near the far wall. “Sorry, m’lord,” the older one said, her voice slightly trembling. “She’s new, we will train her better.”
  They picked up the maid who had come to and was sobbing. She clutched the side of her face, covering the huge, red handprint where I’d struck her.
  I nodded. The old maid knew her place well, although I still didn’t care for her name, she knew where she stood.
  I plunged myself down onto the chair and closed my eyes. A silent roar growled inside of me lighting a fire of rage deep in my core.
  The girl had made it.
  The Rubicon saved her life, so a part of him was still fighting me. I could still see her eyes searching mine. They bore into my soul, seeking answers. How was this possible! The wall wouldn’t allow any human to go to the other side.
  Albert’s laughter echoed inside the castle; a startling reminder that good would always win. He would pay dearly for this. I would find a way, and I promised myself she wouldn’t live much longer.
  I pushed myself up from the chair and rubbed my face hard. The emotion of my anger escaped my lips making a sickening sound. Rage that emanated from deep within me overpowered the haunting laughter and echoed throughout the entire castle.
  “Master,” Cain’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
  “Speak, my loyal servant,” I said out loud. “What is the news?”
  “Everything is in place. We won’t fail you,” his voice said in my head.
  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and let it out hard. “We’ll see.”

Getting to Know the Authors: Featuring Adrienne Woods!

Bio

  Adrienne Woods was born and raised in South Africa, where she still lives with her husband and two beautiful little girls. She always knew she was going to be a writer, but it only started to really happen about four years ago. In her free time―if she gets any because moms don’t really have free time―she loves to spend it with friends, whether it’s a girl’s night out, or just watching a movie. She’s a very chilled person. Her writing career started with Firebolt, book one in the Dragonian series. There will be four books in total, including a further two to three books, which will be stories that take place within the Dragonian series. Her other series, Dream Casters, will be released mid-2015. She also writes in different genres, and her woman’s fiction, The Pregnancy Diaries, will be published under a pseudonym. And then, she has a paranormal series by the name of the Aswang series, which will consist of about ten novels. And if that wasn’t enough, there is another series, Guardians of Monsters, which will be released in 2016.

What has She Written?

She has written:

Firebolt (The Dragonian, #1), Thunderlight (The Dragonian Series #2), Frostbite (The Dragonian Series #3) and Light (Dream Casters, #1)

Now on to the Interview!

1) How old were you when you started writing, in your opinion?

About thirteen, it was short stories, then I was really good at those, but now, I struggle with them as I have way too much to say. But it only became a full time hobby at the age of 29.

2) What do you want a reader to gain from reading your works?

Life experience. It’s not very open, but the readers grow with Elena in this series, she makes horrible mistakes and has to deal with the consequences, still she find a way to work through them and move on with her life. They experience first love, a stronger love, and how to stand up to others, well they will when this story is over, what friendship should be like, and how someone should treat them.

3) What are your three top suggestions on becoming an author, or being a pleasure writer?

Imagination, the love of research as you do need to do some research for your novels, and patience, self-motivation.

4) What is your favourite novel, why?

I have so many but if I have to choose one, Safe Harbour from Nicholas Spark. That novel is so powerful, as the main character has a horrible abusive relationship with her husband, how she finally got out of it by leaving him after a horrible incident and how wonderful a man can be if they have love in their heart and respect. She overcame her fears at the end and it’s everything a book should have in my opinion.

5) Who is your favourite author, why?

I have many but Nicholas Spark is one of my ultimate favorites.

6) What are your favorite pass times besides writing?

Reading, spending time with family, and watching my favorite T.V series. I love to watch stand-up comedy too, you need to laugh at least once a day.

7) Who in your life do you credit your imagination to the most?

I got it from both sides, my family is extremely artistic. My father was a great story teller yet he never penned down any of them which is sad as he had the most amazing children stories he used to make up about fairies and small people. I literally hung on his lips as a child. My grandmother was extremely talented when it came to poems, so yes, I got it from both sides of the family.

8) What are the top five things on your bucket list?

To take my family on an overseas cruise

To visit the seven wonders of the world

To see my daughters getting married

Learn how to Ski

Go sky-diving

9) To the youth of today, if you could tell them one thing, what would it be?

Stay as young and innocent as you can, I know it’s not always easy as group pressure is so hard in today’s life, make good decisions, the bad ones you do make, deal with them, learn from them and never make them again. Read more as your imagination is all you have when it comes to escaping today’s reality. Be you, don’t ever try to be anybody else and remember what Walt Disney said, if you can dream it you can do it. I still live by that today.