Category: Fantasy Publisher: Lulu
ISBN-10: B083TBW38K
Type: Fiction
Copyright: April 2017
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
A part in 'The Next Heartbeat' should have been the chance of a lifetime, but strange accidents keep putting Echoe's life into danger. In a world of magic is it too much to believe she is cursed?
Choice can change everything.
As a Neeth Nymph in the world of Enchanted Breeds, Echoe Sweetcharm has acting in her blood. For her, however, this calling is blocked by her grandpatch and family patriarch, Allonzo, who tries to turn her chair into her curse.
Despite him, she forges on, building her career as a writer and director, staying close to her dream. After Allonzo's passing, the stage pulls her once more, and she makes one more attempt to grasp her dream on the center-stage, auditioning for 'The Next Heartbeat'.
Soon, however, she truly feels cursed, as accidents place her life inexplicably into greater danger. But her grandpatch can't really have anything to do with this, can he...? Just what in the world is going on?
Excerpt
Seconds ticked slowly by into minutes. A part of Echoe started to worry about how long Zero was taking, but her own experience with costume designers kept telling her everything was fine. He’d probably got himself caught up in some new, crazy idea having taken the measurements of some of the cast members and knowing what was realistically possible. Depending on what that idea was, Lilith was either indulging him or shooting him down. Either way, it could take a while, so she just had to be patient a little bit longer. Her eyes glanced down towards her watch, it was now twenty to eleven. She still had plenty of time before she was needed, she could wait it out at least another five minutes before going in search of the wayward costume designer.
There were a few more creaks in the corridor outside and a gentle, rhythmic pattering noise which sounded a lot like someone pacing. In her head, she began picturing a nervous young actor running through lines quietly to themselves. If they were the same person who’d been out there before, they probably hadn’t wanted anyone to listen in on them. It was more than likely they hadn’t meant for the door to shut quite so hard but were too embarrassed to say anything, especially since Echoe hadn’t. But just as she was convincing herself of this, a strange, initially wispy kind of smell reached her nose.
Curious she found herself investigating the mid-sized dressing room. At first, she couldn’t see anything obvious, then she came across a small amount of smouldering paper in a trash can in the far corner of the room. She couldn’t quite tell what had started it, but without hesitation, she picked up the can and took it over to the small sink along the left wall. She then poured water over the smouldering papers until they went out and placed the can on the floor under the sink. She rolled herself back towards the centre of the room and checked her watch again. Those five minutes she’d been waited to pass had gone and then some.
Sighing heavily, she made her way towards the door, it wouldn’t open. She tried again and still it wouldn’t budge. Backing up a little she tried using her telekinetic abilities to push against it. It moved a little, before being slammed back harder. That was when she realised it was being held in place by someone else’s telekinesis. Gritting her teeth, she did her best to push as hard as possible against the door; her telekinetic powers were so much stronger than the average so if she put all her effort into it, she should win. The door inched a little again, before slamming shut.
Confused and surprised, Echoe found herself staring at the door for a few moments. She’d never met anyone with stronger telekinetic powers than hers and she’d even begun to doubt she ever would; to come across someone now… No, it couldn’t be that, there wasn’t someone out there stronger than her; there had to be more than one person behind this. Echoe wasn’t totally sure how she felt about that realisation; it was bad enough thinking one person might be out to get her, but two? It was possible one of those people weren’t fully aware of what they were doing or were even having their abilities manipulated somehow, but those options felt strangely flat and forced; like she was reaching for something.
No, if two people were behind this, then they were behind it together and that thought alone terrified Echoe. Taking a deep breath in, she tried one more time to telekinetically push the door open. It still wouldn’t budge and this time it even felt prepared to take the full weight of her abilities. Sighing in defeat, she rolled towards the door and began knocking as loudly as she could.
‘Hello? Hello is there anyone out there? Hello? The doors stuck and I can’t get out. Hello? Hel…’ before she could finish what she was saying, the fire alarms went off.
The noise was loud enough to drown out Echoe’s knocking and shouting, so she felt certain it was a false alarm, set up to stop anyone from noticing her distress. Unwilling to give up, she began banging louder, raising her voice as much as possible to compete with the noise of the alarms.
‘Hello? Anyone? Can anyone hear me? I’m trapped in here. Hello? Hello? Someone please, I need help. Can anybody hear me? Hello?’
Professional Reviews
Four Stars
Once got into book I enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to next book.
I was drawn into this story very quickly. Echoe, a young girl suffering from... well, some mystery disease which puts her in a wheelchair, also has telekinetic powers. The interesting, or perhaps very believable thing about her character (especially given our modern climate), is that she is more interested in becoming a famous writer/director rather than use her telekinetic powers to become a superhero, which is definitely the more tried and tested story.
The writing is very good, and it flows really well. You never get bored reading this, and are genuinely rooting for Echoe to overcome 'the curse of her grandpatch'. I think a young woman who has a similar disability might relate to Echoe. Echoe is not held back by her disabilities (especially since she decided the chair was preferable to an endless series of painful operations), and rises above them (albeit with the help of magic.
There were a few problems, little things that I think a professional editor could sort out. For example, in the prologue the main character isn't even named. It's just 'she' or 'her'. It's not obvious that the title of the book is the character's name (not until chapter one). There are lots of little oversights like this, but thankfully these things do not detract much from the overall enjoyment.
The ancient kings of Whitehawk were all too aware of the temptation of magic. They could feel its threat, a presence in their courts, a serpent slithering at their feet, even entering into their beds.
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