You guys! I am so excited to be a part of the exclusive ANASTASIA FOREVER BLOG TOUR!
Today, I have a special DELETED SCENE FROM HAUNTED, BOOK #2 to share with you!
“Are you going to finish that?”
I point to the remains of the enormous pile of onion rings that Anne has consumed along with the cheese and sausage pizza we just split at the little hole in the wall pizza place so close to the El that you can feel the trains rumbling by overhead as you eat. We’re in Evanston where I’ve rented an apartment. But taking Anne there felt like a mistake. A restaurant seemed safer. Pizza seemed safer.
I just had no idea that she ate like this.
“Well, yeah. You need to try some, Ethan.” She plucks one off the plate, shoves it into my hand, then passes me the bowl of ranch dressing.
“And dip them in this. It’s killer.”
I try it. It’s not half bad.
We both chew some more, both pretending that this isn’t awkward and that we don’t both remember being chased by Baba Yaga and Viktor and Dimitri to these very El tracks not that long ago. Or that it was on one of those trains that Anne figured out how to work the magic lacquer box that let us access Baba Yaga’s forest and open the door to her hut so we could save Anastasia. It doesn’t take much for me to remember how Anne looked when Viktor almost killed her that day.
Or how I felt realizing what a fool I’d been to trust him.
It’s easier to eat pizza and onion rings and talk about what I’m going to study now that I’m back. Of course we both know that’s not really why I’m back. But neither of us has worked up to the truth.
“See. I knew you’d like it.” She dips another ring in the bowl of ranch, opens her mouth, pops it in, then closes and chews.
“Remember when you made me tea? You still do that? The whole loose tea, tea pot thing?” she asks me around her mouth of onion ring.
“Yes.”
“Well that’s good to know.”
“We need to talk, Anne.”
“We are talking, Ethan.”
I frown at her.
“I’m being difficult, right? That’s what you’re thinking. Anne’s being difficult.”
“Possibly.”
“That’s what Tess keeps telling me, too. Well, maybe she doesn’t use that specific word. But that’s what she means.”
“Anne.”
“Ethan.”
I signal the waitress for a check. This is going nowhere. I need to find out what’s really been going on with her. I need to tell her what I’ve seen. What I suspect. Everything I’ve kept from her in hopes that maybe I could keep it from coming. I am, it seems, no less foolish than ever.
“You know they make great cannoli here,” Anne says as she stabs her fork into the last onion ring and dunks it in the bowl of dressing.
I fish some bills from my pocket and hand them to the waitress who’s returned with the check.
“You’re all set,” I tell her. I stand, pull Anne from her chair while she’s still chewing and guide her from the restaurant. Another train barrels by overhead.
“Let’s go out by the lake,” I say. “We’ll walk. I’ll talk. You’ll listen. And we’re going to figure this out, okay. Really. We are.”
“Ben loves me, Ethan. Did you know that?”
Her face is suddenly serious. Somewhere all this onion ring eating has been about this.
“Does he?”
“Yeah, he does.”
She pauses, clearly on the verge of saying something more. It occurs to me, certainly not for the first time, how very young she still is.
“I’m sorry that he’s been dragged into this, Anne.”
“He has, hasn’t he?” She swallows. I catch a glimpse of the Anne I really know – as much as I can say I know her. The one who’s smart and funny and brave. The one I kissed a number of times before I left for Europe and who is now seeing a boy named Ben she says loves her.
“Sucks to be him, huh?” she adds.
Actually, I think, it doesn’t.
There is so much to love about this series as Joy brilliantly blends Russian history, romance, magic and mythology into an enticing adventure.
In DREAMING ANASTASIA, Anne Michaelson begins to have unusual dreams and discovers that she is the only one who can save the daughter of the last tsar of Russia, Anastasia Romanov. Believed to be dead by the world, Anastasia has been kept captive all these years by the Russian witch Baba Yaga, and only Ethan, a handsome and mysterious 18-year-old, can help Anne free Anastasia.
Anne once again leaves behind her ordinary life in HAUNTED to join forces with the mysterious and gorgeous Ethan as the journey with the Romanov continues. This time she is haunted by classic figures from Russian mythology, a rusalka, a Russian folklore mermaid with a malevolent streak – and a particular interest in Anne, who tells her that Anastasia is still alive. As she and Ethan team up, Anne’s search for the rusalka’s identity reveals deep and startling secrets - including the true source of Anne’s powers.
Now in ANASTASIA FOREVER, having survived Baba Yaga and the Rusalka, Anne finds herself bound by the witch to undertake a journey into past, present, and future that will determine her destiny - and that of everyone she loves.
Catch a preview of the danger, romance, and magic await Anne in this exciting glimpse ahead of ANASTASIA FOREVER by taking a look at a special sneak peak with the first three chapters here!
ANASTASIA FOREVER comes out this August, be sure to look out for all things Anastasia at Joy’s website joysnovelidea.blogspot.com.
ABOUT JOY PREBLE
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Joy Preble lives in Texas. She is currently writing YA novels (with crazy witches and malevolent Russian mermaids and stoner guardian angels) and loves to eat guacamole. DREAMING ANASTASIA and HAUNTED are out now from Sourcebooks. Book 3 of the trilogy, ANASTASIA FOREVER is slated for Fall 2012. THE SWEET DEAD LIFE will be out in Spring 2013 from Soho Press.
Author information taken from her her blog.
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