EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY
Walled
(The Line Book 2)
(The Line Book 2)
by Anne Tibbets
Walled is currently on tour with Xpresso Book Tours. The tour stops here today for an excerpt and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Freedom means making brutal choices.
Rebel lovers Naya and Ric have survived one year in hiding, raising Naya’s twins from infants to toddlers in the shadow of the brutal Auberge dictatorship. They’re alive, and they’re together, but the city is crumbling around them and the haunting memory of Naya’s dark days on The Line have never fully left them. Living in isolation won’t be an option forever.
When a mysterious revolutionary seeks their help to infiltrate Auberge’s electronic heart and shut it down, it’s an opportunity - it’s risky, yes, but if it works they’ll get out of the city and taste freedom for the first time. Naya needs this. They need this.
Beyond the broken walls of Auberge, Naya and Ric find the paradise they’ve always longed for. But with anarchy reigning and Naya’s children lost amidst the chaos, they’ll need to forfeit their post-apocalyptic Eden … or commit an unspeakable act.
Video for Book 1, Carrier
Excerpt
He turned to me and his eyes flared. “I wish you hadn’t told her.”
I waited just a fraction of a moment to choose my words. He meant Anj. “As I said, she has the right to know.”
“She’s in danger now.”
“She was in danger before she knew the truth. Now, at least she knows why.”
“And that’s better?” he challenged me.
This stopped me. In my mind, the truth was always the preference. I couldn’t imagine ignorance was better. Having lived much of my life with an unawareness pressed upon me, I believed the whole truth was tantamount to living. I couldn’t fathom not telling Anj all that I knew. Or why Sonya and Ric thought it best to keep her in the dark.
I’d been in the dark before. The light was always best.
Even if it was blinding.
“I’m sorry,” I said in an attempt to defuse his temper.
He saw through that ruse. “No, you’re not.”
“Okay, maybe I’m not,” I admitted. “But you’ll never convince me otherwise.”
Ric turned his head in disgust and stalked toward the door of the building. “You can’t make decisions like that for all of us.” He paused to take the handle. “This isn’t just about you.”
I almost laughed at that, even though it wasn’t funny. “Really? You and Sonya waged war against Auberge to try and erase the identities of freed girls from the Line. This whole thing started with survivors like me. It kept going because of girls like me. If this isn’t about me, then what is it about?”
He didn’t have an answer to this, but I saw his jaw relax and he tossed his hands in the air as if admitting defeat.
“Knowing is best,” I said, unable to let it go.
He shook his head and licked his lips. “Let’s agree to disagree on that one, okay?” He yanked on the factory door. It was locked. We heard the bolt snap. The door slid open from the inside. From the opening, the barrel of a gun appeared and pointed at Ric’s face. He walked backward slowly, raising his palms into the air.
“What’s the password?” a gruff voice asked from inside the dark factory.
Ric took another step back until he stood in front of me. All we could see was the tip of a revolver, gleaming in the flickering light from the overhead lamp above the door. I waited, ready to run.
“We’re here to see Sonya,” I said.
“What’s the password?” the voice repeated. A man took a step forward. He was wide and muscular, dark-skinned. The handgun looked puny in his enormous hands.
“Tell Sonya that Doc and Naya are here,” I said.
“That’s not the password.” He cocked the hammer of the gun with his thumb. “Move along.”
Ric flushed. “We didn’t drive all this way for the scenery. Sonya asked us to come!”
“And she didn’t mention any password,” I added.
“Move. Along,” the man repeated, and he took another step toward us.
I took a shot in the dark. “Bunny slippers!”
The man shook his head quickly as if he wasn’t sure if he’d heard me correctly. “What’d you say?”
“No? That’s not the password? How about pickpocket?”
The barrel of the gun dipped slightly as he eyed me with suspicion. “Are you nuts? I said move along.”
“Nose ring?”
He lowered the gun to his side and pursed his lips. “What’s the matter with you? I point a gun at your boyfriend’s face, and you guess nose ring?”
“How about belts?”
The man shook his head and turned to go back inside. “Wait here.” He disappeared through the door.
Ric let out the breath he’d been holding. “Either belts is the password, or he’s coming back out shooting. What made you guess that?”
“The first time I met Sonya, she loaned me one of her belts,” I explained.
“That’s random.”
“It’s a little odd she asked us to come and didn’t tell us the password,” I said.
“Well, we did tell her to get out.”
“True.”
The factory door opened again. The big man came first, his gun tucked into the front of his jeans, and behind him was Sonya.
She took one look at us and grinned. “I’ll be damned.”
Featured Review
I need to scream about this book. First chapter, opening scene and already I could tell Naya was not the same Naya I saw last in CARRIER. Her voice conveyed that much in the first sentences and again, man, that is such a beautiful thing to see. It was so well done that I wanted to hug it to my chest and sigh. WHICH, OKAY, YEAH. I DID THAT. Because here's this character who grew and developed in the time we didn't get to see. Who became more attached, more aware, and where there was once cold and emotionless words, there's now rich descriptions and feeling behind them. I highlighted. I stopped and let out a breath and highlighted lines left and right because they were that good and meaty. I wanted to remember them forever. [...]
Watching Naya and Ric together, watching them as a couple, was a privilege. Watching it play out, real and perfect was such a beautiful, at times heart-stomping thing to see. Here is a couple whose relationship wasn't cheated. They stumbled and fell naturally, which made it all the more lovely when they started figuring it out. Likewise with Naya and her girls. It was such a real, aching thing, her relationship with them. Her devotion, yet helpless fluttering in the beginning when they were in her care. Walled, like Carrier, is brutal and honest a hell of a thing to witness.
Also, being the girl who cheers for strong girls, no-nonsense, forged from fire girls, Naya consistently not allowing her emotions over Ric to get in the way of what had to be done had me ready to do a standing ovation. WHICH, OKAY. I DID THAT TOO.
As a mother to a son on the spectrum, one of my biggest gripes in books is when you see an autistic character, they are so often stock. Then here comes Tibbets giving us Minnie. Minnie who got to be an actual character and something beyond her "high-functioning Autism, a*shole." That is everything. Everything we need to see more of. [...]
Not to sound like a hipster here, but I've been a girl enamored with Dystopian before Dystopian was cool and of all that I've read, this is hands down one of the very most believable ones. Naya's involvement, it all surrounding her like it did, likewise, felt believable and real and not "look at this special snowflake girl." [...]
Stop what you're doing. Read this book. Then let's cry and sigh about it for 12 years.
About the Author
Anne Tibbets is an SCBWI award-winning and Smashwords Best Selling author. After writing for Children’s television, Anne found her way to young/new adult fiction by following what she loves: books, strong female characters, twisted family dynamics, magic, sword fights, quick moving plots, and ferocious and cuddly animals.
Along with Carrier and Walled, Anne is also the author of the young adult fantasy novella, The Beast Call and the young adult contemporary, Shut Up.
Anne divides her time between writing, her family, and three furry creatures that she secretly believes are plotting her assassination.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win some great prizes (US only).
Links
